While looking for books on traveling with children, I happened across this book in the stacks. I was actually at the library alone, so I had time to browse.
It's a compilation of stories by both published and first-time authors about encounters with kind strangers while traveling around the world. With an introduction by the Dalai Lama and a focus throughout on kindness and what binds us together as humans, this book radiated faith in the goodness of people.
A little bit of everything and a fast read, this book would make an excellent companion on a journey or a good escape through the adventures of others for the homebound.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The Hole in Our Gospel
Don't let the word "Gospel" throw you off. This book is about social justice, plain and simple. It's about authentic faith. It's about poverty, children, hunger, injustice and what the Church with a capital C is neglecting. It's about the gaping hole in the message of Hope Christians are supposed to be promoting.
Richard Stearns is the current president of World Vision, a Christian based humanitarian organization. In the first part of the book he tells the story of how he was challenged to leave his job as CEO of Lenox, a luxury tableware company, and take the CEO position at World Vision. He is brutally honest about his struggle and eventual realization that "he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose".
The first part of the book tells Stearns' story and as an avid memoir and biography reader, I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated the humility and transparency with which he shared his journey. The second part is a dizzying account of the statistics of poverty and injustice in our world. The third section is a challenge to do something about it.
This book has changed my thinking, or rather solidified my thinking. I've traveled to a third world country. I sponsor two children, one in Bolivia and one in Sierra Leone. We give money to various international charities. These issues are ones I think about...but this book took it to a new level.
Here are a few of the statistics I found staggering, "...AIDS has now left 15 million children behind as orphans. Again, this is a number that is incomprehensible. Picture a chain of children holding hands and stretching out across America. This chain, starting in New York, would stretch all the way to Seattle, back to Philadelphia, back to San Francisco, then east to Washington DC, back again to Los Angeles, and finally to about Kansas City." Can you see those children?
"It is estimated that a child dies every five seconds from hunger-related causes." That means about 12 children died in the time it's taken you to read this blog post to this point.
I could go on with the statistics but it becomes mind-numbing. Stearns does a great job of using word pictures, like the chain of children one above, to make the statistics real. But can we really fathom it? Does it mean anything to us?
Stearns advocates that it should. He constantly puts things in perspective with statistics like this one, "If you make $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world! ... If you don't feel rich, it's because you are comparing yourself to people who have more than you do--those living above even the 99th percentile of global wealth. It's also because we tend to gauge whether or not we are wealthy based on the things we don't have...our difficulty is that we see our American lifestyles as normative, when in fact they are grossly distorted compared to the rest of the world. We don't believe we are wealthy, so we don't see it as our responsibility to help the poor. We are deceived."
He also calls the Church to account for its negligence in these matters. He clarifies that not all churches are lacking and that many have done great things. But in general, all could do more. He states, "There is much at stake. The world we live in is under siege--three billion are desperately poor, one billion hungry, millions are trafficked in human slavery, ten million children die needlessly each year, wars and conflicts are wreaking havoc, pandemic diseases are spreading, ethnic hatred is flaming, and terrorism is growing...and in the midst of this stands the Church of Jesus Christ in America, with the resources, knowledge, and tools unequaled in the history of Christendom. When historians look back in one hundred years, what will they write about this nation of 340,000 churches? ... Will they write of ... Christians who lived in luxury and self-indulgence while millions died for lack of food and water?"
The call to action section of the book is full of stories of individuals making huge differences by simply offering what they are able. This one was my favorite: Austin Gutwein, a nine-year-old learned about children orphaned by AIDS. He decided he could do something so he decided to shoot 2,057 free throws on World AIDS day, one for each child orphaned by AIDS that day. He got people to sponsor him and raised almost $3,000. Today, he's raised almost a million dollars. A nine-year old.
I am contemplating what I can do. What more I can do. How I can teach my children to live with compassion, generosity, and genuine faith. I want to get beyond the feeling of hopelessness and find a way to help. Even if it's small, I have to do something. How can I not?
Richard Stearns is the current president of World Vision, a Christian based humanitarian organization. In the first part of the book he tells the story of how he was challenged to leave his job as CEO of Lenox, a luxury tableware company, and take the CEO position at World Vision. He is brutally honest about his struggle and eventual realization that "he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose".
