Several Book Reviews...

I have several books I have been meaning to summarize on here, but I just can't seem to find alot of time to blog these days. So here's my thoughts on a couple of recent reads:

Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr. 

This was such an interesting read. I loved what he taught on the importance of parents taking responsibility for their children's discipleship. He brought up great points about how today we expect "experts" at church to handle this, just like our children's teachers and sports coaches, but this is not the biblical mandate parents get from the Lord. As someone who is in ministry at a church, I fully agree with him about the dangers of this. He focuses heavily on the importance of having a family worship time daily or weekly, and I think that is awesome. He believes in "Family Integrated Churches" which actually means churches that have no age segregated ministries. The families all worship together and learn together, no youth group or nursery etc. That was a new concept for me, and its one I am still processing through. But overall the book is great and I would recommend it to any Christian.

Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

A re-read for me, and I think its so funny because last time around I didn't really love this one that much but this time it became one of my favs! Weird. I love the sense of adventure in this one, and all the different stops on the way to "Aslan's country". It is wonderful.

Narnia: The Silver Chair

Last time around this one was a fav, and while I still think its great it was not nearly as good as the Voyage was. It fell flat to me this time around.

Narnia: The Last Battle

Still my favorite I do believe. As my youth and bible study girls know, I love to ponder and wonder on what the end will be like and the "new heavens and new earth". This is Lewis' version of doing that and he does not disappoint. I always get sooo mad at the Narnian's for so easily turning against Aslan, but how often I myself have done this! He describes the afterlife they go to as the "real version" of the place you always thought was real. That clicks with me. I cant wait! Read this one people! Plus, you get to see all the great characters from the other Narnia books.

The Magical Worlds of Narnia by David Colbert

So after finishing Narnia again, I just wanted more (imagine that- I have such a compulsive personality in some ways). So I wanted to read more about the imagery in the Narnia series. This book is not one I would read again. There were good parts, but mainly this guy just took what others had said and re-said it. Oh well.

What have you been reading??

Bookin' It in 2010-- May Update

Back in January, I decided to join FishMama in Booking It in 2010. I set my goal to read 2 books a month. In January I was successful, but not in February or March. So how did I do in April???

I completed 6 books in April! Amazing! That puts me right on track with the goal of 2 per month. Some of you may remember that last month I decided I needed to put aside the serious books I was trying to read and dive into some light reading. It seemed to work for me. I find that when I finish one book it makes me eager to "accomplish" finishing another one. And though none of the books I read last month were super deep or helpful books, I think they were good for me overall. Here are the links to my books reviews on each of the books I read last month:

• The Jean Nidetch Story
• Last Song
• The Magician's Nephew & A Horse and His Boy (Narnia)
• sTori Telling
• Redeeming Love

Did you read anything in April???

Redeeming Love... My Take On It!

My friend Melanie made me read this book recently, and boy am I glad she did! I do not know why, but I have always avoided this book in the past. I have heard great things about it since college, but I am not the biggest fiction reader and "Christian fiction" just sounded dumb to me. But I love Mel, so I trusted her and read it. Wow! Here's my take:

Things I Liked About the Book:

• Everything!! Ha!
• Its based on the book of Hosea in the bible. Fabulous.
• What a great picture of the gospel for us! Sometimes seeing it lived out helps you grasp it better, and thats what this book does. 
• I loved the time period and setting. It made me want to live in a valley in the 1800s in a one room cabin. Such a simpler kind of life in many ways!
• It was super captivating and easy to read. 
• Fabulous love story all around. Great love story between the two main characters and about God and us. 

Things that Annoyed Me About the Book:

• The beginning was kinda sad and depressing. You needed it for the story line, but it made me not want to keep going. 
• That I didnt have an entire day to sit and do nothing but read this book! It totally consumed my mind while I was reading it, which was because it was so good. But thats kinda distracting and annoying when you have lots of other things to be thinking about. 

Overall, I love love love this book! I highly recommend it to everyone! Probably is equal to Narnia in my mind now, which is big. You have got to go read this book guys! 

sTori Telling... My take on it!

