Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed

 

7/10

I read this one a little over 5 months ago. It was pretty solid. I started reading it to my youngsters thinking that they would love it, but it ended up being super technical to the point where I felt like I had to stop and explain everything to them every other sentence. So I read about 1/5 of the book to them before it was aborted, and I finished it on my own. It took me a while to get into this one and to learn the characters, but the book got better to further I read. I was almost done with it before I learned that this book ties into some video game. Not sure how that really works, but thought it was funny and shows how I'm still such a novice Star Wars guy. But this had a great premise and storyline, and I came to really like Freed's writing. On to the next one!

Star Wars book rankings:

1. Lost Stars

2. Battlefront: Twilight Company

3. Aftermath

Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton

 

9/10

I read this one nearly six months ago. It was fantastic. My Dad had been begging me to read this book for decades. He did us a solid and flew out to watch our kids while the Mrs. and I went on our 15-year anniversary trip. So as his reward, I thoughtfully started reading this just before he flew out and finished it up during our trip. I understand why he wanted me to read it so much. It's got so much heart and tenderness and empathy. I don't choke up much when I read books, but I just about did toward the end of this one. Of Paton's books, "Cry, the Beloved Country" gets all the recognition, but I think this one outclasses it, and by a wide margin. Highly recommend. But only if you like good literature and want to be inspired.

Quote:

"God is both Lover and Judge of men, and it is His commandment that we join Him in loving, but to judge we are forbidden."

Out of the Best Books by S. Michael Wilcox

 

10/10

I read this one a little over 4 months ago. This is my kind of book. A book that talks about classic literature and applies gospel principals. Almost impossible for me to not give a book like this a perfect rating. And Wilcox is the perfect guy to deliver. The book covers Anne of Green Gables (haven't read it), Les Miserables (read it), To Kill a Mockingbird (read it), Sense and Sensibility (haven't read it), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (read it), Little Women (haven't read it), a poem called "Renascence" (haven't read it; except I think he quoted the whole poem in the book, so now I have read it?), The Brothers Karamazov (read it), A Christmas Carol (read it), Much Ado About Nothing & As You Like It (read both), bits from various children's stories, parables from Jesus, and a speech from Emerson. It was super enjoyable from start to finish, even for the ones that I hadn't read. I think my favorite was him talking about The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, one of my all-time favorite books. Wilcox is so good. Below are some of my favorite quotes from Wilcox:

"A consistent message from Jesus throughout the New Testament was one of tension-and-guilt-releasing happiness."

"The candlesticks first house the soul of Jean Valjean, and one beautiful act of compassion by Bishop Myriel overturns the nineteen years of misery, injustice, and hate that had filled his life. This is a truth we must believe in! Goodness and benevolence, even in their simplest manifestations, are not just more powerful than evil, cruelty, and hatred, but are infinitely more powerful."

"We come to 'know' Him not in the reception of His many gifts to us, not in doctrinal explanations, not even in scriptural perusals, not even in prayer really, but in active loving - in the giving of the heart selflessly."

"But if we think of the nature of mockingbirds is to imitate the songs they hear around them, then Scout is the main mockingbird.... The great theme of the novel, as represented by Atticus Finch, could be stated thus: 'Make sure as parents, as a society, that the songs you sing are clear and filled with goodness, because there are little ones around who will mimic you.'"

"I fear that what I sometimes call the 'burden of perfectionism' is made much heavier than it need be, and we stumble under an unnecessary load, carrying guilt that is self-generated and does not come from the Spirit. How many useless stones have been cast at ourselves by ourselves? How many cast at others by well-meaning people supported by what they believe to be God's will or doctrines against things that common sense would say is not sin and not displeasing to Deity?"

"Even when we have done wrong, God simply wants us to recognize it and change. He has no interest in perpetuating sorrow."

"[T]he real you and me are what we are at our best, not our worst."

"The story is told to answer two questions - 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And, 'Who is my neighbour?' (Luke 10:25, 29). That is the context. How many of us would be tempted to engage in more complex answers to these questions, involving proper ordinances, authority, the right beliefs, the appropriate combination of righteous deeds, prayer, scriptures, or worship? But Jesus simply answered with a story about 'a certain Samaritan' who had 'compassion" (Luke 10:33)."

