Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick's Rules

I read this book in it's entirety on our plane ride to New Jersey. It was a real quick, real easy read. It still has a lot of the same characters and the same humor as the first one. It more focuses on the relationship with his older brother, Roderick, who can be tormenting to his little brother. I liked the first one better, but there were still some parts that were super funny and I would still recommend it to anybody who works with Jr. Highers or who is a junior higher, or if you're sense of humor stopped maturing around 6th grade.

The Shack

I just finished this book. It only took me a couple of days to read it. It's the story about a man who has an encounter with God. It was a really amazing story. It helped me think about what it means to be in relationship with God. I say I have one, but when I think about it...it's broken at best. There were a couple of things that I am concerned about. The author speaks as God, and says things as though God is saying them about himself. None of it was unbiblical, however, I could sense a lot of Western, post-modern philosophy in God's words. I don't want to take anything away from the book, I think it was great, but we can't put our philosophies and cultures onto God because God is above that. But in any circumstance, whether it's a book, or a movie, or a sermon, or a conversation, we need to be careful to back truth we speak up with Scripture.
So, as far as this book, "The Shack," goes, I can only say 2 more words about it: READ IT!

Slam

"Slam" is a book by Nick Hornby, who also wrote one of my favorite movies (High Fidelity). It's about a 15 yr. old boy who idolizes Tony Hawk and all he wants to do in his life is skate. He does the typical teenage things with the typical teenage friends. He's got his skater friends, and he's got his girlfriend, who he feels he couldn't live without, even for a few hours. Until a couple of weeks later, when he grows tired of her always being around. Then several weeks later, she informs him that she is pregnant and he is the father.
The rest of the book is the thoughts and actions of a kid who is trying to come to grips with the end of his childhood and, in essence, his dreams to become a father. I think it dealt with the emotions of a boy in that situation as good as it could have been done. I didn't always like what the boy did, but I understood where he was coming from.
I think this was a fun story with some great, real-life experiences. And Tony Hawk actually has a big role in this book...in a way. But I'll let you read the book to figure out what that means.

This Beautiful Mess

This was a book by Rick McKinley. He's the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, OR. It's a book about the Kingdom of God. It was cool to see a fresh perspective on what Jesus says about the Kingdom of God. Overall, I would just say that book was o.k. There were some very good chapters. The one about children was great. But there were also some chapters that I didn't like as much. They were still good, but they weren't as interesting. It took me a while to get through this book because I just couldn't get caught in it very easy.

Crazy Love

Francis Chan wrote this book, Crazy Love. He's a pastor in Southern California that I have heard speak a number of times. Every time I leave convicted to begin to make changes in my life. There are not many speakers (in fact none) that I can remember there sermons even months and years later. The first time I heard Francis was at a California Student Conference called Tsunami in 2002. I can still remember it. Yeah, he's hilarious, but his stuff is relevant and he is able to speak about things that are going on in my head but haven't been able to put into words.

So, I finished his book. There were a lot of things about this book that I didn't like. Really, I hated them. It wasn't because it was bad writing. It wasn't because it was heretical. It was because he was saying some pretty hard stuff about how I am living my life; and it was truth. And sometimes the truth hurts.

This book looks at American Christianity, and how many of us are just missing the point. We are living our lives out of comfort. We are living our lives in such a way that even if we decided in a radical way that we didn't believe in God any more, not much would change. We might start cussing and drinking more, but other than our lives would be very similar to what they are now. We don't have a crazy love for God, and we're OK with that.

I know I said I didn't like this book, but I really loved the book. Yeah, it was hard for me to read in some areas, because it requires the reader to look honestly at their life and at scripture. Then it requires us to make a choice, either we are going to start following God with everything we got and live radically for him, or we are going to choose to continue living "lukewarm" lives for our comfort rather than living for God. Don't read this book if you are content with being ordinary with your faith. But if you want to love God more, if you want to live a life more in line with what God is asking of us, I recommend this book. This book doesn't have all of the answers, but it's an awesome way to begin.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I'm really not sure how I came across this book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but I'm glad I did. It's the diary of a middle school kid. Of course he calls it a journal and he's only doing it because his mom is making him, but he also figures that, when he gets rich and famous, this diary can help him answer questions about his childhood. He can just "go read the book."

