Wednesday, September 16, 2015

A Few Good Books

One of the main reasons I started this blog is to talk about the books I read. Sure, I'm on Good Reads (I hope we're friends), but it's not the same because the other reason I started this blog is to refer to Jack Nicholson's Code Red speech from A Few Good Men whenever I want. (See below. Language.)

Here are some of the best books I've read.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood: This book is so good it discouraged me totally from becoming a writer of novels because I could never write anything like it. It's the story of a woman and her sister over a lifetime with lots of secrets and stories within stories. 
 
To Show and to Tell by Phillip Lopate: I hesitate to post this because if I ever decide to teach an online blogging class I will teach secrets from this book. Phillip Lopate is so good at explaining what makes narrative non-fiction good you'll want to devote your life to the writing of it. 
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: I borrowed this book from my friend Carrie for about 10 years before I finally ordered it from Audible and listened to it while I weeded my flower beds. It's a giant book, but well worth reading. This book is a fantastic history (complete with copious footnotes) of the restoration of true magic in England. There's a BBC mini-series of it now too. It's the kind of thing Hermione could have written scrolls and scrolls about. 
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough is a parenting must-read. I read all the parenting books. I don't recommend all of them this strongly. Paul Tough researches school success and the kinds of things we do wrong that actually de-motivate kids (saying "Good job!" too much is one of those things). Give it a try. 

The Power of Every Day Missionaries by Clayton Christensen is so great. He says what we all know in our gut: Missionary work grows out of true friendship and care. No one wants to feel like somebody else's project and our stress on missionary work in the LDS church sometimes leads to an over-emphasis on numbers and conventional measures of "activity." Christensen describes his own experience where he actually offended a couple who thought he was their true friend because he quit hanging out with them after they declined his offer to baptize them into the church. This jibes so well with my personal feelings about making genuine connections with people in our own unique ways. For some people that might be the conventional shake-hands-get-to-know-you sort of thing but there are a million ways to be a friend (and that goes for being a visiting teacher, too). I highly recommend this book. 
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is by far my favorite book from 2014. A WWII story that takes place in occupied France, this book is so nicely done and unique that it takes its place next to The Book Thief among my favorites. But you can't go by me. I'm kind of a WWII junkie. 

I have so many more books to tell you about that I read when I wasn't blogging as much. Don't worry, I keep a list of all the books I've read since 1999. I won't forget any of them. Remember that great speech at the end of A Few Good Men?

10 comments:

  1. It's great to see new posts here. Welcome back! Your book recommendations are consistently awesome and I have missed them.

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    1. Thanks! It's good to be back and to hear from you.

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  2. I'm gonna keep commenting on your blog, because I want to keep believing that it is 2004.

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    1. It's all very retro and nostalgic. We met here, Josh!

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  3. Thank you, thank you! I appreciate these very much. Sometimes on Facebook, people will say "This is the best book ever! Go read it right now!" and so I will, and then it turns out the book is written by a fifth grader (otherwise, how to explain the worst writing ever?), and I can't even finish it, even though I finish almost everything, including even when the book is a surprise lesbian romance novel. Margaret Atwood sticks in my mind like almost no one else. I've tried this one a couple of times, and became stuck about 40 pages in. I'll try again.

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    1. I'm a huge proponent of giving up (without guilt) on books you don't like. Sometimes you just aren't in the mood. I do think the Atwood might be worth another try — maybe it will be better as a cozy winter book or as an audio book? I'm interested to know what you think about it.

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  4. I'm elated to see you're posting again! I just LOVE every single thing you have to say. I'm looking forward to adding some of these book favorites to my Audible reading list. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I'm elated that you're still willing to read, Tyanna! I've got more book recs coming up this week.

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    2. I just finished How Children Succeed (on your recommendation) and now want to tell every parent I know about it!

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    3. I know. It's SO good.

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