Sue Fairhead's Blog

Soul keeping (by John Ortberg)

(Amazon UK link) I have very much appreciated the books by John Ortberg which I have acquired over the years. He is an American pastor with a sense of humour, and (in my view) an excellent balance in his beliefs. There are some of his books which I read quite a while ago, so I’m now - gradually - rereading them. It had been over eight years since I read ‘Soul keeping’, so I’ve just reread it over the past ten days or so.
It’s a very thought-provoking book, in my view. It covers some rather deeper ...

Good Omens (by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)

(Amazon UK link) I first read ‘Good Omens’ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman back in the mid-1990s. I then read it aloud to my sons, who were teenagers at the time, in 2000, and we all enjoyed it very much. Since then it had sat on our shelves, borrowed several times by various friends, but not something I felt like rereading again.
Then, a few months ago, we watched the excellent adaptation of ‘Good Omens’ with David Tennant as the demon Crowley, and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale. As far...

An accidental life (by Titia Sutherland)

(Amazon UK link) I’ve been rereading my collection of novels by Titia Sutherland which were published in the 1990s over the past six months or so. It’s nearly two decades since I last read ‘An accidental life’, so - unsurprisingly - I had entirely forgotten what it was about. As I’ve liked the other books by this author very much, I was looking forward to read it.
However it has a most depressing opening chapter. Some men have been out hunting - and I have never begun to understand the appeal of t...

The last battle (by CS Lewis)

(Amazon UK link) I don’t read CS Lewis’s ‘Narnia’ books often enough. I have thoroughly enjoyed rereading them this year, and have just got to the end of the final one, ‘The last battle’, which - I’m shocked to find - I hadn’t read since 2004.
Not that the story was new to me. I don’t know how many times I read these books as a child and teenager. I first read them as adventure stories with interesting characters; gradually I realised the Christian significance, and found more in them each time. T...

The summer that changed us (by Cathy Bramley)

(Amazon UK link) I’ve liked all the books I’ve read so far by Cathy Bramley. She’s quite a prolific writer of thoughtful, character-based women’s fiction. Every so often I add a few more of her books to my wishlist, and I was given ‘The summer that changed us’ for Christmas a couple of years ago. It’s been on my to-be-read shelf since then, and I’ve finally read it.
It took me a little while to get into this novel, which focuses on three quite different women. The youngest is Katie, who’s in her l...

A generous orthodoxy (by Brian McLaren)

(Amazon UK link) My aim is to read a couple of Christian non-fiction books each month, as well as several fictional books. Brian McLaren’s books tend to be a tad heavy-going, albeit full of wisdom. I decided I would re-read ‘A generous orthodoxy’, and aimed for about twenty pages per day. I last read it in 2013. 
The book is essentially an explanation of McLaren’s theological position, in terms that are certainly comprehensible to ordinary people like me. In places I had to reread a paragraph here...

Rocken Edge (by Wendy K Harris)

(Amazon UK link) In the last couple of months, I reread the first two ‘Undercliff’ novels by Wendy K Harris, and thoroughly enjoyed them. So I was looking forward to rereading the third, ‘Rocken Edge’, which I last read in 2008. I had entirely forgotten what it was about, but knew I would meet, again, some of the people I had got to know in the earlier books, ‘The sorrow of sisters’ and ‘Blue slipper bay’. 
However, this book opens with a new character, a teenager called Clare. She is struggling t...

Forever Rose (by Hilary McKay)

(Amazon UK link) I have so enjoyed re-reading the ‘Casson family’ series of books by Hilary McKay over the past few months. They’re intended for older children, but are the kind of books that can be of interest to people of all ages, and I feel quite sad that I have just finished the final book in the series.
I last read ‘Forever Rose’ in 2012, so had almost entirely forgotten the storyline. The family feel quite familiar to me, however, and particularly the youngest, Rose. She is eleven in this b...

Number ten (by Sue Townsend)

(Amazon UK link) I suppose it was more than thirty years ago that I picked up and read Sue Townsend’s first (and best-known) book, the 'diary of Adrian Mole'. I recall being unimpressed, finding it somewhat sordid and dull rather than amusing. I read a couple of her other books shortly afterwards, and didn’t much like them either. 
So I’m not entirely sure why I decided to pick up her novel ‘Number ten’ at a church bookstall seven years ago. There are newspaper quotations on the front, saying that...

Letters from the past (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link) I have been rereading my collection of novels by Erica James over the past two-and-a-half years, and mostly liking them very much. I wasn’t going to reread the ones I had read in the years since about 2020. Instead, I was looking forward to reading two new ones that I have recently been given. 
But then I noticed that ‘Letters from the past’, which I read in June 2021, is a sequel to ‘Coming home to Island House’, which I reread last month. The characters in this family saga, set ...