I think this book did a great job at capturing middle school life. I remember going through some of the weird stuff that this kid went through (the cheese touch was brilliant). The kid also could not comprehend consequences. I see middle school kids do this all the time. They do stuff and have no idea why they are getting in trouble or why people are mad at them.

I thought this book was hilarious. It has little comic strips in it to illustrate how the kid sees things going on around him. This is a book written for middle school kids, but I think if you have middle school kids or work with them, you would like this book. If you are a middle school boy, you would probably really like this book too.

21: Bringing Down the House

This was the true-life account of some M.I.T. students who were able to figure out a way to beat Blackjack mathematically. In the 90's, some students began playing together, and developed a system, with the help of a professor (who had developed the system in the 70's). They would go to casinos all over the place; Vegas, Atlantic City, Shreveport, and riverboats. Over the course of a few years they were able to win a millions of dollars.

I liked the book a lot. It had a lot of moments that you weren't quite sure what was going to happen, and you had some moments that were anxious about what was going to happen. They make it sound easy to beat the game of Blackjack. In the book, they even tell you how they did it. Of course, these guys were mathematical geniuses. I tried it by myself, and it didn't work that well.

They made a movie about it, but I haven't seen it yet. I'm glad I read the book first. I'll probably wait for the movie to come out on dvd. I started reading it on Thursday while I was waiting to get on a plane for North Carolina, and by the time I arrived, I had finished the book. It's a real easy read, and if you like stories, this is a great one. Go check it out.

The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in 3 Acts

I just finished reading the new Chris Farley biography. It was a book that I couldn't put down. I've always been a fan of Chris Farley since he first started on Saturday Night Live. I loved Tommy Boy. I even really liked Black Sheep. There was one part in it that even when I think about it I crack up: where a big rock hits their cabin and it sends Chris and David Spade falling out of the cabin. Chris goes and takes down the door, and every time I crack up. I even liked Almost Heroes and Beverly Hills Ninja. So, I was excited to read his biography.
It was a lot of testimonials about him from others. They had friends from his childhood, people who went to camp with him, friends from college, coaches, SNL writers and actors, and his family. The first few chapters are about Chris' school and early career, and there were some stories in there that made me laugh out loud. At one point I had laughed so hard that I spit all over the page. It's hard to get people to laugh at something they are reading, and to get somebody to crack up is nearly impossible, but some of the stuff he pulled was awesome.
The end was more about his addictions and his death, and it was so sad. He was such a good guy who couldn't kick his addictions. He volunteered to help elderly people. He would go to hospitals and just hang out with kids in the cancer ward. He was always trying to help people. All of friends said that he was always encouraging them and building them up to feel like a million bucks, even when he was in high school. I didn't really know about any of that, but it makes me like him even more.
I remember I was driving home for Christmas vacation from college. It took about 9 hours to get home, and as soon as I got into the city I turned on the radio, and that was the first thing I heard, that Chris Farley was found dead in his Chicago apartment. I didn't even know him, but I went through the stages of grief. I went through denial: "it's not him, it's some other big guy," actually came out of my mouth. I think it was because he seemed like somebody you could hang out with and talk to. He was just a very friendly guy, and that came out in his public life that I saw. And in his private life, his friends and family say that was who he was too. I wish his life didn't end with that tragedy, I think he could have done a lot more good for this world. But if you like him, or even if you didn't, it's a great book to read.

Here's one of my favorite sketches that he did, but it wasn't on Saturday Night Live, it was with Tom Arnold (of all people):

Generation Change

This is the new book by Zack Hunter. He's a teen-ager who started an organization called Loose Change to Loosen Change to help end modern-day slavery. He's helped to raise over $200,000 already, and he's only just turned 16. He was 15 when he wrote his last book, "Be the Change." You can read what I said about that one here.

