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Henry Louis Gates Jr – Dark Sky Rising
I picked up this book as something to listen to when I was decorating the spare room, and while this wasn’t an easy listen, I definitely learnt a lot.
We never really learned about American history at school, so although this book was aimed at a younger age range, it was the perfect level for me. Starting with the civil war, the book takes you through the history of black America leading to the founding of the NAACP.
Despite the intended audience, the history is presented factually and without hiding some of the worst parts. I genuinely found myself getting upset at points listening to this book and realising how recent a lot of it was, and then obviously thinking of what’s currently going on in America right now.
I see from the other reviews that the book includes lots of photos etc and obviously this wasn’t included with it being an audiobook. I think I would benefit from reading this as an actual book rather than just listening to it, because with there being so many facts in there it was a lot to take in without being able to re-read paragraphs.
I’d love to read more non-fiction books like this, it’s only be learning about world history that we can be aware enough to avoid repeating it.
And I’d just like to say that the narrator was fantastic, really clear and easy to understand and a voice that made me want to keep listening, which was very important given the difficult subject matter.
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Helly Acton – The Shelf
I downloaded this as an audio book as something to keep me entertained for the many hours of decorating I’ve done over the last few weeks.
What I didn’t expect was for the book to leave me feeling as irritated as it did. I completely understand that it was the point of the book, but the constant irritation really detracted from being able to enjoy the book and the (mostly) lovely characters inside.
We start off with our main character Amy. She’s being surprised to a romantic holiday by her pig of a boyfriend, who rather ironically calls her piglet because she’s a little curvy. You immediately get the feeling that he’s completely destroyed her self-esteem, and I just wanted to punch his (imaginably) weasely little face.
Only it turns out that the romantic holiday she thinks she’s going on is actual more of a nightmare. You see, he has signed her up for a new reality show called ‘The Shelf’. She’s apparently not a good enough girlfriend, so this reality show will show her how to be better, how to be ‘The Keeper’.
Disgusting, right?!
Turns out he’s not the only obnoxious pig though, as there are 5 other contestants who have been ‘nominated’ for the show, and we follow these six women as they compete in ‘challenges’ to be able to stay in the house and prove themselves the winner.
The fact that they were such complicated, flawed and real characters was the only thing that made me continue listening to this audiobook, because the challenges and the people the contestants had to interact with were pretty vile and I found myself continually getting a bit angry.
The book highlighted perfectly how all women are different and want different things from their lives, and we shouldn’t all be pigeon-holed into the same mold, the picture perfect housewife. Because that picture perfect housewife doesn’t exist. The female empowerment angle was great.
But I think for me, because the female characters were all so varied, I would have liked to have more variation in the male characters too. I know what the book was trying to do, but not all men are completely arrogant and self-obsessed like the men portrayed in this book, and I would have liked to see this a bit more.
I can definitely see how some people may really take to this book, but for me the irritation was just too much for me to properly settle into the plot, no matter how much I liked Amy and the other ladies.
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David Runcorn – Love Means Love
An insightful and clear unpicking of the ‘issue’ of same-sex marriage that has caused (and continues to cause) friction in the church. It’s a divisive issue and one that is probably not talked about enough because of the potential for upset.
This book unpicks the common objections for same sex relationships and gay marriage and thoroughly and overwhelmingly shows you why these objections are not biblical in origin.
Evangelicals often use the phrase ‘authority of scripture’ when they mean the authority of the Evangelical, or Protestant theology, since the assumption is made that we (Evangelicals, or Protestants) are the ones who know and believe that the Bible is saying.
Unpicking the real meaning behind commonly cited Bible passages and trying to explain where some of the confusion has come from, I found this book so insightful. It’s written without judgement but with love and with the intention of opening eyes to a more inclusive world.
I remember the reaction of someone the first time they saw a woman wearing a clerical collar. ‘It’s not natural’, they muttered, with some anger. What they actually meant was ‘I have never seen this before. It is not part of my world and I am very uncomfortable with it’.
This book challenges us to move past things that might make us uncomfortable and challenge what we may think we know. I found it enlightening and I am personally so glad I read it.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.
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Healthy Faith and the Coronavirus
I was so impressed with how quickly this book was released when Coronavirus first hit and we all went into lockdown. I’m not so impressed with how long it’s taken me to read it, but that’s entirely my fault and not a reflection of the book!
As you would guess from the title, the book talks us through how to correlate our faith with the coronavirus pandemic in a healthy way, when the atmosphere around is is the complete opposite, and we might be tempted to draw away from God.
Split into 20 chapters, each is written by a different contributor and brings a different specialism and knowledge to the situation. Chapters like work, marriage, singleness, grief and loneliness.
And although it’s written by 20 different people, it flows really well and reads as a cohesive book rather than just separate articles, which was really nice. I think the reason it took so long for me to read is because a lot of the topics felt really close to home and I wasn’t ready to read it.
We come to appreciate more than ever the wonder inherent in simple things like friendship, walks in the park, holidays, hugging or even just going to the pub.
