What's the last book you read?

[Aish HaTorah]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

A Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi were great friends, and one day they were talking about entry into covenants. The priest said, "We have the Great Commission, to baptize all creatures. I wonder if that includes bears?" So the rabbi challenged him to baptize a bear. The next day, the rabbi asked the priest, and the priest told him, "Yes, I did go into the forest and came across a bear. Remembering our conversation, I sprinkled him with holy water, so he is baptized."

The next week, the priest got a call from the hospital, and rushed there to visit his rabbi friend in intensive care. The rabbi had a punctured lung, a fractured jaw, and had been badly mauled. The priest asked the rabbi what happened. "You remember how you baptized that bear?" The priest nodded, and the rabbi said, "That inspired me. I decided if a Catholic could convert animals, surely I could do the same." "What went wrong?" asked the priest. The rabbi responded, "Actually, everything was going just great until the bris."

HAHA!  I just read this AFTER I responded to Lehi. 

[Sunday21]

I am reading, "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Dance" by Elna Baker. She describes her life as a twentyish Mormon girl living in New York City. It is by turns depressing, funny, and a bit shocking. It is odd that she feels the Spirit, has witnesses from the Holy Ghost but also resents the church. I may be wrong, as I am half way through the book, but I feel she is moving towards inactivity. 

[Connie]

On 4/17/2016 at 7:14 PM, Sunday21 said:

I am reading, "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Dance" by Elna Baker. She describes her life as a twentyish Mormon girl living in New York City. It is by turns depressing, funny, and a bit shocking. It is odd that she feels the Spirit, has witnesses from the Holy Ghost but also resents the church. I may be wrong, as I am half way through the book, but I feel she is moving towards inactivity. 

Sounds interesting. I'd love to hear your final conclusions on it once you've finished.

[pam]

I'm currently about half way through with the book The Undaunted by Gerald Lund.  I am seriously enjoying it so far.

[Guest MormonGator]

On April 17, 2016 at 9:14 PM, Sunday21 said:

I am reading, "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Dance" by Elna Baker. She describes her life as a twentyish Mormon girl living in New York City. It is by turns depressing, funny, and a bit shocking. It is odd that she feels the Spirit, has witnesses from the Holy Ghost but also resents the church. I may be wrong, as I am half way through the book, but I feel she is moving towards inactivity. 

I've heard about that one too. It's on my list. 

[Vort]

On 4/17/2016 at 6:14 PM, Sunday21 said:

I am reading, "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Dance" by Elna Baker. She describes her life as a twentyish Mormon girl living in New York City. It is by turns depressing, funny, and a bit shocking. It is odd that she feels the Spirit, has witnesses from the Holy Ghost but also resents the church. I may be wrong, as I am half way through the book, but I feel she is moving towards inactivity. 

Sounds pretty sad. I have not read the book, but based on the description, it sounds like someone standing near the tree of life and doing a dance for the plaudits of those in the great and spacious building. Choose ye this day...

[Sunday21]

18 hours ago, Vort said:

Sounds pretty sad. I have not read the book, but based on the description, it sounds like someone standing near the tree of life and doing a dance for the plaudits of those in the great and spacious building. Choose ye this day...

Dear Vort,

Yes it is a bit like that...and rather sad... The book is by turns insightful, funny, and frustrating. In one sense, I want to recommend that young women's leaders read the book to understand what some women are going through but on the other hand, what is the point? If you are considering walking towards the great and spacious building what can be done for you? Not much, I think. The Bishop asked me if I would like to be Young Women's leader, not a call but asking about my circumstances. I was not able to be Young Women's leader at that time but.. I am interested in the issues associated with helping Young Women remain in the church. Helping Young Women remain in the church is a complex issue. If I was raising a girl, I do not know if I would explicitly bring up some of the issues. Bluntly, I am not sure if being open about some of the issues is really a good idea.

Another thing about this book, it is well-written in terms of sentence structure, engrossing, raises provocative questions. On the other hand, there is profanity. Not a lot but it is there. Why the massive increase in profanity, obscenity and just plain nastiness in the media in the last 10 years? Think "Game of Thrones", Breaking Bad etc. What is going on? The media has dramatically increased in questionable content in the last decade to the extent that it is challenging to find "lds friendly" material. If your goal is to have the Holy Ghost with you at all times, then entertainment has become a thorny problem.

[Vort]

25 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

If I was raising a girl, I do not know if I would explicitly bring up some of the issues. Bluntly, I am not sure if being open about some of the issues is really a good idea.

As the father of a daughter, I am interested in this. What issues do you think are better left unexplored?

25 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Why the massive increase in profanity, obscenity and just plain nastiness in the media in the last 10 years? Think "Game of Thrones", Breaking Bad etc. What is going on?

We have allowed Hollywood to dictate almost every facet of our public morality, from sexual expression to the words we use. And Hollywood has a filthy mouth.

26 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

If your goal is to have the Holy Ghost with you at all times, then entertainment has become a thorny problem.

