Charity's Reading Log

The Complete Book of Running for Women by Claire Kowalchick - I know, I know....enough with the running already. But, when so much of your time revolves around something, it's natural to read more about it. However, you'd think that I'd become a better runner with all the reading I'm doing about it. Then again, you'd be wrong. I think I very well could be the best-read, bad runner there is!


The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall - An uplifting, quick read that happens to be the second book our Rival Readers Book Club selected to read. As it happens, it came out as a movie with James Garner and Brian Denehey just this past Friday, and I hadn't even a clue it was a book until early last week. Bad librarian...

Anyhow, the book tells the story of Jason and his great-uncle Red. The book opens with Red's family awaiting the details of his will. Red was a wealthy Texas oil and cattle man and had, through his hard work, become a billionaire and had provided well for his extended family, taking care of their every need during his life. In the end, Red saw the error of his ways as his family became spoiled and lazy. Through his will he vowed to remedy some of those mistakes by taking Jason under his post-mortem wing and molding him into the person he should be. This happened through a series of lessons, or quests, that Jason undertook. At the end, if he succeeded, he'd get his "ulimate gift". Along the way, Jason learns many of the valuable lessons that living a life of leisure had robbed him of: The lesson of hard work; the lesson of friendship; the lesson of gratitude. Twelve lessons in all help Jason win his "ultimate gift" and, in the end, become the man he was always meant to be.