December Book: I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story.

[victoriaeremita.livejournal.com]

With the busy holiday season I only managed to read one book this month. Hopefully I'll do better with my reading goals in 2009.

1. I Am a Soldier Too: The Jessica Lynch Story by: Rick Bragg
I remembered seeing and hearing quite a bit about Jessica Lynch when the US first entered the 2003 war on Iraq. At that time I was too busy to follow the story in detail, but I have always been interested in her experience. The book is suppose to be the closest first hand account by Jessica Lynch written and told by author Rick Bragg. Sadly, the book didn't live up to my expectations and Bragg goes down as a terrible writer. He has so many cheesy sentences that lack structure and are unable to tell cohesive story that I almost gave up. It was that annoying. The story and recollection from Jessica Lynch also disappoints. Her story seems to be able to be summed up in a chapter or less, but Bragg drags it out a full 240 pages. I thought there were so many issues that could have been talked brought up and discussed, but sadly it all sails under the radar, and the reader is left with a very forced "war hero' story. 1/5

Reading goals and articles

[jennymae.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year, everyone!

It's been SUCH fun having this community more active these past few days!  I've really enjoyed everyone's posts, so keep it up! :-)

My reading goals for 2009 are fairly simple:

1. To read more books than I did last year.  That's been my goal for the last several years, and this year I squeaked by with 2 more books than last year.  Yay!!  Haha.
2. To read more Christian living/theology/Bibilical studies/church history books.  So far, that list includes Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney (re-reading some of his other books would be good, too), Did I Kiss Marriage Good-bye? and Radical Womanhood by Carolyn McCulley, to name a few.  Any other ideas/suggestions?

Also, I came across two articles about reading that I thought were interesting which you all might be interested in.  (Sorry, those of you who are my FL got this twice. :-))  I'll link them here:

• 10 Tips to Read More and Read Better is written by Tim Challies of Challies.com.  It might be helpful for helping to develop your reading plan for next year--if you haven't done that already.  I know I've definitely considered following in the footsteps of Dr. Mohler (who reads incredible numbers of books each week/month/year) and reading books in various categories so as to broaden my reading horizon.  I don't think I'm going to do anything formal--this year at least.
• Bush is a Book Lover is an article from The Wall Street Journal written by Karl Rove and talks about the books that President Bush has read the last few years, and the reading competition he and Rove have had.  Not only do I find it fascinating to see what all the president has been reading, but I am amazed at how many he's able to read while in office.  Ha, and I thought I was so busy, but he's managed to read a book (or more) a week.  Crazy.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great New Years!  :-)