Wednesday Soliloquy: Count Your Blessings

My friend Heather and I had had a wonderful night at Institute last night. We learned about Abraham and about all the blessings he received because of his exact obedience. He was truly willing to sacrifice everything that he had--even his only son--when the Lord required it of him.

Afterwards, in the car on the drive home, Heather and I talked about how the Lord asks for us to make sacrifices that sometimes don't make sense or aren't at all easy. We shared our own personal experiences with being tested and tried in our lives, and how everyone in the world has different challenges, but we all ultimately are pushed to the breaking point.

In the end, we realized that when we overcame those struggles, we found a new appreciation for our lives and for the little blessings we took for granted before.

I'm not going to write a huge long speech about this, but I invite you to remember past challenges you have had (not a current challenge--one that you actually saw through to the end). When you overcame those trials, how were you changed? Was the world around you any different than it was before?

I just want to invite anyone reading to take a moment and really think back. When we're in the middle of a really hard period of our lives, it's almost impossible to see how it could all work out--how it could make our lives better. But when you look back, it's much clearer to see. And thinking back on the past can make it easier to deal with the present.

And on a completely unrelated note, the earth we live in is awesome. Enjoy my all-time favorite video.

2015 Reading Challenge: I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

A book set in high school: I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

Synopsis: 

John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. 

He’s spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.

He’s obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn’t want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he’s written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation.

Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don’t demand or expect the empathy he’s unable to offer. Perhaps that’s what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there’s something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means.

Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can’t control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could.

My rating: 5 out of 5

Sometimes I feel like I'm being a little too liberal with my 5 out of 5s, but this one really deserves it.

I already knew that Dan Wells was a horror writer, and the title alone is a good indicator of how gruesome the book is going to be, but I was still really thrown by just how spooky and unique this book was.

I've read generic horror before--almost everything by Michael Crighton, a few by Dean Koontz, and one by Stephen King--but this was something I'd never seen before: a horror story where the main character and hero is a sociopath with homicidal tendencies.

We all hear and read about sociopaths in the media, but I didn't realize how little I understood sociopathy until I read this book. Dan Wells knows what he's talking about, and it was mind-blowing to see how a character reacts to things when he literally feels no emotional attachment to those around him.

This book wasn't just original and spooky, it was actually very inspiring. It explores the struggle to practice self-discipline and to have decisions determine destiny, not the other way around.

And this is one of those where I was really glad to discover that it's the first of a series. This bookw as so good that I read it in one day, and I can't wait to read the rest of Dan Wells's books now.

Freewrite: New Favorite Song

So I was just sitting in the office as I do every weekday, listening to the same three CDs play on a loop in our stereo, when suddenly I actually caught the lyrics of this Hilary Weeks song I've heard a million times.

Isn't it funny how that happens--you know the tune by heart, or you can even sing it word-for-word, but somehow you just never really hear it?

Well that happened today, and the lyrics were so beautiful that I had to share them.

The song is "Better Promises" by Hilary Weeks.

I thought maybe you had forgotten me
I wondered if You listened when I prayed
It seemed like everything I was asking for
Stayed hidden behind heaven's doors
And I was losing faith. 

I can see now as I look back
Now that the tears have passed 

You gave me bread but I thought it was a stoneAnd before You could tell me yes, You had to tell me noIf You had given me what I wanted, I would not have seenYou had better promises for me. 

It took some time to convince me
To trust Your plan and see things Your way
It was hard to trade what I wanted most
For promises that were still unknown
And my heart was about to break 

Sometimes it's hard to recognize
The blessings that come in disguise 

Chorus 

I can see now as I look back
Now that the tears have passed 

You gave me bread but I thought it was a stoneAnd before You could tell me yes, You had to tell me noIf You had given me what I wantedIf You had sheltered me from painIf You had let me settle for something less, I would not have seenYou had better promises for me.

I'll let you take from that what you will. Suffice it to say that it touched my heart today and made me rethink some recent events in my life.

Check out Hilary Week's full album, "Say Love," at deseretbook.com.

2015 Reading Challenge: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

This one falls under the "book you own but haven't read yet" category.

Property of Ecco

Synopsis: 

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose remarkable gift for companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. Edgar seems poised to carry on his family's traditions, but when catastrophe strikes, he finds his once-peaceful home engulfed in turmoil.

Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the Sawtelle farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who accompany him, until the day he is forced to choose between leaving forever or returning home to confront the mysteries he has left unsolved.

My rating: 3 out of 5

A few months ago, a friend of mine was moving, and she was going to throw this big beautiful hardcover book away. I can't stand to see books thrown away, and this one had a dog on the cover, so I claimed it. I promptly forgot that I had it until this reading challenge.

Now that I've read it... I can kind of see why she didn't care to keep it. It has a big sticker on the cover that says "Oprah's 2008 Book Club Selection," so I'm guessing that's why she bought it, and I can imagine many people putting this one down after the first 100 pages or so.

At first I loved this book. I mean, I really loved this book. I actually said to my dad one point, "I wish the Sawtelle family was real so I could marry into it!"

I loved the almost magical portrayal of the dog farm in the American Midwest. I fell in love with Gar and Trudy Sawtelle and their mute son, Edgar.

Of course I fell in love with their dogs, and I was entranced by the details of dog breeding, whelping, caring, training, and placing. It stirred in me a desire to breed dogs someday.

But then, about halfway through, this beautiful happy memoir about a kid and his dogs suddenly took a nosedive into despair and confusion and trauma that left me thinking, "Nevermind! I definitely don't want to marry into this family!"

I still had hope that the book would turn out great in the end and it would become one of my all-time favorites. I devoured it in just a few days, hardly able to put it down, tearing through the pages as if my life depended on it.

Then I finished it today and... Wow, I am so disappointed. It has a poetic kind of ending, and is in fact supposed to be a modern retelling of a Shakespearean tragedy, like Hamlet or King Lear. So I guess some might like that kind of thing.

I do not. Sure, have things not go right. Throw in all the despair you want. But at least make it a satisfying, meaningful ending!

I got the feeling that the author was trying too hard to be symbolic and poetic about it all, but it just left me confused and cheated. There needed to be some good (not happy--just good) resolution to at least one of the plot lines. But nope.

If anything, this felt to me like one of those books I would have to read in high school--the kind of book my teachers would make us analyze and find beautiful meaning in, but the kind of book that left me feeling angry and depressed.

Gah! I so wanted to love this book! The writing is fantastic. I wish everyone could read just the first 100 pages or so and read the amazing descriptions of dogs and Midwestern farm living and all that. Even during the ending, the writing was amazing. Every sentence was beautiful. The problem was that the sentences taken together didn't form a story I liked.

So I'm really torn. On the one hand, I loved the writing. On the other, I don't think any of my friends would like this book, so I can't really recommend it. So... two and a half stars out of five?

Seriously, if you've read this book before, tell me what you thought about it in the comments. I wish I just had someone to talk to about it who understood my frustration and could help me understand. Maybe there's just something I'm missing.

2015 Reading Challenge: Blood of Olympus and The 5th Wave

A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A book that scares you: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

UK cover - Property of Disney-Hyperion

My rating: 4 out of 5

I don't remember if I ever reviewed the three books between The Lost Hero and Blood of Olympus, so sorry if you wanted to know how they all turned out. I honestly don't remember much myself because all the books have so much going on. I swear, every single chapter has a battle.

But I do recommend this series to all middle readers. There were parts I loved, there were parts I hated, but mostly I really enjoyed this series, and this last book was a great conclusion to the Percy Jackson stories (assuming, of course, that Rick Riordan leaves it at that).

Riordan is such an imaginative writer. It's amazing how he can spin all these Greek and Roman myths (even the gritty, dark, depressing, and racy ones) to fit a child audience. It's very fun and often hilarious. For example, the fact that the bloodthirsty Amazons are actually Amazon as well. Like, the shipping company. That got a chuckle out of me every time it was mentioned.

Each character is distinct and has great backstory and personality. He also managed to use each possible combination of characters in a quest together. I'm not kidding. It got a little ridiculous in the end, but it was fun to see how each group combined their skills and personalities to beat the monster of the chapter.

The only real disappointments I had with this series were that 1) there were no sympathetic girly-girl characters. He has so many great female characters, but every single one of them despises girls who like to dress up or don't know how to fight. Don't even get me started on the Amazons and the Hunters of Artemis.