Unless you simply leave popular "entertainment" behind. Problem solved. Though by definition, that is an unpopular solution.

[Sunday21]

On April 18, 2016 at 0:29 PM, pam said:

I'm currently about half way through with the book The Undaunted by Gerald Lund.  I am seriously enjoying it so far.

Issues we may not want to explore. Looking at the population where I live, we have a gender imbalance. Some of our young women are going to be faced with the choice of marrying out or not marrying. For some of our girls who do not marry, we are going to have to raise our girls to earn a living. Bluntly in the church, were I live, most of the moms assume that the girls will marry so there is no need for them to get a career job. Life, even in Canada, 

 

2 hours ago, Vort said:

 

on minimum wage is dire. Why do we want to leave this issue unexplored? 1) Where I am, we convert a significant number of young women. I wonder what would happen to the conversion stats if they knew that being a member meant giving up dreams of home and family? 2) converting moms and dads here to the concept of your daughter needs to earn a living is a hard sell. I am one of very few university educated female members here. 3) no one seems to what to discuss the fact that so many young men jump ship. What's going on? Do they have nonmormon girlfriends? Are they not enjoying the young men's programs? 

There is some family friendly media. But you need to search. Studio C, Costume Drama (not Games of Thrones! Yikes!), older shows. 

Edited April 21, 2016 by Sunday21

[Guest]

The Ranger's Apprentice Series.

I got tired of hearing my kids talk about it and spout out references that I did not recognize.  So, now they spout out references from another series of books which I have yet to read.

[Guest MormonGator]

Cycle of Lies by Juliet Macur. 

it's about the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong. 

You want proof of how stupid I am? I believed Lance Armstrong 100% up until the bitter end. At times I thought he was the victim of a witch hunt by angry people who wanted to take him down. 

[pam]

On 5/2/2016 at 0:50 PM, MormonGator said:

Cycle of Lies by Juliet Macur. 

it's about the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong. 

You want proof of how stupid I am? I believed Lance Armstrong 100% up until the bitter end. At times I thought he was the victim of a witch hunt by angry people who wanted to take him down. 

You aren't the only one that believed him too.  

[pam]

I just finished Undaunted by Gerald Lund.  To be honest, I started getting bored towards the end.

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

58 minutes ago, pam said:

I just finished Undaunted by Gerald Lund.  To be honest, I started getting bored towards the end.

I remember I loved his previous books so I really wanted to like this one...but so far, I haven't been able to get past the first few pages.  Now I know it's recommended for writers not to write in dialect.  Man, it's annoying.  

[pam]

7 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

I remember I loved his previous books so I really wanted to like this one...but so far, I haven't been able to get past the first few pages.  Now I know it's recommended for writers not to write in dialect.  Man, it's annoying.  

I read it all of the way through because I enjoy "historical" books. Actually I found the footnotes/resources/comments more interesting than the actual story.

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

9 minutes ago, pam said:

I read it all of the way through because I enjoy "historical" books. Actually I found the footnotes/resources/comments more interesting than the actual story.

Maybe I'll just read the footnotes, LOL!

 

[Guest MormonGator]

7 hours ago, pam said:

You aren't the only one that believed him too.  

Thanks Pam. The entire situation I just find more sad than anything else now. 

[Guest MormonGator]

In keeping with trashy biographies, I'm reading "The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney" by William J Brines and Richard A Lertzman. It's tough to read in some parts because the guy was such a train wreck. I had much more sympathy for him before I started to read it. Granted, I am not finished with it yet though. 

He wasn't just a former child star gone wrong-he was a nasty, cruel person  

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

@MormonGator , so you really like biographies?

I'm just starting Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Lopez and Stand for the Family by Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International.

[Guest MormonGator]

1 hour ago, LiterateParakeet said:

@MormonGator , so you really like biographies?

I'm just starting Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Lopez and Stand for the Family by Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International.

 Love them. My favorite autobiographies of all time are Cash by Johnny Cash and Commando by Johnny Ramone 

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

2 hours ago, MormonGator said:

 Love them. My favorite autobiographies of all time are Cash by Johnny Cash and Commando by Johnny Ramone 

You make me curious. What is Commando about?

[Guest MormonGator]

11 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

You make me curious. What is Commando about?

Johnny Ramone was the guitarist for the legendary punk rock band, The Ramones. Commando is his autobiography. It's written in a very straight forward, upfront style-just like how he was.  

[JonnieZ]

The Lincoln Hypothesis. An interesting read. Before that I read Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith. They go hand in hand.

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

20 minutes ago, JonnieZ said:

The Lincoln Hypothesis. An interesting read. Before that I read Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith. They go hand in hand.

Oh, I've been thinking about reading The Lincoln Hypothesis! If only it was on audible, I'd start today.

[Guest MormonGator]

On May 18, 2016 at 0:57 PM, LiterateParakeet said:

Oh, I've been thinking about reading The Lincoln Hypothesis! If only it was on audible, I'd start today.

Audible is the most used app on my phone, by a long shot.