Tuesdays with Morrie

      I knew that I had watched the movie based on Tuesdays with Morrie in class sometime in university, but I wasn't sure that I had actually read the book. I saw it on the shelf and decided that it was one of those books that needed to be read. I realized, shortly after starting, that I had actually read the book before, but it was worth reading again.  It is one of those books that everyone needs to read.

     Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom chronicles the story of the author as he reconnects with his old professor, and the two of them work together on what they call Morrie's last thesis. Mitch visits Morrie every Tuesday (for 12 or 13 weeks) as Morrie deteriorates from his ALS. They talk about basically all of the big things in life (family, forgiveness, society, life, death...). Morrie, once a physically vibrant man, continues to shine through his words. Mitch give Morrie purpose, and Morrie gives Mitch perspective.

 The whole book is packed. Nothing is written that doesn't mean something important.

“Be compassionate," Morrie whispered. And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place".

“Accept who you are; and revel in it".

 “The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live".

The Diary of a Player

The Diary of a Player is Brad Paisley's autobiography. How he got where he is, and who helped him. I love country music, and Brad Paisley is a favorite of mine. I went to see him sing in Vancouver and it was awesome. I follow him on twitter, so I knew that it would be funny. I also enjoy learning about my favorite people, so this was an easy read.
 Brad Paisley seems to have remained humble in his stardom. A lot of the book is thanking people, and the stories behind why they are important. He has stories about just about everyone in country music, and a section of captioned pictures with many of them. He talks about Playing rock music in high school because that is what his peers wanted to hear, and he just wanted to be cool. He talks about how his music is influenced by all sorts of music, bluegrass, jazz, blues, rock, classic rock...
I don't think that it is the type of book that anyone who isn't a Brad Paisley fan would pick up to read. It talks about inspiration for his songs which is only interesting if you know the songs. I enjoyed hearing the stories behind the songs, and behind the artist. 

The Hobbit

To say that it took me a long time to read The Hobbit would be putting it lightly. I originally started to read The Hobbit about ten years ago when I was in grade 8. We had silent reading time in English class. I finished The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit seemed like a good place to go from there. I was on chapter 13 when I discovered Star Wars books. Those distracted me from The Hobbit for the rest of High school, and then I never really got back into the mood. I have read The Lord of the Rings once a year for the past ten years, but I have never cracked open The Hobbit. When I went to see The first of movies this past December I decided that I needed to read the book, and finally finish it.

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is the story of Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit who is taken (somewhat unwillingly) on an adventure with Gandalf the wizard, and a company of Dwarves. They meet with all sorts of beings, some of whom help, and some of whom hinder the journey. The book is filled with the extensive description that Tolkien is famous for, which is wonderful in some places, but in others there is too much and the story seems to drag.

I can't help but compare it to The Lord of the Rings Which I love. They are set in the same world, with some of the same characters, but they are very different. In essence, The Lord of the Rings is a good versus evil story. The good guys must save the world from the evil guys. While it has many unexpected twists and turns, the reader knows the true purpose. The Hobbit, follows Bilbo who is helping the Dwarves reclaim their fortress and fortune. At first it seems like they are up against a dragon, but the story changes in the last few chapters throw the whole story into more of a gray area. The whole thing seemed to be driven by the greed of the Dwarves, and the people with whom they come in contact.

You probably can't tell from this, but I really did enjoy the book.  I can see how it is more of a children's book than Tolkien's other books. I'm glad to have read it, and will probably read it again before another ten years goes by.

The Perks of being a Wallflower.

The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was a fairly random pick. I had seen some previews for the movie, and decided to check out the book. It turns out that it has been a popular book for a fair number of years. There is even a whole section at the end with topics for book club discussions and such. The book covers many topics including: teenaged drinking, drug use, smoking, sexuality, and mental health, as well as a teenager's view on abuse, drinking, both suicide and attempted suicide, and death within his family. A person could talk or write for a very long time about this book and get into some deep discussions. I won't write that much because it really needs the back and forth of discussion.

The book is written in the form of letters. A troubled teenaged boy (Charlie) is writing to an unknown person (seemingly the reader). It runs over the course of one school year (and a summer). Charlie has an extremely difficult transition from middle-school into high-school. His only good friend committed suicide shortly at the end of the school year before. Charlie is also struggling with the death of his Aunt (about 9 years earlier) with whom he had an interesting/ distressing relationship.

Charlie is quite introverted, and socially awkward, and naive, yet he speaks what he thinks (sort of like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory). In efforts to "participate in life" he becomes friends with a set of siblings, both of whom are a couple of years older than him. He gets accepted into their group of friends. With this group of friends, he goes through many stereotypical (or maybe just typical) teenage behaviors including exploring sexuality, drinking, and drugs.

