Two Book Reviews

Here are a couple of books I have recently read that I think are interesting and perhaps you will too. No more "frothy Mormon literature" for me (thanks to Janet, my sister-in-law, I can now refer to all LDS novels as FML).

I just finished reading this book and loved it. I started it Monday evening and finished it Wednesday evening. I even mowed the entire yard and weeded two of my gardens in between, but I didn't get much else done! It is about the relationships between white women in Jackson, Mississippi in the 60's and their domestic help (black women). Very fun and interesting novel that delves into a somewhat sensitive issue. I loved Minny and loved hating Ms. Hilly Holbrook. Reader Beware: There is one part of the book where a man tries to attack a couple of women. He is completely naked and while there are no pictures, it is somewhat descriptive. It was disappointing to me that it was in there, but it was pretty benign and I am recommending this book to my 15-year-old daughter and my mother, gasp! Just so ya know.

Another book I read just a couple of weeks ago. It has a bunch of stories about people who have survived some pretty incredible disasters and what it took for them to survive. The author, Ben Sherwood, has also included some pretty amazing stats in his book. For instance, did you know that you have a 96+% chance of surviving a plane crash? Do you know the two most important numbers in military training are 98.6 and 3? Ninety-eight.six is your core body temperature and that is the first thing military personnel are trained to protect in a crisis. Three is a magic number that goes something like this: You can only survive 3 seconds without hope and faith. You can only survive 3 minutes without air. You can only survive 3 hours without maintaining your body temperature in extreme conditions. You can only survive 3 days without water. You can only survive 3 weeks without food. You can only survive 3 months without love and compassion. (I think I have that right, it's been 2-3 weeks since I read the book and I loaned it to my mom). At the end of the book there is a list of common survivor traits and a website where you can take a very accurate survivor test to see what kind of a survivor you are. I am a "Believer", while Kent is "Realist". Do you have what it takes to survive a disaster, whether personal or otherwise?