The Best of Me

Another Nicholas Sparks book and, while not as disappointing as the last one, still a let down at the end.

Probbaly not the way I should start this post, huh?

How about:

This was my latest fluff read and, for the most part, I really enjoyed.  Nicholas Sparks pulls you through a classic love-story of the uptown girl and the boy from across the tracks.  True love?  Yes.  Did it work?  You'll have to read it to find out, but suffice it to say that about 20 years go by until the couple see each other again.  You time travel a bit via memories, but I liked that. The plot is decent and I found myself really getting into the story.  Until the end.

The end was just too far-fetched for me and did not flow with the rest of the work.

Unfortunately, I think he's losing his touch.

The Lucky One

Nicholas Sparks is my easy/mindless author I go to when I need beach or vacation reading.  So when this book popped up in my library queue ready to be picked up before I left for the wedding, I was thrilled!

I've read all but the most recent NS book, so I know what he's about and this book followed a lot of his other works.  And in that, I wasn't impressed.  My heart strings weren't tugged like in The Notebook or Message in a Bottle.  But it wasn't a total dud like some of his more recent works that I felt were rushed in their writing.  The characters in The Lucky One were at least 3 dimensional and the story line was decent.  He sure knows the human tenancies and matters of the heart.

So in short, if you're looking for an easy read for your next airplane ride where you won't be worried about ruining your makeup, this is a good pick. 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

I read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet a couple weeks ago.  It's written by Jamie Ford and really takes a closer look at the father/son relationship, as well as love long gone.  Based around the true events of life in the Seattle area in the 40's, the reader catches glimpses of what life may have been like for Japanese-American kids during that time.

Unfortunately, that's all the good I can say about it.

Overall, I felt the book was very slow going.  I didn't feel a connection of any kind until past the 60th page, and even after that, I was wondering at the point of the narrative.  The writing was so-so, but a little too 2-D for me.  Also, the end was a little bit of a flop for me, it left me wanting more.  Which in some cases, can be a good thing.  In this case, it wasn't.

Lone Wolf

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors.  She writes well, always makes you think over the ethical or moral dilemmas she presents, and usually throws a twist at the end of the book that makes you second guess your decision.

Lone Wolf is her newest release and while it was a good read, it was not her best work.  The writing was great, as always, but I wasn't as torn as I usually am, and I was not as shocked at the end, either.  I think this has to do with 2 major reasons.  1) I knew exactly where I stood on life support issues so I didn't feel the emotional tug like I usually do, and 2) The "twist" wasn't profound for me becasue of my first point.  I don't want to say too much in case you read it. 

As in a lot of her books, you will come away with a new appreciation for her subject matter, in this case, wolves.  I learned so much about them thanks to her research.

Over all, I would recommend this book.  If you haven't thought about end of life/life support issues, you should, and this book may spark some thought provoking points you never considered.  From a Biblical perspective, I know where I stand, but there are a lot of different takes on the matter and I felt the book covered a lot of them.

Reads on the horizon:

Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Escape
The River of Doubt
Unbroken


What are you reading right now?

Same Kind of Different as Me

I was lent this book a few weeks ago, and though it took me longer to read than I would have liked (I really only have to read while I exercise on the elliptical now), I still finished it in just a little under 2 weeks.

Same Kind of Different as Me is a heart-wrenching true story of 2 men with incorrect perspectives, and a woman who changed their lives and the lives of many others.

I don't even want to say more about the story line.  There aren't even words to describe exactly what goes on.  It's a moving experience to just read the words from these men about their journey.

The book is well written and paints pictures that will be hard to get from your mind.  It's a book everyone should read.

God's providence, mercy, and grace are woven throughout.  A fact I loved.  For in a story like this, you can't help but see Christ and His love.

Heaven at Home

I just read this book and I can't praise it enough.  It's written by Ginger Plowman, who also wrote "Don't Make Me Count to Three" (another great read!). 

In this book, Ginger Plowman wittingly and honestly gives wise, Biblical. and practical tips, tricks, and advice on having a peaceful home.  She covers chapters on you (as the mother) being peaceful, on instilling unity among siblings and with your husband.  She challenges us to discipline in a consistent way and in a way in which our children listen to us. 

