Difference between revisions of "Newest Spirituality and Religion Reviews"

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[[Category:New Reviews|Spirituality and Religion]]
 
[[Category:New Reviews|Spirituality and Religion]]
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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Rogerson's Book of Numbers: The culture of numbers from 1001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World
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|author=Frederic Seager
|author=Barnaby Rogerson
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|title= Jesus, the Man and the Myth: A Jewish Reading of the New Testament
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
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|genre= Spirituality and Religion
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|summary=  I was brought up in a family where religion played little or no part. Culturally Irish Catholic on one side and Welsh Methodist on the other, nobody really discussed religion and the adults around me ranged from lapsed to agnostic to atheist. Other than the odd church wedding or baptism or the school nativity play, I didn't think too much about faith or what people did or didn't believe.
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|isbn=B092BWWG9Y
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Peter Owen Jones
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|title=Conversations with Nature
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=One book, split into two testaments, regarding a holy trinity, the principal part known from four writers, in a world abutting another where five pillars are important, up against a world where a six-pointed star holds so many meanings…  It's obvious from just a quick dash through the most schoolboy-friendly parts of religion that numbers are importantThis book, although counting down from multitudes to that late-comer zero, brings them all to us, with brief notes about why they all hold relevance where whichever country, civilisation or religion is concerned. In the end, I'm sure it's a lot more user-friendly, interesting, and will be a lot more popular, than the original Book of Numbers.
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|summary= One of the comments made when I was offered this beautiful book for review was that it's not very longHaving read the book twice over, I'm brought back inescapably to the Spanish proverb that Life may be short, but it is broad.   In this case I'm brought to the idea that the length of life is not the point; the point is its depth.  Peter Owen Jones dives deep.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250995</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1912992418
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Richard Brook
|title=Inventing the Enemy: Essays on Everything
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|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life
|author=Umberto Eco
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=Imagine a sumptuous Italian feast in the sunlit-bathed ancient countryside near Milan. Next to you a gentleman talks and eats with furious energy. He tells of Dante, Cicero, and St Augustine and quotes a multitude of obscure troubadours from the Middle Ages. He repeats himself, gestures flamboyantly, nudges you sharply in the ribs, belches and even breaks wind. His conversation contains nuggets of information but in the flow of his discourse there is a fondness for iteration and reiteration. He throws bones over his shoulder and when he reaches the cheese course - definitely too much information on the mouldy bacteria! When you finally get up things the elderly gentleman has said prompt your imagination. You are better informed, intrigued and prodded to examine his discourse again and again, even if only to challenge what you have heard. Such are the effects of reading Eco’s essays in ''Inventing the Enemy''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553945</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Sisters of the East End
 
|author=Helen Batten
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=
 
Katie Crisp had never intended to become a nun. Raised by non-religious parents, her family frowned upon organised religion and when Katie started secretly going to church, they strongly disapproved. When Katie ran to the aid of a stroke victim, she had a vision that changed her life. She saw herself dressed as a nun with a large silver cross hanging from her neck. She decided to follow her calling and join the community of St John the Divine, a group of Anglican nuns dedicated to nursing and midwifery. She thus shed her old identity and became known as Sister Catherine Mary.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091951771</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Anti-Judaism: A History of a Way of Thinking
 