This one isn't just about slavery. It's about many injustices going on in the world now, and how teens (really people in general. Since he's a teen-ager, he writes towards teens, but it's a book for adults as well) can get involved. He talks about slavery, hunger, water, medical needs, education, all kinds of different things. He talks about how we, as Christians, have to care about people and take care of others.

In every chapter, he would tell a story about how somebody was doing something to take care of whatever need he was talking about. He would talk about a group helping to raise money to build water wells in Africa. He would talk about someone who would help people get shoes. Then he would end each chapter with several ideas that people can do on their own to make a difference. Many of the thing can be done by anybody, even people with little money and little resources. This is a book I would recommend to anybody who wants to help make this world a better place. In fact, I'm probably going to give it to all of my volunteers and leaders.

Born Standing Up

This was the autobiography of Steve Martin. I love Steve Martin. I love the 3 Amigos. I love The Jerk. I even liked him in Father of the Bride. I think he's funny. He's also super smart. This book was about his stand up comedy life, which he quit and never looked back on in 1981.

What I really liked about this book was that it talked about his philosophy about comedy and how he came up with his material. Some of it was weird, and some of it you could see him doing it. He used magic and banjo and a ton of props in his act. I wish I could have seen it.

I liked this book a lot. In fact, when it was over, I even read the acknowledgments because I didn't really want it to be over. He used a lot of his jokes in the book, and how he came up with them. He talked about how he came up with the idea for The Jerk. If you like Steve Martin, if you like stand-up comedy, then you'll think this book is awesome.

Losers Club: Lessons From the Least Likely Heroes of the Bible

Losers Club was a book about people who have failed in the Bible, and God still used them. This has been an idea that many people have talked about, but this book really communicated it in a fresh way. It was written towards teens, and I think it was great for that. So many times when we think about the people in the Bible, we think they must have been amazing people who had faith that could have never faltered. These are people who God used to perform miracles. We think of them as heroes, and yet, many of them failed miserably at some time in their life (often times they failed a lot.

Basically, the author, Jeff Kinley, was saying that it is good to be a loser. A loser who puts God first and is willing to be used by Him. If you aren't willing to be used by God, then you won't be. You must get past yourself, and this is what he meant by being a loser. He talked about people who murdered, people who had serious doubts, even a couple of prostitutes. If God can use them to do amazing things, then God can surely use us, but first we have to get past ourselves and see that we are nothing without Christ.

He ended the book with this quote, and I kinda liked it:

We all struggle in this journey. But it's not the struggle, pain, and failure that define your identity. Rather, it's the progress toward Christ that makes you who you are.

It was a good book that I would recommend, especially to a teenager. It had a lot of stories and was an easy read. I basically read it in 2 days, although those 2 days were a week apart. Go check it out.

1984

"1984" is a book by George Orwell. It was a book that I had been meaning to read for years, but I never had the time. From a post I did last month, I said that I'm going to try to read 56 books this year from several different categories. So, for the classics category, "1984" was one of the books I chose.

Many of you have probably read this book. Maybe it was assigned reading in high school or college. I liked the book a lot. I like what it had to say about how many times we believe things without question because the media or the government say things. Sometimes we feel that people are wanting us conform to a certain mold. This was a good book about trying to find truth and not necessarily believing things because the media or government tell you a certain fact.

Unfortunately, I see this happen a lot of times in Christianity. Sometimes, Christians will bend truth (alright...sometimes they lie) about certain facts to get people to behave in a certain way. When I was a teen-ager, Marilyn Manson was just beginning to get real popular. I remember hearing all of these things about him from my church and my mom (who heard it on Christian radio). Some of them were true. But a lot of them were made up in an attempt to scare people away from listening to him or going to his concerts.

Whether I agree with Marilyn Manson or not, we don't need to lie in order to get people to behave in a way that we think is right. In this book, it shows what attempts people could go to in order to make people conform to their beliefs, or philosophy, or whatever. If you haven't read this book, I would suggest it.