2) You may want to skip this one if you don't want spoilers... It's not like I love blood and carnage or anything, but I felt the tiniest bit cheated when not a single main character died for real. The prophecy clearly called for a male and female demigod's blood to spill. Everyone assumed they would die. I fully expected two main characters to die. Instead, Annabeth gets a scratch and Percy gets a nosebleed. It was very anticlimactic. And then when Leo "died" I wasn't even sad because I knew it wouldn't stick. Sure enough, it didn't. When you have seven main characters (seven), at least one of them would probably be dead by the end of a five-book quest. Of course, I shouldn't apply the laws of realism to a series about Greek demigods...

Other than those two things, I loved this whole ride, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's a series I'll want on my kids' bookshelves someday.

Property of Putnam Juvenile

My rating: 5 out of 5

Confession: I swapped Dracula for this one under the "book that scares me" category of the Reading Challenge. This one wasn't even in my sights until Sarah randomly got it from the library and I was bored and picked it up.

I didn't even know what this book was when I picked it up. I was completely unaware of the premise and the internet hype it was getting.

So I can honestly say that I loved it without anyone influencing my feelings. Nothing clouded my judgment. Heck, I didn't even read the synopsis on the cover. The book just spoke for itself, and I give it an unbiased five out of five stars.

Why? Well, it was the writing that hooked me. After helping read so many manuscripts for the Deseret Book acquisitions editor, the first page of a book will make or break my interest level. The first page of The 5th Wave not only caught my interest, it kept me reading for 20 or so pages before I could put it down and catch my breath.

Seriously, the writing was beautiful, especially after all the mediocre stuff I've read in the DB slush pile. The descriptions were stunning without getting wordy or cumbersome. The premise and setting were realistic and compelling.

The narration was impressive. Each narrator had such a distinct voice. I was actually surprised when I realized a middle-aged man wrote the book, because Cassie sounded just like a teenage girl. And not in that annoying way adults tend to write teenagers (you know the way I mean-- "Like OMG he totally asked me out, you know?" "No way!" "Totes magoats!" Blech!).

And Sammie. Gah! Sammie! His narration broke my heart, it was so naive and hopeful in such a bleak world.

The plot succeeded in keeping me on my toes, even when there were flashbacks and scene skips (tropes that I usually despise in TV shows). In the end, it turned out that my instincts were right about who was trustworthy and who wasn't, but the story gave me enough suspense for me to question what I thought I knew.

And I'm so glad that the aliens weren't M. Night Shyamalan-style aliens. Nor were they The Host aliens. They were ruthless and terrifying, and you never even see them! That's probably what made them so scary--that uncertainty of who you could trust and who wasn't what they said they were.

The things Cassie and the others went through were so believable--people scattered in fear but longing to group together; shooting first and asking questions later; child soldiers; giving into the fear of mass hysteria; even the ways the aliens attacked was so much more believable than how they did things in Independence Day or Signs. They don't mess around!

And the ending was the perfect mixture of joy, sadness, worry, and hope. Not everything is wrapped up nicely with a little bow, but you know that what these kids set out to do has been done one way or another, and that they'll persevere. It's a very focused, limited story, instead of a global scale conflict. The symbolism and story arcs were perfect, subtle touches, and even though it left me a little hungry for more, I'm also very satisfied with how it left off.

It's definitely not a book for kids, but it's a way better, more compelling, more thought-provoking, more inspiring book than The Hunger Games or other YA books that are being hyped right now, so it's one I would recommend to teens and older.

Update: I just discovered that it has a sequel. Shoot. On the one hand--yay! On the other hand--I kind of just want to leave it as a stand-alone novel in my mind. I'll let you know if I ever get around to reading the sequel. 

Book Review: Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Cover art by Chris McGrath, property of Tor Fantasy.

This one isn't part of my 2015 Reading Challenge because I'd already read it before. I just picked it up at the library in December and was already in the middle of it when I started the Reading Challenge, so I finished it this week and want to review it because it's one of my favorites.

If you've never read the Mistborn series what is wrong with you??? then I think you'd be a tiny bit lost reading Alloy of Law. Or, you'd at least not get all the little allusions and inside jokes that come from the original trilogy.

Regardless, this is a great read. I'll try to forget about the original trilogy when saying why I like it so much.

Here's the synopsis:

In the three hundred years since the events of the Mistborn trilogy, science and technology have marched on. Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads, electric lighting, and even the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds. 

Yet even with these advances, the magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for those attempting to establish order and justice. 