At the end of the book, she has a great section on managing your home.  She doesn't have hard and fast rules of any sort, but she draws on some Biblical principles (such as being good stewards of money and being orderly as God is orderly) and applies them to running the household God has given you.  From meal planning, to organizing your calendar, to having a routine when cleaning your house, to not over-scheduling yourself, to helping your children also be involved, this section of the book was enlightening and convicting.

To say the least, even if you feel you have everything the way you like it, the book will be full of good reminders, and it may even push you to change the way you run your home.

Flying Changes

[Source]

First off, let me say how sorry I am that it's been three whole months since my last book review!  How did that happen?  

Second, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!  I know I did.  One of the best things for me this Christmas was the oodles and oodles of time I had to just sit and read.  You'd think I would have read 3 or 4 books with the amount of time I had, but alas, things did need to get done, so only one book was read.  But I'm happy to announce that it was a good one to end my year.  I may not have read a novel or every month, but I think I got at least a dozen in.  That still counts, right?

A while back, I read "Riding Lessons" by Sara Gruen - "Flying Changes" is the sequel.  You don't have to read "Riding Lessons" in order to get "Flying Changes", but it certainly does enrich the reading process to have an entire books worth of background.

Again, I loved Gruen's work on this book. You can tell she put research into her writing, and while her actual writing style isn't quite up to "Water for Elephants" or "Ape House", it's still beautiful and vivid and a cut above most of the fiction novels out there.  It is her second book after all -- you'd hope her writing only gets better and better and not the reverse.

Gruen transports you to a horse farm out in New England and involves you directly in the inner-workings of about 3 or 4 different relationships.  Both the human kind and equestrian variety. The emotions are beautifully  raw and tangible.  On a couple occasions, I caught myself scolding different characters or holding my breath in anticipation. 

A great "beach book" if you need one or just something to pick up while the children are sleeping and the laundry is actually put away.  It only gets really addicting for the last 50 pages, so my house was not in danger of being left untended with this read.

Drowning Ruth

T

[Source]

This was my August book. 

After my last book, The Paris Wife, it was a slight letdown, but I think any book would have been.

Set in about the same time period as The Paris Wife (early 1900's), Drowning Ruth is a dramatic story of family relations with mysterious turns here and there.

The writing is well done and the imagery is great, but I felt the characters were more 2 dementional than 3.   Christina Schwartz uses the voice of the 2 main characters for the majority of the book, bouncing back and froth from present to past to somewhere in the middle.  It was not hard to follow along and I really enjoyed how engaged I had to be.  The aspect of the writing I did not enjoy was the omniscient POV (point of view) of the narrator.  It's seriously one of my greatest pet peeves in writing.  I don't want to know what  everyone else is thinking!  Keep me in one head at a time or no heads at all!

All that aside, it was an intriguing book.  I used to be hooked on Mystery novels, so figuring out the next couple steps of the plot is like a game for me, and I will say that I was able to guess most all of the plot points a couple chapters before the reveal, but not all!  And for that, I was happy.

A story of love and loyalty, of a traumatized girl finding her place in life, and an Aunt, whose love is selfish and reckless all at the same time.  It's a good read.

The Paris Wife

This was my July book and it was absolutely lovely. There really is no other word to fully describe it. It was sad, it was funny, it was riveting at times, it was a peek into the Paris life in the 20s. The decadence, the sad way marriage was seen, the parties, the change of literature and art. Ahhh...it was wonderful.

Written in the first person by Hadley Richardson Hemingway (Ernest Hemingway's first wife), the novel chronicles about 6 years of Hadley's life, from the first night she met Hemingway in Chicago, to saying good bye to him in Paris when he refused to give up his mistress. (Don't worry, I didn't just spoil anything. You find out there's another women in the forward of the book.) It's a heart breaking story of love captured and ripped away and all the bumps in between.

Paula McLain writes beautifully. Every single sentence is filled to the brim and bursting with rich descriptions of whatever is going on. It was such a pleasure to read such wonderful pictures -- I truly felt as through I was right there, and that's always a nice feeling.

So Ernest Hemingway was really married to Hadley, and they did really live in Paris, and they did really get divorced after he wouldn't give up his mistress. So how much of the book is fact, and how much is fiction?

