(First published at Qassia)

Do Hard Things is a book written by teenaged twin brothers Alex and Brett Harris. It is about their rebellion against the low expectations that are placed on teens by our culture. They were unsatisfied to think of their adolescence as a vacation from responsibility until they reached adulthood and out of their own experiences there has grown a “Rebelution” among young people around the world, but especially here in the U.S.A.
At 16, after some years of speech and debate competition, the boys began to research some of the great things that had been done by young people. They were inspired to undertake some hard things themselves, as well as to inspire others of their generation to Do Hard Things.

They established a website, TheRebelution.com, which drew interest from many young people, rebelutionaries, who were convicted that they were wasting a lot of time and energy. The book tells of the experiences of not only the Harris twins, but of many of those with whom they have come in contact.

The book is inspirational. Every teen should be given a copy and challenged to a new vision for themselves and their future world!

tags: books, do hard things, harris

When my wife and I were young parents of three girls we asked a lot of questions of those we thought to be successful parents and we read a lot of books on the subject of parenting. James Dobson was one of our frequent and favorite authors on the subject.

Now that we are raising two grade school age grandsons, we are finding out that boys are different from girls. There developmental process is much different than was our daughters'. So we recently checked out a copy of Dobson's book, Bringing Up Boys from the library. It was well worth the time.

Dobson points out several elements of distinction between the development of the genders. We believe we were benefitted in the confirmation of many things we are doing for the boys, and given some new ideas that we want to incorporate for the benefit of the guys. If you are raising little boys, you should give this volume a look.

tags: books, dobson, parenting

This Patrick O'Brien novel is a sequel to Master and Commander. It is the account of how Jack Aubrey gains his promotion from Master and Commander to Post Captain, despite the animosity held for him by the Admiral under whom he serves.

Aubrey is given command of an experimental vessel that is the laughingstock of the British navy. Not only that, Aubry is sent on a mission that at best set him up to fail and at worst could cost him his life. But the action was a success that brought Aubrey the advancement he so desperately desired, and cost the admiral was under scrutiny.

The book ends with Aubrey having led a temporary mission to a resounding success that will allow Aubrey to have enough prize money to afford to get out of debt and marry his beloved Sophie.

tags: aubrey, books, o'brien, post captain

A good friend of mine brought me a copy of Max Lucado's latest book, 3:16. It is a masterful assessment of one of the most popular passages in the entire Bible, John 3:16. Lucado is easy to read while at the same time opening new panoramas in familiar locations. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but was most intrigued with the words and thoughts Max used in dealing with the time of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, following his baptism and preparing him for his ministry. That section alone was worth the time to read the book!

mood: contemplative tags: books, jesus, max lucado, temptations

A good friend of mine has decided to put together a
Book Club gathering of bloggers each month. She will post a book for any one who is interested in participating to read by the 25th of the month. Then each participant will post his or her report on the book on their own blog, with a link to the book club site. My friend will include links back to the various posts so that the participants can peruse the other posted reports.

The book to be read for the month of April is To Kill A Mockingbird. I have not read it since high school, so I will pick up a copy at the library and give it a reread.

The whole idea sounds like fun to me, and of course, the more the merrier!

mood: cheerful tags: bloggers, blogging, book club, books, library, read, to kill a mockingbird

A couple of years ago, on a blog site that no longer exists, several of the bloggers got together in a book club. The idea was that we would choose a book, all of us would read it and then meet at a blog designated to host that event and engage in discussion of the book. It was a great time and stimulated us to read a broad range of works.

I am happy to announce that the blogger who established our group and hosted the first discussion has announced that she is kicking off another group. The date has been set for the first day of discussion is December 13. The book she chose as the first one this time is Lottery by Patricia Wood. For more on the Book Club , check out Mom and More, also known as Merry Jelinek. Merry is a mom and a writer from Chicago. She has strong opinions and is a cordial hostess. I think you will find the time to be well spent.