Did I mention I had been reading?? Haha! I have been reading like a crazy person lately, opening up a book every time I get a free moment. Last week I finished sTori Telling by Tori Spelling. I know, doesn't sound like my kind of book. For some strange reason I just really had a desire to read this book, and I actually enjoyed!

Things I Liked About the Book:

• She writes in a way that makes you feel like you are just sitting at Starbucks listening to her life story. She is chatting with a friend, sharing her stories. It felt laid back and real. Surprising. 
• She has a good grasp or understanding on who she is and where she came from. She gets that she came from a very rich family, and she makes no qualms about it. But she also shows you how that has been a blessing and a curse.
• She is funny.
• I liked seeing how she had worked so hard. Even though her dad was a TV mogul, she has still never made it "Big Big" you know? And she has been determined to do it herself. 
• I loved 90210, so it was fun to hear about how the show developed etc. 
• Loved her sarcasm. 

Things That Annoyed Me About the Book:

• She completely cheated on her first husband with her now 2nd husband, and does not seem to think it was the wrong choice. I really hated how she talked about this part. I don't believe in divorce, unless there are dangerous circumstances. But I think she and Dean could have been honest with their spouses and left them before they started dating each other. 
• She spends a long time on certain parts of her past, but doesn't tell you much about Dean or her life now. I would have liked to hear more about that. 
• The flow could be confusing sometimes. 

Overall, I would only recommend this book if you are a big fan of hers, like biographies, or are a curious mind like me. It is not the most fascinating book nor is it life changing. But it was pretty cool to see what her life has been like. 

So speaking of Donna Martin... which 90210 character was your fav?? (And I am talking about actual 90210, not the new wannabe remake!)  Mine was Brenda Walsh and then the asian chick in the later years... 

Some Narnia... my take on it!

Recently I re-read The Magician's Nephew and A Horse and His Boy, books 1 & 3 in the Narnia series. I love Narnia!!! I really don't have anything negative to say about any of the Narnia series, I am seriously in love with the books. But here are a few thoughts on them as a whole.

• They are so imaginative and magical, you get lost in the wonderful other world! Its a great way to relax and take your mind off things. 
• I love the way these books help you see the Gospel and the Lord in a new and fresh way. Aslan is the Christ character in the series, and He is amazing.
• These books make me want to be a kid playing in the woods again. I want to go on an adventure.
• The Magicians Nephew is Book 1, but was written last. It is pretty different than the rest I think, and I like it. I have always loved Genesis, something about the beginning of things fascinates me. I think this is why I love this book so much. 
• I skipped re-reading The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe because I have recently read it and seen the movie several times. Even though I love the movies, thats the bad part of them making these into movies, they become to familiar. 
• I had totally forgotten how wonderful A Horse and His Boy was. This book really focuses on how God is working in our lives, whether we can see it or not. He is faithful and He is guiding things along. Also its awesome to see His love and justness in this book. Read it people!!
• These books are short and easy to read. I read A Horse and His Boy in 4 hours... and I am a slow reader. 

Overall, I love Narnia and really recommend reading all of them. They are magical and well written and the characters are fabulous! I finished both of these books in one week. They are pretty addicting!

Have you read any of the Narnia series?? 

The Last Song... my take on it!

So I went from barely picking up a book for like two months, to reading four books in two weeks! I guess I caught a reading bug... or I started picking up easy reads at least! Ha ha! I recently completed The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks. Some of my dear friends are coming for a visit soon, so Mel & I decided we should read Last Song and then go see the movie. I have read several Nicolas Sparks and have loved every one of them. I always get sucked in and cant put the book down... I think this is why I tend to not read fiction much.

What I liked about the book:

• Loved the dad character. He never reacted to things, he was able to control himself and see past what was immediately happening to the bigger picture. I want to be like that! 
• Loved the setting! It was set on the east coast, maybe in North Carolina?? 
• Loved the romance obviously.
• I loved that he made Ronnie, the main character, a teenager who didn't drink, smoke, do drugs or have sex. Nice change from society's typical teenager. 

