5 comments about Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

1. This book was truly life changing for me. When I find myself sweating the little things in life (i.e bills, pregnancy woes, hot weather)I remember Immaculee holed up in this tiny bathroom just praying and pleading for her life. She painted such a horrific picture I simply cannot forget. The killers were calling her name! What a humbling and amazing story she has to tell I literally could not put this book down..at the same time I was educated about how the Rwandan Holocaust all came to be..I had no idea what these poor people went through, the Hutus and the Tutsis became real to me. Who would have thought something like this still happens but this was just the 90's. In the beginning of her book, I smiled through tears as she described the tight knit Catholic family she was reared in--how strong and wise her daddy was, how much she loved her brothers with everything in her being, and how her mother was there until the end to protect her "babies". I was fortunate a few weeks after reading her book to see Immaculee speak at a local venue in Dallas. She was beautiful in person and her joy could light up an entire room. She was filled with the Holy Spirit and it was obvious how humbled she has been. I just kept thinking this woman has lost her entire extended family and she even had the grace to forgive those who killed her own. Forgiveness is the message I took from the book. Life is too short to carry the burden of not forgiving others who we think have wronged us. Excellent read with a message that will keep you thinking long after you read the book!!



2. I started reading this book before bed, big mistake on my part. I stayed up entranced by this book and continued reading until I couldn't stay awake. The first thing I did the next morning was pick this book back up and finished it. (Which only took a half hour)
   
   I am absolutely amazed at Immaculee's ability to maintain her connection with God while surrounded by such hate. Immaculee shares her story of how she not only survived the Rwandan Holocaust, but how she forgave the killers of her family. This is an inspiring book which confirms how great humans really can be.



3. It was difficult for me to put the book down and I finished it quickly even though I had already seen the author interviewed on three different EWTN TV shows. What an inspiration to overcome evil with good! It reminded me of some of the miracle stories of prisoners of war in Vietnam. Her descriptions of the country and the events left me feeling like I had visited the country in person and gave me a much clearer understanding of the situation in Rwanda. Most important of all it is continuing to help me to forgive others (with God's help) in every circumstance.
   
   Bobbie Lewis



4. This book was recommended by my doctor who is an avid reader. I was afraid to read it at first. I thought it might really make me sad because it is about the Rwandan Holocaust. It was totally amazing! The story is true and is one of the most inspiring I have ever encountered. Immaculee's faithfulness and her trust in God during the most painful of experiences gave my spiritual life a giant shot in the arm!
   I could not put the book down-read it and grow in grace!



5. An amazing and harrowing tale of Faith, Hope and Forgiveness. A story of survival in the midst of unspeakable horror and acts of inhumanity beyond comprehension. I bought several copies to pass on. I would quantify this book as a must read.

5 comments about Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs.

1. I have read both Escape & Stolen Innocence. Stolen Innocence is unnecessarily too long and so redundant at times. I skipped a bunch of pages, especially in the end. However, with that said Elissa Wall tells a very interesting and unfortunate story.



2. This book had fascinating content. The life of the FLDS women is so different from anything like other women in the US. Reading this book is like a window into a different world. I think it gives us more compassion and understanding for people who are not raised with our freedoms, be they FLDS or other religion within the US, or in another country. Most amazing to me is how Elisa was able to slowly come around to freeing herself, and the attitudes of the women who just cannot free themselves.
   
   Yes, the writing style is "amateur," but the editing is mostly sound, and since this is written in the voice of someone with an 8th grade education (a deficient one, at that), it is authentic. It's not "Angela's Ashes," but despite a little bit of a slow pace, it is a good read that somehow sucks you in. The style of it actually seems mostly like a testimonial in a courtroom. Seeing as a legal proceeding was the reason why Elisa had to relive all of this, that makes sense. I am glad she had the courage to come forward.



3. I am fascinated by the mind games that are played in the name of religion and applaud this young woman for her ability to see past her indoctrination and begin making decisions for herself. Unfortunately the gentleman in charge of this organization needed psychological help and never got it because of the blind faith of the people around him. The consequences for all involved are dire, including Mr. Jeffs. This was a very interesting read and it helped me to understand the mind of those who embrace these philosophies. I wish the author the best in her "new life" and hope she always questions the path someone else lays out for her and instead charts her own path.



