The Last Lecture

It makes me sad to see that not many of us have been able to post on this blog for quite some time! :( Hopefully we can all make a goal to more actively participate in this website, which will also further encourage us to read, read, READ!

I just finished a novel called The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  For those of your who have never heard of this book, it is about a happily married man who is the father of three small children that discovers that he is dying of cancer.  He was a professor for a large part of his life, so naturally one of the last things he wanted to do before leaving this world was to deliver a mind blowing lecture that would allow him to let his legacy live on long after he died.  This book is full of thought provoking stories, dreams coming true, and quotable advice for living a happy and successful life.  It may sound rather bland and more like an "old person" type of book, but if any of you are looking for an engaging book that will also educate and inspire, this is exactly what you need to pick up.

The Book Thief

Sorry for the two posts in one day, but I am really trying to post on this website more often and get the word out about these terrific books I am reading! Today I just finished reading the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which was something I had to read for my English 251 literary criticism class. However, reading this book was so pleasurable I often forgot that it was an assignment.

This book is a pretty serious book about a young girl named Liesel who moves in with foster parents at the culmination of Hitler and World War II. It sounds boring and depressing just like a lot of the books written about this time period, and I would be lying if I said that these things were not involved in his book. However, due to the unique point of view that this book is told from (I would tell you what it is, but I don;t want to give it away!) and also the variety of characters and further intricate plot line, this book has truly become one of my favorite novels. This book is a serious book that tackles some serious issues, but it is extremely engaging and has a lot of tender moments as well. I would recommend this book to any of the older cousins, boys or girls. And of course to our lovely blog host, Tío Jon! :)

The Lucky One

Hello everyone! I am sorry to say that I have not been as diligent with my postings on this website as I had hoped, but now I will post a couple things about some books I have read recently.

The Lucky One is a book written by Nicholas Sparks, and as cliche as it is for him to be one of my favorite authors, I truly love the way he writes and the passionate and touching love stories that he brings to life. This particular book is actually coming out as a movie on April 20th starring Zac Efron (YUM!), which was one of the main reasons I chose to purchase this book with my Barnes and Noble gift card that I received for Christmas. It is about a soldier who survives over 9 bombings in the war in Iraq all because of stumbling upon a picture of a beautiful woman, a picture which has served him as a lucky charm. Once he returns home from the war, a series of events helps this man to decide that he should go out and find this woman and somehow try to repay her for what her photograph has done for him. This book is their story.

I absolutely LOVED this book, I read it from cover to cover in three days. I know you are probably wondering how on earth a college student with 15.5 credits, a part time job, and an active social life had the time to do this. To tell you the truth, I most likely should not have done this. However, it was totally and completely worth it, I simply could not put this book down. I would definitely recommend this book to any of the girl cousins, but probably the older ones like Chelsea, Karly, and Brenn. Not to say that none of the boy cousins will like this novel, but it is a bit mushy and not a very masculine read.

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Hey everyone! I am excited that I got to be the 1st cousin to post! I just got finished reading a book called Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. John Steinbeck is an amazing author that has written alot of books, such as East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony, Travels With Charley, and others. The book is during the time of the Dust Bowl, and for those of you who dont know what that is, this link attached explains what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl.

The Joad family lives in Okahoma, and none of them have jobs, so they are forced to pack up and leave there house with barely enough money, and a tiny car. The Joad techinically consists of 12 people, but an old family friend tags along. They traveled to California to find work with picking peaches, and cotton, and peas. The book goes along, the Joad family going through lots of difficulties and trials. They go through death in there family, and there family splitting apart from lack of faith and hope. The Joads try to stick together, and earn money to feed there family, and keep a job. I would definetely rate this book a 5/5. I took alot of patience, but it was so worth it. I would highly reccommend this book to anyone in Middle School-High School and beyond. You wont regret reading this book.

On your marks, get set, BLOG!

Months after I originally thought up this blog, I think we're actually ready to bring this thing to life. I was able to give Zach, Brenn, and Karly somewhat of a tutorial during our reunion. It's all pretty straight forward. Everyone will have author rights so anyone can post and edit their family pages. I'm going to try and figure out a way for everyone to be able to track their progress towards 25, 40, and 50 hours. In the meantime, keep track on your own and get reading! I'm well on my way to meeting my 2011 goal of reading 8 books (not counting the many books I read as a professor). I hope to hear about what you're reading and what you think about what you're reading. Let the blog begin!

My favorite book. . .

is Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. It was written in Spain more than 400 years ago. The book tells the adventurous story of a middle-aged man (Alonso Quijano) who loses his mind from reading too many books about knights and not getting enough sleep. The result is that he thinks he is a knight, and so he puts on some old armor, gives himself a new name (Don Quixote), jumps on his aging horse, and goes out into the world to do the kinds of things knights do. I first read the novel when I was in college at BYU and have read it a number of times over the years.

The image to the right is the original title page of the novel. You'll notice that it includes the year it was published (1605) and the full title (at the very top). Below the title is the name of the author followed by a dedication, a fancy publisher's image, where it was published, the name of the publisher, and where it is sold. Although four centuries have passed, basically the same information appears on title pages of books today. The image below is one of my favorites. As you can see, it is a picture within a picture. The windmills that you see come from the most famous adventure of the novel, when Don Quixote confuses windmills with giants. When he tries to attack the giants (which are really windmills), well, you can imagine the problems he has. What else do you see in the picture?

So why do I love this book so much? First of all, I love the characters. The protagonist, Don Quixote, is funny, crazy, inspiring, creative, heroic, and just wonderful. He makes you laugh one moment and cry the next. He has one of the best imaginations you'll ever find. His squire, Sancho Panza, is very entertaining as well. They are my favorite duo in literature. I also love how the book is written. There are stories within the story, many references to other books, multiple narrators, and so much more. You can tell that the author had a lot of fun writing the book. I consider Don Quixote required reading for life! When you feel ready to take it on (it's around a thousand pages), let me know and I'll make sure to get you your own copy.

So what's your favorite book and why? You can either comment on this post or create your own post with pictures and whatever else you may want to include.