"In Christianity, far too often it has been more important to be right than to be good."

The Natural by Bernard Malamud

 

6/10

I read this a little less than 5 months ago. It was a big letdown. This is a movie I've loved my whole life and the book does this incredible thing where it makes Roy Hobbs super unlikeable. He's sex-obsessed and treats everyone, especially women, very poorly. I prefer the majestic, almost fable-like Roy Hobbs from the movie. I guess there will be some spoilers, just in case anyone randomly reading this post would randomly want to read this book. In the book, the reason he can't play toward the end was not the bullet wound injury resurfacing, but rather, he overate. He was just pigging out in super unrealistic fashion. I looked it up just now. He eats a plate full of food. Then another plate full of corned beef, pastrami, turkey, potato salad, cheese, and pickles and finishes off this second plate with a crust of bread. Another plate of food. A sandwich. Three bottles of lemon pop. Three bottles of lime pop. Six hamburgers. Two tall glasses of milk. This puts him in the hospital and he misses the end of the season. So I guess his eating prowess is fable-like at least. He comes back for the final game that the Knights need to win but he takes a bribe and gets out on purpose every time. For his final at bat, he decides that he's going to try but ends up striking out to lose the game and end the season. The book ends with him walking on the street and picking up a newspaper about him taking a bribe and the commissioner saying if it's true that he'll be banned from baseball. A boy asks him if it's true and he can't deny it and the closing line is about him putting his hands to his face and weeping many bitter tears. Now I'm not opposed to a dark story. But I guess the movie just ruined that as a possibility for me. I hate to admit that the movie has an impact on my enjoyment of a book, but it just does. The book was otherwise enjoyable in that it was a well-written baseball story. There was enough here to get me to like it ok even though I very much didn't like this version of Roy Hobbs or how he finished as a failure rather than a hero.

Raid of No Return by Nathan Hale

 

8/10

I read this one a little less than five months ago. My now ten-year-old has read a few of these and asked me if I could read this one to him. We enjoyed it together. It's very detailed and informative. I learned a lot about this little piece of history from WWII. The story was pretty complicated with lots of different characters but was presented in a very kid-friendly way that made it as easy as possible to understand. With so many characters, it was hard to get attached to any of them. But that's a fault of the broad subject material more than anything else. I would happily read another one of these with my history loving boy.

The Kill Order by James Dashner

 

3/10

I read this one a little over 5 months ago. Not a good book. I enjoyed the first book in this series even though the writing was unimpressive, but every book since has been embarrassing. I can't remember if this is the last book in the series for me to read, but I feel like I have one more of these on my bookshelf. I'm not going to look because then I will be pulled into reading one more from this book series that I do not enjoy. I sure do wish I didn't feel like I had to finish every series I read, especially when there are surely way better books on my bookshelf. I can't explain why I'm like this. I need some robber in a ski mask to sneak into my house and grab the last book and run off into the night. It will be much easier for me to not finish the series if the book isn't in my house. As for this book, it was more of the same nonsense with the most detailed wrestling/fighting encounters that are just torture to read where every single movement in the fight is written out. I don't need a thousand different detailed fight descriptions. This book is lucky that I actually do try to like everything I read which makes it very rare for me to go as low as a 2 or 1 out of 10. Honestly not sure how anyone could ever enjoy this book.

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

8/10

I read this one about 5 or 6 months ago. It was great. I just really love Thomas Hardy. He can write write. The story was masterfully set up and the whole second half of the book was just so good. The setting of the book, Egdon Heath, was so well described that it almost felt like a character of the book itself with its rolling hills and marshes, etc. And it really was as it factors in with so much that happens throughout the book including at the end. Great characters. Great interactions and relationships. Don't have much bad to say about it at all. I was really close to giving it a 9/10 but didn't for some reason. Just lacked 1 or 2 real memorable payoffs I guess. All I know is I can't wait to get to my next Thomas Hardy book because he has not disappointed me yet.