4. It was really hard to put this book down. It's one that you just want to curl up with and read from cover to cover. A very different way of living than I am used to, or would want to be used to, but very interesting to read about.



5. Difficult Read / Fascinating Story
   
   While I applaud Elissa Wall for her willingness to share her trials and tribulations in the FLDS, I am totally baffled by the fact that HarperCollins publishers were willing to print a book with a zillion grammatical errors. As a veteran teacher and media specialist, I was shocked by the number of errors. While I realize she only had an eighth grade education, didn't she have a co-author and an editor???? The book had numerous errors such as:
   
   *dropped articles (a, an, the)
   *misspelled words
   *pronouns not agreeing with nouns
   *incorrect verb usage
   *run-on sentences
   *typo graphical errors (Spell Check does NOT identify misuse of correctly spelled words)
   
   If Americans are truly concerned about our children being educated, let's blame others in our culture besides teachers. Even the sub-heading of chapter 29 is missing the article "a" within a quote from Emily Dickinson!!! I am thinking she would have turned over in her grave with such a glaring oversight. Merril Jessop's name is misspelled in several places (he took over the FLDS after Jeffs' incarceration).
   
   This would have been an excellent book for high school students to read IF it had been written grammatically correct. I would never recommend this book to anyone as it exists today, which is a travesty in my eyes. Her courage to leave the FLDS cult and stand up to the dictator Warren Jeffs could have been a tremendous example to so many people who face insurmountable odds.
   
   However, I would strongly recommend Escape by Carolyn Jessop, Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer, and Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.
   The most positive aspect of the book was Jeffs' trial and his incarceration.
   
   I kept literally shaking my head "no" as I read all of these books because of my inability to relate to each follower's situation. I kept thinking HOW MUCH ABUSE IS TOO MUCH??? It is extremely difficult as an outsider to understand how Jeff's followers and now Merril Jessop's followers blindly believe everything they are told. I hope that other women and children who are abused will also be able to escape this Evil Empire.

5 comments about Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office.

1. Need a break from your usual type of read? You've found it! Perhaps I love this book so very much because I thought I was reading my autobiography..... either way, it's FABULOUS, it's HILARIOUS, it's FUN, it's WHAT YOUR NEXT READ SHOULD BE!!



2. I think Jen Lancaster has a spine of steel to have written this memoir. You Go Girl!!! I laughed my way through this book, sometimes with Jen, sometimes at her. Yes, she had it coming, and she took it like a whiner, learned from it, and produced an entertaining manifesto on selfishness. Thank you Jen!



3. Honest, sometimes shockingly, and laugh out loud hilarious! You should hate her for how mean she is at times, but I found myself cheering her on and even agreeing with her.



4. This book left me wanting to read more from this author. I found this book to be interesting, funny, acerbic and touching. Some of the stories were written so vividly, I could imagine being there and only wishing I could have thought up some of the comeback lines and comments that Jen Lancaster provided. Recommend for those readers who want a more light-hearted memoir (instead of all those depressing ones that are around!).



5. The fact that this is a true story kills me. I felt so bad for Jen. I emailed the author after I finished the book I was so moved by her story. I laughed, too.

5 comments about The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Removal.

1. Notaro has done it again. With this, her seventh book, a collection of essays or short stories about her life. Women (and men for that matter) can relate to her writing about getting older and the "charms" that entails for women, such as various forms of hair removal and self-maintenence that is required. Her wit and unabashed honesty make this book a very entertaining and quick read.



2. I have read all of Laurie Notaro's books and this is by far the funniest. It takes a lot for me to laugh out loud, but this book had me in tears. i couldn't wait for my friends to read it so we could laugh together. As an over 50 female, the chin hair story was hilarious. It is going to be hard to outdo this book!



