Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Rediscover Jesus:

Rediscover Jesus: an Invitation By: Matthew Kelly
Non-Fiction: Religion,NYR, 187 pages
Physical Book Count: 2
Book Count: 3

First here is a link to my friend's review of this book. (Even if he does hate everything that Matthew Kelly writes as Kelly doesn't write for where he happens to be spiritually right at this time.  And he had more grammar problems in that post then most any other post that he has done.)
Anyway if you haven't clicked on the link, this book is written in 40 short chapters that are made so that you can read one in a few minutes every day, with the idea being that you can read one each day during Lent. (Not counting Sundays, and with a prologue and opening that are not part of the 40 count.)  At the end of each chapter is: a point to ponder that sums up the reading, a Bible verse, a question to ask yourself about the chapter, and a short prayer. It is written for people that might be new Christians, or have been Christians for some time but wants to renew or grow their faith/love.  Also although it is written for reading during Lent and is from a Catholic organization, it is written in a general Christian tone that people of different branches of Christianity would not find issue with any doctrinal differences in the book, as it isn't concerned with it.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team:

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable By: Patrick Lencioni
Non-fiction: Business, 224 pages
Physical Book Count: 1
Book Count: 2

I read this book because it was given to me in a meeting at church.  It is apparently the book that is going threw all the ministry groups for this year.  Also the author is friends with Matthew Kelly and does a similar thing of taking all the things that they used in the business world to help churches.  This book is much more just business, but it deals with problems that would be helpful for all sorts of organizations. And it deals with group dynamics and meetings, two things that are very important to church groups.

The 5 interrelated dysfunctions that it talks about are: lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoiding accountability and inattention to results.  The book tells a story of a business to show how all of these things work together to cause a group to fail.  It also induces more traditional non-fiction style writing at the end with charts and data covering the same info in a more condensed format.  

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Change in book counting:

I have decided to change up our book count method.  As you might have noticed in the past I have only noted the number of physical books that I have read.  But there are a number of books that are full length books, but I read on an e-book format and so I did not count it, making my book count much lower then it really was. So for now on I will count both full length e-books and physical books under the book count.  And then list all the things that I read either as a physical book count, or an e-book count, even if the e-book is a novella.  So my book count will be the number of full length books that I have read in the year, as well as a count of the number of physical books and e-books that I have read in the year.

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Mother Night:

Mother Night by: Kurt Vonnegut
Fiction: humor,e-book
E-Book Count:1
Book Count:1

Note: this is my first attempt at writing this on a new screen, that does not seem to hate me yet.  But I am sure auto correct shall torment me soon on it.

This book is the story of a Nazi living in a run down apartment in NCY years after loosing the war.  And it is the story of a American spy that had nothing really left to live for with the war over. And it is the story of a writer whose wife and muse is gone, leaving him with nothing but memoires. And it is the story of a man hiding who he is, who becomes best friends with a Russian spy who is also hiding his true self. And as you might have guessed, all these men are the same guy, who is writing down his life story as he sits in an Israeli jail waiting to see if he will be killed for his war crimes or if proof that he was working for the USA will come in time.