The Scarlet Pimpernel

Title: The Scarlet Pimpernel
Author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Genre: Classic
Pages: 320
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: During the French Revolution of the late 18th century, Madame Guillotine is busy beheading as many aristocrats as she can capture.  But the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, and his gang of British noblemen, are smuggling out dozens of French royalty right under the noses of the Inspector of the Republic, Chauvelin.  Who is the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel?  Will "those Frenchies" catch him in his most perilous adventure yet? Thoughts: My mom loved the movie version of this book, so I've probably seen that at least three or four times.  I've also seen the musical, which my awesome cousin Laura starred in in Logan.  But somehow, I had never actually read The Scarlet Pimpernel.  In fact, it wasn't until Jenn's dad told me that he had read it that I even knew there was a book.  I'm so glad he told me, because this was a delightful book!  It's in the same vein as The Three Musketeers, but much more concise and with more of a love story woven through it.  I really thought that the writing was superb, and the story is great, of course.  I really like it a lot, and would highly recommend it.  I just might try a few other Scarlet Pimpernel novels in the future.
Disclaimer:  Quite clean, except for a few English gentlemanly swear words.

I Am America (And So Can You!)

Title: I Am America (And So Can You!)
Author: Stephen Colbert
Genre: Humor/Satire
Pages (words): 240 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): **
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Stephen Colbert offers "knee-jerk beliefs" about everything that is destroying America, from pets to old people.
Thoughts: I think The Colbert Report is hilarious (I watch it during my lunch break most days, and it may be my main source of news), so I was excited to read Colbert's book.  I have to admit, I was disappointed in it.  The definitely had its funny parts, but overall wasn't as funny as I had hoped, and had more foul language that I cared for.  I wouldn't really recommend it.  Good thing I only listened to the abridged version, so I didn't waste too much time with it!
Disclaimer: Plenty of bad language in this one.

The Year of Living Biblically

Title: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Author: A.J. Jacobs
Genre: Experimental Journalism
Pages (words): 416 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A.J. Jacobs follows up his book about reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica (my review of that book is here) with a chronicle of his quest to live the Bible literally for an entire year.  And I mean literally.  He grows a beard, wears only white clothes, stones adulterers, and is absolutely honest to the point of brutality.  He participates in sacrifice, and circumcises his newborn sons.  This book follows his journey, giving details of how the quest affects his life, his way of thinking, and his attitude towards God.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed Jacobs' first book, The Know-It-All, so I thought I'd give this one a try.  It was even better than The Know-It-All.  The Year of Living Biblically was not nearly as blasphemous as it sounds, actually.  I really appreciated that Jacobs approached the task seriously.  At the start of the year, he is basically agnostic and completely secular.  He's never gone to church, doesn't believe in God, and is skeptical of religion.  But, he's afraid that he's missing out on something, and so he decides to live strictly by the Bible for a year.  Not the way I would go about learning about religion, but, hey, if you can get a book deal out of it I guess you do it.  Anyway, the book has it's funny parts of course, like when he has to have a specialist come to make sure that his clothing doesn't have mixed fibers in it, but the parts about him trying not to covet, or learning to pray, are actually really good.  He gains a huge respect for religion, and it was very interesting to watch his outlook on life change and he tried to live the principles of the Bible.  I would highly recommend the book to anyone.  It's entertaining and enlightening at the same time.  And, it made me really, really grateful to have The Book of Mormon and modern-day prophets that can help us know which commandments are still in force and which are obsolete.  I'd hate to have to play a ram's horn at the beginning of each new moon.
Disclaimer:  There's a bit of swearing in the book, but it's pretty clean overall.