3. I was very anxiously wating for this book to come out. On the day it did finally come out, I ran to every possible store so I could read it right away because I was having knee surgery in 3 days. Needless to say, I could find it nowhere so my husband ordered it for me on Amazon. We paid for the next day shipping and I pretty much sat on the porch wating for the UPS man. As soon as he got here, I sat down on the couch and started reading. Most of it was cute, but not funny. I only laughed out loud a couple of times and as anyone who reads her books knows, you are usually crying and calling your friends to read them the funny parts. Not once did I have the desire to do this. I will, of course,buy her next book when it comes out but for this one, the anticipation left me wanting after I finally got it.



4. Notaro is one of the only authors who makes me laugh out loud. Her stories are hilarious, and sometimes I think she has been following me around for notes! She is not afraid to let readers see her in a not-so-flattering light, and makes no apologies for her behavior.



5. Fans of Laurie Notaro's first-person stories will be delighted with this latest collection of "reflections." After a brief foray into the world of fiction with a zany, semi-autobiographical novel, once again the Idiot Girl is back to form, sharing stories and observations of her decidedly normal life with an original and laugh-out-loud way with words.
   
   Notaro never holds back. Her polished writing style has a conversational, off-the-cuff quality to it, allowing readers to feel like we're right there in the room with her, listening to her outrage at a big dog taking a dump on her front lawn, or breaking out her bird flu mask on a plane after the passenger seated next to her open-mouth coughs for the last time. She's like your funniest friend--the one you know will make the party more fun as soon as she opens her mouth and launches into her latest life experience. I know I couldn't wait to open and devour this book, and I wasn't disappointed. Five stars all the way.
   
   From the author of The Things I Wish I'd Said.

5 comments about Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression.

1. i think the book could have gone through one more review period/editing, but for the most part it was full of entertaining stories. i dont want to pick it apart for its redundancies, but sometimes the author got carried away with using certain manners of speech, puns, etc. over and over again. also, there was a random chapter full of recipes that didnt seem to fit in with the rest of the narratives.
   
   i dont know if this book would make my top 10 list for the year, but maybe the new york times looks for qualities that i dont appreciate as much.



2. Mildred Armstrong Kalish describes herself on her excellent website:
   
   "I was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1922, on a farm near Garrison, Iowa, in Benton County. My growing-up was influenced by the Great Depression and by the self-reliance and work ethic of my mother's parents -- themselves descendants of pioneers who never quite made it into the 20th Century. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression details the remarkable challenges and the inestimable rewards of living a rural life where children were expected to accept responsibilities beyond the ordinary."
   
   She tells her story with grace and charm, describing a number of personalities and memories: a spinster aunt shooting tin cans with her .22, hanging May baskets, and learning to swear in her family of "hearty-handshake Methodists." Example:
   
   "But, Grandpa, even Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding!" "Well, I know He did! And that's the only thing I ever held against Him!"
   
   Ms. Kalish provides recipes; two I particularly liked (and made with success): Aunt Belle's horehound candy & cough syrup and corn oysters. As a farm boy, her ability to boil a hog's head or remove a wart without making a big deal of it rang true to the girls and women I knew in our Wisconsin farm community. A great example: take a look at the recipe in the first comment and her views on using a straw from a broom to test pie doneness.
   
   I was raised, as Ms. Kalish was, "in an environment where everyone knew everyone else." It endowed her with "a sense of security, a sense of belonging in the world." That feeling also rings totally true to me. I liked Ms. Kalish immensely, and I'm sure you would too.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



3. I grew up on an Iowa farm in the early 60s so I could relate
   to some of the items this author wrote about. Good book.



4. This book was a veryveryvery good summer read. Mildred Armstrong Kalish recounts her years on an Iowa farm, when times were hard and money was scarce. The joy of hard work on a farm. The descriptions of the food for large family dinners makes your mouth water. The work to make the meal is amazing. I could feel the hot summer nights, reminding me of my own childhood. Filled with stories of a large country family that has grown close out of the Depression, this book is filled with cousins, aunts, uncles, grampas and grammas, the rural community is splendidly interwoven.



