Saturday, April 25, 2015

2015 Reading Challeng: The Piantist

2015 Reading Challenge: A book a friend recommended

The Pianist
Wladyslaw Szpilman
222 pages
Non-fiction

The incredible story of Wladyslaw Szpilman and how he survived WWII in Warsaw, Poland as a Jewish man. He describes his experiences as well as those around him, Jew, Pole, and German alike. He talks of those that helped him survive, including a German officer by the name of Wilm Hosenfeld. Without his man, Wladyslaw Szpilman would not have made it to the end of the war.

He lost his entire family, hid by himself for years with limited human contact, got deathly ill, and somehow, he made it. And he never lost his talent for the piano nor his desire to live, to make it. It was an incredible story.

If you stumble across the book, pick it up. It is honest without being horribly graphic and shows the humanity and inhumanity that colors human history. How amazing is it to find that people can go through horrible and soul-crushing tragedies and still come out on top. The human spirit is incredible.

Thanks for sharing your story Mr. Szpilman.

Chuck

Saturday, April 4, 2015

2015 Reading Challenge: Lord of the Rings The Two Towers

2015 Reading Challenge: A Trilogy
Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers
398 pages

CHARACTERS:
Frodo Baggins (hobbit)
Sam Gamgee (hobbit)
Merry (hobbit)
Pippin (hobbit)
Gandalf the Grey (wizard)
Aragorn/Strider (man)
Gimli (dwarf)
Legolas (elf)
Saruman
Treebeard
Gollum
Various Men
Various Orcs
Various Ents

We pick up right where we left off in the first book. The Fellowship has broken up. Frodo and Sam left to head to Mordor without the others. Merry and Pippin are taken by the Orcs. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas are on a chase to get them back. Somehow, Merry and Pippin escape from the Orcs and meet Treebeard, an Ent-keeper. They rally the Ents to go against Saruman and protect their lands from his evil sorcery and his Orcs. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas meet the Riders of Rohan and Gandalf who is no longer Grey but now White because Saruman is evil and other stuff that he talks about. (Read the book.) They all meet up at Saruman's place where we find that Gandalf is now more powerful and good than Saruman. Pippin touches Saruman's evil magical ball and now Sauron can see into his mind so Gandalf has to take him to Rohan to protect everyone. (Nice going, Pippin! Screw everything up for everyone else why don't you!)

We leave the remainder of the group and go to Sam and Frodo and their new guide, Gollum/Smeagal. They journey through dead places to get to Mordor and have various near encounters with Orcs and a creepy thousand year old Lady Spider who has spawned with some other spiders to created evil spiders (I'm thinking maybe even the ones that Bilbo meets in The Hobbit.) Gollum abandons them and Sam must rush in to save the day.

And we are left waiting for the third installment of the journey of these characters found in The Return of the King.

I'd recommend this although I have to be honest and say that I enjoyed the first half of the book much more than the second half. It seemed to slow down a lot for me and took me a couple of weeks to finally get through.

Overall, two thumbs up. I'm excited for the third book and to finish the trilogy.

2015 Reading Challenge: Let it Go

2015 Reading Challenge: A memoir
Let it go
Chris Williams
151 pages
Non-fiction

Chris Williams writes of the events that transpired before and after a drunk driver hit and killed his wife, unborn child, one of his three sons, and his only daughter. The author write about how different events in his life helped prepare him for his great trial and how he used the love of Jesus Christ to forgive the teenage drunk driver responsible.

I chose this book because of a Mormon Message I found a while ago about this man and his story. Reading this book made me think of my own life and all that changes I've been through and the trials and how the unexpected loss of my brother affected my life.

This book talks a lot about how Chris William's faith in the Savior Jesus Christ helped him to "let it go" so that he could continue to move forward with his life and allow the young man who made such a fatal mistake find peace. It was an eye opener because I know I so often judge people and think that the mistakes they made a long time ago are who they are now. But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can change and align our will with His. Saying someone can't change is saying that the Atonement is null and void.

Let It Go was a really great book and I would recommend it to all. I think it will help put life into perspective and show how much God is aware of us and guiding us so that we can reach the potential that He put in us even through the hard trials we face in our lives.

I've included the Mormon Message as well... if you don't have time or don't want to cry while reading the book.



Yours,

Chuck