Room

Room by Emma Donoghue




Absolutely chilling. This is told from the perspective of a 5 year old boy whose mother was kidnapped and kept in a 12x12 shed for 7 years. His entire world is in that room--and tv is just pretend. He doesn't understand that the world portrayed on tv exists. His mother eventually "unlies" to him and tells him that there is a world outside of room, and she hatches a plan for their escape. Amazingly well done.



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Random Acts of Culture

I saw this and wanted to share it. This would have been amazing to experience in person. Apparently they brought in the largest pipe organ in the US, and there were 650 voices chiming in, not including the random shoppers who happened to know the song.

The Warded Man

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm really upset that I started reading this too early. I didn't start reading the Twilight series until Breaking Dawn was nearly out--and my enthusiasm for this book is nearly the same as for that series. The problem? He just barely published the second book, and he plans on continuing the series for (if I remember the interview correctly) at least 5 books, maybe more. So, I'm stuck with this dreadful sense of anticipation for the next in the series--and it stinks that I have to wait for the author to catch me up!



This is a really interesting, post-apocalyptic world. Demons rule the night, when the sun comes up, they sink into the ground to escape. If people or animals are caught out at night, outside of warded buildings or shelters, they are demolished by the demons. Technology is non-existent, and the wards of old are lost. One boy finds himself outside of shelter, alone, at night, and faces his worst fear. He discovers that he can face down demons, and sets out to live his life without fear. As this boy grows into a man, he eventually discovers the secrets that may help human-kind defeat the demons--without and within.



The characters in this book are richly imagined, and the book explores how each character comes to make the decisions they make.



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Joy is a gift!!!

Jake came home today and taught me a song he and a friend composed. The very last line was "Joy is a gift. But this isn't the box it came in." He had me laughing so hard at dinner. I don't know if he came up with that on his own or if it's from a song he knows, but that line is an absolute classic!

Jake turned 10 the weekend before my sister's wedding, so it was completely neglected. I figure, we had fairly elaborate birthday parties when I was working, including a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, a bowling party, a couple of trips to Disneyland, mom gets a free pass from the parties this year. He did get the video game he was desperately wanting, and got to have cousins come to the movies with us. We saw "The Guardians of Ga'hule" in I-max & 3-d. The movie was very good--especially for boys, and I had 4 with me. It was beautifully drawn and imagined--I think I could have the backgrounds for this movie hanging in my house. I don't see 3-d effects (I think it's because one of my eyes is stronger than the other, or I'm just lame) so most of the effects were lost on me. But, I could see my nephews and sons dodging and trying to grab things, so I think they enjoyed it.

My 10 year old boy is a middle schooler, he bikes on his own to and from school every day. He's so bright, and he has so much potential. Sometimes I look at him, and I see all the ways my BAD parenting could screw him up, but it hasn't yet, and for that I'm grateful. Joy is a gift, and that kid is a box of it, all on his own!

Money Management

I was reading a great article in BYU magazin written by M. Sue Bergin, and I stumbled on this quote. "In the Book of Mormon, the Jaredites had two problems with their ships: no light and no navigation. The Lord solved the first problem by touching the 16 stones that then radiated light. He solved the second one by sending storms that blew the vessels toward the promised land. The Lord was in both the stones and in the storms. The Lord is in our storms today."

Very, very wise.

Hilarious posting from my new favorite website catalogliving.net

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Eilzabeth Gilbert's treatise on marriage. She writes a very interesting history of the institute of marriage. She finds that throughout history, marriage basically sucks for women--and that there really is no good reason to get married--except for love. And that truly isn't a very good reason to marry. She does find compelling reasons to marry her longtime boyfriend, and eventually learns to trust herself.

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