|author=David Nirenberg
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Initially the choice of title seemed an odd one on account of the more widely used term, anti-Semitism. The distinction is quickly made though, that unlike the latter, anti-Judaism does not need real Jews to flourish, but is fuelled by an idea alone. In fact this is a core tenet of Nirenberg’s thesis. Throughout history the idea of ‘Judaism’ is raised as an existential spectre in societies where there may be no Jewish members at all. This is a chilling reality, and Nirenberg charts the course of how this came to be.  
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|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us.  In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now.  I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851131</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800461682
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Hill_Atlas
|author=Carolyn Mathews
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|title=The Atlas of Monsters
|title=Transforming Pandora
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|author=Stuart Hill and Sandra Lawrence
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=When we first meet Pandora Armstrong in the spring of 2003 she's grieving for her husband, Mike, who had died just a few weeks before. It hadn't been his first heart attack and he had reduced his workload but this attack was fatal. He was only in his fifties and Pandora feels that he'd been snatched away from her as they'd only been married for a few years. When a friend suggests that she goes with her to an Evening of Clairvoyance she runs out of excuses to refuse and although she's not exactly ''convinced'' by what she hears there's a lingering doubt. A spirit voice mentioned her children and Pandora was adamant that she didn't have any children - it's actually quite a sore point - but that wasn't true of Mike.
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|summary=There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as trolls, leprechauns, goblins and minotaurs. They're the stuff of far too many stories to remain mysterious, and every schoolchild should know all about them. There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as Gog and Magog, Scylla and Charybdis, and the bunyip. They are what you find if you take an interest in this kind of thing to the next level; even if you cannot place them all on a map you should have come across them. But there are monsters and mysterious characters, such as the dobhar-chu, the llambigyn y dwr, and the girtablili. To gain any knowledge of them you really need a book that knows its stuff. A book like this one…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780997450</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1999731506
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|title=Spiritual Atheist
 +
|author=Nick Seneca Jankel
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|rating=2
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|genre=Lifestyle
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|summary=''Spiritual Atheist'' is a new 'bible' for the spiritual not the religious, according to the tagline. This is a taboo smashing book which solves the problem of modernity and explains how to be a 'spiritual technologist' who can live and love freely in 'spiritual fullness' without relying on a belief in god. Touching on everything from 'brain science' to AI, Jankel offers a 'path to meaning', allowing us to move beyond consumerism towards an ethical life.
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1789015200
|author=Wm Paul Young
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|title=Be Your Higher Self
|title=Cross Roads
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|author=Samesh Ramjattan
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Wm. Paul Young's debut novel ''The Shack'' was a revelation in many waysWhilst many disagreed with his theology, it was refreshing to see such an overtly faith based book on the bestseller listsPersonally, I found it a very moving story and whilst I thought it helpful on some points, it tended to skim over othersNow we get to see if Young can repeat his success with his new novel, ''Cross Roads''.
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|summary=There are a lot of self-help books about: it's one of the most thriving sections of the average bookshop, but it's not always easy to find the book you need.  Samesh Ramjattan has addressed this problem in ''Be Your Higher Self'', a book which allows us all to make sense of our place in the world, as most of us only glimpse our true potential and few people ever achieve itEven with hard work and dedication, obstacles present themselves and it's difficult to understand why or how they can be overcomeRamjattan offers us a guide to the spirit world, the chakras, karma and reincarnation as well as information about the age of Aquarius and the egoIt's a slim book - just 128 pages - so can it provide us with the answers we seek?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444745972</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mahnke_Lore
|author=Danaan Elderhill
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|title=The World of Lore, Volume 1: Monstrous Creatures
|title=The Magic Book of Cookery
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|author=Aaron Mahnke
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Back in the seventeenth century in what was then the Kingdom of Bohemia there was a coven of witches.  As was common at that time witches were hunted and they had to hide their beliefs. The Friends of Euphrosyne, as they called themselves, turned to this deity (she's one of the three graces and there to remind us to have fun) in their time of need and developed rituals which could be assimilated into social gatherings, allowing them to hide in plain sight.  Their book -  The Magic Book of Cookery - vanished along with the coven when they were discovered but Danaan Elderhill wants us to benefit from its ancient wisdom - and its fun.
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|summary=Every country, every town, every village has a folktale – a story passed down through generations that often focuses on the dark and unexplained. No matter how the modern world moves on, there's a still a part of everyone that is vulnerable to a good tale. From ghosts to werewolves, by way of wendigos and elves, author Aaron Mahnke delivers the reader legends from all over the world, whilst examining how they've become part of our collective imaginations, still striking fear into the hearts of many of us today.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0092BX6O0</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Saxena_Jaya
|author=Charity Seraphina Fields
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|title=Basic Witches
|title=I am not a Buddhist
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|author=J Saxena and J Zimmerman
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=''I am not a Buddhist'' is an individual through Buddhism and its principles seen from the point of view of one on the path. Charity Seraphina Fields attempts - through her own musings on this ancient Eastern philosophy - to explain why Buddhism is better suited to the rich West than the poorer East. For Fields, the question isn't ''Why am I suffering without all those things I want?''. The right question is actually ''Why am I still suffering even though I have everything I want?''
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|summary=Before I started this book I was expecting to be thrown into the world of magic and would know how to levitate by the end of the first chapter. Unsurprisingly, I was wrong. However, what I was met by was a book that explores the origins of witchcraft, teaches you how to dress and act like a witch and contains spells ranging from accepting compliments to conjuring up a relaxing Netflix binge.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1475085664</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Wright_Universe
|author=Eamon Duffy
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|title=The Universe and Life but Not Everything
|title=Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition
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|author=Anthony Christian Wright
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
|genre=History
 