Thomas Hardy books I've read, ranked:

1. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
2. The Return of the Native
3. The Woodlanders

The Myth Makers by Hugh Nibley

 

6/10

I read this about 6 months ago. I'd been wanting to read this one for years and finally got around to it and was pretty disappointed. I didn't enjoy the format of the book at all. It's this weird conversation format. In the first portion of the book, he is a Chairman who is interviewing anti-Mormon authors where they quote anti statements about Joseph Smith's character. The second portion is the same but focuses on Joseph's money digging and picks out all the contradictions. The third and final part is a group of reporters interviewing an anti author who claimed Joseph got duped by a fake document and again points out all the ridiculous things with that claim. The fake conversational format got old for me pretty quick and distracted a lot from the topics being discussed. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if everything was presented in Nibley's usual scholarly format. Also, most of the money-digging portion and stuff about the seer stone felt very outdated. Nibley, of course, was working with information available at the time. This just isn't really a book that has much staying power.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

 

8/10

I read this book about 8 or 9 months ago. Although I have had some slight brushes with Gladwell in the past, this was my first deep dive with reading a full-length book of his. I feel like, while I did enjoy this book overall, I prefer the former slight brushes to the deep dive. My slight brushes were always interesting whereas the deep dive was interesting but got a bit tiresome after a while. The book seemed much longer than it needed to be. I did enjoy getting different stories and examples, but maybe in smaller, less repetitive doses. I know he was making slightly different points with each of his examples, but they were similar enough that it felt a tad bit repetitive. But I still did enjoy the book (hence the 8/10 rating) even though I've spent the entire time talking about things I didn't like. Some very fun stories and extremely insightful commentary overall.

By the Hand of Mormon by Terryl L. Givens

 

9/10

I read this one about ten months ago. It was really good. Very comprehensive. Covers a lot of the influence of the Book of Mormon and its reception and treatment by others and how that treatment has developed over the years as well as the Church's response and efforts to certain criticisms, particularly through archaeological evidence. Very informative and insightful book that I really enjoyed. I would like to read more of this kind of book. Also, the author was in our ward when we first moved to Virginia.

Nana by Emile Zola

2/10

I read this a year ago. I disliked it immensely. Very nearly gave it a 1/10. Can't think of anything at all that I liked about it. The characters were unenjoyable, the storyline reeked, and the writing style wasn't any fun. It was a chore of a book to get through. Apparently, it is Book #9 in a series of 20 books called Les Rougon-Macquart series. I guess the books can be read independently, but characters bleed over throughout the series. So that's pretty cool. But this is one of the more highly regarded of the entire series which does not bode well for my prospects of reading any of the others.

 

Saints: The Standard of Truth

 

10/10

I read this book a little over a year ago. It was really good. Great summary of early church history that touched on familiar topics with additional details as well as some lesser-known stories. The narrative history writing style was very engaging and made it a more enjoyable read. Learned about some people that haven't typically received a lot of attention in other church history books I've read. It was heavily footnoted which was great because I am a big fan of footnotes. Was very straightforward with some uncomfortable topics which was nice. The fact that flawed individuals were those that helped restore the church shouldn't come as a surprise and their shortcomings shouldn't impact one's faith. Just a bunch of really good people trying their best to do what's right. Really enjoyed this one.

Brambleheart by Henry Cole

4/10

I read this about 9 months ago. The kids' elementary school has done a cool thing the last three years where they give every kid the same book and a reading schedule and everyone reads it in a fairly quick time. I always read them with the kids and it's been a fun time. This, however, was my least favorite of the three they've done so far. The story just never really took off in any interesting way. It also ended in a bit of a cliffhanger as well which was off-putting and presumptuous, as if we'll all be running to read the next one. The kids liked it well enough at least.

For fun, I'm going to rank the three books referenced above:

1. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
2. The One and Only Ivan
3. Brambelheart
   

 

 

Because of Easter by Ron Millburn

 

10/10

I read this nearly a year ago. I have to give it a 10 because my Dad's the only one who reads my blog. Although, probably not anymore since I don't post consistently. But actually, I really liked this one. I've liked his others as well, but I think this one was my favorite so far. Good mix of insight, scripture analysis, and personal stories. Good job, Pops. Also, it should be known that the picture of him on the back cover was taken while he was visiting me in Cleveland and is in front of the Christmas Story house. As with my other posts that have come a year later, I will have to cut this post shorter than I otherwise would have if I posted right after finishing the book. Maybe some day I'll get caught up again.

