write a wish list of books I would like to read in 2007

Finally !

The local library system has a “book bag” feature to their online order system. This is a HUGE help, as I discover things that I want to read but see the list growing, I can throw books in the book back, and then, as time permits, request them.

I will still keep a list here, since I have the goal, but perhaps for 2008, I will use AllConsuming, and perhaps have a goal listing the books I have read.

FYI : Check out JulieJordanScott and the list of books she has reviewed on Amazon.com There is some good stuff there.

from Booklist

Between the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, the British Empire expanded up the Nile River, impelled by varied motives: money, vengeance, humanitarianism, and imperial diplomacy. Green’s panoramic narrative re-creates these three decades with remarkable dynamism, applying a flair for pithy characterization to the political and religious players involved. Among the dozens of portraits worked into the chronicle, none are sharper than Green’s images of two men who personify the period: General Charles George Gordon and Mohammed Ahmed (better known as the Mahdi), both of whom were mystics. Where Gordon’s mysticism was Christian and personalistic, the Mahdi’s was Islamic and totalistic. As the “Expected Guide” awaited in Islamic tradition, confirmed as such to his adherents by his killing of Gordon at Khartoum in 1885, the Mahdi established a militantly fundamentalist state destroyed in turn by the Anglo-Egyptian forces of General Herbert Kitchener. Occasionally bemused but never supercilious, Green achieves a vividly popular account of Britain’s ascendance in Egypt and Sudan.

from Publishers Weekly

Bishop John Rucyahana, an ethnic Tutsi refugee, was a leader in the Anglican Church of Uganda during the genocide of his people in Rwanda. He moved back in 1997 with his family to lead the largest and most devastated diocese there. The bulk of his narrative recounts the same story that others have told of the incomprehensibly brutal extermination of nearly one million Tutsis in 100 days. What this powerful, if unevenly edited, book adds is a deeper understanding of the role of the churches in the genocide. Although many Hutu pastors died protecting the Tutsis of their flocks, often religious clergy participated in the abhorrent violence, killing or betraying members of their congregations. The people of Rwanda have lost trust in authority of any kind, including religion, and so Rucyahana notes that the healing work that must now be accomplished can only be done through integrity and pure love. Bishop John has built ministries for both genocide survivors and perpetrators, releasing the pain from both sides and acting as a beacon for other communities suffering from their own destructive divisions. To anyone who has ever struggled to forgive or felt too far gone to repent, this book plumbs the depth of God’s grace and finds no bottom.

“Why Not Me?” It’s Donny Deutsch’s motto and once asked a world of opportunity opens up.

Okay, so there is a lot of hype, and a ton of criticism since its basically a retelling of the Laws of Attraction, but if I still haven’t commited the Laws of Attraction to a part of my inner being it’s definitly worth reading. I’m on the waiting list at my local library.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The publishers synopsis from Barnes And Noble :

In this book, you’ll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life—money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You’ll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that’s within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life.

The 1936 Olypics in Berlin were Hitler’s Olympics – his chance to showcase Arryan supremacy to the world. Out of those Olympics rose Jesse Owens, one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century.

Simply being present, without a single act of force, Jesse Owens broke the myth was being presented. Being one who always loves afflicing the comforted, I admire stories such as this.

I discovered the book just this week in the book review of the Washington Post and look forward this read.

What a loong list! & of course I am reading much beyond it too.(Inheritance of loss- yummy prose)I used to eb able to read much more much quicker- whats wrong with me?I got ADD when I grew up?:(this much is enough to keep in mind.& the trick is to borrw them all, not buy them.I’ve asked mom french teacher to bring me ‘Le petit Prince’ which I’ll attempt to read in french.MAybe Mme Bovary next(who knows).

Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua – Things Fall Apart
Beckett, Samuel – Waiting for Godot
Camus, Albert – The Stranger
Chekhov, Anton – The Cherry Orchard
Dante – Inferno
de Cervantes, Migue – Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel – Robinson Crusoe
Eliot, George – The Mill on the Floss (again)
H.g.wells– Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo – Selected Essays
Faulkner, William –
Flaubert, Gustave – Madame Bovary (in french)
Heller, Joseph – Catch 22
Plath, Sylvia – The Bell Jar
Proust, Marcel –
Salinger, J.D. – The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William – Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard – complete works
Thoreau, Henry David – Walden
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. – Anything
Woolf, Virginia – Mrs.Dalloway, Room of one’s own

(this description is taken from Library Journal)

Prothero (chair, religion department, Boston Univ.; American Jesus) first builds a case for, then makes recommendations for, the teaching of religion in public schools and in higher education. Citing example after example, he demonstrates that Americans lack even basic religious knowledge. He traces the decline of religious knowledge and then shows how this decline can be reversed, all in accordance with recent Supreme Court decisions. Prothero illustrates that, more than just for moral character, biblical literacy is important. There are, however, obstacles it faces, e.g., public opinion, the inability of the secular Left and religious Right to compromise. He then helps the reader get started with an 85-page “Dictionary of Religious Literacy.” Prothero builds a convincing and important case. His book will probably not appeal to general readers, especially when they are reminded of their lack of religious knowledge for a good portion of the first third. But it is particularly recommended for academic institutions that train our future teachers.

Saw this one at the bookstore yesterday and it looks pretty interesting.