We did it!

We finished reading the New Testament as a family! HOORAY! The more kids we have, the more difficult it is to read things in a timely manner. But, we can now say that we've read the Book of Mormon twice (English and Spanish), the Doctrine & Covenants, and the New Testament together! Next year, we're going to try to read the Book of Mormon again, but also finish it in one year. Wish us luck!

REVIEW: 250 Great Movies for Latter-day Families

As many of you know, the husband and I have quite the collection of DVDs in our home. With the girls, we just don't really have the time to head out to the theater as often as we'd like and it's much cheaper to pay $15 for a film we can keep at home and watch over and over than to get a baby-sitter and pay closer to $20 for a single viewing.

So when I found out about the Mormon Movie Guy website about a year ago, I immediately fell in love with it. Here was someone who took the time to break down and rate a film in different categories, all from an LDS and family-oriented perspective. It made me feel like I was really getting my money's worth when the husband and I actually had time to go to the theater. This website is for films currently (or very recently) in theaters and I highly recommend you go over there and check it out!

When I heard that Jonathan was working on a book of movie reviews, I had to find out more about it. Last week, I was lucky enough to be given a preview selection to read and I'd like to share a few thoughts.

Honestly, I was prepared for most of the 250 films included to be Disney- or Pixar-made. While a large portion of the movies included are Disney, I was pleasantly surprised to see films like The Avengers and all the Harry Potter films included (and you know I love my Harry Potter!).

Each review includes a short synopsis; content overview (to discuss language, violence, etc.); and messages to discuss, which includes scriptural references and general authority talks that relate to plot points.

Since most of you are familiar with the Disney film Aladdin, I'll include an excerpt to help you better understand what is included in the content overview:

"The heroine and several other females wear clothing that reveals midriffs and mild cleavage; some of the women shake their hips sensually. A merchant threatens to cut a woman’s hand off. After turning into a giant snake, the villain is stabbed by the hero."

As you can see, Jonathan's attention to detail is so specific it may, to some, seem silly to include but upon further thought may be topics that need to be addressed later, especially when young children are included in the audience. A friend of mine once told me that her daughter wanted to go sleeveless. Since she was young, the daughter's reasoning was that she was going to be "naughty modest" and dress like a Disney princess. This provided my friend with the chance to discuss the topic of modesty. I really appreciate that Jonathan has not only pointed out instances in each film that don't quite match up with LDS values, but took the time to include references to the scriptures and General Conference talks so that if I do want to study certain topics more or discuss issues with my family, I have a readily available reference list.

Overall, I have enjoyed reading and reviewing the excerpt from his upcoming book. The book also includes a foreword by director of 17 Miracles, T. C. Christensen and a well-researched discussion of LDS media standards that I think would be an excellent resource for family home evening lessons and talks. I hope that you'll pick up a copy for your home (or as wedding gifts, which is what the husband and I plan on doing) and while it's not the final say on films for you and your family, I really appreciate the frame of mind it has given me when selecting what media to expose my own young children to.

"250 Great Movies for Latter-day Families" is currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com and is listed at 20% off its normal price. You can also check out the book's website here.

Doctrine & Covenants - check!

We finished reading the Doctrine & Covenants! HUZZAH! Now, on to the Pearl of Great Price. (And, on a related note, I am so excited that the Leonardo will have a Dead Sea Scrolls display this fall!)

We did it!

Well, I don't know how many of you remember me and Clark finishing reading the Book of Mormon last year (we read almost every day from July - February). Right after we finished, we started over in Spanish. Well, one kid and half a pregnancy later, we finally finished! Yeesh, it took forever! And my pregnancy brain is so bad that I didn't realize how close we were to finishing until I was reading my verses and turned to the last page. Yup. Observant me. :D

Since Clark's mission president told them to read the Book of Mormon every day, we'll be starting over (in English) but since I'd like to go through the Standard Works, we'll begin reading the Doctrine and Covenants, too. :) So, a couple of verses of the Book of Mormon, then about ten in the Doctrine and Covenants (because ten is all we can manage with a crazy toddler trying to pull apart the pages or leap to her death from our bed). Maybe by the time this next kid is three years old, we'll finish. :D

Brandon Mull

A few years ago, Michelle and I went to a book signing for Shannon Hale and, while waiting to get things signed by her, met Brandon Mull. We chatted for about 45 minutes and it was really fun! Anyway, since then, I've really gotten into Brandon's literature and, last Wednesday, Clark and I were able to go to the Provo Library and listen to Brandon talk about his Beyonders sequel. Here are a couple of pictures from the event:

Kids Books

Scholastic published a Top 100 Children's Books. I love books, I love kid's books, and I love most of this list!


Image Source

Good Reads

I went through the Provo library's list of "best books" for the last five years and decided to see what I'd read and what I wanted to read. I'm excited to see that I've actually read some of the books (five! Woo!) and already had plans to read a few others (another five!) and found a few that sound really fun. (Books in asterisks are on my to-read list.)