The first part of the book tells Stearns' story and as an avid memoir and biography reader, I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated the humility and transparency with which he shared his journey. The second part is a dizzying account of the statistics of poverty and injustice in our world. The third section is a challenge to do something about it.
This book has changed my thinking, or rather solidified my thinking. I've traveled to a third world country. I sponsor two children, one in Bolivia and one in Sierra Leone. We give money to various international charities. These issues are ones I think about...but this book took it to a new level.
Here are a few of the statistics I found staggering, "...AIDS has now left 15 million children behind as orphans. Again, this is a number that is incomprehensible. Picture a chain of children holding hands and stretching out across America. This chain, starting in New York, would stretch all the way to Seattle, back to Philadelphia, back to San Francisco, then east to Washington DC, back again to Los Angeles, and finally to about Kansas City." Can you see those children?
"It is estimated that a child dies every five seconds from hunger-related causes." That means about 12 children died in the time it's taken you to read this blog post to this point.
I could go on with the statistics but it becomes mind-numbing. Stearns does a great job of using word pictures, like the chain of children one above, to make the statistics real. But can we really fathom it? Does it mean anything to us?
Stearns advocates that it should. He constantly puts things in perspective with statistics like this one, "If you make $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world! ... If you don't feel rich, it's because you are comparing yourself to people who have more than you do--those living above even the 99th percentile of global wealth. It's also because we tend to gauge whether or not we are wealthy based on the things we don't have...our difficulty is that we see our American lifestyles as normative, when in fact they are grossly distorted compared to the rest of the world. We don't believe we are wealthy, so we don't see it as our responsibility to help the poor. We are deceived."
He also calls the Church to account for its negligence in these matters. He clarifies that not all churches are lacking and that many have done great things. But in general, all could do more. He states, "There is much at stake. The world we live in is under siege--three billion are desperately poor, one billion hungry, millions are trafficked in human slavery, ten million children die needlessly each year, wars and conflicts are wreaking havoc, pandemic diseases are spreading, ethnic hatred is flaming, and terrorism is growing...and in the midst of this stands the Church of Jesus Christ in America, with the resources, knowledge, and tools unequaled in the history of Christendom. When historians look back in one hundred years, what will they write about this nation of 340,000 churches? ... Will they write of ... Christians who lived in luxury and self-indulgence while millions died for lack of food and water?"
The call to action section of the book is full of stories of individuals making huge differences by simply offering what they are able. This one was my favorite: Austin Gutwein, a nine-year-old learned about children orphaned by AIDS. He decided he could do something so he decided to shoot 2,057 free throws on World AIDS day, one for each child orphaned by AIDS that day. He got people to sponsor him and raised almost $3,000. Today, he's raised almost a million dollars. A nine-year old.
I am contemplating what I can do. What more I can do. How I can teach my children to live with compassion, generosity, and genuine faith. I want to get beyond the feeling of hopelessness and find a way to help. Even if it's small, I have to do something. How can I not?
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
12 Months of Reading
Last night I met with my real-in-the-flesh book club. We go to a coffee shop once a month and last night was our book selection night. We each brought two books (or summaries of our two choices) and people voted and picked one.
Here is the list of what we will be reading the next twevle months:
NOVEMBER - Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah
DECEMBER - Little Bee by Chris Cleave
JANUARY - Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
FEBRUARY - Thousand Splended Suns by Khaled Hosseini
MARCH - Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
APRIL - Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
MAY - Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall
JUNE - The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
JULY - Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
AUGUST - Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck
SEPTEMBER - Color of Water by James McBride
OCTOBER - Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews
This looks like a great list! I'm surprised because I haven't read a single one. Anyone read any of these?
Here is the list of what we will be reading the next twevle months:
NOVEMBER - Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah
DECEMBER - Little Bee by Chris Cleave
JANUARY - Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
FEBRUARY - Thousand Splended Suns by Khaled Hosseini
MARCH - Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
APRIL - Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
MAY - Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall
JUNE - The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
JULY - Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
AUGUST - Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck
SEPTEMBER - Color of Water by James McBride
OCTOBER - Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews
This looks like a great list! I'm surprised because I haven't read a single one. Anyone read any of these?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Things They Carried
Apparently this is a classic, at least for military types. Which is probably why I didn't know about it. It was one of those "interesting covers" books in the library in the Staff Favorites area. I read the jacket flap and it sounded fascinating.