The only thing I didn't like about the book were the characters. There was one main character who's eyes we see the story through. But I didn't feel much for him, or for any of the characters for that matter. There wasn't very much character development (which usually I like in a story). But the story and the meaning the author was trying to get through was good.

Enrique's Journey

I finished a book the other day called Enrique's Journey. It's about a teen-ager who is from Hondurus who wants to come to the United States to find his mother. When he was 7 years old his mother left for the US to get a job. She would send money and toys, but Enrique wanted his mom. He is almost obsessed with being with her. So, when he is 17, he starts out across Central America and Mexico to get to the US to find his mom.
We go and hang out with some teen-agers who have been caught crossing the border. Many of them are from Hondurus, El Salvador, Columbia, and even Ecuador. One kid had a broken arm. He told me that he fell from the train. I didn't think much of it. After reading this book, I realize how hard it was for these kids. Him falling from the train was a big deal, that meant that he had a very dangerous journey.
Enrique rode on the top of a train. Many migrants have fallen off and had limbs taken off. Some have been killed. Then there are bandits who rob the migrants. Women get abused and men get robbed. Gangs are all over the place and violence is common. Plus, some of the Mexican Police are just as dangerous as the bandits and the gangs. They steal from the migrants and if the migrants don't have any money, then they deport them back to their original country.
This was a great story. The author is a journalist, so the story is told as if it was a newspaper story. It had a lot of facts and stuff, but she just isn't a good storyteller. It did give me a greater understanding for what the migrant kids at the Baptist Children's Home go through when they come to the country.

Finding Faith: Searching for What Makes Sense

This was a book that I just finished by Brian McLaren. I've heard a of good stuff about this guy, so I thought I would try one of his books. There were some really good things in this book, and some things I really didn't like at all. A couple of times I though he was borderline blasphemous. But once I got to chapter 3 everything got a lot better.
Basically, he was writing to people who either don't believe or are on the verge of believing in God. He talked about what faith was and what it wasn't. One thing I liked was that he talked about the difference between good faith and bad faith. Bad faith is a faith that causes harm to people, such as the KKK who have faith that God says that white people are the master race, faith that causes people to blow up innocent people, etc...Good faith is faith that is good for everybody, that tries to make the world a better place. He goes a lot deeper into this, so if you're interested check out the book.
He also talks about the differences between atheism, agnosticism, and deism. He tried to answer some really big questions. He also talked about why he believes. He talked a lot about finding God through nature.
This was a pretty good book. It's very deep in parts, and some parts are hard to read. If you are interested in talking to people who have no faith, or have different faith, this could be a good book to read.

Looking for God: An Unexpected Journey through Tattoos, tofu & pronouns

I just finished this book by Nancy Ortberg. I had never heard of her. I was never recommended this book. I was just wandering around in the religion section at Barnes & Nobles (or Borders...whatever). This book caught my eye because of the cover. Then I read the quote under the title and it said "tattoos." This is why I really bought this book and read it. I wanted to see what kind of stories she had about tattoos and tofu that could help me look for God.

It's a good book. Even though there are probably only 2 sentences that have anything to do with tattoos, the book did have a lot about looking for God. It was about finding God in the ordinary, everyday experiences and encounters that we have. Whether it's helping somebody, playing with kids, or eating dinner with friends, we can find God. It doesn't necessarily be a quiet time or a worship service. I liked this idea a lot.

Her book is very feminine. I think ladies would like it a lot, and could relate to her humor and stories a little better than I did. I still liked the book, I just think that women would relate better to this book. Many of the things that she talked about were things that I have also thought about and come to grips with, but there were some things that I am definitely going to use and put into practice. This is a book that you should check out. It's a very short read (it took me 2 days...on and off). So, go read it and let me know what you think.

Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines

I just finished this book, and I know I say this a lot, but it was great. I couldn't put it down. I love stories. I love hearing about how certain events impact somebdy's life. This was a book about a guy who became heavily involved in drugs. He took everything, from weed to crystal meth (his drug of choice) to heroin. It talks about the crazy thinking that went on while he was on drugs, and how his thinking could totally change when he was sober. The book goes through a relapse, a recovery, another relapse, and then another recovery.
I think I really liked the book because it took place a lot in San Francisco. One of the places he use to deal drugs was 2 blocks from my church and across the street from my favorite taqueria (that I talked about in a post a couple of days ago). The Safeway he hung out was where I did my grocery shopping. The other places that he talked about I knew well. I had several kids in my youth group who lived in the Tenderloin, where he spent a lot of time looking for drugs.
When he hit rock bottom, he moved to LA where his 12 Steps sponsor lived. He lived in a sober living facility, and he got clean for a while. He got a job, he was going great with his life, but an ex-girlfriend called, and he ended up getting caught up with her celebrity friends. Before too long he had relapsed again, doing crack, meth, and cocaine...among other "prescribed" drugs. He finally hit rock bottom again and went to a facility in Arizona that helped him, and the book ends there, with him trying to release and come to grips with demons that have been in his life from his childhood.
He talks a lot about God and prayer, even though he doesn't believe in God. From me, a believer, I see God very much in his book. Every time he cried out to God, God delivered him and helped him out. When he started relying on himself, and not looking for God, he went back into his old habits. I saw that throughout the book, even though I don't think this was the author's intention.
Anyways, it was a very good book. It took me about 3 days to read it, but it was so interesting that it could have taken one if I would have had the time. I like the part with him in San Francisco the best. Maybe it was because I knew the places. Maybe it was because the characters all seemed more interesting (especially this kid named Gack). Hopefully it's not because I love to read about people suffering. I didn't like the characters in LA as much, except for his sponsor, Spencer. Maybe I felt they were all superficial about living amongst celebrities and stuff like that.
But I would recommend the book to people who like memoirs and people who like reading about recovery and drug abuse. Suzy loves the stuff, and she's the one who bought the book and read it first before recommending it to me. It's got some bad language and gets pretty graphic, so be aware of that before beginning to read it.

unChristian

I just finished reading the book unChristian by David Kinnaman. It is about the perceptions that outsiders of the church have of Christians. Some of it was very interesting information. Some of it was things I already knew or suspected. Basically, people on the outside of the church, especially Generation X and the Mosaics have seen what Christians have to offer and have rejected it.
They see us as hypocritical. They see us as judgmental. They see us as antihomosexual. They see us as being sheltered. They see that what we have to say is worthless because they do not respect Christians.
Several Christian leaders gave little comments throughout the book on the different topics. Almost all fo them said that we ahve to stand by our beliefs, but the way that we communicated and connect with outsiders has got to change. It's God's responsibility to change hearts, it is our job to love people and serve people. To change the country's perceptions of Believers we need to start living in a way that is radically following the ways of God, by focusing on what God wants us to focus on and living like Jesus lived. We need to love people. We need to stand up for people who are being taken advantage of (sex slaves, people with HIV, the hungry, the illiterate). Only if we begin to do this, can we hope to change the perceptions of the unbelievers in our country.
The book had some great ideas. It was hard to read, because there aren't many illustrations. I think he repeated himself a lot. He could have made the chapters about half as long as they were and still got all the research and information in there. But, the information and the research was worth reading, and I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to change the perceptions of the world towards Christianity.

888 Reading Challenge

I read about this a little while ago. The 888 challenge is where you commit to reading 8 books in 8 categories with a limit of 8 being able to go in 2 categories. For example, you can have The Johnny Cash autobiography in a biography category as well as in just for fun. If you use all 8 overlaps, then you will be reading 56 books. When I first read this, I assumed there wasn't a chance in the world I could ever read 56 books in one year, but it's the middle of March, and I think I'm going to try. I've already read a few, and I am going to try to finish them all.