I did a little research, but the Author's Note in the book answered a lot of my questions. To her one words on this topic, go here. The book is a novel (fiction), although the chronology and events did really happen. What McLain has essentially done is given us a very bolstered memoir. She has taken the liberty to impose feelings on the characters and given them words to speak that in reality they may not have felt or spoken. She goes one step past the facts you can find in books that Hemingway himself or others wrote, and has put an extra layer of flesh on these great American icons. You sit and meet Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and have tea with Gertrude Stein - and as an English major, this was great. You actually go to Spain and sit around the table with people who became the characters in The Sun Also Rises. Fascinated doesn't even come close to how I felt. In fact, I'm now going to re-read The Sun Also Rises since I'm not so sure I remember it all from my college days.

All in all, a highly recommended book. The only sad part of it all, for me, is the way marriage was seen in that day and age. The promiscuity through the abundance of mistresses (and known mistresses at that!) is really a hard concept for me to grasp. There was very little foul language used in the book and minimal "scenes".

Teach Them Diligently

This is one of the books I brought with me on vacation. Not exactly light reading, but very beneficial. It was easy to read, but it was a lot of material to digest.

This is a book that Ginger Plowman recommends in her book, Don't Make Me Count to Three, and after reading this book, I can see where Ginger gets some of her information.

If you've read Don't Make Me Count to Three, I would still suggest reading this. It really breaks down how to correct, convict, teach and train your child with Scripture. Which is very helpful.

Lou Priolo uses Scripture to make his points, which is nice, but there's not a lot of application. You have to apply the principles yourselves - which is fine, but I like books that really tell you how something could look. Priolo's voice, too, is a little condescending for my liking. I don't know if it was because he failed to put himself on the same playing field as the reader, or if is is simply a male voice and mind set and I'm female.

Love and Respect

There are many things for why I love Scot, only one of them is his intense desire to never let our relationship become stagnant. His utmost care to keep us being better, to always make sure we're on the right path (both as a couple and a family), his detailed desire of how I'm doing -- what I'm struggling with, what I'm finding joy in -- his incredible loving and patient way of correcting me when I've been too short with him, and his willingness to forgive and be vulnerable. For this, and many many other reasons, I love and respect him.

When we first got married I had this crazy illusion that, even though he was in med school, we would live the American dream. We may not be living in a little house with a cute picket fence, but in my mind, he would come home from school, and I from work, and I would make a nice dinner and we would sit and chat and laugh together for the rest of the evening.

Well. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that didn't go as planned. My dreams were dashed on the rocks of reality and after about a week in this new world of reality, I started to cry. And I didn't stop for about 6 months.

That's right folks, our first 6 months of marriage (and maybe a little beyond that) were pure misery. Not the typical honeymoon phase I hear so much about. Oh no - our honeymoon ended when we both started work/school a mere week and 2 days after saying "I do".

More on this in another post if I ever feel like expanding.

But suffice it to say that we were trying our hardest to figure out what each of us needed (or thought we needed) and also what we could give (or again, thought we could give). There was a lot of trying this schedule or that schedule, a lot of me bottling up what I felt because he had to study and then having it all come out in one big conversation that involved lots of crying and questions neither of us could answer and having him leave frustrated because he had spent so much time when he needed to be studying, leaving me hurt and confused, which led to me bottling up how I felt again (something I've never been very good at). We were on this crazy cycle and it was not good.

After New Years, or Valentines Day, things started to clear up. In March we drove the 12 hours to Colorado Spring to visit family for the first time since being married (my folks had come to see us, but it was our first married trip back home). While there, my mom shared this wonderful book with me, and so on the 12 hour return trip I almost lost my voice as I read the book, out loud, cover to cover.

It changed us. It made us realize that we had been on the crazy cycle and that we needed to purposefully get on the energizing cycle. It talked about how women desire love and men desire respect - that's just how we're created - and if those needs are being met, then things go a lot smoother.

Dr Eggerich also talked about how to handle conflict and many many other subjects.

So after being married almost 5 years, Scot and I decided to go through the book again. While we didn't read the book cover to cover this time, I skimmed the chapters for husbands and picked out areas that Scot excelled in and areas he could work on. Likewise, he skimmed the chapters written to the women about men, and honed in on areas I was doing a good job in, and areas where I needed improvement. It was good, it was hard, but most of all, it was encouraging to see that there were areas we needed to work on 4.5 years ago that we worked on and are now good habit. We still have some of the same areas to work on, and some new ones now that we've been married longer and have children, but overall, it was wonderful to dig into our relationship a little bit.

