The Man Who Quit Money

 The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen tells the incredible true story of Daniel Suelo, who decided to live life without money. Suelo was raised as a strong fundamentalist and was the youngest of many kids. Growing up, Suelo always questioned religion, and the way we live. He was always looking deeper into things than most people would. He decided to study many different religions and break away from his fundamentalist roots. Suelo was having a hard time fitting in with the traditional American way. He didn't believe that charging money for certain things was ethical, he believed we should give without expecting payment. Suelo also faced many difficult challenges, his parents didn't accept is homosexuality, and Suelo even attempted suicide at one point. Suelo took many exciting trips in order to get a better understanding of his purpose in life including, South America, India, and Alaska. Along the way he met many interesting people and learned lots of new things and started to get a new perspective on life. Eventually he came to the conclusion that the only way he could live his life the way he believed was right, he would have to give up the use of money, and resort to living in caves and dumpster diving in the small town of Moab.

    I honestly loved this book. I feel like it gave me a new way to look at things a little bit. Although I would never go to the extreme of quitting money and living in caves, I totally agree with some of the reasons why Suelo did. The story is super fun to read and I never wanted to put the book down. Suelo's life is truly exciting and the author even compares it to the hero's journey several times, and he's right. Suelo's life almost follows the hero's journey perfectly. There are so many parts to this story that amazed me. However there seems to be a lot of unnecessary information. There are a few chapters that I feel like could be shortened, or completely taken out even because the information wasn't important to the story, and to be honest, was just plain boring. But looking at the big picture, I think the book is excellent.

      One of the best parts of the book, is the fact that the author and Suelo really question the reader on whether or not the way we live is okay. Why do we charge money and fees for every little thing? Why can't people give freely without expecting something in return? What can we do to not waste as much food and resources? Why do other countries live in poverty but still give more than we do? These are just some of the questions I found myself asking as I read. When I was reading the book, I felt that I should just give up on money too because I agreed with Suelo's message, however that is unrealistic for most people to do. So instead what this book taught me was to simply spend less, and give more.

      I would recommend this book to anyone who has an open mind. If you are not willing to accept certain beliefs, than this book is not for you. It often talks about different religions and ways of life, and if you are not able to accept other people's beliefs then you probably shouldn't read this book.

      I think this book is one of my all-time favorites because of all of the new information I learned and the amazing story of Daniel Suelo itself. I give it an A without a doubt.


Just a heads up: If you are uncomfortable with swearing, this book is not for you, because it swears quite a bit.
     
   

e=Einstein by 24 people (I'm not going to list off)

For those interested in physics and science, here's a book that will intrigue you. Like they say on the back, "A group of contributors look at Albert Einstein the man, his accomplishments, and his impact today." That is exactly what this book is! 24 people contribute essays about the life of the great Einstein and his discoveries about the universe. Essays are about his time in Germany, expeditions, his dream, the time-space continuum, relativity, quantum physics, gravity, and the Big Bang. The introduction gives a brief overview of Einstein, and his most important discoveries. It then is divided into 4 parts, Einstein's life, Einstein's early science, Einstein's later science, and Einstein's enduring influence. Although it does have a slow and quite boring start, the concepts and subjects later in the book are amazing. This book really gives you sample of Einstein's thoughts. He really was an amazing person of the 20th century. His discoveries have lead us to a greater understanding of the universe, and they have also lead us to better technology and weapons. Without his idea about the splitting of an atom WWII might have gone on for a few more years. This book was amazing and I recommend  it to all who like this kind of science. It was great overall, but because of the boring start it could have been better. B+

Jimmer Mania

     The Contract by Pat Forde is a very good biography of the star basketball player Jimmer Fredette. Pat Forde does an excellent job of explaining Jimmer's life from when he was a kid all the way up to the day he got drafted into the NBA. He brings you through all of the good and bad times in Jimmer's life, and goes through how much work it took for Jimmer to reach his ultimate goal of playing in the NBA.
     First of all, I love Jimmer Fredette and I very much enjoyed reading about how he made his way to the NBA. If you aren't a big fan of basketball or Jimmer you probably won't enjoy this book as much as I did, but one thing that I really liked about this book is that it isn't just all about basketball and what he had to do to get really good. It starts off explaining the mental disabilities and struggles that his brother has what a struggle it was for Jimmer and his family. It also tells how much of an influence Jimmer's  brother T.J. is on him and his basketball career. Forde helps bring you through all of the key things in their relationship and he explains all of the many things that helped Jimmer as he was growing up to aid him in reaching his goal of playing in the NBA. Also, Forde explains in detail every step of the way that Jimmer endured throughout his life up to the day he was drafted, even his home life.
     Forde really focuses on the training and the other things that Jimmer did physically to get very good at basketball. The thing that I didn't like about this is that I wished he would of gone into a little more detail about Jimmer as a kid and what kinds of things he would do in his childhood besides just playing basketball. Forde did have multiple items focused on Jimmer's home, but I felt they were still focused on just the basketball aspect of it. As well as that, Forde is sometimes a little bit too vague and doesn't go into as much detail as he should when talking about certain things in Jimmer's life. I just found myself wanting to know a little bit more when I would read a certain part. Other than those things this book was very enjoyable and filled with interesting facts and information that actually helped me learn a lot (especially some new basketball drills I can try out).
     All in all, I felt this was a very interesting book that isn't just for people who are into basketball. I would advise anyone who wants to read this to first get to know a little about Jimmer before reading, only because I know that if you already know a little about him, it makes it that much more interesting to learn more. Other than being a little bit vague and boring at a few times, Pat Forde did an excellent job of informing everyone about the life of Jimmer Fredette, and I would definitely  recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about his interesting life.