Books

I have finished reading "Behold the Man" which was the final book in the "Kingdom and the Crown" series by Gerald Lund. The series was fictional but in a historical setting much like his "Work and the Glory" series. The setting for this series was the time of Christ's ministry.

I really loved the books because I learned so much about the history, all of the cultures and customs involved and the overall climate of the time. I really had no idea about everything leading up the the crucifiction and how connected yet complex it all was. I feel like these books brought me to a whole new level of understanding of something that is the core of my beliefs. This is something I should have studied long ago but never did. (Or I should say never succeeded in doing because there have been a few attempts.)

I have to admit that once I finished the book I've been feeling a little bit a pressure to start something else because I have the "What I'm reading" thing posted on this blog. Since Glenn took all the kids to Idaho for the night I ventured out to Walmart hoping to find a paperback version of anything that I've heard people recommend. Paperbacks are cheaper by the way, and yes I am usually several years behind popular culture. What I came up with was "Eragon". This book was recommended to me a long time ago and I thought it might be a good one to have in the house for Dylan and Garrett, and probably Glenn. Dylan and Garrett don't go out of their way to read but they will read when they find things they like. Glenn is a reader but doesn't read books a lot mainly because of time and he does get impatient with my reading but that's one that he just gets to deal with.

Here are a couple more books that I have read recently:

Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes

I loved this book. It was a really fun read. Apparently anything over a marathon (26.2 miles) is considered an ultramarathon and this book is about a guy who is basically addicted to running and he runs these totally crazy distances. He details his first 100 mile run and then his first 200 mile run. The later was supposed to be a relay for a team of 12 runners but he did it by himself. He (and most ultramarathoners) is constantly questioning how far he can push himself and what can the human body handle and accomplish. The book was written in a light hearted way with stories of ordering pizza and having it delivered to him out on the road, or dashing into convenience stores for goodies,and so on. But the whole thing was totally amazing to me mainly because I didn't know people did that kind of thing. Like I said, CRAZY!

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

This book was fascinating to me. It is a true story written by a woman who grew up in a dysfunctional situation of neglect and poverty but her parents were both brilliant. She, and her siblings, grew up learing art, literature, physics, geology from their parents but slowly alcholism and mental illness crept in and the family just deteriorated. I was hesitant to read this book at first because I thought it might be dark and depressing but I found myself just plowing through it wanting to know how she got out. I knew from the dust jacket that she was an educated and successful woman and I wanted to know how (and when) she did it. I was constantly calculating her age throughout the book and thinking "ok she's 11 now so she's got at least 7 more years...", and so on. Like I said, I thought it was fascinating and as I'm writing this I can see a common thread between the two books and that is that as human beings we are amazingly strong.