New at The Baptist Muse - The Book Club

As many of you have probably already noticed, yesterday I launched The Baptist Muse Forum. I would like to invite you all to swing by and check it out. One of the key features within the forum is the section entitled "Book Club." I have set up a system where we as a community can select a book each month to read.

I'm am very excited about the book club and am looking forward to seeing who will join in with me in reading a book each month. I invite you all to jump in and read some of the books that will begin showing up in this forum.

According to the rules that I set up, we should spend the first three weeks in February selecting our book for March. Since, however, the month of February is almost over, I am going to select a book of interest to me (How self serving, right?) to get things started.

Of course, next week we will begin the selection process for April's book. I invite you all to get involved. I am not going to be the one selecting the books in the future. Everyone else is. I am going to have you all contribute a book idea and then we will all vote on them as a community to determine which one we are going to read. For more information about the selection process check out the rules over at the post entitled "Welcome to The Book Club."

I am trying to expand the genres that I read to include history, biographies, cultural studies, leadership, spiritual, and classic fiction (I prefer not to read any fiction that has been written within the past 100 years). I am most concerned with expanding my knowledge base and growing as a person while also trying to find books that are not boring but rather enjoyable and easy to read. I invite you all to join me on that journey.

By Duty Bound : Survival and Redemption in a Time of War

For the month of February I have selected a book entitled "By Duty Bound - Survival and Redemption in Vietnam" by Brig. Gen. Ezell Ware, Jr. When I read the back of the book, I became so captivated that I just knew it had to be the next book that I read. Allow me to share that with you and I think that you will begin to see what I mean.

"The inspiring true story of a black soldier who left the segregated South - only to land in a struggle for survival alongside a racist white captain in the jungles of Vietnam.

"Raised in Mississippi, Ezell Ware was determined to excel beyond the limits put upon him. Having grown up without running water, electricity, or sufficient food, he wasn't daunted by the hardships of military life - and became the top recruit in his marine training class. Eventually he earned a chance to join the Army's helicopter pilot program and ralize his dream of flying. it was a role that would change his life...and the life of an unlikely brother in valor at the height of the Vietnam War.

"Downed by enemy fire, Ware and his badly injured captain endured a three-week trek through hell, with one canteen and little defense against countless deadly forces. But when his captain revealed his membership in the KU Klux Klan, the situation took a turn that surprised them both - and set Ezell upon the road to becoming a general.

"A unique memoir of heroism and humanity, By Duty Bound captures a crucial chapter in American history - through the eyes of one of its most remarkable witnesses."