52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 27: "The Winter of our Disconnect" by Susan Maushart

Imagine swearing off TV, computers, internet, gaming machines, and cell phones - all forms of modern media consumption.  For six months.  Could you and your family handle it?

Susan Maushart, a journalist and single mother, living with her three teenagers in Perth, Australia did just that.  In January of 2009, she pulled the plug on her family's completely "plugged in" lifestyle, and they went offline (at home) for 6 months.  They were allowed to leave the house and use internet cafes for her work, and for her kids' homework.  And her kids were allowed to use the internet at their friends' houses.   But at home, they went back to using landline phones and reading and playing board games for entertainment.

The results of what they came to call "The Experiment" should not really be surprising to any of us.  They started eating more meals together, taking longer at those meals, and talking to each other more.  The kids had no more TVs or computers in their rooms, so they weren't gulping down their food to get back to their own individualized entertainment.   They got more sleep.  The kids started to do better in school.  Her 16 year old son who had been completely addicted to gaming and not much else rediscovered his love of playing the saxophone.  

Throughout the book, Maushart adds entries from her personal journal, which she kept throughout the experience.  She also covers a lot of the current research on media and its impact on us. The one thing I disliked about this book was the chatty, casual style in which it was written.  Maushart punctuates much of her writing in this book with LOLs, WTFs, OMGs  and :-) s, which I've seen plenty of online & don't need to see in a print publication.  

All in all, this is an interesting read and very relevant given the pervasive nature of media in our world.  Though nothing that she writes is really original - regarding her thoughts as far as how to control media in our homes - the lengths she went to in order to control it in her home are impressive.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Books 23-26: The Circle Series by Ted Dekker

I have to admit I've been putting off reviewing this series for more than a week, because it I hardly know what to say about this - except that I couldn't put it down.  Ted Dekker has created a fantasy thriller series that could be considered a combination of the TV series "24" & The Lord Of the Rings.  I can't put Dekker on par with Tolkien - this doesn't match the depth and beauty of Tolkien's writing, by any stretch.  But the fantasy flavor is there.

As "Black" begins, Thomas Hunter is running from the mob on the streets of Denver.  A bullet knocks him out.  When he wakes up, he is in a dark forest filled with huge, black bats that are chasing him.  A white bat leads him out of the dark forest, across a river, and into to a beautiful colored forest.  In this dream land, Thomas enters a world where the people are living safely in Elyon's (God's) land, and good and evil are clearly visible.  All that is good is bright and colorful, and all that is evil is black.  When he goes back to sleep, he wakes up in Denver again.  At first, he believes Elyon's land was just a dream.  But, each time he goes to sleep in Denver, he wakes in Elyon's land, and he begins to wonder which is reality and which is a dream.   And then he finally begins to suspect that both are real...

So beings the saga of Thomas Hunter, who eventually discovers the powerful books of history referenced in the Paradise Trilogy.  I read Black/Red/White - the first three novels in one book, and it's hard for me to imagine stopping at the end of "Black" or "Red" without running out immediately to pick up the next one.  The events in the book "Green" take place 10 years after the end of "White", and technically, it is both the beginning and the end of the series.  So, you could read Green first, but personally, I found it very satisfying to read Green last. It was putting together all the pieces of the puzzle and answering many of the questions that had come up in the first three books.   

I'm going to have to take a little breather from Dekker for a while, but I'm now a fan and I still have a couple more of his books on my list.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Books 20-22: The Paradise Trilogy by Ted Dekker

Showdown
Deep in the Colorado mountains lies a secret monastery where an experiment like none other has been going on for more than a decade.  Orphaned children have been brought to the monastery and raised from infancy with no exposure to the negative influences of society.  They have been carefully taught in the ways of truth, virtue, and faith.  The goal is for these children to become "noble savages" whose extraordinary faith can change society.  Particularly if they can access the power of the secret that lies in the dungeons beneath the monastery.  The question is, will that power corrupt them?  Or will they be able to use this power to overcome the evil that resides in their own hearts?


In the valley below, all is calm in the sleepy town of Paradise until the day the mysterious Marsuvees Black strides into town.   When Black enters the town, all hell breaks loose and the town begins to fall apart.  Everyone in Paradise believes Black has come to help them.  Everyone, that is, besides young Johnny Drake. He believes that Black has an evil agenda and is deceiving the town.   But how can one teenage boy stand up and make a difference when the whole town, and the powerful Marsuvees Black are against him?


Saint
Carl Strople is a dangerous assassin.  Formerly a soldier and chaplain in the US army, Special Forces, he's now working with "Group X", a black ops group.  The mission he's on is not officially sanctioned by the government.  As a part of his training, his memory has been erased, and his true identity is unknown, even to him.  His team calls him Saint.  As the story unfolds, parts of his memory begin to return to him, and he begins to suspect that his history, and the special abilities he has, might have something to do with a town in Colorado called Paradise...


Sinner
Billy Rediger and Darcy Lange are two of the young people who grew up in the monastery in the hills above Paradise, Colorado.  They are in their early twenties now, and have both tried to bury the past and forget what happened in those formative years.  But, that is not going be easy.  The secret that they discovered in the dungeons under the monastery has left them with powers that will soon be revealed.  Can Billy and Darcy use these powers to bring about order and peace in society?  Or will their efforts result in disaster?



I needed something engaging and thrilling to help me get caught up, so I'm very thankful to my friend Ann who turned me on to Ted Dekker.  I'd never read any of his work before. He is a master of suspense.  These books are a thrill from beginning to end.  I'm now working on the Circle series.  Still trying to figure out a few things... :-)


Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 19: "Unshaken" by Dan Wooley

It's not often that you pick up a book and find endorsements on the cover from both Wess Stafford, president of Compassion International, and Bear Grylls, star of Man vs. Wild.  But once you start to read the incredible story Dan Woolley has to tell, the reasons become obvious.

Woolley spent nearly 3 days trapped under the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th, 2010.  He describes, moment-by-moment what he experienced during the earthquake, and several decisions he had to make that literally saved his life.  While trapped he goes back and forth between the hope of believing he will be rescued and the despair of doubting the rescuers can ever get to him in time.  

This book tells the powerful story of the strength that faith brings in a harrowing situation, and the way that Dan came through this with a renewed determination to live a life that really matters. 

Sojourner