|summary=In the introduction to this book Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge History, points out that all too often historians have written about the English Reformation from strongly polarised views. Taking two extreme examples, he cites one which states that the people of England, formerly happy medieval Catholics, were forced by King Henry to abandon their religion, and England was never merry again, alongside another which speaks of the English being oppressed by corrupt churchmen until King Henry gave them the Protestant nation for which they longed. On the following page, he suggests that it had long been an axiom of historical writing that the success of the Reformation in England was an inevitable consequence of the dysfunction and unpopularity of late medieval Catholicism. Such remarks were evidently made by writers with an axe to grind.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441181172</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Timothy Radcliffe
 
|title=Take the Plunge
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=There appears to be more Christian literature around than ever before at the moment. I don't know whether this is a response to Richard Dawkins' ''The God Delusion'', which has meant that Christian writers and publishers have increased their outputs, or because I'm noticing it more.  Timothy Radcliffe's ''Take the Plunge'' is taking a more or less opposite view to that of Dawkins, exploring the importance of baptism in everyday life and arguing that there is no aspect of life that cannot be touched if you are baptised and therefore living with faith.
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|summary=I often wonder - usually after a moment of shaking my fist at the news on TV - what my manifesto for life and society would look like were I to write it down. I have all sorts of thoughts about these things, from the metaphysics of who we are and where we come from, right down to detailed critiques of quite insignificant government policies. I've never done such an exercise - mostly because I lack the time, the patience and the diligence required. It seems like an enormous task.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441118489</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1850788332
|author=Youssef Ziedan and Jonathan Wright (translator)
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|title=Rosie: Note to Self
|title=Azazeel
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|author=Claire Connor and G P Taylor
|rating=5
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=An archaeologist in a time and place close to that of modern troubled Syria discovers thirty scrolls. These are the writings of a Coptic Christian monk born into Roman dominated Egypt in AD391. A door thus opens into an ancient world and the emerging vista stretches from the present into the distant past, as if eliciting an omnipresent dimension to reality. The fluent evocative prose flows like a meandering river or a ribbon connecting continuously the present moment with the ancient world. A panorama emerges dominated by Rome and Constantinople and extends to Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch.
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|summary=In the first of a five book deal Claire Connor, writing in partnership with GP Taylor, brings us a modern romance based loosely on the story of Ruth from the Bible. This is total chick-lit, and from the first few pages I thought it was just going to be a very light, funny romance story. However, the story quickly takes a depressing turn and the rest of the book is as much an exploration of grief as it is a romance novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874278</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Santiago_Returning
|author=Roger Scruton
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|title=Returning Home
|title=The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures
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|author=Stephan Santiago
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Atheist culture has recently become more mainstream, thanks in part to the success of Richard Dawkins' book, ''The God Delusion''.  However, religion does still have a part to play, with Prince Charles urging the United Kingdom to be more tolerant towards faiths other than the Church of England he was raised as part of and even the Prime Minister talking about faith issues. Since 1888, the Gifford Lectures have been given to 'promote and diffuse...the knowledge of God'.
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|summary=[[:Category:Stephan Santiago|Stephan Santiago]] has experienced life in a way that's led him to believe we're all on a soul journey back home – that place we inhabited before we were bornThis book is a guide as to how we can optimise this journey for ourselves, those around us and our children.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065244</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Wilbourne_Shepherd
|author=Karen French
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|title=Shepherd of Another Flock
|title=The Hidden Geometry of Life
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|author=David Wilbourne
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|summary=
 
''The Hidden Geometry of Life'' aims to explore the esoteric and often mystical meanings contained in ''shapes and patterns [that] represent ideas and distil the essence of reality''. This mystical angle was a little bit of a unpleasant surprise for this reader.  I should have had a better look at Karen French's Amazon pages and previous work, but I was attracted by an exciting-sounding title, attractive cover and and references to author's art.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780281080</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Grace McCleen
 
|title=The Land of Decoration
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Grace McCleen's debut novel, ''The Land of Decoration'' paints an original, unsettling, sometimes dark and generally rather wonderful picture. Narrated by ten year old Judith, raised by her father who is a fundamental religious follower of the end of the world is nigh variety, it looks at bullying, both at school and in more general society, faith and the possible rejection thereof and the strength of childhood imagination.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070118681X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Roman Krznaric
 
