The Shack - Revisit

So we are getting down to the last hours before starting the Book Club again and we will be going back to the book that kicked off the Club first.  The Shack by William P. Young.


Feel free to comment here too even after the discussion tonight.

Lets Get Ready to Ruuuuuummmmmmmbbbbbbllllllllllllleeeeeeeee!!!! I mean discuss.

Monday is coming soon and we get to talk about The Fault in Our Stars by John Green .
I hope you are ready.  I am putting some of the questions below that we will go over on Monday.

Hazel says "cancer books suck", was this a cancer book?

Did you have trouble at times reading it, was it tough to finish?

Did the end surprise you?

Would a book that didn't give you the ending by cutting off suddenly bother you?  Do you want to know what happened next?
(by the way some people have written epilogues and even alternate endings and sequels here.

Were these believable teenagers?  Were they more/ less mature than an average teenager?  Could their experiences have changed this?

How difficult do you think it is to write a book from a teen aged girl's perspective when you are a middle aged man?

In a Washington Post article it states:
"John Green’s novel “The Fault in Our Stars” might be a tale of two teenagers with terminal cancer, but it also — maybe surprisingly — has some pretty funny lines. This is intentional: After all, humor is a very powerful way to get through horribly stressful situations."
Do you think this is true?  Do you think this book would have been better or worse without the humor?  Was it disrespectful or irreverent to joke in light of a serious situation?

Would it surprise you to know that John Green was a student chaplain at a children's hospital and he was preparing to be an Espiscopal Priest?

Some additional stuff here:
The philosopher that most impacted John Green in writing this book:  Vi Hart  Really he said she gave him the vocabulary in this QA session.
The book was dedicated to Esther Earl, a fan, who died of thyroid cancer at 16.
John Green asks what is the best way to honor the dead in this youtube video:  Babies and Catacombs: VIENNA (Thoughts from Places)

There are so many other questions that may come up in addition to these and maybe even instead of these.
I can't wait it will be good to see you all again.

Some interesting links related to John Green

A good portion of these links came from Pastor Mike, thanks, Pastor Mike.

An interview with John Green - Devastating Topics

What's the best line from The Fault in Our Stars?

NerdFighters

VLOGBrothers- Green brothers YouTube Channel

The Fault in Our Stars

This book was really a good read.  Sad at many places it is a great way to see what it might be like to be a person dealing with cancer in the first person or vicariously as a parent or friend.  The thoughtfulness of the writing along with the interspersed humor that allows you to digest it was extremely well written.  I will warn you that there is some language and sexual situations in the book, but are not out of what might be expected in the circumstances.  The book will give you something to think about when dealing with those who are dealing with a terminal diagnosis or dealing with the uncertainty after escaping death.  While the book is a Young Adult book, it is very readable and quite intelligent, even using large words for the teenagers.  There are many interesting lines throughout the book that I will dedicate a post to at a later time.
I got a chance to see this movie with my daughter just last night as well.  She did ask to leave in the middle because she knew it would be sad, but we toughed it out together.  She and I both cried like when we read the book.  I was silent, she ....  well a little less than silent, but she wasn't out of place.  While the movie is close to the book it leaves some interesting pieces out such as the defining of the title scene by not even mentioning Julius.  I think if you read the book ahead of the movie there are scenes that will make much more sense to you than those who have not read the book.
This is a great book to read and I hope we stimulate a lot of discussion.  I do think that the discussion may be emotional at time so I hope we are all up for it.

Next Book

So this is a first.  I have the next book even prior to our meeting.

Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness by Brian Zahnd

You might have heard Pastor Danny mention this book during his sermons.  I think this would be a great one to discuss and I think the small groups might be reading this as well.

Book Club Postponed for a week

For the sake of safety we have moved the Book Club from tonight to next Monday the 24th.  Have a great St. Patrick's Day and see you next Monday.

Meeting Tomorrow Night

Don't forget to come by Covenant tomorrow night.  We will be discussing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I am now adding that book to the one's we have read.

This will be very interesting.  Maybe we can get someone to "Potter"......

I know some of you know what that means.

Some links pror to meeting

I wanted to share  a couple of links with you.

http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/02/roosevelt-rules-for-reading/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+68131+(Farnam+Street)&utm_content=Netvibes

These are he Teddy Roosevelt rules for reading.  Great advice and good find by our wonderful Pastor Mike.