As you would imagine, each chapter is filled with biblical knowledge, pointing us towards the God who is with us in these unprecedented times:
Because Christ came to remove from us the tyranny of the fear of death (Heb. 2:14–15), we can live in confident hope, carry out our daily tasks and selflessly serve others even in the most trying times.
It also challenges us to draw closer to God rather than pulling away, choosing prayer rather than anger to get us through the crisis.
As we seek to love others through this time, perhaps the most useful weapon in our arsenal is one of the simplest. We have a clear and direct line to God. He always hears our prayers, so let us be a praying people.
I’m not going to individually review each chapter, because I think if you’ve got this far into the review, you should probably pick up a copy of the book and check it out – the kindle version was pretty cheap last time I looked.
I think while obviously written and focused on the coronavirus times, the book will be a useful reference when we hopefully get through this to the other side. Chapters like the one on the Psalms are a good guide for all times, not just in a pandemic, so I see myself returning to this book again in the future, hopefully when my head (and the world) is in a better place.
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Milly Johnson – My One True North
What a start to a book! 3 pages in and my heart was broken already. I don’t think that’s ever happened so early in a book before, but then we returned to the teashop on the corner and all was well in the world (well, kind of).
Both Pete and Laurie have lost their partners in tragic circumstances, and neither of them are coping well with the grief, they are both lost and unable to find their way forward.
They meet at Molly’s club, a place for bereaved people to meet and talk. And it’s an odd bunch of people, so much so that neither of them think they’ll return after their first week. But there’s something special about that bunch of people, and they begin to work their magic on both Pete and Laurie.
We can see straight away that Pete and Laurie are meant to be together, but they’re both going through an incredibly difficult time, and there are some twists and turns in the way which will completely derail the path of true love, but that didn’t stop me rooting for them!
I have to say, I though that I had the plot completely figured out, but Milly managed to throw me completely off and surprised me in a way I would never have guessed!
For me, this book was fabulous. Sensitively exploring the humanness of grief and the struggles that come with it, this topic could have been really tricky and traumatic. But in true Milly style, you come away with a warm heart and a smile on your face.
The different characters in Molly’s club show you how grief can exhibit itself in completely different ways for each person, but there’s no right way except your own way, and you will come out of the other side a stronger person, it may just take time.
I was so happy to be reunited with familiar places from previous books, and to have the Daily Trumpet featured so prominently really made me smile – I love the funny corrections that have threaded themselves into previous books, so to have this weaved into the plot was great.
I say this every time, but you can’t go wrong with a Milly Johnson, they’re guaranteed to make you smile, and a perfect way to lose yourself in another world for an afternoon.
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Louise Candlish – Those People
I always forget how much I love a good mystery thriller, and this was just what I needed to entertain me on a rainy saturday afternoon. So fast-paced that I couldn’t put it down and enough twists and turns that it wasn’t predictable (which I hate).
In fact, it was quite the opposite of predictable, the main twist coming about half way through the book and catching me completely by surprise.
The book centers around a hoity-toity street in the suburbs of London, the main characters were all so up themselves that I took an immediate dislike to the whole lot of them. But their perfect little bubble is shattered when ‘those people’ move in at the end of the street.
‘Those people’ are not like the rest of the street. ‘Those people’ are loud and brash and don’t abide by the rules. ‘Those people’ are a threat to the peace and tranquility that the rest of the street has tried so hard to cultivate. And ‘those people’ must be dealt with, because we couldn’t possibly have ‘those people’ living on our street.
I absolutely loved the format of the book. We know that someone has died because each chapter starts with a police interview with one of the residents of the street, but we don’t know who has died. As I read each chapter, my suspicions shifted. It seems like everyone on the street has a motive, but who is brave or crazy or desperate enough?
I swung quite wildly between sympathising with ‘those people’ because they seemed a lot more like me than the other residents of the street, but then hating them because they truly did seem like they were being obnoxious for the sake of it, and we would all hate to live next door to them.
I thought the author did a fantastic job exploring the hidden dark side of otherwise perfect looking people. The kind of people who put on such a shiny exterior but are actually pretty unpleasant.
Never mind not wanting to live next to ‘those people’, I wouldn’t want to live on this street full stop.
I’ll definitely be looking out for more books from this author!
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Ben Lindsay – We Need To Talk About Race
I picked this book up to educate myself as Black Lives Matter came to a more global stage in the last few weeks. I always thought that I was a good person, that I wasn’t racist, but I realised that may not be true. And even if it is true, it’s not enough. I needed to learn more about black experiences, so that I could be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
What I realised through reading this book, is that I have been blind to so much. Systematic racism that happens in the places that I hold dearest to my heart, in the places I would never expect there to be such hatred, and as a church (globally, not just locally), we need to do much better.
I appreciated how many people’s stories were weaved into this book, bringing different perspectives and experiences that we can and must learn from if we need to move forward into a society where your worth is not determined by the colour of your skin.
I also really appreciated the discussion questions at the end of each chapter. I read the book on my own, but I could see that this would be a great read as part of a house group or book club. The questions would definitely have been great springboards into meaningful discussion.
There are so many books on my list to read to educate myself more about race, but the fact that this one was British and with a Christian perspective definitely elevated it to the top of my list. And I’m so glad I did read it, because it opened my eyes to so much.
