Books – Page 4 – shazzamber

March Books

March turned out to be a fantastic month of reading for me! #MainlandTrip. I re-read Lois Lowry’s The Giver for my Literacy Methods class literature study unit. I also finally read Eve and the Choice Made in Eden by Beverly Campbell, Choice Words by Peter H. Johnston, and The Leader in Me by Stephen R. Covey. Loved them all. Here’s a short teaser for each one:

THE GIVER

You’ve probably already read this classic Young Adult novel, but if you haven’t, I urge you to do so asap. You will join 12 year-old Jonas in his world of complete peace, health, security, job satisfaction, obedience, and sameness. Agency is not part of his society, and the price they pay unfolds throughout the story. I first read it when I was about 10 years old, and I can tell you it was an entirely different experience reading it 13 years later. #release #stirrings

EVE AND THE CHOICE MADE IN EDEN

As I’ve told you, this book was recommended to me by my mission president’s wife, the amazing Sister Weidman. If you’ve ever had a question about Eve, or the Fall, or the role of women in God’s plan, or women and the Priesthood, or symbolism the Garden story, or anything along those lines, this book is for you. Beverly Campbell wrote the section on Eve in the Bible Dictionary, so we know she’s legit. This book is based on scripture and prophetic quotations, rather than casual speculation. I’m recommending it to everyone.

CHOICE WORDS

#sickcover. One of my professors let me borrow this book after I asked him a question about dialogue in the classroom. If you can’t tell, the subtitle of the book is “How our language affects children’s learning.” Johnston talks about how the way we word questions makes all the difference in the world. #SundaySchool #youknowwhatI’mtalkingabout. If you’re interested in learning about how the way you say things makes a difference, read this book.

THE LEADER IN ME

So awesome. We read this for Classroom Management, and I totally want to do it. I wrote about going to a Leader in Me school a few weeks ago, and this book talks about how it all came to be.

January and February Books

I didn’t finish my January book until the end of February, so I’m just going to post about them together.

The January book was Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Ender is a super intelligent child, who is taken by the government to battle school, to prepare to fight against the Buggers, who threaten planet Earth. I really enjoyed it, although I must add a disclaimer that there was quite a bit of swearing. Just fyi. I recommend Ender’s Game.

February book was supposed to be Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, but I’m not done with it yet. Instead, I read Sandra Cisneros’s delightful The House on Mango Street. This book is a series of vignettes about various characters in the neighborhood of an 11-year old girl called Esperanza. I especially loved this book because her neighborhood is uncannily similar to my last area on my mission. I’ve had experiences with every single story she tells. If you want a good read, I highly recommend The House on Mango Street.

December Books

I had the opportunity to do a LOT of reading over the break, so I just want to quickly share two books I read.

The first is called Falling to Heaven, and I can confidently say that changed my life. As you can see, the sub-heading is “The surprising path to happiness”. James Ferrel discusses just that– the changes we need to make in our lives in order to be happy. I highly recommend it.

I also re-read The Great Gatsby. I don’t think I fully appreciated any of the books I read in High School, because I didn’t want to read any of them. So a current quest of mine is to re-read as much of the High School reading curriculum as I can. Gatsby was well-crafted and nauseating. Great book.

Mere Christianity

I’m in a really cool religion and culture class this semester. Its full title is Christianity in Film, Art, Music, Literature, and Theology, and I just love it. One of the required texts is Mere Christianity, by my beloved C.S. Lewis, and I have marked an average of one paragraph per page. Gold. I’m not going to do a book review right now, but I just wanted to recommend this book. The man was inspired.

The Power of Everyday Missionaries

So back in the day, I used to have a book review section of my blog. So it’s back! And the book is “The Power of Everyday Missionaries” by Clayton M. Christensen. It was the first book I read after my mission, and it totally changed my life.

Do you want to be a member missionary? Do you want to live your baptismal covenant? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, then this is the book for you. I invite you to read it asap. I know that if you do, you will have the tools to more comfortably and naturally be obedient by sharing our message of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Fiddler in the Subway

This has been my airport book for the last several years, and it serves that function quite well, because it’s a collection of various feature articles from the Washington Post, none of which are related.

Let me just say that the writer– Gene Weingarten– is a complete genius. I feel like I become more intelligent, and a better writer, with each piece of his I read. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and has been called “The best writer in American journalism” by Dave Barry. (As seen on the cover.)

Read this great book.

Heaven Is Here

A few months ago, I committed to read a book every month for the rest of my life, because I feel like being as literate and well-read as possible is very important for me. I’m going to try to blog about each book, if they’re good, to further promote literacy, or something. (Still vague there.)

July’s book was Heaven Is Here, by Stephanie Nielson. I’d like to give a short summary, but I have to go to bed. So, trust me that it’s good, and check it out! I really like her writing, and the whole story is very inspiring.

Next time I blog about a book, the review will be interesting, and you will most certainly want to jump up and immediately get your hands on the book. Just wait.