Book Review: Grave Descend by John Lange

Grave Descend by John Lange

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

Book Review: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

Book Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Pictures by W.W. Denslow

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

2011 E-Book Challenge

The 2011 E-Book Challenge is being hosted by The Ladybug Reads. I don't have an e-reader except for an app I downloaded to my computer from Google called "Reader Library" that allows me to download and read books from the Sony ReaderStore, including access to the free public domain books from Google Books.

Click the image above to go to the site of the challenge host for more information and to sign up for the challenge.  I am going to start small and try for the "Curious" Level (read 3 e-books), but I may surprise myself and reach one of the higher levels: Fascinated (6), Addicted (12), or Obsessed (20).


Books I've Read for the
2011 E-Book Challenge

1. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
2. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
3.

Bible in a Year 2011

Bible in a Year


With a fresh year ahead of me, I pray that this will be the year I read the Bible all the way through and hope to grow closer to God and learn more about Him and my role in His kingdom in the process.  Using the plan from the Bible Reading website, I am once again going to attempt to read the Bible in a year (BiaY). 

Last year I started out really well until I started missing a day here and there and trying to catch myself up before missing a few days.  Before long I had missed whole books and then abandoned the effort entirely, going right back to where I started.

At the top of my sidebar on top of the rest of my reading challenges this year is my tracker for the BiaY.  I am tracking it by number of chapters read (out of a total of 1189 chapters in the King James Version).  Fortunately the ubiquity of the Bible in many places makes missing a reading difficult to accomplish: I have used my pocket Bible, BibleGateway, and the Bible reading plan website to catch up on my reading in the past.  So, admittedly, I have no excuse to not do this.

Feel free to join in with me, too.  I need the extra accountability and support.

Book Review: The Night Room by E.M. Goldman

The Night Room
by E.M. Goldman

Publisher: Viking Penguin
ISBN: 0670858382
Paperback: 216 pages
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Source: Purchased at Dollar General.
Time to read: 3 days
aStore Link: The Night Room

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: H | Characterization: 3 | Overall: A- |
(Traditional Rating: 4.5 Stars)

Summary
Seven high school juniors are selected to participate in a computer program project called Argus, a simulator that thrusts each individual to their tenth high school reunion.  By combining lifestyle patterns obtained through student interviews, the students get a glimpse of what could be their futures.  As frightening and enlightening as that is, they also discover that one member of their group is missing from the reunion, a memorial plaque revealing her date of death.  Each successive student's experience with Argus adds another layer to the building suspense as Ira and the others try to figure out what happened to her and what they can do to stop it.  Through it all, the students discover more about themselves, their relationships, and the value of living.

The story in third-person narrative mainly follows student Ira Martinic, with a few side stories involving other members of the teen test group, as well as some behind-the-scenes drama with people directly involved in the production of Argus. 

My Reaction
When I saw that Goldman dedicated the book "To the Crew of the Starships Enterprise" and read her bio, I figured I would fit right in with her style of writing.  Throughout the book, the characters refer to Argus as a version of the Holodeck from the Star Trek series, and it was a fair approximation without being a complete copy of the idea.  The copyright date of 1995 placed the book in the timeline of when Star Trek: The Next Generation was a current series, which incidentally was the same time I was young and watching the series.  I related to this book well.

Although the 11th grade characters were a small sampling of typical school caricatures (school paper reporter, all-around nice guy, chick everyone wants to date, jock), Goldman did a good job of rounding them out as they reacted to their simulated future selves.  The background story involving the Argus developer and her assistants adds sufficient information to the story, as well as more interest in their characters.  In fact, I think I would really enjoy another book focusing on some of the college students' experiences with Argus that led up to the high school experiment.

Though written for the secondary school age bracket, The Night Room I think appeals to anyone who has been in high school and can remember those moments when planning for an adult future was all at once exciting, frightening, and intriguing.  Fans of Star Trek: TNG will also appreciate some humorous parallels.


Want this book?  Care to help out LeviSamJuno, too?  Click to buy The Night Room from my aStore.

Book Review: The Ruthless Realtor Murders by David A. Kaufelt

The Ruthless Realtor Murders (A Wyn Lewis Mystery)
by David A. Kaufelt

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

A to Z Reading Challenge

I had read about the A to Z Reading Challenge from many of the other Reading Challenges I've perused.  So in the spirit of doubling up my reading this year, I present my A to Z Reading List for Authors and Titles.  Click the above link for the official page.

A to Z Authors
A
B
C
D
E
Funke, Cornelia (Inkheart)
Goldman, E.M. (The Night Room)
H
I
J
Kaufelt, David A. (The Ruthless Realtor Murders)
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
Stevenson, Robert Louis (Treasure Island)
T
U
V
Woodruff, Elvira (Ghosts Don't Get Goosebumps)
X
Y
Z

A to Z Titles
A
Bone Factory, The (Nate Kenyon)
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Book Review: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

Bible in a Year Challenge

I present a new reading challenge that's a couple thousand years in the running: To Read the Bible in a Year.  Since I have already determined to read 100 books in a year, I consider this one to be the ultimate foundation of that reading challenge.

Today I began a 52 week Bible reading plan, partly because I have never read the Bible completely and was going to attempt it this year. But when our pastor made a request that all the congregation participate this year in attempting to read the Word over the course of the year (and even provided a daily guide to follow), I was doubly determined to do so.

I have to admit my severe slackness in reading and studying the Bible like I should. I tend to let everything in the world distract me or take priority over even a cursory glance at the scripture. So now I have the urge and method to increase my biblical exposure from whenever we read at church to a daily and personal study.

In addition to reading the Bible, I am going to attempt to apply what I read as I review at select points.  I will provide a summary of the text, what I knew before I read it, what I learned from reading, and finally what I see to be part of the doctrinal significance of the passage.

100+ Reading Challenge 2010

In order to kind of jump-start my daunting task of reading the mass of books on my shelf that I own and have yet to complete, I have decided to join the 2010 100+ Reading Challenge from J Kaye's Book Blog. I only learned about reading challenges at all in October, so I was a little late to start on anything. The 100+ Challenge gives challengers a year to read pretty much any one hundred (or more) books, which is a pretty flexible enough set of standards for me to attempt. Feel free to go along with it by clicking the image or the hyperlinked text above.

Below I will list the books as I read them.  Hyperlinked titles go to my review of that book.  At the end of each item is the date I finished the book.

THE LIST

January

1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Jan 10)

2. The Ruthless Realtor Murders by David A. Kaufelt (Jan 23)

3. The Night Room by E.M. Goldman (Jan 26)
4. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Jan 31)

February
5. The Bone Factory by Nate Kenyon (Feb 14)

March
(READING)
6. The Liberation of Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey
 (TO READ)

New America by Michael A. Smith

Walking Thru Hale by Angie PelphreyBeast by Peter Benchley

The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston

A Time to Kill by John Grisham

Buzz Riff: A Novel of Crime by Sam Hill

The Absolutes by James Robison

1984 by George Orwell

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December