So now we each have lists that lay out how we can better love/respect the other spouse. It is amazing to me to see the change in our relationship and in me in just a week as Scot takes to heart things I mentioned. Likewise, I hope he feels more respected as I, too, try to remember to do, or not do, the things on my list.

So yes, this is a "book review", but not like my other ones. I can't tell you the plot of this book - except that it is written to better your marriage and help you understand your spouse better. I can tell you, though, that the writing is well done and you'll laughter at parts, and if you're being open and vulnerable, you may also cry. But no matter what, even if you don't think your marriage needs any help at all, I think that reading this book will change how you see your spouse and how you view your relationship.

Thus far, this is the best marriage book out there. Says me, and says Scot.

Riding Lessons

If you haven't guessed, I'm on a Sara Gruen kick. No pun intended. With that being said, this was my other June book.

This is Sara Gruen's debut novel. She went from being a technical journalist to being a fiction author. You can read her story here.

After reading her latest 2 books, it was indeed fun and insightful to read her first book. Of a non-technical matter, that is. I didn't know what I would find, since I was sure that her writing had most likely matured over the years, but I was not disappointed. The imagery wasn't quite as strong as in Water for Elephants or Ape House, but it was better than most authors out there. It was fun to see the start of what I feel is her trademark. The ability to really let the reader see and hear and feel what is going on. She had a good voice, and also showed her wonderful grasp of humanity. The characters all had great depth and she connects you to the protagonist well. As with the other books, she obviously did a lot of research on her subjects (horses) and her hard work is evident in the writing.

The story is told from only one point of view and while there is a little jumping back into memories, it's pretty strait forward. Slightly predictable at the end, but the storyline was decent. The first couple chapters were hard as she tried to pull me through about 20 years of history to get me caught up to present day, but once I got past that, it was smooth sailing. Very few (if any) slow parts, and actually, I read through it like water. In two days. (I will say, though, that my car was in the shop for one of those days and I stayed up til midnight the first night...and the boys took 3 hour naps both days. And all my housework was already done.)

The storyline is essentially the telling of the struggle of a woman who hasn't gotten past the drama of her past. It's about finding herself 20 years too late. It's about love and hate and life and forgiveness. It's about realizing what truly matters in life and second chances when you mess up the first time. It's life on a ranch with a woman who is broken and doesn't even know it. It's about the relationship between mother and daughter and daughter after that. It's sad, sweet, funny, and victorious.

My only complaint about the book was the language. I don't mind a little bit of language here or there if it's in context, but out of context just-to-use-it foul language is not my cup of tea. And especially when it's taking the Lord's name in vain - that I can not stand.

Overall - a really good read. Not absolutely fabulous, but good. Above average writing skill and a solid storyline. I now will be reading her second book (that follows this one in story, I think) next month while I'm on vacation in Colorado.

Ape House

Anther book by the wonderful Sara Gruen! This was my June book, and my goodness, it was addicting! I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I was done with it in three days. My children got fed, we didn't live in filth, errands were run, but, clean laundry sat on my dryer for three full days because the book was just that good. I also stayed up an hour late on Saturday night to finish it because I was just so close to the end and I had to know what happened!

Set in present day, the book chronicles a few main characters and their connection to a family of Bonobo apes. Sara Gruen did two years worth of extensive research on Bonobos before writing this book and you can tell. Like in Water for Elephants, some of the situations in the book really did happen to other people or to Sara herself while doing her research.

I liked the book just as much as I liked Water for Elephants, but for different reasons. The writing is of the same caliber, but the strengths in this book differed from the last. There wasn't as much strong imagery, but the relationship between the humans and the Bonbos was expressed in such a way that as a reader, you were excited or worried along with the character.

The story was told from multiple perspectives, delineated by chapters, which gave the reader a fuller comprehension of the storyline. I am really enjoying reading these books - I'm enjoying them so much that I have Riding Lessons, one of her first books, waiting for me.

But before I start reading, I need to make sure all my laundry is done and that the house is clean.

The Help

This was my second May book and so much better than the first!

This book came highly recommended from several different people and I am now recommending it to you, dear reader. Whoever you may be. If you like friction, great -- this is fiction. If you like memoirs, that's great, too -- this may as well be one. If you only read fluffy stuff, this won't be too heavy for you. And if you like a book that makes you think, well, this one will make you.