|title=The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
 
|summary='How should we live?'  asks author Roman Krznaric.  To answer this ancient question, he looks to history.  'I believe that the future of the art of living can be found by gazing into the past', he says.  Creating a book which is as full of curiosities as a Renaissance 'Wunderkammer', he has a stab at the big questions:  love, belief, money, family, death.  The result is a pot-pourri of delights which left this particular reader stimulated and invigorated.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683939</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Malouf
 
|title=The Happy Life: The Search for Contentment in the Modern World
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=There's something quite uplifting about the physical brevity of David Malouf's 'The Happy Life' which is subtitled 'The Search for Contentment in the Modern World'. It suggests that it is easy to find, when of course, the whole point of the book is that despite, or perhaps because of, scientific and technological advances that have taken away many of the causes of true unhappiness in the world, it remains elusive for most. Who can say that they are truly happy? The book runs to less than 100 pages if you take out the Notes section, and the typeface is large. It is, by any reckoning a slim offering.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187115</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Christina Goodings and Annabel Hudson
 
|title=My Look and Point Bible
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=
 
This version of the bible for toddlers has been cleverly retold to engage little ones, with lots of illustrations, pictures to point at and words to learn.  It includes stories from both the old and new testaments, from the creation and Noah through to the birth of Jesus as well as some of his parables and the crucifixion.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745962068</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
 
|title=Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Whilst I've long been a Christian, I've never considered myself an anarchistMy thinking is that anarchy is something you're more likely to see on the news than on 'Songs of Praise'However, there is a school of thought that suggests that Jesus' teachings were so counter-cultural and so against Roman law that it constitutes anarchism.
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|summary=[[:Category:David Wilbourne|David Wilbourne's]] CV looks like a career path for people who are hard-of-humoured.  Banker, teacher of Ancient Greek, vicar, bishop…none of these are jobs normally connected in our minds with a jovial twinkleYet in David's case, we'd be totally wrong to assumeThe current Bishop of Llandaff takes us by the hand to show us episodes from his life as vicar of the character-packed Yorkshire parish of Helmsley proving that tears of sorrow are equally shared with tears of laughter.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402472</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Pigliucci_How
|author=Karen Armstrong
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|title=How to be a Stoic
|title=In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis
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|author=Massimo Pigliucci
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Armstrong's background (there's a page right at the beginning) is certainly diverse and interesting so I was looking forward to reading what she had to say. And thankfully, I didn't have to rummage around looking for my own copy of the bible (I've now located it) as Armstrong obligingly provides Genesis (in beautiful, old-fashioned typeface) here.  So roughly two thirds is given over to her investigative prose and the remaining third is the actual book of Genesis, for handy reference.
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|summary=''Stoicism is about developing the tools to deal as effectively as humanly possible with the ensuing conflicts, does not demand perfection, and does not provide specific answers.'' For many readers, living in an age of rules to make us happy and the inevitable failure to stick to them, this is an intensely reassuring sentence. Pigliucci certainly makes Stoicism an appealing philosophy, one which can sit alongside religious faith but doesn't have to, one which doesn't demand Aristotelian heights of intelligence, beauty or riches in order to truly succeed in life, and one which recognises life's messy difficulties.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555476</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Pearce_Biblical
|author=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire
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|title=A Biblical Theology Behind Music, Praise, and Worship
|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of Tibet
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|author=Dr Mark Pearce
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy but when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hay, and your route is over the world's highest mountain range then it must be particularly challenging.  This was the journey that Yangzom Brauen's mother took with her parents when they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1959.  They were leaving behind all that they knew and travelling to India in the hope that they could find sanctuary in the country where the Dalai Lama was in exile.  'Across Many Mountains' is their story.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Ovason
 