What annoyed me about the book:

• His books always make you think your life isnt romantic enough. This feeling goes away in a few minutes, but I just couldnt read these books all the time or I would really put unrealistic and unfair expectations on mr.pate. 
• It really made me want to be at the beach... really. 
• Because someone always dies in his books it was predictable. 
• The names Ronnie and Blaze (one of her friends)... I just didnt like them. Couldnt we have thought of something better? 
• It ends too early... I want to know the rest of their story!!! 

Have any of you read Nicholas Sparks?? What do you think?? Anyone seen the movie?

The Jean Nidetch... My take on it

I've been reading again! In the last 2 weeks I have finished two books, and I am ready to share my thoughts with you! Up first, my thoughts on "The Jean Nidetch Story". Jean Nidetch was the founder of Weight Watchers, and up until my friend gave me the book I had no idea who she was! 

Things I Liked About The Book: 

• She is very real about who she is and who she isn't. She shares her weaknesses and her strengths. She is unwilling to apologize for who she is and she knows what she wants in life. I found this fascinating. 
• It was so neat to see how WW started. Jean basically took the diet from an obesity clinic in NYC and invited some friends to do it too and come over and talk about it. From that came what is known as Weight Watchers today. Crazy. 
• She constantly talks about herself as a "fat person". She references the saying that inside of all of us is a skinny person trying to get out... she says instead that no matter how thin she becomes, there will always be a fat person inside her begging her to be fat. I think this is more true of me at least. 
• It was motivating. I have been doing WW again for about 6 1/2 months, and making this a "lifestyle change" instead of just a diet is difficult. I have lost quite a bit of weight for my small frame and there are days where I want to fool myself into thinking "ok now you are small again, you cant eat whatever you want whenever you want". But the truth is I cant. Jean lost like 70 something lbs by 1962 and never gained it back. Why? Because she continued to fight the battle, make good choices, and live the reality that she couldnt just eat whatever the heck she wanted. The simplicity of her understanding that concept and living it out was motivating. 
• It made me thankful for what WW is today! When it began there were no "points" and there was a very strict diet. You had to eat certain things and that was that. And there was a long list of "illegal" foods... Thank you for flex points!! Today on WW you can eat anything you want- as long as you "plan" for it. 
• She just felt like a grandma telling you scattered stories of her life. I loved that. 

Things That Annoyed Me About the Book: 

• The scatteredness. Like I said above, it sounds like your grandma sat you on the porch and just started randomly telling you about her life. Things werent always in the best order and I am such a Type A person that it was hard to follow. 
• She comes across as pretty arrogant in the beginning of the book. She really isnt, and latter on you realize she is just trying to lay it all out there- the good bad and ugly. But still, I didnt think I was going to like her till about a third of the way through. 
• I wish it had gone more in detail about how the actual business expanded. She did talk about it some, and I guess its a book about her and not WW specifically, but thats what I was most interested in. 
• Towards the end there are some sad things shared about her life. These didnt annoy me, but they were sad!

So I highly recommend the book. I mean basically its the life story of a girl who had always been fat, became a housewife who secretly ate cookies in her bathroom at night, and then evolved into the founder of a strong and thriving international weight loss business. I just wonder if she sits in her apartment at her little retirement village and just thinks, "really??? i did this??!!" 

Had any of you ever heard of her before?? Do you agree with her "fat person inside of me" saying? What's the hardest part of maintaining a healthy weight and body for you?? Dish it peps! 

Bookin' It in 2010-- A Late Check In

Well, here is the deal. In January, I joined with FishMama to "Book It" in 2010. I committed to reading 2 books a month this year. I succeed my first month and by February I had completed 2 books. But since then my reading has practically been nonexistent! I have read a little of both of the books I am currently reading, but I just cant get going. 

