Book Review: Born Standing Up

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

James' Rating: 5/5 -- My review on Goodreads.

I'm moving all my reviews to Goodreads. It appears to be one of the better review sites that i have seen. As always, FriendFeed has feeds from all the services i use and has great filtering to weed out the cruft.

Book Review: It's Not About Me

There are many times when i want to whine about life being unfair, complain about some circumstance, get a little depressed over some issue, or even get a little concerned when some health issue arises. That's when you need the reminder...

It's Not About Me serves as that reminder nicely. Despite being a New York Times bestseller, Max Lucado does a good job of taking the reader on a journey; stopping first to remind us who God is, then taking the next step to talk about what that means for you and me.

The first couple of chapters are a little too wordy, using just too many words (examples, metaphors) to get the point across. I actually took a break from this book to read another one. I was happy that this book got better the farther along i read.

Find yourself thinking too much about yourself? If you answered, "no, i'm too important to do that," then this one is for you. :-)

James' Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Through the Storm

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.  What?  You ain't reading this blog yet?

Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World from Thomas Nelson Publishers is nearly an autobiography of Lynne Spears. Mother of Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears.

Why read this book? If for no other reason than to glean some wise words from a mother who has rode waves that few of us will ever see. I believe that is reason enough. If you are a pop-culture addict, this will likely give you a fix too. I'm pretty pop-ignorant so several issues were new to me.

The book is an easy read; set aside a mere four hours to make it cover to cover. It is well written and is formulated similar to a screenplay -- a foreshadow perhaps? The primary story arc is about Lynne, with a second encompassing the eldest daughter; however, there are other subplots which are diverse and interspersed enough to keep you engaged. The book has thirty chapters and i only found myself frustrated with a couple of them (ie. screaming move along).

Lynne is a mom who loves her children and is forced to deal with some surreal circumstances that sound sadly familiar coming from Hollywood land -- the Sheen/Estévez family comes to mind. While Mrs. Spears is quick to tell you where the media was wrong in their portrayal of her in the many public sagas, she makes no attempt to paint herself as a perfect mother.

Lastly, i had no idea that paparazzi is the plural form of paparrazo.

James' Rating:  4/5

Book Review: The Legacy

Subtitled "Ten Core Values Every Father Must Leave His Child", The Legacy by Steven J. Lawson is a great resource for the Christian father who wants to teach and model his values for his children.

The book would be well suited for a small group setting. It was a little tedious reading it straight through. It got to feeling a tad repetitious with an over abundance of examples. While part of that is due to my personality, i think it could have been tightened up a bit.

Not part of a small group? Start one! And here is a great text with which to start.

James' Rating: 4/5

Book Review: The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers

This was a real treat after finishing that last book. The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers offers a real insight into the man we all knew as a kid. It is also from Thomas Nelson Publishers. Amy Hollingsworth, the author, had a unique relationship with Mr. Rogers. This relationship provides the materials on which the book is based; these include letters, phone calls, voice mails, and meetings with Mr. Rogers.

I wasn't surprised to discover he was the same off camera. I saw the Candid Camera episode and find my memory of it to be quite vivid. I found this description elsewhere, but could not find the attribution:

An episode of "Candid Camera" had hidden cameras in a hotel where there was a TV critics' convention. As the story goes, a hotel employee would come into a TV critic's room and announce that, unfortunately, they must remove the television to give to another room. Each of the critics responded in a better-than-thou fashion that they were television critics and that they must have a television.

It so happens that Fred Rogers was at this same convention and "Candid Camera" made a visit to his room for their gag. His response?

"Sure. That's OK."

"You don't mind if we take your TV?"

"That's fine. I'm reading a good novel. I'll just read."

Mr. Rogers knew something about talking to kids ... you have to be real. Authentic. Genuine. Why would he act differently when he was not knowingly in front of a camera? He wouldn't, of course. He stood in stark contrast to the others that Alan Funt toyed with that day.

Mr. Rogers is an excellent role model for kids and adults alike.

Additionally, the most important aspect of this book for me was that it made me think a little differently about how to raise kids. Even if you are not religiously inclined, this book still provides a lot of insights for parents or hopeful parents-to-be.

James' Rating: 5/5

Book Review: The Faith of Barack Obama

Disclaimer: I received this book as part of a promotional offer extended on Michael Hyatt's blog, From Where I Sit. He is President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

From Thomas Nelson Publishers comes an interesting sounding book, The Faith of Barack Obama. Written by Stephen Mansfield, the book provides the reader a great view of the home into which Obama was born and raised and how that affected his journey of faith and practice.

The good news (pun not intended) and bad news is that the first three chapters tell the story of the Faith of Barack Obama. The first three chapters plus ten pages of photos (that seem out of place in a book of this type) comprise 80 pages, or over half the book. So what about the last half?

The last 70 pages are split in to two pieces that i would label as "faith in politics" and "healers".

The faith in politics section was interesting, but did not flow as well as the first three chapters. In addition to providing an overview of how Obama has brought his faith into his campaigns, Mansfield also touches on the faith of George W. Bush, John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

The last section (and chapter) of the book is where the author jumps the shark. The basic summary:

Perhaps we have come to a moment when a common devotion to God may fuel a national resolve to break cycles of poverty, challenge strongholds of racism, reinforce ethical conduct among the powerful and the powerless, deliberate on the morality of war before it is declared, and end the moral scourges of our time. If this is so, then part of the impact of Barack Obama in our generation may be for just such a purpose: to help wed faith to a political vision that leads to meaningful change in our time.

As if healing the nation hasn't been among the phrases used for every new tenant of the White House for the last thirty years. As if all previous U.S. presidents have been card carrying atheists. Yeah, that last chapter didn't resonate with me at all.

In spite of the last chapter, i liked the book. The biographical nature of the first three chapters made it interesting. Mansfield does a great job of handling the Trinity United Church of Christ and its former pulpit occupant Jeremiah Wright.

Thomas Nelson Publishers did give us bribed bloggers permission to share a PDF of the first two chapters (actually 48 pages, or one-third) of the book. Enjoy.

James' Rating: 3.5/5

House Maintenance

After a catastrophic hardware failure at textdrive and two days of downtime, i was forced to either start losing mail or move email to a different service.

I already had my eye on Google Apps. I was actually prepared to cough up the $50/user/year, because i forgot they had a free edition.

I jumped on the free band-wagon. Told them about my existing domain. Added a DNS alias to confirm i was the domain owner. Enabled Gmail for my domain. Add my wife as a user and set-up some useful aliases. Added the seven (7) MX records Google provided -- a mere six more than i had before! And voila. Mail started coming in almost immediately.

I had been using Gmail for my home mail for more than two years. I wasn't about to start using two browser tabs to track email, so i promptly set-up the Google Apps robinsonhouse.com account to forward all email to my gmail.com account.

Google now owns my email; the final piece of the hosting puzzle. I have no need for a hosting provider now.

Are you still paying for hosting? If so, why?