|title=Shakespeare's Secret Booke: Deciphering Magical and Rosicrucian Codes
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=One group of people that were convinced the Chilean miners, Los 33, would be relieved of their ordeal, were numerologistsFor hundreds of years, it seems, they have held the number thirty-three in good stead.  It represents a lot of expression of the ego, or the soul, or the transformation of the spirit from one world to another.  It doesn't boil down to just the 33 years Christ was supposed to have held His human incarnation, but refers to many ethereal, magical, alchemical transformations from state to state. And who can deny the Chilean mine was 2010's most vivid embodiment of hell - and that the 33 were reborn in coming back to life on earth?
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|summary=Music used in religions and worship itself goes back to the beginning of humankindIn this book musician and theological academic [[:Category:Dr Mark Pearce|Dr Mark Pearce]] explores its Biblical history in a Christian context as well as providing tips and suggestions for those involved in worship in the present day.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570260</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Iles_Thoughts
|author=Robert Leon Davis
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|title=The Thoughts and Inner Journey of Dr. John Dee
|title=Running Scared: For 22 Years He Was a Fugitive - The Corrupt Cop Busted by God
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|author=Clair Iles
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Robert Davis was the eldest of nine children all living with their grandmother in New Orleans – on welfare.  His grandmother was a good, honest woman and Davis loved and respected her, but money was so tight that he resorted to thieving to bring some extra food in for the family.  He knew that she would be deeply upset about it, but hunger is hunger.  In your heart you can't blame him and it seems that all is coming good when Davis becomes a respected police officer in the mid nineteen-seventies.  He's living with a good, decent woman and looks set to have a good career.  Great, you think, sometimes life ''is'' fair and it works out.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854249932</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Carol Richards
 
|title=Columbanus: Poet, Preacher, Statesman, Saint
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Richards is at pains to point out straight away that the reader mustn't confuse Columbanus with Columba of IonaShe informs us that the latter did not travel extensively but the former, the subject of her book, did travel throughout parts of EuropeShe gives her subject a terrific introduction on the cover, describing him as 'poet, preacher, statesman, saint.' And then goes into much more detail about these areas of his life.
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|summary=[[:Category:Clair Iles|Clair Iles]] is, in her own words, a normal person who was educated at a normal comprehensive schoolHowever, she's a normal person who hears dead peopleYes, Clair is a spiritualist with ability to hear from those who have passed on.  In the past they had generally been relatives or everyday folk.  Imagine, then, her surprise when she felt she was hearing from Elizabethan court polymath John DeeOver a period of time she could feel his dictated thoughts and ideas in her mind and this book of the channelled words is the result.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401905</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Woodcock_Becoming
|author=G Willow Wilson
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|title=Becoming Reverend: A diary
|title=The Butterfly Mosque: A Young Woman's Journey to Love and Islam
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|author=Matt Woodcock
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=This memoir is told in the first person so straight away there is a connection with the reader.  The story starts - not in Egypt - but in the USAWillow (lovely name) says she's ''in the market for a philosophy.'' And in this search she is extremely thorough.  She looks at mainstream religions - Christianity, Buddhism to name but two and puts them under the microscope, so to speakShe dismisses all of them before settling on Islam.  It appears to offer what she is after, what she is looking for, that enigmatic thing.  But also, there's some little twist which helps make her mind up.  But not before she digs deep and seeks answers to complex and awkward questions.  She reads and researches Islam and finds out surprising facts, which she shares with the reader. Willow is well-read and well-educated.  She seems set for a good career of her choice on American soil.  Why not settle for that?  But she's set on travel to the Middle East come what may.
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|summary=[[:Category:Matt Woodcock|Matt Woodcock]] is enjoying life: successful journalist, happily married and a new dream home bought and heavily mortgaged.  The only cloud on the horizon is their struggle to have children but they have faith in the IVF treatment as it's early days yetThen comes the funny turn Matt has on the way to a story one dayThis takes him by surprise but the resulting clergy collar comes as a total shockHe's a normal bloke who always thought of himself as more pint than piety believing in a God who's happy for him to remain in the pews. Errrrm… whoops!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548283</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Chaplin_Stone
|author=Colin Waters
+
|title=The Stone Cradle
|title=A Pregnant Ghost and Other Sexual Hauntings
+
|author=Patrice Chaplin
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=This is a book that does what it sets out to do on the tin, and does so in almost glorious fashion. The back cover blurb promises hilarity and tittilation, but this will also fit on the shelf of any academic looking into the hornier side of the Fortean world, as well as anyone relishing the most singular collection of ghost legends that I can remember reading.
+
|summary=''The Stone Cradle'' is a remarkable book from the author Patrice Chaplin. It is a biography, the third in a series set in the Catalonian city of Girona. It is also an enduring love story and a journey into mystery and spirituality. The city has drawn artists, writers and philosophers for centuries. Rich in Kabbalistic thought through Azriel, the most famous student of Isaac the Blind, it has always been a home for mysticism and secrets. The magnetism and resonance of the city has had a hold on Patrice Chaplin since she first visited it in the fifties. The series of books detail her journey and her encounters with the esoteric society that have protected its mysteries since ancient times. 'The Stone Cradle' also gives a new life and direction to the mysteries of Rennes le Chateau, the small French village, made famous by the Da Vinci Code and the Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. Linking the two places through sacred geometry to the mountain of Canigou.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089902</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=A N Wilson, Nick Cave, Richard Holloway and Blake Morrison
 
