The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University Review

After recently wondering aloud what book I should read next, my sister (we're both agnostic) recommended, yet again, that I read The Unlikely Disciple. I basically know nothing about the Bible or Christianity (I groan and can't even begin to guess at the correct answers when "The Bible" is a category on Jeopardy), so I thought this book might be mildly interesting and entertaining, but worried it would be a long, slow read. Boy, was I wrong. I found this book fascinating and finished it in two days. I had no idea what evangelical Christianity was about, knew the name Jerry Falwell and had heard of Liberty, but beyond that, nothing.

The book details how Kevin Roose, a not really practicing Quaker, leaves liberal Brown University in Rhode Island to attend a semester, undercover, at evangelical Liberty University in Virginia in an attempt to bridge, as he puts it, the God Divide (though I'm sure the book deal at 19 didn't hurt either).

Roose gives us an inside look at what goes on at Liberty, from classes and church services to extracurricular activities and dorm life. But it's more than that. We find out about some of the people that are fundamental Christians (or are on the path to becoming one); people most of us might never meet unless they were trying to witness (aka convert) us. I really liked the fact that Roose threw himself into his semester at Liberty wholeheartedly, despite the fact that he disagreed with many of things he heard and saw, and that he kept an open mind about everything.

There was plenty about Liberty that annoyed me and, at times, boggled my mind from the intolerance, the way students weren't supposed to question anything in the Bible, the almost obsessive compulsive praying over anything and everything and don't get me started on the classes (yes, Dr. Dekker, I'm talking about yours). However, I really found myself liking and feeling for some of the students there (Though I think a few of them are working on ulcers worrying about how all of us heathens are going to try and corrupt them as soon as they enter the real world). Speaking of intolerance, I found myself kind of ticked off with the reactions of a good deal of Roose's secular, liberal friends and family. **Minor spoiler** When he finally fessed up to his friends and former mentors and classmates at Liberty, they still liked and accepted him, while it was obvious that his supposedly open-minded friends and family would have derided him if he'd told them how he really felt about his time at Liberty.

Overall, this is a great read, with lots of humor and insight. Roose did a fantastic, balanced job of telling us what life at Liberty is like, without turning it into a farce or a bashing of evangelical Christianity. Highly recommended.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University Feature

• ISBN13: 9780446178433
• Condition: New
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The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University Overview

No drinking.
No smoking.
No cursing.
No dancing.
No R-rated movies.

Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body. But when Roose leaves his Ivy League confines to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Baptist school in Lynchburg, Virginia, obedience is no longer optional.

Liberty is the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, his training ground for the next generation of America's Religious Right. Liberty's ten thousand undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a forty-six-page code of conduct that regulates every aspect of their social lives. Hoping to connect with his evangelical peers, Roose decides to enroll at Liberty as a new transfer student, leaping across the God Divide and chronicling his adventures in this daring report from the front lines of America's culture war.

His journey takes him from an evangelical hip-hop concert to choir practice at Falwell's legendary Thomas Road Baptist Church. He experiments with prayer, participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds), and pays a visit to Every Man's Battle, an on-campus support group for chronic masturbators. He meets pastors' kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell's life.

Hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking, THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE will inspire and entertain believers and nonbelievers alike.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 20, 2010 10:23:05

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude Review

Allow me to start off by saying that I'm one of the (apparently few) 40-year-old women on Earth who could not get through "Eat Pray Love." I've only realy done anything resembling Yoga on the Wii Fit. If anybody else had written this book, I doubt I'd read it... but Neal Pollack is painfully honest about his journey into yoga, and though he is trying to find his best self, he never loses his bite. I'd recommend this book to anyone who thinks that yoga is delegated either to wealthy soccer moms or that patchouli-smelling barefoot guy who had a vitamin store in the 70s. And to anyone who has reached, gone through, or even thought about having any kind of personal identity crisis.

In "Stretch," Pollack embarks on an early-midlife crisis after a literary reviewer makes a crass comment about his appearance. He doesn't have a "lighting bolt" turnaround; none of what he's going through is easy (emotionally or physically), but he's also upfront about the fact that his suffering is on a relative scale.

This is not a book about how someone overcame a great outside obstacle (traumatic disability, violence, force of nature), but how he took on a very personal crisis. I love that Pollack is so honest about how some teachers and methods really appealed to him, and some did not -- and that he was brave enough to try a little bit of everything he could to develop his own approaches. He reveals throughout the book how his wife both supported his search and sometimes was the voice of reason for him. And I think that the fact that he did go on this personal journey will make him a better teacher, because in sharing his own trials and tribulations, he will be more able to relate to those of others.

Witty, touching, and very down-to-earth for a book that's really about a spiritual journey, "Stretch" won't force you into studying yoga, but don't be surprised if you start downloading Michael Franti and standing a little taller after reading it.

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061727696
• Condition: New
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Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude Overview

The hilarious true account of an overweight, balding, skeptical guy's unexpected transformation into a healthy, blissful yoga fiend.

Neal Pollack was out of shape. The hair on his head was thinning and the hair on his face was pretentious—traits a New York Times critic gleefully pointed out while panning his second book. Combined with the predestined failure of his punk rock band, it was almost too much for Pollack to bear. He was willing to try anything to get his life back on track . . . even yoga.

While struggling to master difficult poses without kicking other yogis in the face, Pollack actually, remarkably, began to feel better, both in body and mind. Soon he found himself immersed in the "weird and circuslike" world of yoga. He participated in a 24-hour yogathon, attended yoga conferences and Asian retreats, went to yoga rock shows, started getting regular assignments for Yoga Journal magazine, and, finally, began teaching yoga classes himself.

Stretch mercilessly lampoons the bizarre, omnipresent culture of yoga, but it's also a story of profound personal transformation. Pollack started off mocking yoga. Now he's become one of its most enthusiastic proponents.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 29, 2010 19:15:07