5 Stars for The Art of War by Sun Tzu

 

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is not just a "guy's book" because battle occurs everyday and being a mom by night and a teacher by day - I have to be strategic. My personal Sun Tzu quote is this: 

"If you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder: then your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children; they are useless for any practical purpose."  

This quote more than any other makes me reflect on discipline and love and how often I'm guilty of not making my authority felt out of too much love for my birthed children. My students, who I care for deeply, are better served by Sun Tzu strategy because it is there I am consistent with policies set in place at the beginning of the school year. This quote along with...

"You have to believe in yourself."

...enables me as a leader at home and at school. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to find the leader within themselves. 

 

3 Stars for Grady Hendrix's The Final Girl Support Group

The Final Girl Support Group combines self-help advice with elements of cheesy horror slasher films. This is more of a movie than a book because a movie would cut all of the unnecessary stream of conscious Lynette (main final girl) ranting over how she is not exactly a final girl. Crazy Crissy's philosophical yin yang tirades could have been cut as well. This book felt padded like a cell you might keep Jason Voorhees inside with a big ol' butcher blade. He could never slash his way out. 

Despite the padding, I absolutely love Grady Hendrix. His writing style is different from most horror writers like King, Layman, and Little to name a few. It's more tongue in cheek which is why deep philosophical meaning lays on this book like oil on water - Lynette's ranting and Crissy's tirades. I like Hendrix to maintain his flippant irony making me giggle while taking off a few heads. He must have been trying a little something new with this fabulous concept inside the pages of The Final Girl Support Group. 

The plot was tied up nicely with perhaps a little twist due to Lynette's perspective which bounced around possibilities leading the reader down an icy road. Her limited perspective worked brilliantly for this novel.

When all is said and done, I will always read Hendrix. His concepts are out of the box fun with double edged humor turning the most gruesome scenes into a Monty Python Black Knight. 

5 Stars for These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant is a contemporary classic about ultimate sacrifice and humble beginnings. It begins in the middle filling in the past through carefully placed flashbacks. One of my favorite classics of all times is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, another book about sacrifice, but with a heavy dose of atonement. Cooper, the dad protecting his daughter, Finch, in These Silent Woods, may feel he needs atonement for his actions to save his daughter, but he does not. It takes another character in the novel to make him see himself as Finch sees him and that is a guy with a big heart willing to sacrifice all of his own individual desires for her. This is a book that makes you believe in the beauty of human kindness and that it will continue as long as we are able to see beyond ourselves. It is a classic, and one I hope will one day be taught in the classroom alongside books like The Kite Runner. 

3 Stars for The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is an interesting twist on parallel universes. The idea that a different you can exist somewhere else in a better or worse life is more than intriguing, which is why I picked this book up in the first place. It is true this book makes a turn towards self-help, but for me that is not such an awful turn. In fact, it fits the premise that centers around a protagonist (Nora) who is depressed in almost all of her lives. Nora, like most of us, can be self-absorbed. In the beginning I did not like her much. Nora focused too much on regrets that did not focus on anyone but Nora. This changed when she began to incorporate the feelings of her brother rather than her own. The Midnight Librarian (God, because of the statement: "I am what I am") guides her to think about her brother's feelings alongside her own. At this point, I'm thinking Nora is on her way to receiving the kind of grace only the most humble of us deserve - not. This is where my three star rating comes in to play. Yes, this book is worth reading. Yes, it makes you ponder your own self-absorbed life, but the ending did not contain the selfless grace Nora needed to find. In the end, I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. I highly recommend it simply because I think opinions will vary and it is different in a world of books that are much the same.