Sue Fairhead's Blog, page 12

Mercy (by Jodi Picoult)

(Amazon UK link) I always approach a new (to me) novel by Jodi Picoult with some trepidation. Her writing is excellent, and her stories thought-provoking, often covering current ethical issues from unusual perspectives. But there are sometimes unexpected twists and turns that can leave me feeling drained by the end. However I can never resist picking up a new one when I find it at a church book sale, and I had four of them sitting for some time on my to-be-read shelf.
So I finally decided to read ...

The story we find ourselves in (by Brian McLaren)

(Amazon UK link) I very much enjoyed re-reading Brian McLaren’s book ‘A new kind of Christian’ in the first couple of weeks of this month. So I decided to follow that with the sequel, ‘The story we find ourselves in’. I first read it about twelve years ago, and had entirely forgotten what it was about.
As with the first book, the style is that of ‘creative non-fiction’. In other words, the fictional story part is a device for explaining the author’s viewpoint - and asking many questions - on topic...

An alien at St Wilfred's (by Adrian Plass)

(Amazon UK link) I love re-reading the books by Adrian Plass. He’s one of my favourite modern Christian writers, and his books cover quite a variety of topics and styles. He’s best known for his fictional diaries that combine humour with insight. He has also written some more poignant stories that are thought-provoking in different ways. 
One of these is ‘An alien at St Wilfred’s’, a book which I had not read since 2007. I recalled the basic outline - that a small white being calling himself Nunc ...

Summer term at St Clare's (by Enid Blyton)

(Amazon UK link) A few months ago I reread ‘The twins at St Clare’s’, the first in Enid Blyton’s St Clare’s school story series. In October I re-read the first sequel, ‘The O’Sullivan twins’. It was at least ten years since I had previously read either of these childhood favourites, and I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed them. 
It’s more than twenty-five years since I last read the third in the series, 'Summer term at St Clare’s', which I finished reading this morning. I hadn’t remembered...

Tara Road (by Maeve Binchy)

(Amazon UK link) I’ve been re-reading some of my collection of Maeve Binchy books, and just finished ‘Tara Road’. It’s a long book - over 600 pages - but I finished it in just a few days. It’s a very engaging story and I found myself caught up with the people, sometimes almost unable to put the book down. I last read this book in 2015 and had only remembered the general storyline, not the people or situations. 
The book opens by mentioning when the main character of the book - Maria, known as Ria ...

How I met my son (by Rosalind Powell)

(Amazon UK link) Sometimes I visit a church book sale, and pick up a handful of books that look interesting. I don’t mind paying 50 cents for experiments; if I don’t like a book, I can always donate it back for someone else. One of the books I found, three years ago, was ‘How I met my son’ by Rosalind Powell.  The subtitle is ‘ A journey through adoption’, but I must have forgotten that when I pulled it off my shelf to read, as I had been expecting a novel.
It turns out that this book was written ...

A new kind of Christian (by Brian McLaren)

(Amazon UK link) It’s about twelve years since I first read Brian McLaren’s semi-fictional book ‘A new kind of Christian’. I recalled liking it very much at the time, finding a lot that was inspiring and thought-provoking. It seemed like a good idea to re-read, so I’ve been reading around a chapter at a time over the past couple of weeks. 
I was interested to note that this was published in 1999, so it’s now twenty-five years old. Not that it seems dated, particularly, but I found myself wondering...

Thursday's child (by Noel Streatfeild)

(Amazon UK link) I’m re-reading my collection of books by Noel Streatfeild. I discovered some of her books when I was about eight or nine, read more as a teenager, and have gradually acquired almost everything that she wrote for children. It was over ten years since I last read ‘Thursday’s child’, so that’s the one I have re-read over the past few days.
The story is about a feisty, intelligent child called Margaret who was abandoned on the steps of a vicarage when she was a baby. She was supplied ...

Georgina (by Clare Darcy)

(Amazon UK link) I recently finished re-reading the crime fiction novels by Georgette Heyer.  But before I return to re-reading her historical romances, I decided to re-read my Clare Darcy collection. She’s the only author I’ve come across who wrote high quality ‘regency era’ fiction that can even begin to compare with those by Heyer. 
It’s a very long time since I read any of them, so I decided to read them in the order they were published, and have just finished ‘Georgina’, which was originally ...

Britt-Marie was here (by Fredrik Backman)

(Amazon UK link) I very much liked the book ‘Anxious people’ by Fredrik Backman when our local reading group read it a couple of years ago. And I enjoyed ‘A man called Ove’ when I read that in the summer. So I was pleased to find that the reading group had chosen another book by this author for this month’s read: ‘Britt-Marie was here’. I was able to buy it inexpensively for my Kindle when it was on special offer.
The story is about a woman of 63 called Britt-Marie. We meet her in a job centre, be...