Here are the ones that I'm going to try

Ministry Related Books (Personal Growth):

I Sold My Soul on eBay
Jim and Casper go to Church
Be the Change
UnChristian
Velvet Elvis
Finding Faith: A Search for What Makes Since
Looking for God: An Unexpected Journey through Tattoos, Tofu & Pronouns
This Beautiful Mess


Ministry Related Books (Youth Ministry)

Controlled Chaos
Loser's Club
My Life Unscripted: Who's Writing Your Life
Outflow: Youth Version
Kurt and Scott's Junior High Adventure
Crazy Love
Postmodern Youth Ministry
The Missional Church

Biographies & Memoirs

Cash: The Autobiography
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction
Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
Steve Martin: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slaves
Stranger at the Gate
Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines
The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in 3 Acts

Slavery


Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as told by Themselves
A Crime so Monstrous: Face-to Face with Modern Day Slavery
Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slaves
Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How we can stop it
Be the Change
Unspeakable The Hidden Truth Behind The World's Fastest Growing Crime
Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Women and Children
Woman, Child - For Sale

Classics

Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22
Slaughterhouse 5
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
The Great Gatsby

Young Adult

Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines
Slam
Spanking Shakespeare
Notes from the Teenage Underground
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
Spud
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick's Rules
Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Just for Fun

Through Painted Desert
Generation Change
To Own A Dragon: Reflections about growing up Without a Father
This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God
Loser's Club
The Shack
Enrique's Journey
Crazy Love


I also have the power to change books at any given time. The books in purple mean I've already read them. I will keep this page up to date as I finish the books. It's a goal to read all of these books, we'll see if I make it.

What Book are You?

You're The Catcher in the Rye!

by J.D. Salinger

You are surrounded by phonies, and boy are you sick of them! In an
ongoing struggle to search for a land without phonies, you end up running away from
everything, from school to consequences. In this process, you reveal that many people
in your life have suffered torments and all you really want to do is catch them as
they fall. Perhaps using a baseball mitt. Your biggest fans are infamous
psychotics.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

This is very interesting because I do get disgusted by people who are phonies. Unauthentic people make me uncomfortable and I don't like to be around them. Also, while I was still single, the only girls who ever liked me were a little psychotic. I have never read this book, but I was actually thinking about starting to read it a few days ago. Awesome!!

Velvet Elvis

I just finished this book by Rob Bell (the guy who does the Nooma videos), and I loved it. It is called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, and it is a look at some of the traditions and things that we believe from another angle. It's to get us to think about what it really means to be someone who is called a Christian and what it really means to be a follower of Jesus.
A few things that I really liked about the book were how he put the historical and cultural context around the scriptures he was using. When quoting Jesus, he told us what the people who were standing there listening would have actually been associating with the words. Some of those things I already knew, but a lot of them I didn't.
Another idea in the book that I hadn't really thought about before, but I loved, was the idea of heaven on Earth. Heaven isn't just a place that we are going to be when we die. We have to live and suffer in this world, but we will be rewarded with heaven, but Rob talked about having a heaven on earth. So many times people live in poverty, abuse, and sickness, which is hell on earth. Hell is described as the absence of God, so all of those things are not of God. But giving, forgiving, mercy, love; these are all things of God, and if we start loving people and showing mercy and help to people, this is bringing heaven to earth. I'm still thinking about this, but I like the idea of bringing heaven to earth by acting in ways that God wants us to live.
Just a couple of days ago, I was driving downtown, and I was already a little frustrated because of how busy it was down there. It was a mistake to try to go downtown during the beginning of Spring Break. So, I'm driving and I'm stopped at a light, and I'm the third car in the light. The light turns green, and the car behind me starts honking. It makes me mad, because honking isn't going to do anything at this point, especially honking at me since I am the third car in the line. So, what do I do? I slow way down. It was at one of the lights that has the timer so you know how long you have to make it. I slowed down until the light almost hit zero, then I sped through the light. It changed to red and the honker had to wait at the light. I was so happy. But, I was happy because I knew I had made that driver, who was also very frustrated, even more upset. I was bringing hell on earth to this guy. That's not how I need to be. I can understand the driver's frustration, because I was equally frustrated, but I need to show compassion and mercy to people, even when they are being idiots and honking at me.
There are so many good things in this book and great ideas about God. Rob Bell was very transparent and open about his life and his struggles and his feelings. I loved that. This will be a book I will read again some time.