Fred and Valerie

Phil Cooke’s Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t is a fairly quick read, mostly because he does a great job of weaving information and examples in a seamless and effortless way. The topics of branding and marketing aren’t typically associated with faith-based organizations — in fact, many would argue that they have no place in faith-based organizations — and Cooke does an excellent job of explaining why they should be and, maybe more importantly, how they can take a faith-based organization to the next level in reaching their goals.

Ultimately, any church or nonprofit that wants to better reach their target demographic in a better and more meaningful way would do well to read Cooke’s “Branding Faith.” Doing so will likely open a lot of eyes.

Next Up: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Finally, it’s back to Harry Potter! I can’t remember how many times I’ve read “Order of the Phoenix” before, but it’s at least twice… I think. I know I mentioned how many times I had read the previous books in the series in earlier posts, but I’m not sure that’s accurate because I know I read them initially and I remember reading them all again before Deathly Hallows and now I’ve read them again. However, I think I may have read the first five before Half-Blood Prince and the first four before Order of the Phoenix. But, I can’t be sure. The only thing I know for sure is that I’ve read them a lot.

Five months later, I’ve finished The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History. However, I haven’t finished it because I made it to the last page. No, I’ve finished it because I just can’t stand to read it anymore. In fact, I haven’t read a single word of it in something like three months.

It’s time to give up.

The idea of “The American Plague” is a good one. A story about a disease that ravished our country, yet few people understand it or even comprehend what it did to our nation.

However, the book never delivers. At least not in any meaningful way soon enough to keep me interested as a reader.

I constantly felt like the author felt it necessary to have a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter. Even a Charles Dickens novel, written in serial form for magazines, has fewer cliffhangers than “The American Plague.”

Seriously, here are the ending sentences to the first four chapters.

Part 1, Chapter 1

In Memphis, Tennessee, their attention was turned not toward disease or death, but just the opposite: a carnival.

Part 2, Chapter 1

On board, hundreds of mosquito eggs lay ready to hatch.

Part 2, Chapter 2

In the summer of 1878, the Mississippi River, the great artery of North America, would carry death in its bloodstream, spreading the worst yellow fever epidemic in American history.

Part 2, Chapter 3

[The declaration of a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis] was two months after Mitchell’s ill-fated battle for quarantine; one month after the fever’s first victim.

And I didn’t really make it much further than that. It felt like every chapter, and most sections within the chapters, were written to end with some ridiculous B-movie horror sound effect and that’s not what I desire from my reading material on a regular basis.

Plain and simple, great idea, but bad execution.

Next Up: Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t
I’m actually reading this at the request of the pastor of our church. He’s interested in writing a book and we’re on the committee-like group that is trying to figure out how to make that happen. After that, it might be time to return to Harry Potter…

For the third time, I’ve finished J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And just like the previous two times, it was an excellent read and journey. As with the first three books that I’ve recently re-read, even more details have been made clear to me and even more foreshadowing has become evident to me that I didn’t recognize previously.

A great example of a bit of foreshadowing that I missed the previous two times, particularly because it specifically related to events that took place in Book 7 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and this is the first time that I’ve read Book 4 after having read Book 7, is the following event that took place towards the end of Book 4:

“He said my blood would make him stronger than if he’d used someone else’s,” Harry told Dumbledore. “He said the protection my — my mother left in me — he’d have it too. And he was right — he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face.”

For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore’s eyes. But next second, Harry was sure he had imagined it, for when Dumbledore had returned to his seat behind the desk, he looked as old and weary as Harry had ever seen him.

The inclusion of Harry’s blood in his own becomes a crucial part of the plot near the end of the final book and ultimately begins the final downfall of Lord Voldemort. That Dumbledore had “a gleam of something like triumph” shows that he had an inkling of what Voldemort’s use of Harry’s blood signaled and he was right.

Those five words hold so much weight when viewed in the entirety of the Harry Potter story and yet most, if not all, readers probably had no idea that they meant anything at all the first time they read Goblet of Fire. It’s seemingly insignificant writing like this that turns out to be so enormous that makes the entire Harry Potter series beyond phenomenal.

Next Up: The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped our History
Another small break from the re-reading of the Harry Potter series. I’m going nonfiction because if I wanted fiction, I’d just keep reading Harry Potter.

Stephen J. Dubner’s Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper is an interesting look into a man’s journey to track down his childhood hero and the resulting revelations.

At an early age, Dubner lost his father. Soon thereafter, he fell in love with Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris and began having a dream that involved himself and Harris playing football in the front yard. Dubner had the dream every night for quite some time until he grew up and moved on to college.

