If I Perish

Book Description:

Remarkable story of the savage persecuation of a Christian in Korea during World War II, Ahn E. Sook (Esther Ahn Kim) stood alone among thousands of kneeling people. Her bold defiance of the tyrannical demand to bow to pagan Japanese shrines condemned her to a living death in the filth and degradation of a Japanese prison. This brave woman remained faithful to Christ in the face of brutality, oppression, and ruthlessness of her captors. The story of how she won many of her fellow prisoners to Christ, in the most deplorable conditions, is an inspirtation to all.

I reviewed Francis Chan's latest book "Forgotten God" this past fall. In this book he cites a Korean Christian woman who spent five years in Japanese prisons during WWII because she refused to worship Japanese shrines (which was a law at that time.) He described how this woman, knowing she would be going to prison in the near future, memorized several books of the Bible and ate rotten food in order to prepare herself for the harsh realities of prison.

Let me just restate that: She ate ROTTEN food BEFORE she was ever put in prison!!!

No one made her.

She did it out of her own choosing.

To prepare.

Wow...

I was intrigued by this story of perseverance and faith, so I check out Esther Ahn Kim's autobiography "If I Perish." Overall, I really enjoyed reading about this woman's life. I have to admit that halfway through it I shook my head and said "this woman can't be real." She was so good. Her compassionate reactions to the persecution of her jailers and fellow prisoners is amazing. Her bravery is inspiring.

It was a great book to read, albeit hard sometimes. It was awful reading about the Japanese cruelty to the Korean Christian prisoners. Yet it was a bold testimony of having undying faith for a God that will never go back on His promises.

To recap:

Worth reading? Yes

Worth buying my own copy? No

Recommend to friends? Maybe...those who are interested in this topic

Stars: 4 out of 5

What I Saw and How I Lied

Several months ago I was browsing at Barnes & Noble and came across “What I Saw and How I Lied” by Judy Blundell. After reading the description I thought it sounded interesting and sent myself an email home on my Blackberry so I’d remember the title and author. Fast forward several months and I found myself browsing a blog (it’s killing me I can’t find the blog where I saw this so I could link to the review!) that had a favorable review of this. So, I decided to put it on reserve at the library.

Inside Book Flap:

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him...until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two. As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between loyalty to her parents and feelings for a man she loves. Someone will have to betrayed. The question is...who?

It was interesting reading a novel about the timeframe just after WWII – I just don’t come in contact with much media that dwells on that time in history. I thought this book moved along very well and it certainly kept my interest. However, I had a hard time suspending belief that a 23-year-old soldier would shower affections on a nearly 16-year-old teenage girl. Granted this perception was from the 16-year-old’s point of view so it was a bit warped, but overall it was just sort of creepy and not believable for me.

Nonetheless, there were enough twists and turns in this YA book to have made it worth my while to read. That's probably why it was named a National Book Award winner in young people's literature. It was a fast, easy read that was a nice departure from some of the "heavy" books I’ve read lately.

To recap:
Worth reading? Yes, if you like YA
Worth buying my own copy? No
Recommend to friends? No (I don’t think most women my age would like it.)
Stars: 3 out of 5

Rough Re-entry

So, I haven't been able to post a book review in two weeks. I've been so bummed about this.

Returning back to work after having time off for 10 days for the holidays has been a rough re-entry. I had so much fun reading and exploring the book blog world. I'm just finding these last two weeks that this new world doesn't fit exceptionally well into my normal reality. After being on a computer all day at work I just really don't have much desire to be on the computer when I get home. I just want to chill and read.

The good news is that I haven't totally fallen off a log. I have been reading. I finished "If I Perish" on Wednesday night and blew through "What I Saw and How I Lied" over this weekend. I'm going to try to publish reviews this week on those two books.

