Books

It is only the 15th day of the year and I have read 2 books already! I don't expect to keep this up - it was really only because I was not well and off work.

The first book was The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman. This is the first book of his I have read and I really like it. It is a bit sad though as the main character is suffering from early onset Alzheimers. Her family give her a book to write her stories down in before she forgets them. It is well told and although sad a good read.

The second book is The Circle by Dave Eggers. This book was my Secret Santa gift from my Book Club, we each get a book, read it in January and then tell the group about it at the end of the month. Again this was a new author for me and again I enjoyed it. It was easy to read and for any of us who are addicted to the internet, facebook, instagram etc, it contains a warning not to take things too far. The Circle run everything - all internet activity in one easy, safe and visible place. Mae Holland manages to get a job at its campus and she is delighted by this. But as she becomes more involved more is expected - at one point she has 8 screens on her desk at any one time! There is a sinister truth at the heart of the organisation.  The Washington Post likened it to a Brave New World. It certainly contains some scary but actually believable ideas and shows how internet use could become a slippery slope to a different kind of society. Well worth a read.

Have you read any good books over the festive season?

A couple of books

I managed to read a couple of books on holiday last week.

The first was A Million Tears by Paul Henke

It is the first book in a series of books telling the Griffiths family story. It starts in Wales in a coal mining village in the 1890s. They decide, after a tragedy, to move to America and seek their fortune there. The book was good and it captured your attention. I shall have to get the rest of the series now.

The second book I read was for our book group this month - The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I enjoyed it and it was a nice quick holiday read. Cecilia, marrried with 3 children, comes across a letter in the attic written by her husband with the words "to be opened in the event of my death". She opens it and her life spins never to be the same again. I can't say any more without ruining it for you. I found it gripping and enjoyed it. It sort of asks the question what would you do if you found such a letter?

So that has been my holiday reading, have you read anything good recently?

Lent ideas

Well we missed making pancakes yesterday - we just bought some instead this year. I was wondering what you are all doing for Lent this year, which starts today. I have got a couple of books to follow during Lent which are a bit different this year.

The first one is using the exercies of Ignatious. I have been doing a Growing in Prayer course which is based on Ignation Spirituality, so I though this would be interesting.

The second one is a book of prayer meditations.

Also for Lent there is this idea http://www.40acts.org.uk/, which is gives you an idea/suggestion for each day of something to do. I might dip into it.

I am pleased to say that Floss is running A Pause in Lent again this year, so I hope to join in with that as well. There will be a post every Sunday/Monday in Lent. You can find the details on her blog

What, if anything, are you doing for this season of Lent?

Book Reviews

This was my latest read for our Book Group, again by an author I have never read. It tells the story of the residents of Pepys Road, a South London street and the many different types of people who live there. Their lives are disturbed by a series of postcards, etc all with the phrase "we want what you have" I enjoyed the book but it is a little fragmented as each chapter tells the story of a different resident and I didnt really think they made enough of the postcards. Although a book with many pages it is an easy read and the characters are believable, although of course some you like better than others.

The other book I have just finished reading is Knitting Into the Mystery, I bought the Kindle edition. This tells the story of how the Prayer Shawl Ministry started up and gives a glimpse into how to go about starting such a ministry and some of the benefits. I found it interesting and helpful as we have just started a minstry in our Church called Handmade with Prayer, where we are knitting or crocheting shawls, lap rugs, baby clothes etc and gifting them to people after they have been prayed over.

The Last Runaway

At our Christmas Book Group Dinner we did a Secret Santa, where we all bought a book and then all received a book, then in January we spoke about the book we had received. My book was The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. This was the first book I had read by this author, although I have seen the film Girl with a Pearl Earring.

I enjoyed the book and it was an easy read. Set in 1850s Honor is a Quaker who leaves her home in Dorset with her sister to travel to America, where her sister is to be married. Unfortunately her sister dies on their arrival so Honor has to face a  new and different life on her own. She has to face the realities of the slave trade and where she lives is on the route for runaways heading to Canada. She has to decide what to do when her Quaker principles, that all are equal, come into conflict with the realities of that time. I won't tell you what happens in case you want to read it. At times I found it a bit slow and Honor herself is not as strong a character as you might expect. But it was a good book and worth a read.

Did you get any good books at Christmas?

Some books

I have been reading more than usual lately as I have been getting better. So I thought I would share with you a couple  of the books I have read.