|title=The Four Gospels with introductions
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|summary=I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book.  I only skimmed
 
through the description on Amazon, and understood that four modern
 
writers were introducing the four Gospels. What I hadn't really taken
 
in was that the introductions are brief - a few pages each - and that
 
the bulk of the book consists of the Authorised Version (known as the
 
King James Version in the USA) of the Gospels. The whole is published
 
in a fairly trendy looking paperback format, with the idea of
 
appealing to people who are not particularly religious, but who see
 
the Bible as valuable ancient literature.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678351</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=David Eagleman
+
|isbn=Vonnegut_Sun
|title=Sum: Tales from the Afterlives
+
|title=Sun Moon Star
 +
|author=Kurt Vonnegut and Ivan Chermayeff
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=For some reason I find myself unable to start this review.  So I'll mention this book starts with the end, and see where we go from there.  Of course, that's the key – this book does just that – starts with the end of our human life here on Earth (or wherever you happen to be reading this) and posits forty possibilities of what happens thereafter, in the hereafter.  It's not so much 'Five People You Meet in Heaven' as 'Forty Heavens you Might Meet People In'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674283</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peter Blackstock 
 
|title=The Secret Symbol: The Original Masonic Documents Behind Dan Brown's Latest Bestseller
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Pop Quiz. What links Scott of the Antarctic, Jim Davidson, Churchill, and Rabbie Burns?  Where and when might you come a cropper trying to spell Boaz, but starting with the B?  And what has three stages - unless it's thirty-three, or even ten by the York system?
+
|summary=In his own delightfully imaginative way, Kurt Vonnegut tells the story of the birth of Christ in this unique and long out of print children's book. Told from the perspective of the new born infant in his first hours of birth, this charming little story feels different to other children's Christmas books whilst at the same time goes back to the basics in exploring the true nature of Christmas.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683734</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move to [[Newest Sport Reviews]]
|author=Robert Crumb
 
|title=Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis: All 50 Chapters
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=In the beginning was the picture.  Just think of all the countless religious images, both inside and outside religious establishments, designed to convey the message to those who could not read.  Art and religion have always been linked, which is probably one of the main reasons I stayed an atheist - I hated art at school, and drawing a man on a donkey, something way beyond my skills, was not a task I appreciated, hence my dislike of both subjects.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224078097</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alexandra Bruce
 
|title=2012: Science or Superstition
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recently.  The first book to feature the story was from a Yale professor, in 1966.  We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth.  But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeed.  Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that period.  Surely they couldn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mitch Albom
 
|title=Have a Little Faith
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|summary=One day, Mitch Albom's eighty-two year old rabbi asks him to write his eulogy.  Thinking that he must be close to death Albom reluctantly agrees, but decides to meet with 'the Reb' to try to get to know him better as a man first.  What then develops is an eight year friendship as Albom continues to regularly meet with the Reb, who was obviously stronger than he looked, discussing life and religion and death and love.  At the same time Mitch becomes involved with a pastor in Detroit called Henry, a reformed drug dealer, who is preaching from an old, run-down church with no power, no heat and a hole in its roof.  Albom relates the Reb's story, and thoughts on life, against the back drop of the struggling Henry, querying issues like forgiveness, doubt and faith.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442919</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tamim Ansary
 
|title=Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=I enjoyed history at school and whilst we didn't always work our way through it chronologically I came, over time, to have a working knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.  I knew about the rise of Christianity and spoke knowledgeably about medieval England, the Renaissance and the Reformation but was perhaps less taken by the Industrial Revolution and all that followed.  I was au fait with the east but it was mainly from the perspective of exploration – or even exploitation.  It was an education based on the virtues of the solid, white, English, Christian middle classes and it completely ignored histories from the perspective of other religions.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586486063</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Trevor Hamilton
 
|title=Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Born in 1843, Frederic Myers began his career as a classical lecturer at Cambridge University, but disliked teaching and soon gave it up in favour of writing poetry and essays in literature.  Although his social circle included men such as Gladstone, Ruskin, Tennyson, Browning and Prince Leopold, the most intellectual of Queen Victoria's sons, his books (which are not so well remembered today) might have been his sole claim to fame, had it not been for his passionate curiosity about the meaning of human life.  If it had a purpose, he was convinced, it could only be discovered through the study of human experiences.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401239</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor
 
|title=On Kindness
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=As a title, ''On Kindness'' doesn't pack quite the same punch as Adam Phillip's earlier: 'On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored'.  It put me in mind of an eighteenth century treatise, and, give or take a couple of centuries, that is exactly what the book provides: a thought-provoking exposition on a currently unfashionable virtue.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144337</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 12:29, 4 April 2023

