Book Reviews and Recommendations - Entry #1

I’ve always loved to read.  I remember really looking forward to first grade because I would be able to learn to read.  Even though I grew up in the 60s and 70s, my family didn’t have a television!  Instead of watching TV, I did other things, which included lots of reading.  I enjoyed the fact that when you read a story, you enter into that world for a time.  The story becomes part of your life for a while.  It’s like entering another dimension – it’s exciting.

When I was younger, I read mostly fiction.  Now I almost never read fiction – I can’t remember the last book I’ve read that wasn’t supposed to be real (I’ve been annoyingly tricked a few times, but that’s for a future entry).  Also, most of my reading is actually listening – I listen to lots of books in the car while I am driving to work or on long trips.  There’ve been a few really good books where I couldn’t wait to get back into my car to listen to the book again.  I figured I would occasionally review and recommend books here.  I’m also looking for good books to read myself, so I’d be interested in any of your recommendations.

I read pretty much any genre outside of fiction.  I am partial to science and philosophy, so I’ll frequently listen to whole courses on specific topics in that area (I’ve spent a lot of money at places like “The Great Courses”).  But I am also very interested in history and I really like to read biographies.  I do some broad reading in religion, but I generally stick to Christian apologetics if I’m going to read something in that genre.  I read at least a bit of the Bible every day, and occasionally I read some from other religious texts (yes, I know some of you would classify some or all of those in the “fictional” category – yet another topic for some future entry!).  I hardly ever read books more than once.  In fact, as far as I recall, there are only three books that I’ve read multiple times:  the Bible, the Lord of the Rings, and Pensees. 

Anyway, I thought I’d start this series of entries with a “recommendation”.  The book is “Finding Me” by Michelle Knight.  Actually, it’s hard to recommend this book – it’s more like suggesting that it is our duty to read it.  Michelle was one of the three girls who were held captive in a home in Cleveland for ten years.  I do not say that it is a story that you will enjoy.  It is sickening and shocking and impossible to imagine.  I still wonder – did it really happen? – but it did.  I actually used to drive within 500 ft of that house almost every day during the entire time those three girls were held there.  Michelle’s story makes you wonder how an individual can be so entirely evil.  But even more shocking and – to me – soul searching is the fact that her captor lived an average everyday life, interacting with society and neighbors and family as if there was nothing wrong.  He went to cookouts.  He was in a band.  He had family.  And no one ever seriously suspected him of anything except being a bit odd.  The capacity of human beings to put on a façade and hide our ugly inner selves is almost beyond belief.  That’s why I recommend this book – I feel it is our duty as human beings to understand how ugly we can be and how well we can hide it from everyone else.  So, the book is more like awful-tasting medicine – you will mostly learn dark things – but it reflects the reality of our situation.  The only positive from the story is Michelle’s resilience.

I haven’t read the recently published book written by the other two girls, but I will.  I’ll probably get it as an audio book.

So, there you go:  book recommendation #1.