5. I loved this book. The account of life on an Iowa farm in the depression 1930s was both stunning and compelling. It's a way of life unknown to so many people in our country today, yet not far in the past at all. I know only vestiges of it, such as seeing my mother use a wringer washing machine, but mostly from hearing my parents tell about the way they grew up. While reading it, I was torn between wishing I could go back and live in that time and place, and being so very glad I can go to a supermarket and get excellent chicken without having to behead, gut, and singe the feathers off, then cut it all up myself! But the thread running through is the learning of self-sufficiency, pulling together, rising above, the building of good character, all of which is a huge help to one through life's hills and valleys. It's well worth going back to have a look at this way of life and what we've gained and lost.

5 comments about Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope.

1. The sample is great, and I plan to read this book (I have read quite a few others like it). But at $23.96 for a download!!!!!????? I'll wait for the price to come down, if it ever does, or buy a paper copy used.



2. Why is the Kindle version of this book $4 higher than the current hardback price?
   
   I would spend ten bucks to buy a version that I cannot share with others, but I won't spend more than what I would pay for a hardback.



3. This book is a much-needed memoir of our involvement in Iraq. For the duration of America's involvement in Iraq, the citizenry has been deprived of an accurate view of what our brave troops are accomplishing in Iraq. The media simply had little interest in actually sharing the positive aspects of our involvement in Iraq. Yon counteracts that tendency by providing a number of stories that provide a more positive aspect of our troop's actions. Simply stated, Murtha's version of the war is not born out by Yon's. If you read this book, your view of the war will be changed. Maybe not radically, but it will be changed to some degree. It is well written, but not unfair or biased. These traits make it a sure way to open your eyes.



4. This book is a very insightful look into the counter-insurgency battle in Iraq. If you want to understand the context of the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq, this book is an invaluable source. It neither paints a rosy picture, nor a bleak one. His first hand accounts of combat and of the equally critical information war are compelling and informative. Micheal Yon effectively brings to light the competing factors and illustrates the many dimensions of this unconventional war.



5. I have found it very frustrating how hard it is to get an accurate sense of what is going in the Iraq War. Much of the media, of course, has a bias that they wear on their sleave: they see the war as Vietnam Act Two, and they strain every nerve to find disaster and defeat in everything. We get dozens of stories about prisoner abuse and the alleged massacre in Haditha; we get close to nothing about Medal of Honor winners.
   
   The problem, however, goes beyond ideological bias, as bad as that has been. The larger problem is that the media does not understand what they are looking at. What facts indicate success? What facts indicate failure? The media, by and large, does not have a clue. They thus confine themselves to reporting the obvious -- like the latest car bombs -- and to printing the opinion of some windbag pundit as if it were news. In this respect, the Right has often been no better than the Left. While the Left sees doom and gloom in everything, the Right sees American victory in everything.
   
   In this total desert barren of understanding, Micheal Yon has been and continues to be one of the few beacons of actual information to come out of the war. Yon is not a conventional reporter. Yon is an ex-Green Beret, who turned into a writer and who does freelance reporting from Iraq. I have read his reports for several years now on the internet. They have been the best single source of information that I have found on the war.
   
   In this book, Yon pulls together what he has seen and where the war is. As he sees it, the war has gone through three phases. First, we had the fast and easy phase when American firepower knocked down Saddam Hussein. Second, we had the disasterous phase when grotesque incompetence on the part of Rumsfield and Bush threw the victory away. Their primary error was not to create law and order in the post-Hussein Iraq. We dismantled the Iraqi army and police, leaving Iraq with no functioning government, but we replaced it with nothing for far too long. In Yon's view, we were also too brutal and too rigid in this phase of the war, with the exception of the work done by General Petreaus as commander of the 101st Airborne. All of these mistakes lead to Al Queda taking over most of the country. This then lead to the third phase, in which Al Queda's unbelievable brutality toward the Iraqi people lead them to turn back to the U.S. and gave us a second chance for victory, which, in Yon's view. General Petreaus is brillantly exploiting, in his new role as overall commander.
   
   Yon is very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of his subject. He understands modern weapons and he understands modern war, particularly that part of the war which is fought in the press. What he stresses, however, is primarily morality. Al Queda lost, in his view, because they had no morality. They acted like savage beasts, killing, raping and stealing from the Iraqi people, which lost them the critical moral high ground. In Yon's view, America is now winning the war, because -- while the Iraqis often saw us as stupid and out of touch -- we were never seen as evil. On the contrary, as Yon describes it, the Iraqi people have gained incredible respect for America, because of the exemplary behavior of our troops. The Iraqis respect strength and fighting spirit, which our soldiers have shown in spades. They also deeply love their children and their families. When they came to see Al Queda as threatening their children and their families, and the U.S. military as protecting them, that was the turning point in the war.
   
