Crystal Clear Triumph by Eric LeMarque is the true story of Eric who dreamed to become a hockey player. He was also hooked on Meth. When his dream to be a hockey player died, he turned to snowboarding. He got stuck on a mountain for six days! How he survived is an extraordinary tale. He lost both of his feet. What he did with the rest of his life is the story of this book. I won't give it all away, but it is inspirational! A good quick read.
(Gerard 5/26/09)
This video was made by the brother in the book explaining about their family project which the book is all about.
The Power of Half by Kevin and Hannah Salwen is an inspirational true story about how their family lived with less to make a sizable contribution to really make a difference for a lot of people.Hannah the teen daughter, co-author of this book, had a deep desire to help people less fortunate than her and was instrumental in getting her family to take a trip to Africa to actually see the people they were going to help with their donation to The Hunger Project.The parents wanted to get their children to be more involved in their charitable decision making so agreed to go along with Hannah’s suggestion to down-size, sell their $1.95 million home and give half to charity.
This book was written to encourage families to be more involved in helping others and share their story on how they did it.It in no way recommends that everyone sell their home and move into a smaller one like they did.Kevin, the father, summarizes the benefits their family experienced by going through the process of deciding how much to give, what charity to give it to and down-sizing by getting rid of a lot of things they didn’t need.Through this process his family drew closer, communicated on a deeper level, enjoyed having a common goal to work towards, and an increased respect for each other.His teens became more self-confident and developed leadership skills.
One of the key points in the process that really gave the teens ownership of the project was to give every family member an equal vote in the decision making. It was interesting to see the inner workings of this family and how they worked together.I thought they should have actually sold their house first and then decided what to do with the money instead of promising the money to a charity before the house even sold.You can visit their website at www.thepowerofhalf.com. Some other suggested websites mentioned in the book are:www.rebuiildingtogether.org, www.sharesavespend.com, www.handsonnetwork.org.
I liked Hannah’s heart but found myself plowing through the book to finish it.I recommend it to parents who are looking for a way to unite their family and draw them closer or to anyone looking for help on how to get their children to be less selfish.
Half A Life is a memoir of Darin Strauss, who at age 18 while driving, had a car accident that killed a girl. This book is good; read it in two days. It was hard to put down because I never read anything like it before. It is all about how Darin handled what happened. I kept thinking about what if I did this? Half A Life is an outstanding and a memorable read. The writing is superb! I highly recommend it! (10 stars)
(Gerard's review)
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought I would play for fun! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!(make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.
We have two non-fiction teasers for you today: Karen's:
She started talking slowly, thinking as she went. "Dad," she began, "if that man"--she pointed to the Mercedes--"had a less nice car, that man there"--she pointed to the homeless man--"could have a meal."
Taken from p. 24 ofOne Family's Decision To Stop Taking And Start Giving Back--the Power of Half by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen
Gerard's:
What I want to write is that I lay there until morning, with tear-stained eyes, a tear-stained pillow, a tear-stained life. What can one do with levels of gloom and guilt, fear and disbelief, of bewilderment above one's capacity to register? I slept soundly.
Taken from p. 30 ofHalf A Lifeby Darin Strauss(My review of this will be posted tomorrow.)
Here's the questions from last week's meme hosted by Never Growing Old to help our readers get to know us better so sometimes we'll post it on this blog, and sometimes on our Right Where We Belong personal blog.
Questions:
1. Do you like your ice cream in a dish, waffle cone, pretzel cone, sugar cone or cake cone?
3. Marinara or meat sauce? We both like Marinara better.
4. Last time you cried?
A Very Sad Day when 3 cats had to be put down
Gerard doesn't remember when he last cried but Karen cried Jan. 1 of this year when I read on Mountain Woman's blog that she had to have her beloved dog, Faeden put down over the holidays. Having our first cat die on New Year's Eve of 2007 and having to have three of my dad's cats put down, I empathize with anyone experiencing this. I know Mountain Woman had a very special long-lasting bond with Faegen. He had bone cancer and was in great pain. Related post: Sylvester Went Out A Champ
5. What word/phrase do you find really annoying?
Gerard's is "It is what it is." Karen's is: "At the end of the day."