The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck

8/10

I read this one a little over a year ago. Another Steinbeck winner. I really enjoyed this one. Not only was it a great story that gets you hooked from the very beginning with interesting characters, but it actually had a significant impact for many people during World War II. It was used widely as Allied propaganda in Nazi-occupied Europe. Very fascinating look at the thoughts and ideas and feelings of both those being occupied and the occupiers. It was also fun to see Steinbeck outside of the labor struggle of coastal California and write a war book in a style that only Steinbeck can.

Rankings of the Steinbeck books I've read:

1. The Grapes of Wrath
2. Of Mice and Men
3. East of Eden
4. The Moon Is Down
   
5. In Dubious Battle
6. Tortilla Flat
7. Cannery Row
8. The Winter of Our Discontent
9. The Pearl
10. The Long Valley

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

 

10/10

I read this over a year ago. Just a super obvious 10/10. This is my ideal type of book and what I hope all books resemble when I pick them up and start to read them. Tom Sawyer is one of the all time great fictional characters. Always scheming and always hilarious and always getting into a pickle of his own creation during an excellent adventure. Again, because of my delay in making this post, I don't have anything specific to say other than how I loved it and love Mark Twain's writing.

Rankings of Mark Twain books I've read:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (easily a top five book all time for me)
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
   

Clearly, I need to read more Mark Twain. I like how both characters appear in each other's books, although briefly. Just such fun, lovable characters.

If Thou Endure It Well by Neal A. Maxwell

 

10/10

I read this one over a year ago (yes, I have fallen massively behind on this blog). From what I recall, this was another solid and inspiring Maxwell book with the usual great quotes. He did a great job covering the topic of enduring to the end from several different angles that I hadn't considered before. Lets go ahead and put some quotes below:

 "Thus enduring well is clearly an essential part of mortality's planned refining process. Refining requires heat. Refining also requires time. Furthermore, if whatever constitutes 'it' is to be endured well, refining also requires of its recipients a genuine and continuing confidence in the Refiner."

"It follows, then, that you and I cannot really expect to glide through life, coolly air-conditioned, while naively petitioning: 'Lord, give me experience but not grief, a deeper appreciation of happiness but not deeper sorrow, joy in comfort but not in pain, more capacity to overcome but not more opposition; and please do not let me ever feel perplexed while on thine errand. Then let me come quickly and dwell with thee and fully share thy joy.'"

"[G]rit thy teeth rather than grind them destructively."

"Without utilizing fixed principles, confused mortals will find things very hard to fix."

"Nowadays people are so much more easily offended, while being much less concerned about offending God."

"Decrease the belief in God, therefore, and behold the large increase in the numbers of those who wish to play at being God. Such societal supervisors may deny the existence of divine ways but they are very serious about imposing their own ways."

"He sees the end from the beginning. You and I, on the other hand, are in the muddled, mortal middle."

 "The larger and more untamed a person's ego, the greater the likelihood of that person's being offended, especially upon tasting his portion of vinegar and gall or upon encountering irony, the hard crust on the bread of adversity. Understandably, protesting words may issue: 'Why me?' 'Why this?' 'Why now?' It is hoped, however, even if we utter such words momentarily, that we will not give way to inconsolability. From inconsolability it is a surprisingly short distance to bitterness."

"Each of us might well ask, 'In what ways am I shrinking or holding back?' Meek introspection may yield some bold insights. For example, we can tell much by what we have already willingly discarded along the pathway of discipleship. It is the only pathway where littering is permissible, even encouraged. In the early stages the debris left behind includes the grosser sins of commission. Later debris differs; the things being discarded are those that have caused the misuse or under use of our time and talent."

"Strange, isn't it, how those with the longest lists of new demands also have the shortest memories of past blessings?"

"The family circle, when finally completed in time for the world to come, may yet be larger than we may now imagine; late arrivals, after having paid a severe price and thus being finally qualified, may be more than a few."