   This book has flaws as a book. It is not very polished. It reads at times more like a bunch of reports stuck together than a book. It often assumes that the reader knows about things which the reader might well not know about.
   
   But none of this matters. This book tells the truth about the Iraq War. Amid all of the partisan distortion and ideological hype, here is a guy who knows what he is talking about, who loves the United States and our military and who is dedicated to bringing us the truth, in all of its complexity and ugliness.

No comments about What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

5 comments about A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

1. the first 50 pages or so are promising. it seems like it is going to be a quirky, honest depiction of this young man's life after his parents die and he becomes the guardian of his young brother. and as long as he stays with that, the story is compelling. unfortunately, most of the book is full of random stories about his uninteresting life told in such a self-conciously, self centered way. every bad thing that happens to anyone he has ever met manages to be completely about him. he thinks he's infinitely more clever than the rest of the world and more entitled to attention and he acknowledges this. it's as if he thinks that by admitting his faults, the reader no longer has the right to be annoyed by them. but they do and i was. the writing is scattered and lazy and i don't know how it got published.



2. My good friend highly recommended this book for me to read last summer, citing Dave Eggers as his hero, and so I eagerly picked this up and delved into a story of a great sibling relationship in the wake of a tragedy.
   
   As a 21 year old college student about to graduate, you would think that I would be obssessed with this work, completely representing my generation. And indeed, it succeeded in that. The whole living situation in the Bay Area of California was awesome, and his whole mantra of being young and free in America was great too, and the book should have ended at that. I should warn you that this is a memoir, so his ego is immensely represented as him being basically a self-absorbed Berkeley young intellectual. I could ramble on and on about this book and why I wouldn't rate it higher, but I'll just get to the point.
   
   The first half is simply enjoyable to read with the whole relationship with his brother, dealing with the loss of parents (whom he seemingly never cared for), and with his sister being driven in law school and eventually marrying. His emotions are presented well with his relationships in this memoir, and then suddenly, as if out of the blue, Toph (his brother) is never mentioned again. The second half of the book is about his magazine and this MTV interview that never seems to end. It was so boring and meaningless. I want to read about you and your brother and your lives, not about some stupid magazine and a pretentious MTV real world interview to nowhere.
   
   Overall, I get what he's saying, and it is a good message. Namely, family comes first but it is great to be young and free in America in your 20's, of course if only brought up by wealthy suburban Chicago parents. About 90% of America can't afford to rent his house that he did in the Berkeley hills with views of SF bay and not a job in site. It is a good book and I enjoyed it, but the Pulitzer Prize? No way.



3. I don't think I have ever given a book a review of "dead in the middle," ringing it at 3 of 5, but I have to do it to this one. I usually really don't like books or really enjoy them (ok, a few I love). I also usually put books down and walk away when I struggle over months to get through them, BUT I found this drive to finish this one. First, it was highly recommended by a friend who is a writer for a living. Second, it has been high acclaimed. Third, I found the brilliance in the ability to write such realistic detail for so many pages on end, but alas, that was where the 3 stopped. The detail bored me to tears and made me want to skip to wear the plot picked back up, except it really never did. I suppose I am just not a good reader of rambling thoughts. I oddly enough know that Eggers is a gifted person, but this piece and the reasons I read for entertainment and intellectual improvement couldn't mesh here.



4. "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Indeed. So few writers have Egger's gift. Wit, wisdom, a sense of humour, vision, style, flair, and the passion that enables him to masterfully craft such a truly genius work.



5. Dave Eggers should stick with writing fiction, so that we don't have to face the fact that the people he writes about (that is, himself) truly exist in this world.
   
