July reading

Surprisingly, I've had a lot of free time on my hands. Josh has been swamped with homework and flying late nights. I'm trying to avoid the TV and enjoy reading instead. Here are three books I read this month and what I think of them, just in case you care :)

Today I finished:

Nothing to Envy By Barbara Demick

Let me be the first to say, I am incredibly naive and rather ignorant of other cultures. I believe everyone in the world wants to live in a thriving democratic and capitalistic society. So, reading this book about people that didn't have a clue about either, absolutely blew me away. This book talks about the lives of regular people in North Korea, a population that still to this day does not have Internet; is dying daily of starvation; rarely has electricity; forced to work with no pay; and is completely brainwashed by their leadership of thinking no other life exists than the perfect life of the North Koreans. This book tells the histories and progression of North and South Korea intermingled with stories of 6 people (among thousands) that managed to flee North Korea. This book gets a little long at times, thinking, seriously, how much worse can it get? It can also get a bit wordy, especially in the beginning. But it is an amazing and fast read. Incredibly amazing.

I'm giving it 4.5/5 stars.

Minus the .5 for a little repetitious parts here and there and my lack of patience for that.

Up next:

The Hiding Place By Corrie Ten Boom

I'm not sure how, but I had never heard of this book until a coworker recently recommended it. This is a true story of a woman and her family living in Holland throughout the time of the Holocaust. This Christian family helped Jews and started an underground railroad-like system to help them escape. Eventually, her and her sister are caught and are forced to serve time in multiple concentration camps. Despite the horror they went through, they managed to use the experience to adamantly share Christ to many prisoners throughout the way. A truly remarkable story of keeping the faith. If you liked Night by Eli Weisel and The Diary of Anne Frank, you will enjoy this book.

I'm giving it 4/5 stars.

A large part of this book details the intricacies of her family which gets a little redundant, hard to follow. Still a great story.

Lastly:

Heaven is for Real By Todd Burpo

Thankfully, our pastor throughout his last sermon also admitted that he is skeptical of these types of stories. As am I. This book is all over the place right now and I'm sure you've heard of it. A little boy nearly dies and experiences heaven. Now, who am I to judge that this story isn't true? However, there are many "wow" factors in this book that really make you question everything. Though my gut says they are far-fetched coincidences, but again, why judge? God is capable of anything, people in the Bible experienced heaven, why can't that happen today? I would say the best thing I took from this book, is the title, Heaven IS for Real. Not that the story of this boy solidified my belief of that, it just made me view heaven a little differently. It reminded me that God is looking out for us and that He loves us.

I give this one 3/5 stars.

A little too cheesy for me, but so easy to read, very conversational.

I'm trying not to buy another book, because I need to finish the ones I have. The next one I'm about to start is this one:

**7/25 - Update, just finished this one. Yea, it took about 5 hours**

Everyone knows what it's about. It's written in first person like she's telling the story to you. It gets a little descriptive and vulgar here and there, but she lived through some crap! I wish she were a Christian so it gave more of a faith perspective, but I knew going into it that it wouldn't.

I think the best part was actually the ending, about how her life is now having to adjust to a whole different type of world. She didn't get her license until she was 29!

I'm giving 3.5/5

A tough story to tell, but interesting to see how she survived through it.