This was our Book Group choice and I really enjoyed it. I have never read any Anne Tyler books before, but I would again. The story is about Rebecca, a 53 year old who starts to reflect on her life and what might have been had she taken a different route. She contacts her first love and meets up with him again but I won't spoil it too much in case you decide to read it. Maybe it is just the reflective mood I am in at the moment but I enjoyed the book, although there was some mixed response to it from the rest of the Book Group.

The next book is by another author I have not read before, Adele Parks, Whatever it takes.

This book tells the story of Eloise and her family as they make a move from London to Dartmouth. Eloise is not sure about moving and leaving London but her husband, Mark, wants to move back to where he grew up and where his mother and father still live. Several things happen to them which turn their whole life upside down and it is interesting to see how they deal with them all. There is an interesting twist near the end of the book, which I did not see coming. I enjoyed reading this book and would read more of her books.

Gone Girl

This was the second book I had to read over the summer for my Book Group. There has been a lot of hype about this book, but for me it did not meet its expectations. Nick's wife Amy disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary and what follows is a tale of deception, cheating and lies. I like neither of the main character and for me the ending was disappointing. This book would not encourage me to read any others by Gillian Flynn.

Have you read this one and what did you think of it?

Summer Reading

The summer is a time for reading, although I don't really seem to have managed to read that many books this year yet. Our book club chooses two books to read over the summer, this year is was Raven Black by Ann Cleeves and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

So far I have only read the first

Raven Black is the first in the Shetland Quartet Series, which has been on the TV, but I never saw it. It is a crime book, which is not what I would normally read, but I did actually enjoy it. It is set in Shetland in January and a body is found in the snow. Suspicion falls on one man a loner Magnus Tait, but not surprisingly it is not him that murdered the girl. I won't spoil it for you. It was a nice easy read and I would probably read the rest in the series now.

I have just started to read Gone Girl so haven't really got into it properly yet.

The other book I read over the summer was 

I do like Sophie Kinsella's books - they are a nice light holiday read and this one is the same.Poppy loses her engagement ring, finds a phone in a bin, starts a conversation with Sam, the owner of the phone, which leads to ...  well I am not going to tell you, you will have to read the book. An enjoyable read.

What have you read over the summer?

 

The Snow Child - Book Review

I have just realised I never got round to posting my review of this book that I read a while ago for my Book Club.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a bit like a fairytale, indeed it is based on a Russian fairytale, and you have to read it like that and not try and delve too deeply into it. It is set in Alaska in the 1920s, Jack and Mabel have just moved there for a fresh start in a remote homestead. The land is harsh and they are haunted by the loss of a baby many years ago. After they make a snow child a little girl appears in their lives, but only in the winter never the summer. The child seems to help them adjust to their surroundings and to find happiness again. But with all good books there is a bit of  a twist at the end - but I will not spoil that, you will have to read the book.

I would definately recommend this book.

The Thread

I have just finished reading The Thread by Victoria Hyslop, which I enjoyed. It tells the story of  Thessaloniki from World War 1 to the present day, it features on a couple of families and their stories of love, hardship, loyalty amid the turmoils of life. Its main character is Katerina, who is a great seamstress and of her life. I won't go into too much detail in case you want to read it yourself.

While I enjoyed the book I did not think it was as good as her first novel, The Island, which was a great read. This one was a bit slow at times I thought.

I have just joined a Book Club so my next book to read is Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

Have you read any good books recently?

New Book

This book arrived today, One Zentangle a Day, and a new project for me to get into. I have done a little Zentangling before but not much. This book is a 6 week course with 42 daily exercises to try. Looking forward to getting into it.

Zentangles

As if I don't have enough to do in the way of hobbies, but I have seen some striking examples of Zentangles, so I thought I would like to have a go. These are my first two tries at some Zentangles.

Of course when you start something new, what do you need? That's right a book - so I bought one. This is a very thin book but has lots of basic zentangle designs in it, which I hope will kickstart me on the way.

Of course you can't just buy one book - well it would be lonely on its way to me! So I bought a companion for it - Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed. I really enjoyed Traci's recent workshop at Strathmore Online Artists so I bought her new book.

Now all I need are some more hours in the day - any suggestions on how to do that?

Pass the Book

As part of Pass the Book Year 2 I have read this book, Tantalizing Textures and am now ready to pass it on. It a super book with lots of pictures and ideas for using different textures on your scrapbooking pages. If you would like to receive this book leave a comment and on Friday I will choose the next recipient of the book.