So what am I going to do? I need a kickstart. So I am going to put Real Sex aside for now, and read something lighter. I need the momentum that finishing a book quickly can give me. And I just need something that doesnt take lots of brain power! I have realized that I should not have began two intense books at once. So my priority is to continue in reading 7 Habits with Mr.Pate (we haven't done so hot lately) and pick up something fluffier for just me. 

What was the last book you read? Was it any good?

Getting in the Habit... #1

Mr. Pate and I are reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families" by Stephen Covey right now. It is sooo good guys! Anyhow, it is quite long and is full of great things so I have decided to start summarizing the things that stand out to me from each Habit to help me retain it all.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

The whole premise of this habit comes from a few sentences he read in some other book:

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.

In our response lies out growth and our happiness.

Basically, we all have a choice in how we respond to everything and everyone in life. We can either REact to that person or thing (stimulus) or we can act, meaning we can choose how we will respond without being controlled by the circumstances. I think this is probably something most people in life struggle with, and I know I do big time! He uses the mental picture here of having a "pause button- something that enables us to stop between what happens to us and our response to it, and to choose our own response."

Covey says the ability to do this comes from developing the 4 unique human gifts that animals do not have: Self-awareness, conscience, imagination, independent will.

• Self-awareness: the ability to step back from our life and observe it. We can observe our thoughts and we can choose to make changes also.
• Conscience: Our moral or ethical sense or "inner voice". We can not only observe our life, we can evaluate it too.
• Imagination: Our ability to envision something entirely different from our past experience. We can see a "better way" that life could be than what we are observing it as now.
• Independent will: This is our power to take action.

These are what live in the space between what happens to us and how we respond. We have to learn to use these "gifts" more intentionally in order to become "response-able", able to respond to life instead of being controlled by it. (The book has lots more indepth info about this.)

He also teaches about the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Concern. The Circle of concern embraces everything in your life you may be concerned about. The Circle of Influence is a smaller circle within the Circle of Concern that embraces all the things you can actually do something about in life. We typically focus on the Circle of Concern, but this diminishes the influence we have in the Circle of Influence. So we need to learn to focus only on the smaller circle and it will influence the larger circle... see picture:

Next up is the Emotional Bank Account (EBA). It's a simple concept really, our relationships operate just like a checking account. We can choose to make deposits into the account, or we can make withdrawals. The deposits are positive investments in our relationships, like communicating, keeping promises, being honest, encouraging etc. The withdrawals are negative actions that hurt our relationship, like lying, being mean, not keeping promises, attacking, belittling etc. So just like your checking account, if you want your relationship to grow, you have to make more deposits than withdrawals.

The rest of the chapters gives examples of how we can do this, but basically you need to be aware(self aware actually haha) of each relationship's bank account. Make a special effort to go a whole day without making any withdrawals. And he stresses how when we do screw up (as we all will) that apologizing and accepting blame can be the biggest of all deposits for our EBA's.

Actions Steps for this Habit:

• Begin trying to identify how you use the 4 gifts in each major family interaction. Think about the last time you reacted instead of acted and try to identify why this happened and how it could be different.
  
• Spend some time identifying what your 2 circles are. List out all the things in your life you are concerned with, then list the things you have any control over. Try to focus this week on spending time only on these things.
  
• Balance your EBA's. Do you have a positive or negative balance? Write down three things you can do this week to make a deposit in a relationship.

Booking It Check In

Well it's February people, which means there is one month down in my Booking It challenge at Life as Mom. You can see my reading goals for this year here.

So how am I doing?

Pretty good I guess. I completed two books in January, Treasuring God in Our Traditions and TrueFaced. But both of these things happened right at the start of January, so I feel like I havent made much progress since then. I have started two other books, but I just havent spent that much time reading.

Right now I am reading:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families and Mr.Pate is actually reading it with me! Yay! It is really good, but man the chapters are long! I am reading this on with the SimpleMom Bookclub.

• Real Sex. So far this is a really good book, she has alot of good perspectives. I need to be more diligent about reading this one consistently.

Have you read anything good this year?? Please share!

