Book Review - How to Survive Middle School and Monster Bots

Author: Ron Bates

Print Length: 220 pages

Publisher: Zonderkidz (September 16, 2014)

 

“First, before I say anything else, I want to make one thing clear: some of my best friends are machines. Seriously. There’s the clock radio that wakes me up in the morning, the toaster that makes me breakfast, the electric toothbrush that scrubs my braces, the computer that does my homework, and the night light that’s there…” – Howard Boward

 

Introduction

Howard Boward is a nerd and proud of it. This much is true despite the painful tribulations it brings from “…angry, oversized, wedgie-obsessed jerks” that makes up a good percentage of the students in his school.

Howard also loves robots and spends endless hours tinkering with machine parts. His public robot demonstrations are not without hiccups (in the shape of destruction of family property), but Mum is always at hand to minimise the chaos engineered by these exhibitions as she happens to always know “... where the fire extinguisher is”.

 

Mayhem!

Apart from tinkering with robots, Howard spends most of his time at school trying to be invisible to bullies, a task he fails at, mostly. However, one thing Howard or How-weird (a name given to him by his school tormentors) cannot stand is his nerd-rivals outshining him in the robot-invention department. So when Gerald “G-Force” Forster built Basket-bot, a robot that can dunk balls, Howard was determined to create something better.

Howard’s competition with G-Force leads to disaster as the robot he designs turns evil, creating its own monster bots. Together, these monster bots roam around the town, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting citizens. The book wounds up with Howard acknowledging his envy and soliciting help from unlikely quarters to quash the robot rebellion.

 

Conclusion

The dialogue style is easy on the eye and one of the best I have seen in terms of simplicity. It captures the mind of a middle school student trying overcome life’s challenges. The fantasy elements of the books are sketchy and it left me confused for a time, wondering how the evil robot developed the intelligence to duplicate itself. All in all, I enjoy the reading experience.

 

Upsides: Fantastic dialogues | Rounded characters | Delightful drawings

Downsides: Sketchy fantasy

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Review copy was provided by HarperCollins Christian Publishing’s BookLook Bloggers.

Book Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing)

Author: Marie Kondo

Hardcover: 224 pages

Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 14, 2014)

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“Storage … is the sacred act of choosing a home for my belongings.” – Marie Kondo

 

Introduction

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a weird book. It is weird because it is written by a peculiar author who is way different from the normal people you meet every day. If you are looking for information that examines how the minds of neat- freaks work, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is the Holy Grail.

The book reads like a manual. It is uncomplicated and straightforward in its counsel on how to declutter your life, embrace an organised and clean form of living. It has practical advice about designating spots for each of your items, the advantages of vertical storage, keeping stuff out of the bath and kitchen sink, etc.

 

The Marie “KonMari” Kondo Concept

In case you are doubting how much organisation and tidying up means to the author, you will find that she places cleaning your living space right up there with meditation and evaluating your life. She says:

“Ideally, you should not even be listening to music. Sometimes I hear of methods that recommend tidying in time to a catchy song, but personally, I don’t encourage this. I feel that noise makes it harder to hear the internal dialogue between the owner and his or her belongings.”

The main key the author wants us to come away with, the key to decluttering our lives, is to discard anything that does not bring us joy. She says:

“My criterion for deciding to keep an item is that we should feel a thrill of joy when we touch it… when you come across something that you cannot part with, think carefully about its true purpose in your life. You’ll be surprised at how many of the things you possess have already fulfilled their role.”

 

View on YouTube

 

Conclusion

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is not a book for everyone. However, people who struggle with tidying up their space will find one or two things to help them on the way. Casual, normal individuals looking for few tips on decluttering their lives will find the book helpful in parts but overwhelming as a whole. On the other hand, people passionate about simplifying their lives and living spaces will find it helpful and refreshing.

 

Upsides: Fresh ideas | Clear & simple writing | Practical tips

Downsides: Some might find it a tad overwhelming/controversial

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Review copy was provided by The Crown Publishing Group’s Blogging for Books.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever: Marie Kondo: 9780091955106: Books ISBN: 0091955106 ISBN-13: 9780091955106

Eric Metaxas On The Reasons Behind Bonheoffer's Spiritual Stance Against The Nazis

Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R0211-316 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

When Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany, a German theologian's (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) stance and beliefs put him right in the eye of the storm. Also, his refusal to bend to the machination of the Nazi system, and his encouragement of such mind-set, was a source of irritation to the new government.

Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer Abridged: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, documents Bonhoeffer's journey and complicated relationship with the German Church and Nazis, a journey made him turn his back on the majority of his contemporaries who were supporters of Adolf Hitler's way of government. Bonhoeffer's strong convictions also lead him to attempt an assassination on Hitler in 1944, an attempt which led to his own death.

In Bonhoeffer Abridged, Eric Metaxas tries to peer through the curtain of history and brings us Bonhoeffer's beliefs on the relationship between the Church and the State, beliefs which led him to take the actions he took.

When the Third Reich rose and Christians were confused about how to relate with the new government, Metaxas writes that:

"Bonhoeffer addressed the issue of the church’s attitude toward the state, first by paraphrasing Romans 13: 'There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.' In other words, governments are established by God for the preservation of order."

After this declaration, it is said that Bonhoeffer stated three ways in which a Church should act towards the State.

"The first way was for the church to question the state regarding its actions and their legitimacy - to help the state be the state as God has ordained.
"The second way—and here he took a bold leap—was 'to aid the victims of state action.'
"The third way the church can act toward the state, he said, 'is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.' This, he said, is permitted only when the church sees its very existence threatened by the state, and when the state ceases to be the state as defined by God.”

Bonhoeffer’s fight against Nazism seriously starts with the formation of the “die Deutsche Christen”: the German Christians. This group of pastors “...stood solidly behind Hitler’s rise to power and blithely tossed two millennia of Christian orthodoxy overboard. They wanted a strong, unified Reichskirche and a 'Christianity' that was strong and masculine, and that would stand up to and defeat the godless and forces of Bolshevism...This group wanted a unified German church in accord with Nazi principles.” 

Over the remaining yeas of Adolf Hitler’s reign, Bonhoeffer opposed the government by forming a separate branch away from the German Christians, called the Confessing Church. The Confessing Church refused to bow under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and the doctrine preached by the German Christians. As a result of this and many other things, Bonhoeffer’s license as a university lecturer was revoked by the government.

By 1937, Bonhoeffer was convinced that negotiations between the Confessing Church and the government was not going to work. In one of his writings during that period, he wrote,

“The promise of grace is not to be squandered; it needs to be protected from the godless. There are those who are not worthy of the sanctuary. The proclamation of grace has its limits. Grace may not be proclaimed to anyone who does not recognize or distinguish or desire it.”

Not everyone shares Bonhoeffer’s ideals, especially members of the Confessing Church. Even though they stood against the Third Reich, they dithered on a lot of resolutions and was not totally convinced about Bonhoeffer’s decision to join the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), regardless of his reasons. Those who learnt about the assassination plot mostly shunned and removed themselves away from him. The following years that ensued saw Germany invaded many countries under false pretexts and threw millions of people in concentration camps.

The assassination attempt of 1944 was the last attempt made by Bonhoeffer’s friends. Its failure revealed the identities of the masterminds to the government. The culprits were all rounded up and imprisoned. As Hitler’s war was the rest of the world wounded-up and Germany was pushed back, Bonhoeffer was executed.  Most of the people involved in the assassination plot were also executed as Hitler senses his end and was determined to take as many lives of his enemies as possible.

Personally, I do not think Bonhoeffer contributed much to the assassination plot, he was, however, opposed Nazism and did a lot to move the Church away from the falsehood the government was pushing it towards.
Bonhoeffer was and still is a blessing to the church worldwide and his actions shows how much Christians can do when they shun spiritual passiveness and embrace the concept of believers as the salt and light of the world.

Bonhoeffer Abridged: Eric Metaxas: Books ISBN: 0718016165 ISBN-13: 9780718016166

Giving = Warm Feelings?

I once heard an economist say (on a Freakonomics podcast) that humans give mostly out of the warm feeling they get when they help people and not out of altruism. He concluded that if you are a fundraiser and in search of better fund takings, you will be smart to tap on this human quirk.

 

I got defensive when I first heard this. But what do I know? I mean a large amount of money given to the poor in the name of charity and other good deeds don’t even reach the people they are meant for.

 

An ex-colleague once donated bone marrow to an unknown patient…we heard of nothing else in the office for months but the magnitude of his love, goodness and compassion .

(Photo by Glitterchirag)