Books!

Some of you may have wondered what happened to me during my little hiatus from the blog last week. Some of you may have wondered if I was going to quit my blog again. Some of you may have wondered if I was eaten my a mad group of hippos. Nope and nope.

Alas, here is what I was doing.

The Vow, The Atonement Child, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika, Sustainable Youth Ministry, Reality Bites Back 

I was gettin my read on! The first three books (shown in the picture) were ones I managed to snag at the yard sale. The fourth book is one I found on Amazon and the last book, on my Kindle, is one I have been reading for about a month now.

My favorite type of books are autobiographies. It's probably because I am just a nosy person, but nothing beats hearing a good/interesting/incredible/unbelievable/convicting/hilarious/tragic/insert other adjective here story from real life. This is why I blog stalk people. It's like mini-autobios every single day!
This picture really covers the range of stuff I usually read. It has two autobiographies (The Vow, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika), one fiction (The Atonement Child), and two non-fiction (Reality Bites Back and Sustainable Youth Ministry).

In case you are interested in any of them below are some short reviews.

The Vow
I picked up this book because a few months ago I saw the movie and was intrigued by the premise of the story. In my opinion, the movie and the book are two completely different stories. The true story is that this man and woman were married for about 10 weeks when they got into a terrible car accident. The wife should have died, but lived. When she woke up she could remember everything except the last year and a half of her life. The problem? In that year and a half she had met her husband, dated her husband and married her husband. She woke up remembering everything except for the fact that she was married. Both the book and the movie center on this story line. The movie (in my opinion) really ruined the book and missed the entire point of the story. The couple were strong Christians (had no clue from the movie) and the book focuses on their faith in God through this challenging time. The movie focuses on fictional plot lines of multiple love interests, affairs, divorce - none of which really happened. So, I guess if you want to hear what Hollywood thinks would happen after the initial plot line, go watch the movie. If you want to hear what really happened and how God worked miracle after miracle in this couple's lives- read the book.


The Atonement Child
Francine Rivers is an amazing story teller and has a way of incorporating the Christian faith with page turning stories. This book centers on a girl who was raped and became pregnant. Not sure what to do and having a host of people telling her what she should do, the story follows her as she grapples with her faith, her family and her future. I flew through this book in about two days. It was definitely captivating and thought provoking. It is a little cheesy at times and there are 14 pages in particular which is supposed to be a group of characters having conversation and truly it is just all the arguments that people use against abortion. I wish she would have left this section out of the story and included it as an appendage at the end of the book. While I am against abortion, the way she talked about it completely made the story stop. It was like she said, "And now, we are going to take a short break to hear from our sponsors." Right after that conversation was over, the book picked right back up. So, for the sake of the story line I felt like it didn't fit. I get where she was coming from but wished she would have included it elsewhere.

The Girl Who Loved the Swastika
Obviously by the title you can deduce this story was written by a girl who had ties to the Nazi party. This book is her life story and it is pretty fascinating. She talked about her life before Hitler, her life during Hitler's reign (and her love for him), her life after WWII (she was in East Germany and forced into a labor camp by the Russians) and her life after she came to the United States. The end of the book got a little dry for me, but I'm definitely still glad I read this one.

Sustainable Youth Ministry
I'm not actually done with this book yet and I am guessing the majority of you don't care how to run a sustainable youth ministry. So, no book review! You're welcome. :D However, if you do care  definitely read this book. It is really good.

Reality Bites Back
Wow. This book was a HUGE eye opener for me. I would deem this book the best book I have read so far this year. Let me first offer a warning for those of you who are about to skip my review and run straight to the bookstore to pick up your copy. This is not a Christian book nor is it written by a Christian (to my knowledge). The author is extremely liberal and at times can be crude and uses vulgar language. So, if you read it and are offended, I told you so.

Okay, so now do you really want to know why I loved this book? The author hits the nail right on the head and brings up an issue that is plaguing our culture. Reality T.V. I was the biggest fan of reality t.v. I loved pretty much any show that focused on the real life of people- no matter the situation. I was what you would call an unaware viewer. Pozner takes the reader through the number of problems that reality t.v. has brought upon our culture. It has been a set-back for women and women's right issues, race and racism issues, healthy body image issues. Pozner takes the reader behind the scenes and introduces the reader to the people who are producing these types of shows. Let me tell you, it is frightening. The producers cast people on their shows who are prone to violence, alcoholism, emotional breakdowns and then send the message to the viewers that this is real life. Shows like America's Top Model pretend to care about young women and exist to give them a chance, but in reality when girls have been on the show who struggled with eating disorders the producers (instead of helping them) called them fat and weak. Girls who were intellectual on this show were told they were arrogant and needed to be taken down a peg. Besides all of that, these shows are basically being run by advertising companies. These big companies have realized that they can pay big bucks to incorporate their stuff, not just in commercials, but throughout the hour/two hour show. Think "The Apprentice" (Burger King, Tanning Companies) "Dancing with the Stars" (Macy's) "The Bachelor" (Honda) "American Idol" (Ford). Why are there so many reality shows? It is not because of the ratings. It is because advertising companies have found a better way and more air time to sell their products. It is because reality shows cost $500,000 per episode while a scripted t.v. show can cost $9 million. The producers can stuff their pockets while paying people virtually nothing, or most of the time actually nothing all the while the characters of the show are doing all the work and advertising under the guise of a promise of "maybe you'll find love", "maybe you'll become the next pop star", "maybe you will have a career in modeling"... etc.
WOW. Stop me now. I'm about to start a rant. Anyway, I think most of us just find reality t.v. as an innocent way to pass the time. It is an entertaining way to escape after a long day of work. If you love reality t.v. - like I did- I encourage you to read this book. You don't have to buy into everything the author is saying - I didn't - but I promise it will open your eyes to something our culture needs to be aware of.

There ya go! Something for everybody. What do you guys like to read?