Set in the early 60's when most homes in the deep Southern state of Mississippi still had "help", this book is all about what life really could have been like. The good, the bad, and the funny. Oh yes, and the terrible awful. The reader gets an inside look into three women in particular - two of them being some of 'the help'. It's a fabulous read and would be really good for a book club or a private reading.

I did have a hard time getting through the first few (6 or 7) chapters as it was mostly back-story and character development, but once you start getting entangled in the story (and you do get entangled at times!) it's hard to put down. I flew through the last half of the book, practically biting my nails to see what happened next!

I did find out that they are making a movie based on the book and after watching the previews, I think they may actually pull off portraying the book fairly well. Although, we all know that you can never fully capture a book on screen, but I like to watch to see what people come up with. I'm afraid they won't be able to truly nail the severity of the situation - the fear, the anger, the hurt, all coupled with hope in a time where hope of equality was merely a whisper.

I guess I'll just have to see, won't I?

Safe Haven

This is just one of my May books. I'm about to go pick The Help up at the library tomorrow and start it as soon as I can. I'm pretty excited.

Save Haven was just all right for me. It was better than some of Nicholas Sparks' books (and I should know. I've read them all), but it was lacking in some character depth I know he's capable of creating. The over-all story was fun - don't get me wrong - if you're looking for a good beach-read or airplane novel, this could be it. But it's fluff reading. A slightly omniscient voice (and I prefer only being inside one person's head for a book unless there's obvious delineation between chapters), a slightly predictable story-line, and secondary characters who were a little too one dimensional.

Also, I think it was only average because I just found out that there is a movie being made from it. I don't know if he wrote the novel in order to make a movie (like he did for The Last Song), or if a producer just happened to like the book well enough in order to make it into a movie (like The Notebook or A Walk to Remember).

Also, I don't think that there was any personal story that went into writing this book like some of his other (better) novels. I read Three Weeks with My Brother - his memoir - a while back and loved it. It showed great insight to a lot of his novels and gave me an appreciation for him as an author and a person. If there's any Nicholas Sparks books to read - it's that one. Then you can just go from there.

All in all - I'm glad I read it. It's not his best, but it's certainly not his worst either. Don't read it if you're looking for something thought provoking or challenging. It's total reading-candy.

Water for Elephants

This was my main April book and it was addicting.

Sara Gruen so amazingly transports you through the page right to the circus in the 30's. You can smell the sweat of the men, you can hear the mallets on the spikes, you can feel the humidity in the air, you can see the billowing tent of the menagerie -- and, as my dad and I said while discussing the book "you can even smell the poop!". Which is most cases is bad - but in this one, it means the author did a fantastic job on the imagery.

The story line is also well done. The story is set on a circus during the depression and the language and imagery are mirrored to that fact. It's crude in part and risque in others, but it fits beautifully. It's a page turner and it will leave you feeling like you've peeked into the lives of real men and women who had the adventure (or misfortune) of being on a show. It's fiction, but some of the outlandish situations from the book are actually based on true circus stories (or tall-tales).

I'm pretty picky on my fiction books, but this one passed with flying colors. The writing is actually above par for today's authors and the story, while slightly predictable toward the end, left me intrigued until the very last page.

I will be reading her other books.

Disclaimer: After being challenged by a sister-in-Christ, I realize that this review is written more by an English major than a Christian. My sincere apologies. The book does have parts that are bawdy, it does have an affair within its pages, and there is language used. As Christians, we are given the ability to discern and I don't want anyone picking this book up thinking it's all wonderful. While I do enjoy a good story line, I am also a literary critic - this book is amazing for it's literary accomplishments. The story line, while intriguing, is full of filth. Please also know that to date (I just read Ape House), this has been the "worst" book I've reviewed on the blog when it comes to content.

Don't Make Me...

This was my other April book and I think I'm just going to keep reading it every few months. It was so good.

I learned so much. I was confirmed in some of the ways I'm all ready raising the boys. I was challenged.

Essentially, Ginger Plowman delves into the messy sometimes-unknown of raising children - according to the Bible. Unlike other Biblical parenting books where all you get it the list of dos and don't, she couples these lists with practical application. She talks about how you need to get to the heart. How you can tell your child what he's doing wrong, yes, but to help him see where his heart was in the matter and what he should have done instead.