I recently posted the original articles from a book discussion I hosted as a part of the Club. You can get a bit of the flavor from Revisiting the Sun Singer. (I wish I could point you to all those discussions, including the comments, we shared, but they do not exist anymore.)

mood: excited tags: bloggers, books, discussions, lottery, patricia wood, reading

I've recently finished reading Orson Scott Card's Hart's Hope. Card is a great writer. His prose is beautiful. The book, however, wasn't 100% satisfying to me. Not only was the violence a little difficult to stomach at times, with the intertangling love affairs turning out to be decidedly confusing and even troubling, but there is one particular problem with the narrative that disturbs me. This is the ambiguity of the narrator for most of the book, and then the way the reader's sympathy is sort of "cheated" at the end of it all.

I have written a fuller review of the book at my Reading List blog. I've taken a fuller look at this troubling point in that entry. Even though, I freely admit, the writing is very well done. (If it weren't, I probably wouldn't feel "cheated" in the end.)

mood: frustrated tags: books, fantasy, hart's hope, orson scott card, reading

I've finished a couple of good reads lately, and thought I should mention them here.

I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, which was first recommended to me by a fellow blogger on another site. I enjoyed the work, overall, though it wasn't a perfect read for me. It was worth the time I invested in it, though, and I have loaned it to a friend now.

I also read 2 kids' books by Ed Wicke, The Muselings and Screeps. I wrote a little more about those on one of my other reading blogs, if you are interested to see more about them. Quite fun reading, and reading them is a good way to relax and spend an afternoon.

mood: content tags: books, dave eggers, ed wicke, reading

If you like reading historical fiction, or books with a sense of place, you might enjoy a good discussion we just had over at my new blog. Here are the posts where that happened. Feel free to drop in, and do leave a comment if you have something you'd like to share.

A Sense of Place, in so many words
A Time and a Place
Just Give it to Me Straight
Recommended Reading: Singapore
Recommended Reading: Shanghai

If you have a place-related book (or books) you'd like to review and have linked from my site, stop in here to let me know, and I'll put that link up.

mood: drained tags: books, historical fiction, historical novel, reading, recommended reading

I've been a little out of commission lately because I've been deciding what to do about my blogs. I started blogging a couple of years ago with a single blog, and loved it. That site eventually fell apart. I branched out, and at one point had 15 blogs going. I suppose, technically, I still do. At any rate, I've decided on a direction for my blogs, at last, and am streamlining. I will still keep up my lower-maintenance blogs (like this one) from time to time. But if you want to see more well-thought-out blogs on a regular basis, you might want to visit one of these:

Shelly's blog, where I will discuss mostly books and movies
Peregrine Online, my travel blog


Hope to see you there!

mood: busy tags: blogging, blogs, books, consolidation, reading, travel blog

I spent most of the afternoon in bed sick yesterday. Waugh's A Handful of Dust was just the right sort of company for the afternoon.

I finished up on my study of 1 Timothy yesterday too. Other than that, I just did a little reading of students' papers that need to be marked. Now that's fun reading...!

mood: sick tags: 1 timothy, books, evelyn waugh, handful of dust, marking papers, reading

I've made a lot of progress on Wangerin's The Book of God lately, but keep forgetting to post that here. I am really enjoying the way he's unfolded the story, and the narrator does a nice job with it. I've got about 3 more hours of listening before it is done. It's been a nice companion while commuting.

Waugh's A Handful of Dust is proving to be quite interesting, and I am enjoying it. I like it better, so far, than any of the other novels by any of the Waugh brothers that I have read in the past.

The rest of my reading yesterday was from 1 Timothy and Deuteronomy.

mood: sick tags: a handful of dust, books, evelyn waugh, reading, the book of god, walter wangerin

I am still continuing on Chalker's Echoes. It goes a little up and down for me. It isn't that there is nothing interesting at all in the novel, just that it hasn't gripped me. I read one of Chalker's other books some time back, but I can't remember which one. I think it was one of the Demons series.

I did a lot more reading for class, yet again. It has been a while since I presented this lecture on poetry, so it's taken me longer to pull it together than I like.