I'm going to start reading one of the books from the challenge "Books I Want to Read Before I Die." I've chosen "Gone With the Wind" as the first one for 2010. I was a bit shocked when I checked the book out of the library and saw that it was over 1,000 pages long. And we all thought Stephenie Meyer was a bit long winded at times! I'm encouraged though because my friend Terri said that she's read "Gone With the Wind" several times and loves it every time. There's hope that it won't be totally slow and boring if someone is willing to read it over and over again!

Books I Read in 2009

In November 2008 I got sucked into reading the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. I truly believe that three weeks of my life went into a black hole. I was a zombie and all I wanted to do was to read, read, read. Fortunately, I snapped out of the funk and began realizing I had a family and responsibilities and began functioning somewhat normally again.

People argue whether the Twilight books are good or bad. I took them for what they were worth...young adult fiction that was a breeze and blast to read. What I am gratful for is that reading the Twilight series reawakened a love for reading again. I truly think I was burnt out on reading from college and just couldn't bring myself to read because I equated it with boring subjects. Twilight taught me again that reading can be fun. Thus, I began a new reading journey in 2009.

My goal was to read 25 books and I'm pleased as punch that I accomplished my goal! The books are mainly fiction with a few Christian non-fiction books sprinkled in. (And as I reflect on the list maybe a bit too many Nicholas Sparks' books in hindsight!) I would like to read 75 books in 2010. I'll keep you posted on that challenge as the year progresses.

2009 Books I Read

1. Graceling - Favorite

2. The Girl Who Could Fly

3. The Host

4. The Lucky One

5. The Wedding

6. The Hunger Games - Favorite

7. Sundays at Tiffany's

8. Fireflies in December - Favorite

9. Crazy Love - Favorite (Christian NF)

10. The Choice

11. Twilight (reread from 2008...I was bored...couldn't sleep)

12. The Irresistible Revolution - Christian NF - it will leave your head spinning for a few weeks

13. Pemberley - Hated

14. Jane Austen Ruined My Life - Too predictable

15. Dreamhunter - Favorite

16. Dead Until Dark- Hated

17. The Air I Breathe - Book for my Theology of Worship class

18. The Rescue

19. Dreamquake

20. Fire

21. Catching Fire

22. The Dust of 100 Dogs (my review)

23. The Day the Falls Stood Still (my review)

24. Forgotten God - Favorite (my review)

25. Cottonwood Whispers - Favorite (my review)

26. Secrets of the Secret Place - Christian NF (great devotional)

27. Dear John

2010 Books to Read Before I Die Challenge

Diane over at Bibliophile By the Sea is hosting "Books to Read Before I Die" challenge. I thought this would be a good one for me to start branching out into more challenging fiction. I've decided on ten books to go after in 2010.

1. The Thorn Birds

2. The Sound and the Fury

3. The Grapes of Wrath

4. Wuthering Heights

5. Jane Eyre

6. Gone with the Wind

7. Pride & Prejudice

8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

9. The Count of Monte Cristo

10. The Bible

I'll revisit the post and update the list with my completion dates.

2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

One of the things I'm learning with book blogging is that many blogs I read have "challenges."

- Read 6 Classics in 2010
- Read 10 New Authors in 2010
- Etc, etc. etc.

Since I'm a huge fan of the local library, I was excited to come across this reading challenge at J. Kaye's Book Blog. I think this one is going to be cake for me seeing as I check out nearly all the books I read at the library. (Especially if the books I check out and read to my daughters count...well, maybe they'll count for 1/2 a point.)

I am signing up for the Just My Size level - 50 books in 2010. This will be the post where I'll keep track of my list of books.

1. If I Perish - Esther Ahn Kim - 1/13/2010

2. What I Saw and How I Lied - Judy Blundell - 1/17/2010

3. The Last Song - Nicholas Sparks

4. Blackout - Connie Willis

5. The Dawn of a Thousand Nights - Tricia Goyer

6. The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

7. James and the Giant Peach

8. The Book Whisperer

9. The Sword

10. Water for Elephants

11. Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers

12. Out Live Your Life - Max Lucado

13. A Memory Between Us