2007
*The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin*
*The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross*

2008
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

2009
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2010
*The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson*
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 by Mark Twain*
*The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean*

2011
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
*Your Happily Ever After by Dieter F. Uchtdorf*
*Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCoullough*
*Bossypants by Tina Fey*

I now have my to-read list all set up with the library and I can't wait to get a hold of some of these books! (By the way, just because I've read a book does not mean I endorse it. "Ready Player One," for example, was a bit more crass than my taste would enjoy and was a rather slow read for the first half.) I may or may not post reviews when I'm finished with some of the books I've included.

LTUE 2011

I know it's a month late, but I've finally had a moment to upload pictures from my camera onto Clark's laptop. So I'm backtracking a little in my posts.

I love getting to come to this convention! The guest of honor (author) was James Dashner who, thankfully, was pretty darn funny thanks to his cocky personality. One of my favorite moments was his reading from the last book of his Maze Runner trilogy ("The Death Cure" due out in October of this year). I felt almost like I was at Comic Con in that we got some behind-the-scenes information and experiences. Also a funny moment: while I was walking back into the room where he was about to start his reading, James looked back at me and was like, "hey, I know you!" then proceeded to try and figure out who I was compared to who I thought I was. I knew that I'd never met him face-to-face before, but it took a couple of minutes to convince him of that. But it meant that everyone around me (who could see us but not hear us) had these jealous looks on their faces. ;)

Also got to have some lengthy chats with Dan Wells and Howard Taylor (*super* funny guys) and got signatures from Dan on my UK edition of "I Am Not a Serial Killer," Jessica Day George on "Dragon Slippers," and Paul Genesse on "Terribly Twisted Fairy Tales."

Ah, the life of an author stalker . . .

Oh, and here are some pictures to prove I was there. Or at least in the same room with some people.

Panel of authors (Jessica Day George is the redhead on the far left):

James Dashner, in the middle of all his "revealing":

Random Update

I know I'm super behind on posting (it's only been a week but I have a couple of drafts that I really need to finish up and post, plus get another pregnant picture up for Mom) but I just had to share this happy news:

Clark and I finished the Book of Mormon together for the first time! Our singles ward bishop challenged us to find ways to be spiritual together and we decided we'd read every night. We started July 1st of last year (a couple of weeks after we got engaged) and read the last bit on Thursday, February 24th. We just started reading the Book of Mormon again for our scripture reading--this time in Spanish. :)

I'm so excited!

LTUE 2010

I was able to attend the Science Fiction and Fantasy Symposium again this year. Tryn came down for the weekend and we had fun attending several different courses. The conference usually has a few famous authors and artists as special guests and this year was no exception. Brandon Sanderson was a Guest of Honor and Brandon Mull and Dan Wells were special guests. Love it. I also love that everyone that speaks at these things throw book titles out like crazy so I have a whole slew of stories to find. Especially when the make the list for you and hand it out. :D

Other workshops/panels I attended:

• Fantasy Without Magic
• Family Friendly Anime
• How to Write a Good Blog
• Science Fiction on TV

Really good stuff. I'm super glad I had the time to go to so many of the courses.

Book Clubs

I wish I knew more about what to do in book clubs. I would have to say that the Harry Potter Companion is like one . . . sort of. Well, it's about a series of books that I (and other visitors) have read and we discuss nit-picky things. But what Harry Potter fan doesn't sit there with crazy theories all the time? Or remember all the havoc and crazy theories that were out there before the seventh book came out? It'll be different when I attend the book club meeting tomorrow for the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I mean, it's not about wizards and I haven't been reading the book over and over for a decade. Has anyone out there been part of a good book club and want to give tips on what to discuss?

Triple B

I remember reading a book called Cages back when I was . . . oh, probably 11 years old. It was about a girl who shoplifted and served community service hours to make up for it. It was a very good book (from what I remember) and I could go into all sorts of deep thoughts about it, but a fun thing I remember is the "Triple B treatment" which meant taking a bath, with a book, while snacking on a bag of chocolates (in her case, chocolate stars). I remember thinking it would be so cool if I could relax like that and, I have to say, it's actually very, very relaxing.

And seriously, if you're in YA at all, check out the book. I even found the cover for you!

"Sometimes, fanfics make me giggle"

I am not an author by any means (that's why I keep Tryn around); however, can't authors tell when their work is getting ridiculous? Really?

Many eons ago . . .

Last night I finally finished the book of Genesis. It was something that my roommate and I had been working on a couple of days every couple of weeks--when we had finished our reading for other classes--and we realized that, if we read four chapters last night, we could finish the book.

I must say that I'm kind of ridiculously excited about reading the Old Testament. We're both learning a lot of stuff and I'd forgotten how much story happens in Genesis alone. And tonight will be Exodus!