Now a grown man, Dubner takes a look at his hero-worship and contacts Harris about an interview for a book Dubner’s writing. He gets the interview and what ensues is a candid look into both sides of hero-worship and Dubner gets most of his answers from an unlikely source: himself.

Next Up: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
I’m finally able to pick up the Harry Potter series again. This will be the third time I’ve read The Goblet of Fire and I will once again be interested in how many previously unnoticed references I pick up on now that I’ve read the entire series.

Steff Deschenes’s self-published book “The Ice Cream Theory” was a fun read and provides an interesting way to look at ice cream. Steff sent the book to me on behalf of Two Dips and I did a book review for the site.

Next Up: Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper by Stephen J. Dubner
Instead of returning to my re-read of the Harry Potter series, I’m reading Dubner’s book about hero-worshiping because Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was just too big to fit into the suitcase for our trip. I became a fan of Dubner after reading Freakonomics, the book he co-authored with Steven D. Levitt.

Just like the re-read of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, taking another trip through the Chamber of Secrets revealed a lot of “secrets” that now have much more meaning to the overall series.

Next Up: The Ice Cream Theory by Steff Deschenes
I’m having to take a break from the re-reading of the Harry Potter series as Ms. Deschenes was kind enough to send me a copy of her book because of Two Dips. I’m going to do a book review and then will pick up the Harry Potter series again.

Wow! Even though I had read J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone twice before, there were still details I read this time that I missed the first two times. It’s not that I’m a bad reader, it’s that Rowling is a phenomenal writer. She writes details into the book that seem like generic text about the setting or character, but after having read all seven books in the series you realize that she set it all up for you right there in Book 1 at a high level of detail.

There is no doubt, after reading Book 1 for the third time, that J. K. Rowling is not only a great writer, but she also clearly had a high level of knowledge of where the entire series was heading before she ever put pen to paper.

Next Up: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Like Book 1, this will be the third time I’ve read Chamber of Secrets and I’m looking forward to all the new details I’ll pick up on this time around like I did with Book 1.

Even better than the first time! As with her previous books, J. K. Rowling packs so much information into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that it’s easy to miss much of it the first time through.

I re-read this book in preparation for re-reading the entire series again and I’m glad I did. I certainly remembered the big picture story, but now the books will be a much better read with the final details in mind as well.

Next Up: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
This will be the third time I’ve read Book 1 of the series and it will be interesting to see if I’m able to glean any more details that J. K. Rowling put out in the open so early in the story, but that didn’t matter until several books later.

Lee Eisenberg’s “The Number: What Do You Need for the Rest of Your Life and What Will It Cost?” is terrible. I couldn’t make it much beyond the first 100 pages because it’s all just hypothetical drivel that constantly returns to one common theme: You think you know your Number so that you can retire safe and sound, but I have 100 ways to prove you wrong!

I kept waiting to read some shred of advice about how to actually determine my “Number” and finally got fed up and skipped to the end. What’s all the build up for? So the author can tell you that there’s no real way to calculate an actual Number. It all depends. It depends on when you retire, if you’re going to work during retirement, how old you live to be (the biggest factor!), and countless other things.

I could have written this book in one sentence: Stop obsessing about a made-up Number and just put away as much money as you can into retirement accounts and be ready to go back to work if you need to and/or live to be older than 90!

This book actually contains some interesting statistics, but beyond that it’s pointless.

Next Up: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I’m reading the last book of the Harry Potter series again to get a good foundation for where the story ends. After that, I’ll reread the entire series from start to finish. This will be the third read for books one through four (and, eventually, seven) and the second read for books five and six.

Overall, Gordon Ramsay: The Biography is a very good book with a good amount of detail about the life and career of the world-renowned chef. The book takes readers from the trials and tribulations of Ramsay’s childhood, through his teen years and beyond as he perfects his skills as a culinary expert.

Most people will be surprised to read about Ramsay’s early career as a professional footballer (soccer player) as well as his unique marriage to wife Tana. Most will also be surprised to read about his drug-addicted brother, abusive father, and out-of-the-kitchen softer side.

Page after page, those who only know Ramsay from television will learn more about a man they likely didn’t know existed. And, at the end of his biography, it’s easy for one to gain a great respect for the man and the methods he uses in an endless pursuit for culinary perfection. Often written off as a “celebrity chef” critics, Ramsay proves over and over again that his primary concern after his family is his food.

Next Up: The Number: What Do You Need for the Rest of Your Life and What Will It Cost?