The whole book read like a nonfiction memoir, especially because the author gave his main character his name and occupation (writer). I checked the back of the title page many times and it states directly that it is fiction. It seems to be based on the author's memory, however. You can read more information here.
This book is a collection of related short stories, with common themes throughout. It follows a platoon in Vietnam and explores their changing reactions to war, violence, death and "normalcy".
The author writes with a blunt candor yet in a strange beautifully poetic way. This was one of my favorite passages:
"For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then, however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn't, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die. In different ways, it happened to all of them. Afterward when the firing ended, they would blink and peek up. They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it...as if in slow motion, frame by frame, the world would take on the old logic--absolute silence, then the wind, then sunlight, then voices. It was the burden of being alive." (p. 19).
If you are looking for reading material out of your ordinary genres, pick this one up.
The whole book read like a nonfiction memoir, especially because the author gave his main character his name and occupation (writer). I checked the back of the title page many times and it states directly that it is fiction. It seems to be based on the author's memory, however. You can read more information here.
This book is a collection of related short stories, with common themes throughout. It follows a platoon in Vietnam and explores their changing reactions to war, violence, death and "normalcy".
The author writes with a blunt candor yet in a strange beautifully poetic way. This was one of my favorite passages:
"For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then, however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn't, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die. In different ways, it happened to all of them. Afterward when the firing ended, they would blink and peek up. They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it...as if in slow motion, frame by frame, the world would take on the old logic--absolute silence, then the wind, then sunlight, then voices. It was the burden of being alive." (p. 19).
If you are looking for reading material out of your ordinary genres, pick this one up.
Friday, October 15, 2010
I Am Charlotte Simmons
If you ask me for a book recommendation, the one that first comes to mind is Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons. Of course, anything Tom Wolfe is brilliant. But, at the time I read Charlotte Simmons, I was just past the age of Charlotte, with enough similar experiences and just enough time between those experiences and reading the book that I could put it into perspective.
Charlotte is a brilliant college freshman who has led a sheltered life. She goes to a very prestigious university and is culture shocked and completely let down by it. The cast of characters includes the stereotypical college types: the frat guy, the intellectual (socially awkward) geek, and the star basketball player.
What is simply amazing about this book is that an older guy wrote it. He does an amazing job of capturing college life. He did lots of research on college campuses including Stanford and Michigan. With one little exception, a completely melodramatic boy induced depression, he nails the life of a college girl. Or, a college girl like me.
I certainly was not as smart as Charlotte Simmons, but I was definitely the sheltered girl who went to the big fancy school and got an education. Before I started college I barely knew what brand names were, let alone high end brand names. Gucci for example. Not a lot of need for designer duds when growing up on a ranch. I remember using a month's worth of food money for a pair of Diesel jeans...just like Charlotte.
I've read reviews that pan Wolfe for setting the stage to make a big social commentary on college life, race relations, and sex hierarchies. Or saying that Wolfe trying to "shock" us. Having been there, nothing in the book is that shocking and telling it like it is...well, it is what it is.
This is definitely one of my favorite books. Have you read it? What do you think? If you haven't read it, go get it right now! It reads fast. And, stop by and let me know what you think.
Charlotte is a brilliant college freshman who has led a sheltered life. She goes to a very prestigious university and is culture shocked and completely let down by it. The cast of characters includes the stereotypical college types: the frat guy, the intellectual (socially awkward) geek, and the star basketball player.
What is simply amazing about this book is that an older guy wrote it. He does an amazing job of capturing college life. He did lots of research on college campuses including Stanford and Michigan. With one little exception, a completely melodramatic boy induced depression, he nails the life of a college girl. Or, a college girl like me.
I certainly was not as smart as Charlotte Simmons, but I was definitely the sheltered girl who went to the big fancy school and got an education. Before I started college I barely knew what brand names were, let alone high end brand names. Gucci for example. Not a lot of need for designer duds when growing up on a ranch. I remember using a month's worth of food money for a pair of Diesel jeans...just like Charlotte.
I've read reviews that pan Wolfe for setting the stage to make a big social commentary on college life, race relations, and sex hierarchies. Or saying that Wolfe trying to "shock" us. Having been there, nothing in the book is that shocking and telling it like it is...well, it is what it is.
This is definitely one of my favorite books. Have you read it? What do you think? If you haven't read it, go get it right now! It reads fast. And, stop by and let me know what you think.
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