Sue Fairhead's Blog, page 76

The Castle on the Hill (by Elizabeth Goudge)

I have slowly been re-reading my novels by Elizabeth Goudge, interspersed with other books. A week or so back I picked up ‘The Castle on the Hill’, which I last read in 2007 I did not remember much about it, other than three characters: a Jewish street musician, and two small sisters, one of whom loved the book ‘Peter Rabbit’.

I had entirely forgotten the main protagonist, Miss Brown. She is forty-two and never uses her first name. She is efficient, responsible and loyal, but when we meet he...

Homecoming (by Cathy Kelly)

I read one of Cathy Kelly’s novels a few months ago, and liked it so much that I put more of them on my wishlist. I was given ‘Homecoming’ for Christmas, and started it a couple of weeks ago. It’s taken me this long to finish it, not because it was uninteresting, but because we’ve had a very busy period with little opportunity to read.

As with ‘The House on Willow Street’, which I read last September, this novel is set mostly in an Irish community, and is about four very different women. The...

Show me the Way (by Wendy Craig)

As far as I remember, I picked up the book ‘Show me the way’ by Wendy Craig at a church bookstall. I vaguely recalled the author from a TV series many years ago, and also knew her name as a Christian believer. She is in her 80s now. The blurb on the back implies that it’s autobiographical, and I was interested to know more about Wendy Craig.

What I hadn’t noticed was that the subtitle of this book is ‘An Inspirational Anthology’. It turns out to be a collection of the author’s favourite poems...

Troubling a Star (by Madeleine L'Engle)

In my quest to read through Madeleine L’Engle’s novels for teenagers, I finally reached the fifth in the Austin Family series, ‘Troubling a Star’. I had no idea what to expect: the first book in the series is introductory, the second mainly involves a camping trip around the United States. The third, ‘The Young Unicorns’, is set in New York and is a thriller, and the fourth, ‘A Ring of Endless Light’, is a poignant story of bereavement and growing love.

However, I was still a little surprised...

One, Two, Buckle my Shoe (by Agatha Christie)

We have a large collection of Agatha Christie's novels, mostly acquired when my sons were teenagers. I have read most of them, but there are some I have never read, or which I read so long ago that I have entirely forgotten them. Last year I decided I would read some of them, interspersed with other books, and I have finished about seven or eight. On the whole I liked them, but I can’t say I looked forward to reading another.

This time I tried ‘One, Two, Buckle my Shoe’, which sounded interes...

Promises to Keep (by Alexandra Raife)

I very much liked Alexandra Raife’s novels the first time I read them, in the first few years of the century. She wrote twelve in all, and I acquired some of them soon after they were available in paperback. I have been re-reading them over the past couple of years, and have reached the final one again, ‘Promises to Keep’. I last read it in 2005 and had totally forgotten what it was about.

The story is mainly about a young woman called Miranda. We see her first in a prologue at the airport,...

Helping Families in Distress (by Stephen Murgatroyed and Ray Woolfe)

I’m not entirely sure how or when this book arrived on our shelves. I don’t think I’d heard of the authors, Stephen Murgatroyd and Ray Woolfe before. Perhaps it was recommended to me somewhere; our copy looks as though it came from a second-hand shop, or perhaps Amazon Marketplace. In any case, I decided that ‘Helping Families in Distress’ could be an interesting book to read, and started it a little over a month ago.

It’s quite heavy going, despite being written for ordinary people rather th...

Present over Perfect (by Shauna Niequist)

I can’t remember how I first heard of this book. I wasn’t familiar with Shauna Niequist; perhaps I saw a recommendation on a blog, or even Facebook. In any case, I liked the sound of ‘Present over Perfect’, and put it on my wishlist. Relatives gave it to me for Christmas, and I have just finished reading it.

The subtitle to the book is, ‘Leaving behind frantic for a simpler, more soulful way of living’. I don’t live my life at anything approaching a frantic pace, but I liked the idea of a sim...

A Blink of the Screen (by Terry Pratchett)

I have been quite a fan of the late Terry Pratchett’s books for close to thirty years. I have his entire Discworld series, which I plan to re-read over the next few years. I suppose it was nearly six years ago that I learned about the book ‘A Blink of the Screen’, which contains a selection of the author’s shorter writings. Reviews were good so I put it on my wishlist, and was given it for Christmas 2013. Yes, that is more than five years ago. It has sat on my to-be-read shelf, until a week...

Gerry Goes to School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

I recently finished my gradual re-read of Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s lengthy Chalet School series. So I decided that this year I will read her lesser-known ‘La Rochelle’ series, which has only nine books. I read two or three of them as a teenager, which I enjoyed very much. I have gradually acquired them over the past few years from various sources. The hardbacks are quite hard to find, and they were never published in the Armada abridged versions, so my collection is a mixture of hardback re-pri...