Let It Go

Have you ever read a book that completely impacts your life? When you put the book down it never really leaves your thoughts. You think about it in the shower. You think about it on your drive to work. And usually it’s what you are thinking about right before you fall asleep. Well, I have read just such a book. It is called ‘Let It Go’ by Chris Williams. This book is a true story of one man’s tragedy and his continual effort to find peace and happiness after it.

Chris Williams was taking his family out for ice cream one Friday night when a drunk driver crashed into their car, instantly killing his pregnant wife and two children. This is the story of the healing process that he had to endure after that event and how he ‘frankly forgave’ the teenage drunk driver that killed half of his family.

This book was utterly inspiring to me. This man is absolutely incredible. I honestly do not know if I could forgive someone so completely after they hurt my family so terribly. He had enough faith to put this burden in the Lord’s hands and just let his Savior heal him. The whole time I was reading his story I kept thinking about how many grudges I am carrying on my shoulders. I can still remember some insults that I received in kindergarten from other five year olds. How pathetic is that? If this man can forgive, then I can too.

Before Williams wrote this book he created a ‘Mormon Message’, which is just a short video clip about members of the church and the experiences that they face in their life. In the clip you can see Williams speaking with Cameron, the drunk driving teenager. I posted it below so that you can get a little taste of what this book is about. If you are curious about the LDS Church you can find out more information at lds.org. 

Matched

The latest series that I read is called the 'Matched Series' by Allie Condie. I must admit that this is one of those "latest and greatest" series fads that everyone is reading and yes, I jumped on the bandwagon and read them too. The series is yet another futuristic series where a new form of government has taken over. This particular government is called The Society which holds complete control over practically everything that its citizens do. From where they work to who they marry every thing is pretty much decided for them. There is no choice. The reward for this is safety. There is no disease, no wars, just citizens living peaceful lives. When  The Society first came about they even had a committee to examine all of the art and music in the world. This committee selected 100 songs and 100 paintings to survive and destroyed the rest. Therefore there is no longer creation of art or music of any kind and has become a lost art. When teenagers reach a certain age they attend what is known as a Match Banquet. They get to go have a fancy dinner with food they have never had and at the end there is a ceremony where every teenager is given a match, or future spouse if you will, from somewhere in The Society. Almost everyone is matched to someone that they have never met, so when Cassia is matched to someone she has known her whole life, she is completely shocked. The week following the Match Banquet is the beginning of realization for Cassia  that The Society may not be as perfect as she always thought.

While I did enjoy this series and found it an entertaining read, I think it might be a little overrated. Yes it is good, but no it is not amazing. Just a fun read. I would recommend it, but I just hope it doesn't become an unbelievably overrated fad like Twilight (ugh). (Oh no, I wouldn't say these books are as terrible as Twilight, I was just referring to the fad thing.)

Austenland

I know it has been a while since I wrote a book recommendation post but I can assure you that I never stopped reading.  I have been reading two separate series and wanted to finish all of the books in each series before posting about them. The first series that I finished is the ‘Austenland’ series by Shannon Hale, who is one of my very favorite authors in case you didn’t know. There are only two books in this series; ‘Austenland’ and ‘Midnight in Austenland’.  

These books are about a home in England that you can pay to stay at for two weeks where you are completely immersed in the era of Jane Austen.  Everything is authentic to the time period including the clothes, food, speech, and social rules of etiquette.  At Pembrook Manor guests have all of their electronics taken away from them and literally have to pretend like they are living in one of Jane Austen’s novels. Actors are hired to court the women and at the end of their stay there is a grand ball. It is a perfect retreat for all Austen enthusiasts and a place where anything can happen.

Being a Jane Austen fan myself I found these novels very intriguing and entertaining to read. Having said that however, I do not necessarily feel that ‘Austenland’ quite held up to Shannon Hale’s usual standard of writing. It’s almost like you can tell that this is Hale’s first attempt at writing a novel for adults and she doesn’t really know how to navigate herself in this particular genre.  The same cannot be said for ‘Midnight in Austenland’ however. From the very beginning the second book in this series had me completely captivated and guessing until the very end. You can literally see Hale grow as an author as she tries her hand at writing for an adult audience. The first novel was just “okay” literature for me, but the second novel is when I really remembered why Shannon Hale is in my top 5 of favorite authors.  So do me a favor, if you haven’t read Shannon Hale before, don’t judge her just based off from this series. She is an amazing author I assure you.

As for the second series that I have been reading I am on the third and final book in the series so that post should be coming very soon. Stay tuned.