Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

I really enjoyed this book. Lewis eloquently defends and explains Christianity in a clear and logical way. I especially enjoyed his thoughts on pride.


How to be Good by Nick Hornby

It seems to me now that the plain state of being human is dramatic enough for anyone; you don't need to be a heroin addict or a performance poet to experience extremity. You just have to love someone.

Great book. I almost picked up Hornby's About a Boy a few years ago (I saw the movie instead - and loved it). I didn't know what I was missing. Hornby is a wonderful writer. His characters and very real and everyday.

In this story, Katie Carr's marriage is suffering because her husband is angry and sarcastic. She doesn't want to divorce him, but she doesn't want him to be who he is. She wants to still be married to the father of her children, to have her family's structure intact, but she wants him to change almost completely. When he actually does drop the sarcasm and becomes a do-gooder, it is harder for her to deal with his new identity than his old one.

This book is funny, thought provoking, and sad. I didn't like the ending at first, but the more it has settled, the more right I think it was.


A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Four people who would never normally even associate with each other help each other in odd ways. They have each decided to commit suicide and they find themselves all on the roof of the same tall building, but instead of jumping they decide to help the young girl in the group.

The story is told from each of the four people's perspectives and Hornby does a good job of keeping each voice distinct. He explores their reasons for not wanting to live and their relationships with each other in a funny and thoughtful way. I'm not doing the book justice with my description here, but I highly recommend it.


Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith

This is the third in the the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series about a lady detective in Botswana. I read the first two and really enjoyed them. This book reads much the same as the other two. It's funny, sweet and entertaining. In the end, though, while I thought this book was solidly good, it was as good as the first two.


Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Whatever you felt on hearing the news of conception, even if it was chagrin instead of joy, wasn't it supposed to be something the two of you shared? Your wife wasn't supposed to turn away from you, was she? You weren't supposed to have to work and wheedle to win her back, with little jokes and hand-holdings, as if you were afraid she might evaporate at the very moment of this first authentic involvement of your lives - that couldn't be right.

The editorial review on Amazon said that "Like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this novel conveys, with brilliant erudition, the exacting cost of chasing the American dream." I think that is absolutely not what this novel conveys. The main characters, a young married couple with two kids, are not chasing the American dream, they disdain it. They don't seem to care about money, they find their suburban neighbors contemptible and boring. They long to escape not only their neighborhood, but their country as well.

Their rocky marriage blooms for a short time under the wife's idea to move to Europe. She plans to work and allow her husband to quit his boring job. When he wonders what he'll do, she asks are only writers and artists entitled to lives of their own? Her short-lived belief in Frank (the husband) as an extraordinary person who can accomplish great things if he could just find himself both thrills and scares him.

This is a incredibly well written story that sucks you in and has you rooting for the characters even though it's obvious from the first chapter that these are not people who will make good choices for themselves. They are morally rootless and the pain they cause each other (and themselves) seems pointless and avoidable.

Highly recommended, but definitely PG-13 (although I wouldn't recommend it for a 13 year old).


Hungry Planet

This is a book put out by the same people who wrote Material World (a book that showed families from all over the world with all of their possessions laid out in front of their house). This book shows families with all of the food that they eat in one week. It's a very interesting book.