Treasuring God in Our Traditions... My take on it

I had originally hoped to finish this book before Christmas, but you know that just didnt happen. This book doesn't just talk about Christmas, but all traditions period. I sooo enjoyed it. Here are my thoughts:

Things I Liked About the Book:

• She gives real examples! If you have read any of my other book reviews, then you should know that I need real tangible examples an most books don't deliver. But she did!
• Very well organized and it flowed really well. One chapter built into the next easily.
• I expected to feel like she was "super holy mom" and I would never live up- I mean she is John Piper's wife. (Have you ever read a John Piper book? Intense!) But I actually felt like she did a great job of just being a real mom who is trying to be intentional. I mean, she is still pretty intense and amazing, but not intimidating.
• I loved reading about what having traditions actually teaches your children. Its a form of discipleship. I had never thought about how a tradition could reflect and teach about God's character- His faithfulness or His Joy etc.
• The chapter on "Everyday and the Ultimate" which talks about our everyday traditions centered on worship and devotion of the Lord. Good stuff people!
• There is just alot of wisdom, I wish I had the time to type out all of the stuff I highlighted.
• It is super cute too, with little recipes and letters throughout it.

Things that annoyed me about this book:

• I honestly just loved it. Usually I am pretty critical, but there wasn't anything that annoyed me.

So basically I think you should read it. And I think I am going to reread it before Christmas this year to get me pumped for the Holidays!

I'm Booking It!

I have mentioned before how writing my 2009 book list helped me read more and exceed my reading goals. Well it is a new year, which means it is time for a new book list and new reading goals.

When I made my book list last year, I was unemployed and realized I needed something to challenge me to be intentional with that extra time. I have always loved the idea of reading, but most of the time I would pick the tv or internet over grabbing a book. After getting back in the habit of reading again, I don't think thats my need this year. And I ended up changing my list quite a bit because I just kept changing my mind on what I wanted to read. So many books and so little time!! Ha!

So this year I think I will take FishMama's advice and having broader goals. And I am going to go to her site once a month to check in and hold me accountable to reading in general.

So my goal for 2010 is to average 2 books a month for a total of 24 books (for those of you how are slow at math! ha!).

Here is my working list of the books I really want to read first:

1. Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper Just finished last night! Review to come.
2. TrueFaced Almost finished with it. Going through it with our youth small group and I would highly suggest it!
3. Reread the complete Narnia series (7 total) Got the set for Christmas, thanks sis! Love this series, absolutely love it!
4. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families (SimpleMom book club) Mr.Pate read the first one and loved it, so we are going to read it together.
5. Getting Things Done By David Allen... I read a review on this system of organization and planning and was intrigued. We will see.
6. Letters from a Skeptic Gregory & Edward Boyd... My old boss read this and had great things to say about it. I think it will help me in the evangelism department.
7. Savage Inequalities Jonathan Kozol... Social Inequality was one of my favorite classes in college, and this was one book we referenced but I never got to read. I ran across it super cheap in Fargo last spring break and I am super excited to read it.
8. Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawerence... A classic I have always wanted to read but never followed through with.
9. John Adams by David McCullough... Seeing the real everyday part of historical figures really interests me, so I am going to try this one. Have you see it? It is huge!
10. Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham... I think family is hugely important and the major influencer in who we will be, and I think families have no idea how to put their faith at the center of their being instead of it being just one more extracurricular activity. I am excited to see what this one teaches.
11. sTori Telling by Tori Spelling... I don't know why.
12. From Clutter to Clarity by Nancy Twigg... Read a great review of this one on Lindsay's blog and was attracted to it. I am all about simple.
13. Real Sex by Lauren Winner... I heard her speak at IvyJungle a year or two ago, and something about her just made me want to listen to her more and more. Anyhow, I heard her talk on this subject and thought she had great points, so here we go.
14. Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner... She was Jewish and converted to Christianity, so in this book she explains Jewish traditions and why we should still practice them as Spiritual Disciplines.
15. Cleaving by Julie Powell... I read Julie & Julia last year and began a love/hate relationship with her. Now I feel like i just have to read this one too.

What are you reading? What do you want to read?