For instance. If Evan is being mean to Drew, I could just simply tell him to stop. OR - I could ask him if what he's doing is loving and kind or mean and unloving. Once he tells me that it's mean, then I can ask him "what should you do when Drew cries like that?" - to which he can respond "I should stop." From there, I have him apologize and then "re-do" the scene the right way so it sinks in. It's all about getting to the heart of the matter. The heart attitude of the sin.

She has a lot more in her book than just that - you'll just have to read it to find out. It's an easy read, Ginger Plowman has a spunky sense of humor and you laugh along with her as you learn from her insight.

Free Range Kids

This was my also a February and March book and it was fabulous.

If you're thinking of having kids, have kids, or are a kid yourself (and I don't know any children reading my blog, but still...) this book is for you. Seriously. It's just that good.

Lenore Skanazy puts into book-form an idea I've had about raising the boys for a while and gives such great insight and application along with this idea of "Free Range" parenting.

Essentially, (and really, it's so difficult to summarize such a book as this) she goes into detail about how life was 50-60 years ago, even just 20 years ago, and debunks so many myths that keep kids indoors all day. Kidnappings and abductions, eating Halloween candy, walking to school, Internet predators, playing on the playground and so so much more.

She is a proponent of play. Outside. And if the area is safe (and she goes into what that means) and the child is old enough, unsupervised. She is a proponent of a good number of things, safety being one of them, but she has a wonderful understanding of what children are capable of and the joy it brings them to do things on their own.

She is not a proponent of the very prevalent helicopter parent. She is a proponent of empowering a child by letting them try something, making mistakes, and learning a valuable life lesson in the process. And I'm all for that.

She gives "Free Range" tips after every chapter that I found very helpful with age appropriate guidelines. She talks in depth about how the media's "job" so to speak is to scare viewers into believing that the world we live in is this horribly unsafe place for our children and we therefore need to buy all the latest and greatest safety features (such as baby knee pads for toddler knees) and to keep kids inside for fear that someone may snatch them away. From your fenced in back yard.

She is witty and practical. Logical and researched. She makes a lot of valid points and explains a lot of unknowns.

If you had a childhood anything like mine, where I was allowed to ride my bike to the library or swim practice, play in the woods for hours on end, walk to a friend's house, build forts in trees or bushes, play at the local playground with my only instruction to be back home before dusk and you want your own children to have similar experiences but you think that's not possible -- you really need to read this book.

If you're interested, and you should be, here is a link to the book that has a little video along with it that's worth watching. She does a lot better at summarizing the book's main point than I did.

Rescue

This was my March book and I did not like it at all.

I don't know if it was the total two dimensional-ness of the story and characters or the complete unnecessary overuse of the F-word. Bottom line, I will not be recommending this book to anyone.

I have read, or at least started to read, every single one of Anita Shreve's books and have really enjoyed most of them. She usually has such a wonderful grasp on humanity and writes in such a beautiful way that transports the reader right to where she wants you. It's amazing. Books of her's that I really enjoyed (since this one didn't do it for me...):

• Body Surfing
• A Wedding in December
• Light on Snow
• The Pilot's Wife
• Weight of Water (to be followed by The Last Time They Met)
• Resistance

Eat Pray Love

This was my February book. And let me cut right to the chase and tell you all that I totally recommend this book.

And that I don't.

Let me explain a little.

The book is cut up into 3 equal sections. Each section of the book concentrates on the author's (it's a memoir) experiences in 3 different countries, Italy, India, and Indonesia (Bali) - each lasting 4 months.

In all three sections, the authors voice is witty and fun to read. She weaves certain themes throughout the entire book and it was great to "watch" her discover herself over this year of figuring out how to enjoy life (Italy), how to be disciplined in life (India), and then finally, how to balance the two (Bali).

The first section was fabulous, the second just all right, and the third just a little above marginally better than the second section. So overall, above par, but the subject matter in the middle was just really hard for me to get into. Maybe it's because I don't mediate and don't have a desire to. Maybe it's because I know who God is and the entire section was talking about "finding God".

While there were some parts of the book I could have done without, the foul language was minimal to almost non-existent, which was refreshing.

So to those of you who enjoy memoirs and reading about the joys and trials of others and self-discovery, then this is a must read. If, however, you like a thriller or page-turner with lots of complex characters who jump off tall buildings...this book may be a little on the slow side for you folk.

I'm glad I read it, but I won't be reading it again.