   I was an early fan of the McSweeney's website, I even have the first 13 volumes of the McSweeney's journal. I bought Dave Eggers book, but never got around to reading it, saving it kind of like saving a good bottle of wine, for when I could truly savor it. So I took it on vacation recently and truly regretted it, as there were few English-language books around I could buy to save me from this self-centered monologue. And I hope the loathing I've now developed for Dave Eggers will not detract my enjoyment of the website and journals.
   
   Admittedly, his prose is wonderful. Loopy, long sentences, filled with imagery, witty dialogue, colorful scenery, and loads of wonderful scenarios that make you laugh. That's why I'm giving it 2 stars. But you are accompanied on this trip by a narrator whose flaws outweigh his good points. The author had a difficult early life, and it must be difficult to write of it. Also, Dave Eggers was rather young while he wrote this, and perhaps he has matured since. That said, his palpable loathing of old folks and his wish they would just die off and leave the world to him and his youthful compatriots and his gushing endorsement of the world-changing powers of, yes, reality TV, frankly disgusted me and ruined the whole book for me (I am 31, BTW, and have grandparents and old friends I adore, and adored even when I was a trash-talking 15 year old). He implies that a tragedy to a young person outweighs a tragedy to an older person (I disagree, it all depends on the person regardless of age). He constantly criticizes himself...and then continues on the behavior. Fine, that's human. But I don't need to spend hours of my life with a neurotic, selfish, youth-obsessed, contemptuous guy and his constant self-justifications.
   
   The best part of the book was the preface, which had the ironic, satiric cleverness (and even the same font) as McSweeney's, an enterprise I always thought successfully showed off the contradictions of society, with a sort of wise, knowing, calm, and even hopeful air, like some sort of British deadpan joke. We laugh, admit our faults, and then move on. But now I wonder whether it's just trying to be knowing and superior.
   
   So, if you can disassociate yourself from the basic obnoxiousness of Dave Egger's personality and personal thoughts and enjoy his prose, then perhaps you can enjoy this book. For those who have limited time and patience, I'm sure there are people with tragedies just as heartbreaking, but with a less entitled outlook, out there for our sympathy and support.

5 comments about The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

1. I found this book both "charming" and "funny" - it seemed created to inspire such insipid scare-quote bracketed adjectives. The balance of reverence and humor is just fine - and utterly unconvincing. The shallowness of the secular intellectual and the nice-guy emptiness of the NYC "lite"-Jewish journalist set my teeth on edge even as I genuinely enjoyed various anecdotes and the writing was consistently decent. Ultimately, the book is solipsistic and one has to decide if one enjoys the time and company one keeps while reading this book. For me, the answer is "no," and I allow as to others might have a different answer.



2. I loved AJ Jacobs' book The Know It All, so I was excited to see a new book by him. We chose it for our book club for July, at my suggestion. We haven't met yet, so I don't know what others thought, but I thought it was fantastic. Everytime I set it down, I was eager to pick it back up. As someone who was raised in a moderately religious family and attended private school, I have been fairly exposed to the Bible, but in the current state of the world, I often find it hard to relate to the Bible in any real way. I'm at the cusp of labeling myself an agnostic, but this book was very affirming for me. It's heartfelt and witty, and is fun without mocking the subject matter. I fully recommend it!



3. I thought this book was great and even gave it as a gift. However, there is one part that bothered me somewhat.
   
   On hearing that she was going to have a son, the author's wife wept because she wanted a girl. I mean wept (not disappointment) on the news that she is going to have a HEALTHY child. It just made me uncomfortable. What some other woman would have given for such news...personally, I would not have included it.



4. Being raised in a typical Christian family in the Southeast part of the United States and surviving private Christian school through my high school years and dealing with the hypocrisy of religion this book made me laugh my butt off .
   
   I may lean to my conservative values in politics but I am a normal Christ follower who loves A.J. Jacobs and so glad he took this journey across America finding his faith... He wrote "Four Winds" and the "Cassadaga" album by Bright Eyes before Conor took his Four Winds.
   
   
   Great BOOK



5. I enjoyed this book, but was bummed that little time was spent with Christian traditions. I understand the author was a non-practicing Jew, so Jewish traditions "spoke" more to him. His time with the New Testament wasn't written about as much, and focused on Fundamentalists, snake handlers and the Amish. I felt like he missed a lot within Christianity.
   