Here is a list of book that BBC came up with.  They say that you likely have only read six of them.  How many have you read?

http://www.listchallenges.com/kaunismina-bbc-6-books-challenge?ref=share

Pottermore

This is a site that JK Rowling put together to further experience the Harry Potter story.
http://www.pottermore.com

If you like the books you may find being a Hogwarts student very interesting.

I'm Back

It has been a long time since I have posted.  I have actually been feeling under the weather for some time now and didn't get to the doctor until this week.  The diagnosis was sinus infection and a regimen of antibiotics.  I likely should have asked in December, but I didn't.  Either way I have some catching up to do.

First we met in January and discussed Peter Pan, my reading caused me to select the next book, but more on that later.  Some had gone above and beyond in the discussion reading much deeper into the works of Barrie and adding detail to Peter and Wendy that one couldn't get just by reading he one book.  The collection of Barrie's surrounding Peter Pan can be found here Adventures of Peter Pan.  In addition through a little digging in Wikipedia, watching a movie with my wife and general meandering I found much interesting about Barrie and a tie back to another famous children's author.

Wikipedia has information on Barrie here (J. M. Barrie in wikipedia) and you can find out about the children he took care of and the one that Peter was patterned after, how the statue of Peter Pan appeared in Kensington Gardens, and why Barrie didn't really like it.

For the tie to another children's author you would need to dig a little bit but here is the author that was published by one of Barrie's step sons (Peter) (Peter publishes someone now famous).  In addition you could find out more about her in the movie (Saving Mr. Banks).

Because the book was considerably more violent and dark then I had expected I thought it might be interesting to read something contemporary in the same type of genre.  I chose Harry Potter and picked the first book (Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone).  I hope everyone will enjoy the book and bring some interesting insights in March.

I will be updating the book list, you can find it here.  Please let me know if I missed one or if you have a suggestion for the next book, and especially if you would like to host a book club.

Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (My Take)

This was a wonderful read.  I will caveat that there may be some points that will be offensive to some readers- they were to me.  This might be expected given the range of writers involved in the creation of the book.  I still think overall that Behance/99u put together a great book of tips and tricks for not just creative folks but for just about anyone who has to live, work, and play.  The tips do range from simple to somewhat esoteric and as much profound advice is, sometimes obvious- at least after you read it.  You will find yourself noticing the fallbacks that the authors mention and will likely agree with most of their recommendations.  You will undoubtedly disagree with some of the recommendations maybe even the metaphors used to make the points, but please don't throw out the baby with the bath water, this really is a very helpful book and in a great piece by piece format to allow you to read at once or even go through an article at a time and try to implement some changes to your work and life habits.  I have included each of the authors and the links the book provided related to them.  In addition I threw in some quotes that stuck out in my mind.  Please let me know what you think of the book and throw in some quotes you liked, hated, agreed with, identified with, opposed, or didn't have a clue about.  My favorite section was by Elizabeth Grace Saunders.  Did you have a favorite?  I already recommended this one to my wife and I will likely walk through some of the book with my 10 and 12 year olds.

Some names with links to their sites:

Mark McGuiness: www.LateralAction.com

Gretchen Rubin: www.happiness-project.com

Seth Godin: www.sethgodin.com

Tony Schwartz:  www.theenergyproject.com

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”  Lena Horne

Leo Babauta: www.zenhabits.net

“What information consumes is obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”  Herbert Simon

Cal Newport: calnewport.com/blog

Dr. Christian Jarrett: www.psychologywriter.org.uk

Dan Ariely: www.danariely.com

Erin Rooney Doland: www.unclutterer.com

“Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.” José Ortega Y Gasset

Scott Belsky: www.scottbelsky.com

Aaron Dignan: www.undercurrent.com

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” Warren Buffett

Lori Deschene: www.tinybuddha.com

Tiffany Schlain: www.tiffanyschlain.com

“Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, not to suggest improvements in creation… but simply to wake up to the very life we’re living.”  John Cage

Linda Stone: www.lindastone.net       

James Victore: www.jamesvictore.com

“Why cheat yourself of the effort?  The work, the process, is the goal.  It builds character.  It makes us better.”  James Victore

