Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napoleon Dynamite

Man, this was a totally awesome book. It does not take itself too seriously, but has fun with the movie while looking for the real meaning of it all in the movie. If you are a Christian or kind of like Jesus and you saw the movie Napolean Dynomite and laughed at least one time, this book is for you!

It was pretty much a great freakin' idea to write a book like this! It's good to know that there could be deeper meaning to everyday things that happened in the movie. Too many times, my life was like the action figure that Napoleon drug behind the bus (until I found some decent friends, and later became a Christian...but that's a story bigger than a block of government-issued cheese) (by the way, I once drug a cassette tape behind the bus, and it was pure awesome). In the book, the authors do a sweet job of explaining how things like, "taming a wild stallion," building a cake," and "three hours of upper lip shading," can add to your skills. I think it's pretty much my favorite book right now...and it will help make my wildest dreams come true (and there are a buttload of delicious recipes in the back)! I'm giving the book five stars, but would've really liked a double-page drawing of our underwater ally, Nessie.

Yes, this is a Christian Devotional. If you are a Christian and a fan of the movie, then you'll enjoy looking at the events in the movie from a Spiritual point of view. If you're not a Christian, this could be a good introduction to the truth for you, just so long as you know that's what you're getting. I guess a lot of people thought this was going to be some "spiritualistic new age enlightening zen" kind of thing and were disappointed when they got the book and it talked about Jesus, but hey, maybe if they actually read it and thought about what it was saying rather than just getting offended at the name of the one person who loved them more than anyone they'll ever know, the book could actually change their lives......

This book has lots of great observations and conversation starters concerning the characters and situations seen in the great comedy film NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, and I'd like to see more of that, since this is such a fun movie! This is pretty much a collection of short observations of scenes or dialogue from the movie, then some thoughts about the spiritual aspects of each sample, as seen from a Biblical viewpoint. SWEET! This is a 24-piece set (like the NuPont bowls that Uncle Rico sells). There are 24 short chapters, each about 4 pages long, plus a Glossary, a Discussion Guide, and some Recipes. For example, Napoleon tells Pedro, "Just tell them all their wildest dreams will come true if they vote for you." To which the authors contrast it to Psalm 37:4, where David says that God will give you the desires of your heart if you delight in Him first. Then they do a bit of deeper Bible commentary when they suggest that maybe the Psalm means that God will DEFINE the best desires for you to have in your heart, (which agrees more with other scripture verses saying God will give you what you REALLY need), and this is much different than thinking that God will give you ANYTHING superficial that you might wrongly lust over, like a fancy bicycle, or dating the wrong girl, etc... This book is not just for Christians. It also points out some interesting observations about the movie characters that you might not have noticed; like Kip gets converted into a clothes horse for ghetto rapper styled clothing, but later, at the wedding, we see that he has ditched the style experiment and gone back to being himself, though he's still with LaFawnduh. The Glossary is pretty cute, like-- "BODAGGIT: Derisive name directed at an especially despised person. Often accompanied by large citrus fruit hurled at same." The Discussion Guide also has some good conversation starters to ponder, like-- "Kip meets his soul mate online. How do you feel about Internet dating? Why?" Only the most jaded anti-Christian would be offended by this fun book. The cover does say "Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from NAPOLEON DYNAMITE," instead of perhaps, "Unexpected Christian Lessons...," but I think it's fair to say that Christianity is a form a spirituality. Maybe "Spirituality" is too often misused to describe New Age tomfoolery? All in all, this is a nice little book, if you are a fan of the movie. You will find plenty to think about and talk about with your friends.