Ron’s #5: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Even though this book was on my soon-to-read list, Mark beat me to it and reviewed it already. I’m glad that he did, as he has been propagating the memory palace idea in our discussions lately, and it spurred me on to read it sooner than I would have. Drew also reviewed it. I'm last on this.

The book is more of an overview of memory history rather than specific techniques to help readers improve our own memorizing. Although through the narrative of having Foer report on memory and eventually winning the U.S. Memory Championship, he discusses many little tricks along the way. These were helpful in my own thinking about memory. I also found some of the case studies of memory prodigies and memory-deficit people particularly fascinating.

Foer is overly critical and insulting about Tony Buzan, the granddaddy of memory techniques, an aspect about the book that I found to be mean and ungracious, as Buzan seemed kind enough to grant him an interview. I also am hesitant about how ingrained Foer is within his own story here. Unlike another similar journalist-becomes-subject account Born to Run, Foer borders on self-serving.

While it starts to feel too long toward the end, I really did enjoyed reading this. It helped me to think more about memory and how I can memorize more Scripture and poetry. Maybe even a deck of cards or two.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ

Ron’s #4: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I taught this for the second time this year, and I loved this book even more than when I read it last year. It is an incredible story of love, sacrifice, and unbridled violence. Sydney Carton is raising on the list of my favorite literary characters. To see his transformation from an idle, drunken loser to a redeemed man with purpose and life is excited and inspiring.

While I did not see this as clearly last year, A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most Christian novels I’ve read. The concept of sin and evil, along with grace and atonement are clearer on these pages than they are in many other books I’ve read.

Even without the powerful message, the writing in this book is so engaging and enjoyable. I suggest making this a selection in one of your next book group. You will not be disappointed. After reading, you will be “recalled to life.”

Ron’s #3: Raising a Modern-Day Knight by Robert Lewis

This is the second book I’ve read about how fathers can raise boys into godly men. After watching Courageous, I had a new resolve to be a father who loves, guides, and leads my son into manhood. This book helped me think about how this looks.

Too often, fathers are the buffoons of the family. At best, indifferent; at worst, abusive. Our culture seems to broadcast the message that men are not important, and that manliness is synonymous with arrogance, homophobia, and chauvinism.  We are afraid to say these five little, reveling words: Men and women are different. Children need both parents to develop fully to their potential. More specifically for this book review, boys need a father to have a healthy concept of manhood.

A real man is one who: • rejects passivity • accepts responsibility • leads courageously • expects the greater reward … God’s reward.

Sadly, many of our youth know little or nothing about any cause other than themselves. Parents have failed—and are failing—to impart a vision that is truly heroic, timeless, and supremely meaningful. The consequences of this omission cannot be understated.

Dad, if you are going to raise a Modern-Day Knight, there is no substitute for your personal character and integrity! By it your son becomes advantaged, empowered, and inspired.

I want to raise our son to be a strong, godly man, and I know that how I model that will influence him in his growth. This does not mean he can only play with trucks and play rugged sports. It does mean that he is a man who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, and leads courageously. I want my boy to grow into a man who embraces this for the glory of God.

I’m not sure what this looks like in all situations, but books like Raising a Modern-Day Knight help me to think more about the issues. The book is not perfect; in fact, I found much of the story annoying. I do not want to have coats of arms or swords or manhood ceremonies (they seems to have one for each minor event). However, I do like that we must train our boys to be men, and that does not merely occur with puberty or high school graduation. I see many young men in the halls of high school who display their fathers indifference in raising them. They are not young men; they are boys in men’s bodies.

May God grant me the conviction and confidence to raise my son differently than the world tells me to. May I be a better model for manhood than our culture is.

Ron's #2: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

When I was in Mrs. Neidz’s 9^th grade English class, I tried to bluff my way through discussions using only the Cliffsnotes version of reading Huck Finn. I hoped it was good enough to help me pass the quizzes. During the class, I found myself interested in the story and actually wished I had read the book. Never enough to actually read it, though. It took me over ten years to actually read it for myself. I earned a D in 9^th grade English, by the way.

Huck Finn is a classic for a reason: it is really, really good. Part adventure down the Mississippi, part friendship between Huck and Jim, part social commentary on the treatment of blacks in the South. It is an important book, and no high school student should graduate without reading it. Sadly, many teachers today shy away from it because of the overabundance of the use of the N-word, a hyper-reaction to political correctness. Most educated readers will quickly see that this is as racist as Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is cannibalistic.

I’ve taught Huck Finn many times, and I still find new aspects to appreciate and enjoy about the book. And for those familiar to the story, the scene when Huck tears up the letter and decided to “go to Hell” is perhaps one of my favorite moments in literature.

Huckleberry Finn the boy is the prototype of all teenage angst characters. There’d be no Holden Caulfield with Huck. No young adult fiction without him, although I think that might be a good thing.

Do yourself a favorite and listen to what your high school English teachers probably told you: Read Huck Finn. You will enjoy it.

Cool kids who have already read the book understand what this means:

In case you are wondering what my teaching handouts for students look like, here they are:

Unit 6: To Read or Not To Read Huckleberry Finn part 1 Unit 6: Huck Finn part 2

Huck Finn App for iPod and iPad  Huck Finn audiobook for iPod

Ron’s #1: How to Write a Sentence by Stanley Fish

Beginning this new year of reading a book a week, I thought a book on reading seemed appropriate. The full title of this book is How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One. I think the simplicity of it is genius, and it sounded compelling enough to read.

The book recounts a story where a writer was asked by a student if he could be a writer. The writer asked, “Well, do you like sentences?” This is akin to a painter liking the smell of paint. We often overlook the simplicity of a sentence for the grandeur goal of a novel or screenplay, but forget the beauty of sentences.

This book is part academic, part of the joy of writing, and part teaching writing, although I’m not sure of the exact divisions. Fish collects and analyzes dozens of famous and not-so-famous sentences to show how and why they work so well. As an English teacher, I loved most of what this book had to offer. I wrote many of his exercises for me to replicate in the classroom.

My two favorite chapters are the ones of first sentences and on last sentences. Fish shows how those excellent opening lines have an “angle of lean,” and they point to something about the story that is to come. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on some famous opening lines. As for closing lines, there is a good deal on the last line of The Great Gatsby, one of my favorites to teach.

If you are an English teacher, you will enjoy this book. Or if you are a writer. If you like to read, you’d probably find something interesting. If you own more than two video game consoles, well, try something else.

Hear an interview with Stanley Fish on NPR

Beginning Your 2012 Bible Reading Plan

As you consider ways to reading through the Bible in 2012, consider these plans. I want to encourage you to pick a specific plan to help to keep you accountable on track. Any plan will help with your goal. I'm attaching the plan that I did before, and I will start again this weekend. It's the Book at a Time. I prefer reading through one book at a time rather than reading one chapter from three different books.

Here are several others:

Discipleship Journal by Navigators http://www.navpress.com/dj/content.aspx?id=138 This had both the Book at a Time and the 5x5x5 plan which reads through the NT

A blog entry with an overview of plans http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/12/30/bible-reading-plans-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+between2worlds+%28Between+Two+Worlds%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

ESV Plans (including links to daily podcasts of the selections) http://www.esv.org/biblereadingplans

Listening Through the Bible in 75 hours http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/12/30/esv-reading-plans-as-podcasts-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+between2worlds+%28Between+Two+Worlds%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

I hope this helps with whichever goal you set.