This book really made me think about my high-school experience. While I was in it, I didn't think that my experience was out of the ordinary (for an introverted geek). When I entered collage I realized just how different my experience was.The thing about this book is that it captures the feelings of teenagers so well that you don't have to have experienced the situations to relate to them.

The Magician King

The Magician King by Lev Grossman is the sequel to the Magicians. It takes off where the last book finished. I didn't get quite as "into" this book as I did the Magicians, but I would read it again. Two characters (Quentin and Julia) head on on an adventure, and are then thrown in a very different direction. They have to then find their way back to the magical world. In the end it all makes sense, and they circle back to the original adventure.

The first book is Quentin's experience searching for magic. The timeline is fairly linear. The second book shows his friend Julia's very different search. The reader follows Julia's original journey to learn magic, and a current journey to return to the magical word with Quentin. I had a bit of trouble following the timeline, but this may have been made easier if I had read the book more quickly instead of over the course of a couple of months.

 I hear that the author is working on the third and final book in the series. This was announced over a year ago, and it will probably take a long while to be completed, but I am looking forward to it.

The Magicians

Every summer I go to my Church Campmeeting. This year I went to the bookstore in search of books which are OK to be seen reading amongst a large group of conservative Christians.  I came out with books, none of which fit the criteria. I took my old copy of Lord of the Rings to Campmeeting for the eightth year in a row, and set the new books others aside. It was September before I made it around to reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman.


I found The Magicians to be a interesting read. The main Character is collage aged, which seems to be a rarity, at least in the fantasy genre. It was refreshing to read about a character who was past the teenage angst stage, but also was not an adult, fully situated in their own life. It follows a young man who grew up reading a series of books which is clearly at least partly based on the Chronicles of Narnia. Instead of growing out of the series, he still reads it, and is slightly obsessed with them throughout his teenaged years. His experience could even be compared to reading a book. He goes from regular life, and is transported into a magical world (or three) where he makes friends, learns many skills, and goes on adventures. I connected with that, as I have also remained a fan of some of my favorite childhood series.

This book took many unexpected turns, and ended in a very different way than I thought that it would. It starts out with genius Quentin who is given, and takes, a chance to go to a magical university. While his school is different, much of his dorm and class life are relatable. The book deals with the post-grad "what now" period. The book them shifts gears and the characters use their education to take themselves to the world of Fillory which they had read about as children.

 While the characters don't share my same set of values and beliefs, and make many choices surrounding drugs and alcohol that I would not make, I find that these add to the story and to the characters personal growth. Quentin ponders his lifestyle decisions. and I think that the book accurately shows how a person's way of thinking changes as they get older and have more experience. 

This book was a great mix of Science fiction, and fantasy (mostly fantasy) two of my favorite genres. I was excited to find out that there is a sequel (which I have now read), but I didn't really have any idea where else the author could take the story. It was a complete story in itself.

Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking.

Quiet was one of the Campmeeting safe books that I got. I didn't think that it would be as easy to read as it was. I was sucked in, and nearly read it straight through. The writer uses descriptive stories from her experience interviewing and talking to people for the book. It is partly a self help book, and partly a informational text, but many parts of it I found could be read like short stories.

Introverts gain energy by being alone, while extroverts gain energy by being with people. This does not mean that introverts don't like people, just that we need alone time to recover (even after things like going to a movie with a couple of friends). Extroverts may have to go out with friends after a while of alone time (like studying). About half of the population is introverted, and though introverts certainly aren't better than extroverts, much of western culture praises outgoing, outspoken behavior. It is sometimes nice to be reminded that we, as introverts are not alone.

Many eastern cultures have great respect for introverted personalities. Wisdom is seen in those who think before they speak.

In a way, this book has changed my way of looking at myself. It sort of gave me permission to be introverted instead of striving, and not succeeding to put on the extroverted mask that so many of us have. It also brought up some points about introverts that I have been able to take make into ideas and advice in my life.

Introverts don't like to talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Introverts don't do so well when put on the spot. It isn't that we don't know our stuff. The stress of talking in front of people (without having practiced a script) can be too distracting to perform well. In school introverts are often seen as less smart at their extroverted peers. Not only is there the whole speaking up in front of people thing, but introverts really don't like "taking a stab at it" in front of people, or sharing partly formed ideas. When asked (for a study) to come up with problem solving ideas extroverts come up with a large number if ideas in a short amount of time, where as introverts come up with fewer. When compared, there were approximately the same number of QUALITY ideas.

 I really wish that this book had been around earlier. Throughout nursing school we had to do self critiques.  I always had trouble coming up with examples to show my leadership in clinical practice. I didn't see myself as a leader. This book showed me how introverts often have alternate ways to lead. Introverts are more likely to lead by taking many people's perspectives into consideration. In nursing I have taken this to mean leadership through collaboration. I think that my critiques in school would have been much more useful with my new perspective on power and leadership.