Also, more reading on 1 Timothy 6.

mood: blank tags: books, jack chalker, novels

昨天又是一样， 没有什么改变。 我继续读 Jack Chalker 的小说 Echoes of the Well of Souls. 我知道这是很出名的一本书， 可是我不太喜欢。

我也继续准备后天的演讲。那是说读了教科书里的诗歌和棵文。

也读了提摸太前书的第六章。

(For regular readers of my blog -- if there are any -- who don't read Chinese, please forgive me. I am using this spot, from time to time, to practice my Chinese writing. It might become more frequent over the next year and a half as I work toward taking some written exams at the end of next year. Obviously, I have a lot of work to do before I am ready for that.)

mood: drained tags: books, jack chalker, reading

I got a little time to read some of the two novels I am working on now, the Chalker novel and the Evelyn Waugh one. Nothing very exciting in either, to this point, though the Chalker one is picking up a little. I got to listen to Wangerin's novel a bit in the car today too, and that was fun.

I spent most of my reading today working on the poetry and related material in my textbook on Literature and Gender. I've left that off the past few days of my reading list, though I have been working on it for some time. I only thought of it because it became something other than routine for me yesterday. I was revising my lecture notes, and was reminded of a toy that my parents got back at the release of Star Wars Episode 1. It was one of those free toys that comes with a meal at fast food places. It reminded me of some things I am going to discuss in my lecture this week. I am trying to arrange to have some photos done of the toy this week, and I will post an article in relation to my class either here or at one of my other blogs.

Also did more reading from 1 Tim 6 today. Will continue to cover that chapter this week.

mood: contemplative tags: books, literature and gender, poetry, reading, star wars, toys

I finished reading Dan Browns Deception Point tonight. I enjoyed it, after all. I do, however, find it too like all the other Dan Brown stories I've ever read. That's not to say it's bad, just that I might wait a good while before reading any more of his. I did really like the epilogue of the book... if we're supposed to be the most evolved species on earth, then why do the lesser organisms know when to leave well enough alone? That was a clever touch.

I did some reading from Pudd'nhead Wilson and 1 Timothy 6 too.

tags: books, dan brown, deception point, reading

I keep leaving out one book I am working on when I do my daily entries. I am reading (actually, listening to) Walter Wangerin's The Book of God as I commute. I've been in the middle of this one for a few months -- it was more or less on hold for a while.

The book is a good one, and it is especially good in this audio version. The narrator keeps it from ever getting dry, and the action moves along at a nice pace. I am enjoying hearing it as I drive back and forth to school. Now that the semester is back in full swing, I probably won't have as many days that I will skip reading from it, and I hope that means I won't forget to list it in my entries too.

mood: mellow tags: audio books, books, commuting, the book of god, walter wangerin

I had a quiet house, seemingly just made for reading, today. I got caught up a whole lot.

I'm about half done with Pudd'nhead Wilson now, and am loving it (no surprise). It is just such a reminder of how great a write Mark Twain was. His body of work is just amazing.

I'll probably be half done with Deception Point before I go to bed. It is picking up some, now that I have gotten into it. I might also get another chapter of They Went in before I get to bed too.

I also did a lot of reviewing of King Lear and Twelfth Night for class tomorrow, and reading from 1 Timothy.

mood: relaxed tags: books, dan brown, deception point, mark twain, pudd'nhead wilson, reading

I didn't get much time to sit and read today, but I did get started on Pudd'nhead Wilson. I love Mark Twain, but have never read this one.

I decided to wait on Salmon of a Doubt. I am going to read the Dirk Gently series before I read that one. It might take a little time, so I am going to try to get a little more ahead of schedule with school work before I start on it.

mood: exhausted tags: books, mark twain, pudd'nhead wilson, reading

Yesterday was a good day for reading. We finished up Wilkins' Tooth by Diana Wynne Jones, and I finished reading Mostly Harmless (by Douglas Adams). I haven't decided if I will start on Salmon of a Doubt yet or not.

We also finished up Mark 13-14.

mood: busy tags: books, diana wynne jones, douglas adams, ken follet, mostly harmless, reading, wilkins tooth