Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory

This is actually an art book where Danny Gregory showed the sketches of things and people around him, the things his family eats, the things his young son asked him to do. It is not a how to draw book, but a glimpse of the journey of Dan himself had to take to get himself out of depression when his wife one day fell into the train tracks and the driver  did not manage to stop in time and caused her permanent paralysis thereafter. Since then, he has to wheel her around and look after the two year old son then. His wife once was a photo stylist and he is an advertising man but he never drew much before this. But one day, he picked up his pen and sketched and the more he sketched, the more he could see things and people clearer bringing more meaning to his otherwise very heavy life.

Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda

If you are as old as I am, then you would know Alan Alda who played the doctor in M.A.S.H., the TV soap that has the highest viewership in US history to this day. This book is his reflection on life after he has a near death experience and he wanted to summarize what he knows about life. Easy, turn to the final chapter and you can read about it – love with all your heart, be helpful whenever you could and think your way through carefully and not be influenced by what others say. What is interesting is his retell of how he was almost indentured to a 7 year contract for 14 movies for a mere US$800,000 total. In between chapters, you could read heart warming efforts of himself and his fellow actors trying to help in New York right after 9/11. And of relevance to those who read this blog regularly, his take on what a good story is compared to a poor story. A good play, movie, drama requires dramatic action. There must be the wholehearted striving to achieve something. Everything motion the actor makes, we couldn’t take our eyes off.  And a comedy is when the characters get what they desire in the end and in a tragedy, the characters get what they deserve. A good fast read!

Reblogged from a previous blog entry November 24, 2007

 

[Book Review] The Road To Unafraid by Captain Jeff Struecker with Dean Merrill

Remember how I said I so dislike novels because there are so much contrived dialogs between the covers and if you pick up a Tim LaHaye or Tom Clancy novel, it’s nothing but that. This book is entirely different. It’s written by a U.S. Army Ranger who led soldiers and fought in Mogadishu, Somalia as part of the U.N. peacekeeping operation. It was intense! There was none of the jokes or hyperboles that characters from novels engage in their banter during conflict because there is no  time for such trivialities. You could tell right away which one is real and which one is a fake. Tom Clancy hadn’t even fought in a war before, by the way.

The book is a recount of that Somalia operation, and his gradual realization that he has been called by God to work in His ministry. In 206 pages and slightly two hours, you see how a Christian could shine in the military despite all the jeers from the worldly crowd. When death hangs every moment the soldier is dispatched, a faith in God and the promised eternity could turn him fearless. A must read for the family especially if you have boys.

[Book Review] Hope Is Contagious by Ken Hutcherson

Hope Is Contagious by Ken Hutcherson is written by an ex-NFL football player turned pastor in the South who has been afflicted with cancer for 7 years and everyday is worse than the last in pain and discomfort.  He spends most of his time in chemotherapy and throws up constantly.  Yet, he is cheerful when he walks into the clinic, among cancer patients, because he too sees his life as zestful and with a purpose.  All that throwing up is worth it if he could bring a smile to people around him.  Very encouraging book for cancer patients and for someone looking into why one suffers.  Plainly, without suffering, we won’t know the Grace of the Lord.

Reposted from previous blog entry dated June 5, 2013.

Until I Say Goodbye by Susan Spencer-Wendel

Thank you to Terry for sending me this book, Until I Say Goodbye, by Susan Spencer-Wendel.  The author was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2011 and this is her record of all that trips she take with her close friends and family before her nerves systematically destroy her muscles.

What a strong lady, and what a positive attitude for the last leg.  The parts where she described her feelings, her anxieties about her children, and how she didn’t want to burden her husband sounded so familiar, so very familiar.  They echoed mine too. And the key to living the difficult decline in health is to ride with it, accept what is inevitable and do not desire.  And most of all, live with gratitude and joy. Very good book. 

Reposted from previous blog entry dated April 4, 2013.