Saturday, March 5, 2011

Kimberly's Review of Finding Reason by Bryce Anderson


Book: Finding Reason (Originally Published as Body of Knowledge)


Author: Bryce Anderson

How I got it: I bought it from the author

Well, first I guess I ought to give a bit of history on the book. The way it came to be is a great story in itself. It started out as a couple of hand bound books that he handed off to friends, then he self-published the book as Body of Knowledge and began to spread the word about it through friends and family. And, as in my case, through Goodreads. And THEN a publishing company picked the book up, gave it a different cover and title, cleaned it up a bit and published it! 

The book made its way into my hands somewhere in between. It was still Body of Knowledge when I read it, it wasn’t until a year later that it was republished. To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure about this book at first. (Sorry, Bryce) I’d had many authors spam my profile on Goodreads or the couple of groups I belong to, trying to promote their book. Bryce had taken a look at my ‘read’ list on Goodreads before he ever sent me a message. After taking a look at the book and thinking about it for awhile, I decided to go for it.
Before I started reading the book, I had the vague impression that it was something scientific. Or perhaps a murder mystery. I had glanced at the description on the book but that was about it. If I remember correctly I was in the middle of finals or midterms and hadn’t read a book for my own pleasure for weeks. It was that point in the semester when I once again question my decision to get such a complicated degree. It probably took me a month to actually pick the book up. 

The description on the book reads something like this…. “An ant has two stomachs. I know this because my neighbor told me; and to my knowledge he never lied to me... And I liked the answers. They fit. They were logical. They placed everything in perspective and made me see the picture as a whole. I thought you might find it interesting why I thought the only logical thing I could do was kill him.

You can imagine why I didn’t really have much of an idea what the book was about. The moment I picked the book up and started reading it however… I realized why the description was like that. I can’t really say much about the story without spoiling much of it. And the surprises and little gems found throughout the book is one of the things that make it so great. I can, however, give you a brief description of the book without revealing too much. 

The story is narrated by the lead character, Bryce and tells of his family. They live a fairly normal life and then one day they get a new neighbor. His name is JP and is odd in about a dozen ways. He doesn't have any furniture, he likes to watch ants crawl along the sidewalk, and there is something rather odd about his birth certificate. Although this is the type of person one might normally avoid, Bryce can't help but feel drawn to him and he learns that JP is a genius. Ask him any question and he knows the answer. He and Bryce become fast friends, and as the story progresses we see how Bryce and his family are changed by JP.

This book really surprised me. Like I mentioned before, I was a bit leery of self published books. (Again, I apologize, Bryce.) The story is well written. The writing style, the characters, the story, and all of twists that are thrown in make the book a delight to read.

But really, it’s more than a ‘delight’ to read. It’s inspirational. The book does have religious overtones in it, but… It’s hard to describe. You don’t have to be religious to enjoy it. A quote from the author helps to sum up what I’m trying to say.
(This was taken from a Q&A from the authors blog)

4. What is the primary message you’d like your readers to take away from this book? (If a novel, is there an underlying theme?)

“There is SO much knowledge that is out there that is fun to know. In addition, pondering the unknown (i.e. Death / God / Science) can make life more meaningful.”
I highly recommend this book. It can inspire you in many different ways, spiritually, and it can help to inspire you to learn more. Like the author, and the characters in the book say, there is so much to learn out there! So many fun things to learn about. (And yes, I realize I’m showing my geekyness by saying something like that, but I’m a knowledge junky, I love learning new and random things.)
So, take a chance on this book!
4.5 Stars!

2 comments:

  1. I love a good self-published book simply because I know how hard the market for publishing is and I have seen a lot of my friends who've written beautiful books not get contracts, so way to go Bryce! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rebecca, thank you for reading the review and commenting!

    ReplyDelete

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