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Review of

Jesus, the Man and the Myth: A Jewish Reading of the New Testament by Frederic Seager

4.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

I was brought up in a family where religion played little or no part. Culturally Irish Catholic on one side and Welsh Methodist on the other, nobody really discussed religion and the adults around me ranged from lapsed to agnostic to atheist. Other than the odd church wedding or baptism or the school nativity play, I didn't think too much about faith or what people did or didn't believe. Full Review

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Review of

Conversations with Nature by Peter Owen Jones

5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

One of the comments made when I was offered this beautiful book for review was that it's not very long. Having read the book twice over, I'm brought back inescapably to the Spanish proverb that Life may be short, but it is broad. In this case I'm brought to the idea that the length of life is not the point; the point is its depth. Peter Owen Jones dives deep. Full Review

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Review of

Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life by Richard Brook

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [ full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now. Full Review

Hill Atlas.jpg

Review of

The Atlas of Monsters by Stuart Hill and Sandra Lawrence

4star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as trolls, leprechauns, goblins and minotaurs. They're the stuff of far too many stories to remain mysterious, and every schoolchild should know all about them. There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as Gog and Magog, Scylla and Charybdis, and the bunyip. They are what you find if you take an interest in this kind of thing to the next level; even if you cannot place them all on a map you should have come across them. But there are monsters and mysterious characters, such as the dobhar-chu, the llambigyn y dwr, and the girtablili. To gain any knowledge of them you really need a book that knows its stuff. A book like this one… Full Review

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Review of

Spiritual Atheist by Nick Seneca Jankel

2star.jpg Lifestyle

Spiritual Atheist is a new 'bible' for the spiritual not the religious, according to the tagline. This is a taboo smashing book which solves the problem of modernity and explains how to be a 'spiritual technologist' who can live and love freely in 'spiritual fullness' without relying on a belief in god. Touching on everything from 'brain science' to AI, Jankel offers a 'path to meaning', allowing us to move beyond consumerism towards an ethical life. Full Review

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Review of

Be Your Higher Self by Samesh Ramjattan

4star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

There are a lot of self-help books about: it's one of the most thriving sections of the average bookshop, but it's not always easy to find the book you need. Samesh Ramjattan has addressed this problem in Be Your Higher Self, a book which allows us all to make sense of our place in the world, as most of us only glimpse our true potential and few people ever achieve it. Even with hard work and dedication, obstacles present themselves and it's difficult to understand why or how they can be overcome. Ramjattan offers us a guide to the spirit world, the chakras, karma and reincarnation as well as information about the age of Aquarius and the ego. It's a slim book - just 128 pages - so can it provide us with the answers we seek? Full Review

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Review of

The World of Lore, Volume 1: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke

4.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Every country, every town, every village has a folktale – a story passed down through generations that often focuses on the dark and unexplained. No matter how the modern world moves on, there's a still a part of everyone that is vulnerable to a good tale. From ghosts to werewolves, by way of wendigos and elves, author Aaron Mahnke delivers the reader legends from all over the world, whilst examining how they've become part of our collective imaginations, still striking fear into the hearts of many of us today. Full Review

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Review of

Basic Witches by J Saxena and J Zimmerman

4star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Before I started this book I was expecting to be thrown into the world of magic and would know how to levitate by the end of the first chapter. Unsurprisingly, I was wrong. However, what I was met by was a book that explores the origins of witchcraft, teaches you how to dress and act like a witch and contains spells ranging from accepting compliments to conjuring up a relaxing Netflix binge. Full Review

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Review of

The Universe and Life but Not Everything by Anthony Christian Wright

3.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

I often wonder - usually after a moment of shaking my fist at the news on TV - what my manifesto for life and society would look like were I to write it down. I have all sorts of thoughts about these things, from the metaphysics of who we are and where we come from, right down to detailed critiques of quite insignificant government policies. I've never done such an exercise - mostly because I lack the time, the patience and the diligence required. It seems like an enormous task. Full Review