Todd Henry: www.accidentalcreative.com

Scott McDowell: www.chm-partners.com

Stefan Sagmeister: www.sagmeister.com

Elizabeth Grace Saunders: www.ScheduleMakeover.com

“Creativity is not a talent it is a way of operating.” John Cleese

Steven Pressfield: www.stevenpressfield.com

99u links:

www.99u.com/routines

www.99u.com/focus

www.99u.com/tools

www.99u.com/aha

Ready to Discuss

Its heeeerrrrrreeeeeee!
The Book Club is meeting tonight to discuss Thinking: Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.  This looks to be very interesting discussing whether decisions that don't conform to the Rational Agent Model mean that they are irrational.  Also whether we have any idea what is going on in our brains.  Also the mirage of control when compared to chance, randomness and probability.  While the reading of the book was a bit of a struggle at times the points it brings up are not just interesting but tremendously relevant to society and the individual.  Gut decisions are good, bad, ugly, indifferent, and maybe even right.

Hope to see you at the Church tonight at 7 PM.

Bayesian Probability

On the off chance that I am not the only one that doesn't have a degree in probability I thought I would post some tutorials about Bayesian Probability to give some background in some of the examples that the author gives in the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBn-eGrRHJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj8DJyr9dNc

These 2 are similar.  I elected not to post the Bayes made simple link to the 2.5 hr video.  These 2 give a good idea of how it works in a simple example.

I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything about the new book:  Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Apr 2, 2013) and then I checked the post to see if anyone had commented...

I hadn't posted it yet......  Well that is the new book and it is written by a Nobel Prize recipient in economics.  It is about how we think, the mistakes we make in thinking, and how we can identify them.

A Hole in Our Gospel

Book club is here.  We meet tonight.  This will be an interesting conversation and I know the Pastor Mike is ready to get it going.  The book has a web site A Hole in Our Gospel web site and I will be posting some more links today and tomorrow that are related to the book and ministries similar to World Vision.  I am really looking forward to tonight's discussion.

God Bless

World Vision and One.org

Here are two organizations web sites:

World Vison (Hole in Our Gospel author is the CEO)

One (Bono's organization)

Bono on Focus on the Family

Here is the link to Bono's recent interview on Focus on the Family.
Bono Interview

I am looking for the link to his TED talk as well.  I have found a portion of it but not the full presentation.
The interview here goes over justice, extreme poverty, and belief in Jesus.  This ties into the Hole in Our Gospel and is inspiring to see a pop star taking very seriously his walk with the LORD.  It may be harder for a rich man to get to heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, but with GOD all things are possible.  Hope you enjoy the interview he is rather engaging.

Long time no post

Sorry for my delay in posting.  I have let activity, particularly with the kids get the better of me.  I have also started to try to get back in shape again.  Wow, this is painful.

I wanted to make sure to thank Natalie for a great hosting job at our last meeting.  She really knows CS Lewis and spiritual battle and was a great wealth of knowledge along with a gracious host.  I think she may have inspired much more reading into CS Lewis books by all who were there.

In addition we picked a book for next time, "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns.The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World by Richard Stearns.  I must admit the reviews come from diverse places like Franklin Graham and Bono.  Truth in lending here, Richard Stearns is the CEO of  World Vision and a good portion of the book is his journey getting there.  That is not to diminish the impact of the book or its message, if anything it brings the message home clearer.


Please join us for a discussion of the book in July, July 15th to be exact at the same bat time, same bat channel.

Happy Mother's Day

I found some interesting information on Mother's Day and its founding.
Two women, Ann and Anna Jarvis are behind it and it all started as a service day by mothers.  Ann Jarvis served all her life and Anna Jarvis set out to honor her with a special day.  Anna wasn't happy with where Mother's Day went though and spent her inheritance trying to decommercialize it.  But it was all started by a woman who witnessed the love and care of her extraordinary mother.

Here are a few links, understand some of the information may be repetitive.
http://www.peopleoffaith.com/history-of-mothers-day.htm
http://www.germanna.org/node/521
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Jarvis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Jarvis

Happy Mother's Day to all Mother's out there and to all who are thankful to have a Mother that loves them.

God Bless.

Soft Power - You Can't Fake it

Influencing other countries without force.  Attracting countries to you by your positive culture.  You can't fake good culture or intentions.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/29/what_china_and_russia_don_t_get_about_soft_power