The book wasn’t an easy read in any way, in fact in places it was quite uncomfortable reading. But it was written in a way that made it quite easy to read.
I’d definitely recommend this book to everyone I know as a first step in education, and I’m glad that the author also recommends other things to read as I don’t want my learning to stop here.
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Jaimie Admans – The Little Bookshop of Love Stories
This book was requested as an advance reading copy from NetGalley in exchange for this review.
I have to say that honestly, I have kinda mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the plot line sounds heavenly (a woman wins a bookshop and gets to make it her own), but on the other hand, there was a lot of times in the book where it felt a little cliche’d to me.
The main character Hallie was pretty likeable, but sometimes I found her a little stereotypical and two-dimensional. Although I related to her character very well, I felt like her and the other characters in the book could have been fleshed out a little more to bring them to life.
But on the other hand, the location of the book was beautifully described and I could definitely see myself in that beautiful village, walking down the high street and spending hours wandering around the bookshop.
And although the plot was slightly predictable, there were certain twists and turns over the course of the story that I just did not see coming.
I loved the blossoming relationship between Hallie and Dimitri and how perfect they seemed for each other. Like most romance books, I was just waiting for something to happen to throw a spanner in their relationship, but I was still surprised when it happened.
Aside from the relationship, the best thing for me about this book was that the author clearly loves books just as much as I do, and that was definitely reflected in this story. The love for books shines from the page almost as much as the love between Hallie and Dimitri.
“The world is endlessly big when you have books.”
Having reached the end, I was actually a little sad, I really hope that we get a second appearance of Hallie and Dimitri because I’d love to see how their future grows together in their perfect bookshop.
384 pages. Published in: 2020Read in E-bookon 11th-14th June 2020 -
Graham B. Usher – The Way Under Our Feet
This book felt like it was perfectly aimed at me, tying together two of my favourite things, faith and walking. I’ve got into walking a lot this year, but I never really considered that walking has a spiritual side (apart from giving me time to listen to podcast sermons while I’m out and about).
In this book, we start off with a chapter titled ‘Movement’, describing how walking works, the mechanics of it and how it evolved. I wasn’t really expecting this, but it was actually a really great intro to the book.
We then go into other chapters like ‘Thinking’, ‘Remembering’ and ‘Going’. all built around the same theme, but with a different focus.
I don’t want to say too much about this book because I think if it sounds like something that may interest you, you should go out and read it, if only for pearls of wisdom like this one:
“If we lack love in our walk with another, even though we offer presence and openness, we will appear cold. Walking-with involves caring for the other deeply. It means seeking common ground so that we can move together instead of one of us walking ahead or behind.”
But although it sounds like it might be a fairly pedestrian read (pardon the pun), it wasn’t the easy-going book I thought it would be. Some chapters, like ‘Fearing’, were challenging to read. I often had to stop reading because it made me feel quite emotional, but the challenge of those chapters was necessary for a complete look at the topic.
I’ve never read a book about walking before, or indeed a book like this, but I appreciated the author’s way with words, how he was able to bring the book to life and keep me enthralled throughout. I’m so glad I picked this up!
“Even as we glory in the beauty of nature; we find outselves companying with our three-mile-an-hour God.”
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Hyeonseo Lee – The Girl with Seven Names
I don’t think I’ll ever forget this book, because it opened my eyes to what life is like for some of the most oppressed people in the world.
The thing that shocked me the most was that if this was a fiction book, I would have been laughing and saying that the plot was just too far-fetched and unbelievable.
But this isn’t fiction. It’s someone’s life. And that’s terrifying.
I genuinely want to cry for all that one woman has been through, but then thinking about how many other people are in her same situation, it’s heart breaking.
I, as probably everyone else has, had only really heard bits of what life is like in North Korea, the things you see on the news when Kim Jong Un does something that the rest of the world thinks is unacceptable, but hearing what life is really like in that country was mind blowing. If you’d told me that perhaps that was what life was like 50-100 years ago, I wouldn’t have been so shocked, but it’s now. Right now.
I can’t keep dwelling on this right now, because it’s making it very hard not to get angry and upset, but all I will say is that this book was incredibly well written, the author is clearly very intelligent, and she’s not afraid to shy away from the truth that perhaps paints her in a negative light, because it’s part of her story.
Her story covers her early life, the loss of her father, then her subsequent illegal crossing into China and her seemingly never-ending quest to just be safe and happy. As I mentioned before, it does read like fiction, it’s fast paced and full of drama, but all grounded in the sadness that this is reality.
I loved the fact that the author was so honest, especially about the fact that life after leaving North Korea isn’t idyllicly happy, even when finally reaching a place she can rest. It was also quite unique in the fact that she didn’t initially even intend to leave her home for good, but it’s a sign of how brutal the regime is that her life ended up in this way.
I’d recommend this book to everyone, but in particular, I’d love to recommend it to some of the older teenagers that I know. It’s not an easy read for sure, but I think it would open their eyes to the fact that they are so lucky to be where they are and not have to fight to live in freedom.
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 