Simplify is a self-help book in the classic "lean on God" genre providing readers with 8 key lessons based on each letter of the word SIMPLIFY. The method is overused, but effective, perhaps that is why its overused.
As with most self-help books, I started this one and got through about 3 chapters before I gave up. I always mean to try their suggestions, but ironically I never find the time. The author, Carolyn J. Rasmus actually encourages the reader to take a chapter at a time and work on it for awhile. Definitely not my strategy, hence the overwhelmed feeling the book produced.
I finally returned to the book after I suggested it to a book club that I'm hosting tomorrow night, and I had to sit down to read it this time. Not really wanting to like this gimmicky book, the author had a hard sell. She succeeded. The section of each chapter called "Getting Started" saved the book for me. Because specific steps were presented, the book goes beyond the "Sunday School" answers.
An LDS read, this book is great for those people feeling overwhelmed by the pace of 21st Century life. The power lies in the focus on priorities, but most importantly on feeding the soul so you can stay focused on the important things in life.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Suite Scarlett
The Martins own a small, historic hotel, The Hopewell, in New York City. Wealthy, the Martins are not, in fact, they've let all of the help go and are relying on their teenage children to keep it all going. Spence, nineteen, is a classic clown-comedic actor who is out of work. Lola, eighteen, is the beautiful perfect older sister, always pleasing others instead of herself. Scarlett is the central figure of the story. She inherits the Empire Suite of the hotel and its permanent guest, Mrs. Amberson, on her fifteenth birthday. Suddenly, Scarlett's life becomes a whirlwind of activity.
Author Maureen Johnson is so hit and miss for me. This novel is odd. The characters are endearing if not quite believable. It takes most of the book to escape their stereotypes, but thankfully they do. I did like Scarlett, she seems the most real, but the parents were so out of it that I really had a hard time buying them as real. Fun and fantastical, the setting perhaps is real for those who have wandered the streets of New York, but felt odd. There's that word again. I can't decide if I like this book or not, but it intrigued me enough that I'm going to read the sequel.
Author Maureen Johnson is so hit and miss for me. This novel is odd. The characters are endearing if not quite believable. It takes most of the book to escape their stereotypes, but thankfully they do. I did like Scarlett, she seems the most real, but the parents were so out of it that I really had a hard time buying them as real. Fun and fantastical, the setting perhaps is real for those who have wandered the streets of New York, but felt odd. There's that word again. I can't decide if I like this book or not, but it intrigued me enough that I'm going to read the sequel.
Friday, September 3, 2010
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Nujood remembers a time when her rural Yemen village was idyllic.
Early childhood was blessed as she played with her sisters, food was plentiful, and her parents were loving. Of course, she was a proper girl and always did what her father and brothers told her.
Life changed suddenly when for reasons no one explained the family packed up and moved to a large city to live in the slums where her father became addicted to the euphoria produced by chewing khat and the whole family suffered. As life grew more desperate, Nujood's older siblings disappear. Nearly alone, Nujood discovers that her father is planning to marry her off at the age of 10 to a man three times her age. Terrified, she appeals to her mother, her uncles, her bothers to no avail. She is married.
Hauled back to that idyllic village, that is to be her living hell, she is beaten by her mother-in-law by day and raped by her husband every night in spite of his promise to leave her alone until she comes of age. After months of torture, Nujood escapes and declares that she will no longer obey the men in her life.
Nujood had nothing in her life or childhood that would have taught her to stand up for herself, and yet she does. She is unsure and scared, as any child would be, but she is also determined.
Written relatively quickly following her release, the novel sounds childlike which seems odd and perfect for this horrible story of child abuse. Nujood is so very genuine. It is the adults who are drawn in the extremes of a child's black and white world; evil is dark while good is unbelievably divine. Still, the adults are not stereotyped, just portrayed through a child's eyes as she searches for understanding.
To say that I enjoyed this story seems wrong, but it touched my soul as I sorrowed for those girls around the world who are used by men and society, and I am grateful that, for now, I can still protect my little ones.
Early childhood was blessed as she played with her sisters, food was plentiful, and her parents were loving. Of course, she was a proper girl and always did what her father and brothers told her.
Life changed suddenly when for reasons no one explained the family packed up and moved to a large city to live in the slums where her father became addicted to the euphoria produced by chewing khat and the whole family suffered. As life grew more desperate, Nujood's older siblings disappear. Nearly alone, Nujood discovers that her father is planning to marry her off at the age of 10 to a man three times her age. Terrified, she appeals to her mother, her uncles, her bothers to no avail. She is married.
Hauled back to that idyllic village, that is to be her living hell, she is beaten by her mother-in-law by day and raped by her husband every night in spite of his promise to leave her alone until she comes of age. After months of torture, Nujood escapes and declares that she will no longer obey the men in her life.
Nujood had nothing in her life or childhood that would have taught her to stand up for herself, and yet she does. She is unsure and scared, as any child would be, but she is also determined.
Written relatively quickly following her release, the novel sounds childlike which seems odd and perfect for this horrible story of child abuse. Nujood is so very genuine. It is the adults who are drawn in the extremes of a child's black and white world; evil is dark while good is unbelievably divine. Still, the adults are not stereotyped, just portrayed through a child's eyes as she searches for understanding.
To say that I enjoyed this story seems wrong, but it touched my soul as I sorrowed for those girls around the world who are used by men and society, and I am grateful that, for now, I can still protect my little ones.
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