One is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax must now put away his guns and assume the duties incumbent upon the head of a noble house—until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

It's essentially a Western mixed with steampunk mixed with fantasy. And it's as cool as it sounds.

Without giving away the plot, let me just say that the fight scenes are heart-pounding, the characters highly amusing and admirable, the world so fun, and the plot never providing a dull moment.

Two things I want to touch on a little more:

First, the characters are so well-rounded. I sometimes find it hard to give my characters even one memorable trait that will get them to stand out in the minds of the readers. Wax and Wayne have like twenty each, and even the minor characters have something that makes you remember them easily when they show up again.

Second, Brandon Sanderson is a master at establishing setting and character in such a way that even though you've only known them for a few pages, you feel like you've known them for years.

The prologue, for example, is only around 10 pages long, and yet (SPOILERS!!!) we meet Lessie, see her and Wax interact, and we instantly love them both. Then Lessie dies, and we feel Wax's anguish! We mourn a woman we just barely met!

We also get a really good idea of what the Roughs are like, even though they never show up again for the rest of the book. And we can see how much Wax changes between that short prologue and the rest of the book.

That is skill.

I highly recommend that you read the original Mistborn trilogy first, so that you can understand the history/mythology that is referenced so often in Alloy of Law. And so that you can get how funny it is that Spook's low-born street dialect is now considered "high speak."

But this novel does stand well on its own and makes a very fun read even if you don't know much about the background. I give it a ten.

2015 Reading Challenge: The Captive Maiden and A Thousand Splendid Suns

Completely by accident, the next two books I read for the Reading Challenge featured female leads.

First, there was The Captive Maiden by Melanie Dickerson. This fell under the category of a book by an author I've never read before.

Synopsis:

Gisela's childhood was filled with laughter and visits from nobles such as the duke and his young son. But since her father's death, each day has been filled with nothing but servitude to her stepmother. So when Gisela meets the duke's son, Valten--the boy she has daydreamed about for years--and learns he is throwing a ball, she vows to attend, even if it's only for a taste of a life she'll never have. To her surprise, she catches Valten's eye. Though he is rough around the edges, Gisela finds Valten has completely captured her heart. But other forces are bent on keeping the two from falling further in love, putting Gisela in more danger than she ever imagined.

My rating: 4 out of 5

This book was better than its cover implied. Normally I wouldn't even pick up a book like this, but I'd heard from several friends that it was really good, so I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did.

As you can probably tell from the cover and the synopsis, this book was a different take on the Cinderella story. What I loved about it was that it was a historically accurate twist, set in 14th century Germany. Everything felt authentic and realistic--a fairy tale without magic. I've got nothing against magic, of course, but this felt like the original fairy tale--the true story that inspired the fairy tale that has been passed on ever since. It was really well done.

I also loved that God was seamlessly part of the story. The setting was historically Roman Catholic, with chivalrous knights and friars and cross necklaces, so when the characters turned to God in their time of trouble, it didn't feel preachy at all. It felt like something these historic characters naturally would have done, yet it really did inspire me as I read it in 21st century America.

It's a light read, but it was more serious than I expected. I was invested in the characters, they were all fleshed out pretty well, and the plot was compelling. It's definitely for middle readers, with very black-and-white characters, but it was fun for me, too.

A book with a number in the title:

Synopsis:

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. 

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them—in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul—they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. 

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love. 

My rating: 5 out of 5

That synopsis is much better than anything I could come up with. I can really only add my raving recommendation that everyone read this book.

This book was the exact opposite of a fairy tale. I have never been more grateful to be an American woman after reading this.

It's fiction, but like The Kite Runner, it's historical fiction set in the not-so-distant past. I learned so much about Afghan history and about how the people live. It gave me chills when I realized that such horrible events happened in my lifetime while I was an innocent grade schooler.

The story arch of one of the main characters, Mariam, was the most beautifully tragic thing I've read in a long time. I burst into tears in front of my family while finishing it.

I don't want to get into anything because I want everyone to read it themselves and experience the narrative for themselves. But what I came away with after reading this book is that war is never a good answer, but no matter how horrible things get, life goes on. And the struggle for women's rights is very real, but not all men are monsters.

This was a really gritty, emotionally painful read, but I wish I chose more entertainment like this that leaves me breathless and teary and enlightened.

If you're looking for a book that's deep and beautiful and will make you grateful for the life you have, pick up A Thousand Splendid Suns.