   He also spent a lot of time "in his head" - that is, figuring out and debating different texts and translations. Explaining Biblical stories. Where's the emotion? The love - or the discomfort?
   
   The end of the book seemed to come abruptly, with less attention and detail then he began his quest with. I think this has a lot to do with the birth of his twins (who can blame him!), but it seemed more thrown together and less thorough out then the beginning.
   
   I really did enjoyed this book, it's a fun, easy read. But I think the author held back, emotionally. Somehow I felt like I'd only half finished when the book was done.

5 comments about Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life.

1. What an inspiration Coach Tony Dungy is and this book was one I could not put down.



2. As a Steeler fan who is old enough to remember Dungy as a part of the Steel Curtain defense (but not as large as I remembered!), as a Christian husband and father, and as a Patriots hater who cheers for any team against New England, I had three reasons to look forward to this book, and it was even better than I expected.
   
   Dungy's writing, with assistance by a co-author, reads as mild and humble as his (lets face it) nerdy appearance. Despite, or because of, this to-the-core character, Dungy has succeeded at the cutthroat business of professional football at the highest level. Remember, neither of the teams he has coached had any history of winning before his tenure, and he essentially won a Super Bowl with each team (Chucky Gruden won with Tony's players after Dungy was fired, and you can see what kind of success Chucky has had since!).
   
   One of the amazing aspects of Dungy's book is how wide spread his deep-rooted Christianity was amongst the "nasty" 70s Steelers--Dungy, Dirt Winston, Mel Blount, and Donnie Shell not alone made for one of the hardest-hitting defensive backfields in NFL history, but apparently one of its most mature and consistent Bible studies as well. It is encouraging to read about NFL players and coaches who focus on family and faith, not contracts and crime sprees.
   
   Dungy never sounds boastful or arrogant about his faith, usually demonstrating his life lessons from his own mistakes. My tears spotted the pages of the chapter when Dungy talked about his son's suicide and the rest of the way it was hard for me, and for Dungy as well, to focus on football. As he says in a later chapter, never confuse your goals (winning a Super Bowl) with your purpose (glorifying God).
   
   I needed reminding. Thanks, Tony!



3. This book is fantastic - I couldn't put it down! I have been a big fan of Tony since he was the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because of his presence on the football field. This book is an honest and inspiring account of Tony's life and the trials and successes he has encountered. Thank you Tony for a great read.



4. The autobiography, "Quiet Strength," of Tony Dungy is appropriately subtitled "The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life." Dungy recounts his life from its beginnings to the present as the Coach of the world champion Indianapolis Colts. A man of proactive faith, Dungy has been able to climb many mountains, from being one of the first black quarterbacks in NCAA college football to one of the first black head coaches in the National Football League.
   
   "Quiet Strength" details key formative relationships, those that helped him to become what he is today. They include his mother, The Most Athletic Dungy, who supported in him in a number of sports; his father who taught him what was most important - not the accolades and memories of success, but the way you respond when opportunities are denied; his high school assistant principal, Mr. Rockquemore, who took a great interest in him and Dungy claims things would have been different if he had not; and his first pro coach, Chuck Noll, who taught him how to win in the NFL and how to maintain family-career balance.
   
   Dungy always viewed his work in football as a means to do something more as a servant of God. When he was fired as the head coach of Tampa Bay, the firing itself was not the cause of shock, but rather, the thought that God was allowing this great experiment of using him as a head coach in the NFL to end. He wondered, what's next? How will God use him, whether in the NFL or not.
   
   I am grateful that Dungy went on from Tampa to win the Super Bowl as coach of Indianapolis. More than becoming the first African-American to win a Super Bowl, this extraordinary achievement provided an excellent platform from which to tell this great story.
   
   Dungy's story is inspirational, challenging, and encouraging - reminding us about what really is important in a world driven by the love of material success. He shows that one can live their Christian faith in the workplace and succeed - even in the demanding fish bowl atmosphere of the NFL. He is a living testimony of one man's faith in God.
   
   "Do you your best and let God do the rest."



5. Loved the book, many lessons to be learned, a little too much football at times but if you can look by that it is a quick and enjoyable read