Why Wait?

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Why Wait? is another book that we received from my Dad for Christmas and one I just finished a couple days ago.  It is a very short read (just 80 pages) and a true story written by a man, Rob Quillen, from Lincoln, NE and his life changing flight from Denver to Newark on September 10, 2001.  He sat next to a pilot named Jason Dahl where they talk the whole way about their lives and their dreams for the future.  The next day Jason Dahl piloted the United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania during the 9/11 attacks.  Quillen was also a witness to seeing the towers collapse as he was in NYC for business.  It is a story about his experience with Dahl, seeing the attacks, and how he decided to carry out one of the dreams that Dahl had for his son.  The premise of the book is listening to others, getting to know them, and helping their dreams come true.  We need to go through life not only being active in making our dreams come true but the dreams of others as well.  So why wait?

Books I've Been Reading/Listening To

I've kinda gotten back on the book bandwagon with the help of family recommending some, loaning some, and just for the fact that I love to read.

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly

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This book was actually an audio book lent to me which made it nice so I didn't have to set aside any time to read. Nolan and I would just listen to one disc a day during lunch. I found this book to be very interesting and I felt that I learned a lot about history that I didn't know and it was really fascinating. O'Reilly does a great job of painting a picture that makes you feel like you were actually in that time period. I would say the first few discs were a bit slow with a lot of history packed in but the last few were very action packed and made you want to keep listening for more. Definite recommend from me. I am currently in the middle of listening to Killing Kennedy so I will let you know how that one turns out.

Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

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All I'm going to say about this book is that I'm glad I only paid $1.99 for the Kindle version when it was on sale. Ellen is a very funny person. I watch her show almost every day if there is a guest I'm interested in, but this book would have never gotten a second look if it wasn't for her name listed as the author. I don't know if I'm used to her ramblings and streams of consciousness from watching her show, but that was literally the whole book. It was just nothingness and I'm not sure if I laughed very much cause I was getting bored from the nonsensical way that it was written. If you don't watch Ellen every day, this might be funny for you as she has a different style to her comedy. On a positive note, it is a fast read and you will be happy it was.

Fearless by Max Lucado

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While I read Ellen's book during the day, I read a chapter of this book before bed every night. This was gifted to me by my dad for Christmas as I think he knows we have a little trouble in the worry department. Especially me anyway. This book's premise is "Imagine Your Life Without Fear". It is a pretty quick read and makes a lot of great points that I need to remind myself of daily. The very last chapter has some good insight, "There's a stampede of fear out there. Let's not get caught in it. Let's be among those who stay calm. Let's recognize danger but not be overwhelmed. Acknowledge threats but refuse to be defined by them. Let others breathe the polluted air of anxiety, not us. Let's be numbered among those who hear a different voice, God's." That is something I need to read and pray about every morning and I'm sure a lot of us can attest to that.
I've already started on another audio book, a fiction book, and will be starting another quick one to read before bed, so I will let you know how those turn out!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Series

I know, another series, I am yet behind again on.  I read the first The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book about 2 years ago and I read The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest within the last month.  My dad let me borrow the last two books, so there was no excuse not to finish, and of course since I started the series, I had to eventually finish it.

The whole series is set in Sweden, and they are actually Swedish books translated into English for those of us who aren't familiar with our ancestral language.  Each one of the books has its own different plot line with major twists and turns, but all three books coincide with one another with everything being resolved in the final one.  Between the first and second books, I think it was alright to have a gap there because the next book didn't pick up until about 6 months later in their lives.  But between the second and third books, they pick up the next minute of one another so its good I read those fluidly or I maybe would have forgotten a lot of it. 

The first book really sets the stage for the other two books.  You find out who the main characters are, their personalities, and some key points that will be important for future books.  The characters come together in this book to solve a mystery of a missing girl. You don't want to put it down as you just want to keep reading and reading. The second book takes off after the aftermath of the first book and additional characters and drama are added.  You find out more about Salander's family and get more answers as to why she is who she is.  The third book as I said, wraps everything up.  I found this the hardest one to get through because over the first half of it is them introducing even more characters and establishing even more background and history, so I felt there was just a lot of information to process.  With names like Svensson, Jonasson, Martensson, etc. I was having a bit of trouble keeping track of who the good and bad guys were.  Especially when I fall asleep about 10 pgs in to any book if it isn't the most exciting thing ever.  Eventually, when I got to pg 372, I felt that things were starting to happen and come together.  I know that is a lot of reading to get to that point, but there were still 200 pages to go and the whole series concludes everything very nicely.  You needed all of the beginning information to understand how it all ends.  All questions are answered and all justice is served.  I don't think that I would have wanted it to end any other way.

Fun and awesome series to read if you have a bit more time.  Like I said, it took about a month to read the last two books as they are all well over 500 pages each and like most people, I don't have time to read 24 hours a day.  The series does a great job of keeping you on your toes and making you want to turn the next page (with the exception of the first part of the third book, but it was necessary).  As soon as you think you have something figured out, something else happens to change that whole mindset.  Just really good and it hits upon some serious issues in the world such as violence towards women.  They are violent books, but they are suspenseful and interesting, and I would recommend reading them!

We watched the Swedish version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" about a year ago so we need to now watch the Swedish versions of the last two books as well as America's version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  It will be interesting to compare how the different countries do their versions of the movie as well as their adaptations from the book.  The other two movies for the second and third book are not yet made in America, so those will have to wait.

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The Hunger Games

I know, I know, I'm late to the party.  Like really late.  But in this case it is way better to be late than not come at all.  Man, have I been missing out on this business.  Knowing we would have such a long car ride to Minnesota, I decided I would load my Kindle with the first Hunger Games book so I would have something to read on the way there.    Unfortunately, we started driving at night and I didn't have a good light for my Kindle, so on the way there I didn't get much reading done and I tried my best to do some while Nolan was napping during the course of the trip.  I eventually finished the first book the day we got back and I started and finished the second book in under 24 hours.  I started and finished the third book in two days.  After reading the second book, I literally had chills and not even a minute later I had the third one loaded and began reading it.  So in under a week, I read all of the books.  I seriously couldn't put them down.  I took my Kindle everywhere with me for the hopes that I could get a few words in.

It is such an interesting storyline and one that always keeps you on the edge of your seat.  I thought the second one was the best of the three, then the first one, then the third one.  But, all were absolutely fantastic.  For those who haven't read them, I'm not going to talk about it too much because I really don't want to ruin anything for you, but the premise is that 2 children, ages 12-18, from each district (one boy and one girl) get chosen every year to compete in the Hunger Games where the tributes fight to the death.  Once chosen, the whole thing becomes a reality show in the way that the tributes are presented to the world with their costumes, interviews, and eventually the games.  The world watches everything that they do, and can hear everything that they say during the games.

When I look at how many reality shows we have these days, it strangely makes me think of our society in the fact that we can't get enough of watching what other people do.  Whether it is completely tragic,  ridiculous, or enviously fortunate, we are becoming too obsessed with other people.  We want to see others fail more than we want them to succeed.  So the fact that the Capitol enjoys putting the Hunger Games on every year sort of reflects who we are right now.  It's kind of crazy to think about.

After completing the books, I became quite obsessed and started watching some YouTube videos to see trailers of the first movie.  I wanted to see how they portrayed everything and the type of characters they picked for each part.  I am really excited to see the first movie, which comes out on Blu Ray on August 18th.  Eeeeek I can't wait!  If you haven't read these, you must!

Here is a great trailer that gives a good indication of what the first book is about.  Enjoy!

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