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Review of

Rosie: Note to Self by Claire Connor and G P Taylor

3.5star.jpg General Fiction

In the first of a five book deal Claire Connor, writing in partnership with GP Taylor, brings us a modern romance based loosely on the story of Ruth from the Bible. This is total chick-lit, and from the first few pages I thought it was just going to be a very light, funny romance story. However, the story quickly takes a depressing turn and the rest of the book is as much an exploration of grief as it is a romance novel. Full Review

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Review of

Returning Home by Stephan Santiago

3.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Stephan Santiago has experienced life in a way that's led him to believe we're all on a soul journey back home – that place we inhabited before we were born. This book is a guide as to how we can optimise this journey for ourselves, those around us and our children. Full Review

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Review of

Shepherd of Another Flock by David Wilbourne

5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

David Wilbourne's CV looks like a career path for people who are hard-of-humoured. Banker, teacher of Ancient Greek, vicar, bishop…none of these are jobs normally connected in our minds with a jovial twinkle. Yet in David's case, we'd be totally wrong to assume. The current Bishop of Llandaff takes us by the hand to show us episodes from his life as vicar of the character-packed Yorkshire parish of Helmsley proving that tears of sorrow are equally shared with tears of laughter. Full Review

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Review of

How to be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci

3.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Stoicism is about developing the tools to deal as effectively as humanly possible with the ensuing conflicts, does not demand perfection, and does not provide specific answers. For many readers, living in an age of rules to make us happy and the inevitable failure to stick to them, this is an intensely reassuring sentence. Pigliucci certainly makes Stoicism an appealing philosophy, one which can sit alongside religious faith but doesn't have to, one which doesn't demand Aristotelian heights of intelligence, beauty or riches in order to truly succeed in life, and one which recognises life's messy difficulties. Full Review

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Review of

A Biblical Theology Behind Music, Praise, and Worship by Dr Mark Pearce

4star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Music used in religions and worship itself goes back to the beginning of humankind. In this book musician and theological academic Dr Mark Pearce explores its Biblical history in a Christian context as well as providing tips and suggestions for those involved in worship in the present day. Full Review

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Review of

The Thoughts and Inner Journey of Dr. John Dee by Clair Iles

3.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Clair Iles is, in her own words, a normal person who was educated at a normal comprehensive school. However, she's a normal person who hears dead people. Yes, Clair is a spiritualist with ability to hear from those who have passed on. In the past they had generally been relatives or everyday folk. Imagine, then, her surprise when she felt she was hearing from Elizabethan court polymath John Dee. Over a period of time she could feel his dictated thoughts and ideas in her mind and this book of the channelled words is the result. Full Review

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Review of

Becoming Reverend: A diary by Matt Woodcock

4.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

Matt Woodcock is enjoying life: successful journalist, happily married and a new dream home bought and heavily mortgaged. The only cloud on the horizon is their struggle to have children but they have faith in the IVF treatment as it's early days yet. Then comes the funny turn Matt has on the way to a story one day. This takes him by surprise but the resulting clergy collar comes as a total shock. He's a normal bloke who always thought of himself as more pint than piety believing in a God who's happy for him to remain in the pews. Errrrm… whoops! Full Review

Chaplin Stone.jpg

Review of

The Stone Cradle by Patrice Chaplin

5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

The Stone Cradle is a remarkable book from the author Patrice Chaplin. It is a biography, the third in a series set in the Catalonian city of Girona. It is also an enduring love story and a journey into mystery and spirituality. The city has drawn artists, writers and philosophers for centuries. Rich in Kabbalistic thought through Azriel, the most famous student of Isaac the Blind, it has always been a home for mysticism and secrets. The magnetism and resonance of the city has had a hold on Patrice Chaplin since she first visited it in the fifties. The series of books detail her journey and her encounters with the esoteric society that have protected its mysteries since ancient times. 'The Stone Cradle' also gives a new life and direction to the mysteries of Rennes le Chateau, the small French village, made famous by the Da Vinci Code and the Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. Linking the two places through sacred geometry to the mountain of Canigou. Full Review

Vonnegut Sun.jpg

Review of

Sun Moon Star by Kurt Vonnegut and Ivan Chermayeff

4.5star.jpg Spirituality and Religion

In his own delightfully imaginative way, Kurt Vonnegut tells the story of the birth of Christ in this unique and long out of print children's book. Told from the perspective of the new born infant in his first hours of birth, this charming little story feels different to other children's Christmas books whilst at the same time goes back to the basics in exploring the true nature of Christmas. Full Review

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