One Line A Day

I have recently subscribed to Ali Edwards weekly newsletter and in week one was the suggestion to use this book - One Line A Day to record something about that day. I really liked this idea and as the book was on Amazon and the price was OK I bought it! There is a page for each day and each page is divided into five different parts for 5 years. So when the book is complete you will be able to see what you wrote on a certain day for each of the five years. There is only about 5 lines for each day, so it should not take too long to do - in fact some days it might be more of a problem condensing what I want to write.

10 on the 10th

My ten things for this months, 10 on the 10th are 10 books that are on my bookshelf waiting to be read:

1. The Plains of Passage, Jean M Auel
2. Last Chance Saloon, Marion Keyes
3. 10 Lighthouse Road, Debbie Macomber
4. Mini Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
5. The Return Journey, Maeve Binchey

Some books I bought at the Keswick Convention this year:

6. The Gender Agenda, Lis Goddard & Clare Hendry
7. Going for Growth, Ken Clarke
8. Everyday Church, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis
9. Feminine Threads, Diane Lynn Severance

number 10 is not in the photo, as it was in my bedroom, which is being decorated this week, so has been put somewhere else

10. Alan Sugar Autobiography

You can find more lists over at Shimelle's blog.

New Books

I love getting new books and this week I got two books delivered by Amazon (well yes, I did order them, but shh! don't tell Gordon)

This first one was Pagemaps for Scrapbooking. I am hoping that this book will give me some inspiration when I badly need it. Sometimes I just look at the photos and pretty paper and I am not sure what to do with them, so hopefully the sketches in this book will help me.

The second book was this one 'You can still wear cute shoes', written by Preachers Wife Lisa McKay. I am really looking forward to reading this one to see if the problems/challenges of being married to the ministry are still the same here as in the USA. Watch this space for my thoughts on the book.

Over at Faithscrappers Challenge Blog the next weekly challenge went live on Friday. You can find it here

On the first Friday of the month we are going on a journey with Gods People, the first being Abraham. We did start this project last year, but due to various circumstances we had to stop it in the summer. Well we decided to start again, so if you missed it first time round, pop over to the blog and play along. This is my LO for the challenge.

Jesus Lives

Jesus Lives by Sarah Young is a lovely hardbook, soft covered devotional book. It is a companion volume to Jesus Calling. The book is arranged in themes, such as Fear, Trust, Worshp etc and each theme covers a two page spread. The thoughts are written from Jesus point of view, as if He were talking directly to you, with Bible verses on the other page to back up the thoughts. The Bible verses have been chosen with care and fit the themes well. I liked the way that it feels as if Jesus is speaking directly to you, it made the devotions more personal and direct. I have been using this book as a daily devotional and on several occasions it spoke volumes to me. As a simple devotional book I think it fits the bill perfectly and would made a great gift for someone.

I have reviewed this book for BookSneeze

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Reading Group

Our Church has recently started a Reading Group which meets a couple of times a year. The book for this term was Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. I found the book interesting and challenging. Although I did not agree with all their ideas about church there were some interesting ideas. I liked the concepts of church as being Gospel-centred and Mission-centred and being very involved in Community. They were rather into church planting in the book, and while that is not always suitable for established traditions, I think the challenge is to think "outside the box" and find ways in which we can "church plant" in different ways and take the gospel message out of our churches and into the communities around us. They also challenged those churches that celebrate anniversaries to look forward as well as backwards. This is very relevant to our Church this year as we celebrate our 125th Anniversary. The challenge is how to continue to bring the gospel to people and to look forward to the next 125 years!!!!

A Victorian Gentleman

A fine Victorian gentleman - Andrew all dressed up for his Victorian Tea Party at school.



His class has been doing the Victorians as a topic this term and last Friday they held a Tea Party in the school for parents. It was a lovely afternoon with tea and cakes. As entertainment they then sang some songs, including Daisy Daisy, and Pack up your troubles. It was great afternoon.

I have been reading a lot recently while I have been getting better.

I quite enjoyed this autobiography of Jule Walters, it was fun and easy to read. I loved her film 'Educating Rita'.




This is a book I picked up at the Keswick Convention this year (and actually read in the same year!!!). Kay Warren tells of her journey of surrender to God and her growing awareness and involvement with AIDS in Africa project. It is a very thought provoking book.