Call the Midwife – by Jennifer Worth

21 08 2014

Having watched one series of Call the Midwife I picked up the book somewhere and goodness I loved it! It is definitely a little more graphic and descriptive than the TV show…

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it all, the book is autobiographical, and the TV series is based on it. After discovering that there is very little mention of midwifery in literature, Jennifer Worth took up the challenge to correct this. She was a midwife in 1950s East London, amidst an awful lot of poverty.

This book is an education. I learnt about biology (the obvious), PSHE (again, fairly obvious), but probably above all, history.

I’d heard bits and pieces about like in 1950s London, but never in this much detail, particularly the poverty. The idea that there were high rises with about 10 members of a family in each 2 room home and that was normal, is insane. It may sound odd, but even though I’m used to hearing stories of families living like this in the developing world, I never realised it was that bad in the UK that recently. Being a book that features a lot of pregnancies, and a lot of poverty, there was also a fair amount of coverage of the brothels and life in them – again pretty eye opening.
I definitely feel better educated about life in 50s London now.

The other thing that really interested me in the book was right at the end. All through the book Jenny is clear that while she is a midwife based in a convent, she is probably agnostic. She respects the nuns, but the faith thing isn’t for her. Over the book, she softens a little, and then, right at the end after talking with Sister Monica Joan and pondering, more, the last line reads “That evening, I started to read the gospels.”

I was gutted it finished there, I want to know more! The next book is more about the workhouses as this was touched on in the first book, so I don’t know if it’ll pick up on that theme again or not, I’ll have to find out when I get round to it!

The book is essentially a book of anecdotes, and really was fascinating. I’d definitely recommend it, I really feel I learnt a lot in a lot of different areas!

call the midwife


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Heaven is for Real – by Todd Burpo

3 08 2014

Earlier this year we were talking about resurrection/heaven in my housegroup, and this book came up as some had read it. The film also came out earlier this year.

Safe to say, some people really hate this book. I’m not about to dive into a theological debate, feel free to read the book for yourself.

Basically it’s another testimony book. A family whose son got very ill, and while on the operating table, experienced some time in heaven. As he starts to mention things he saw, he shares things that at his tender age of 3, he could only know from experience, definitely not things he’d’ve been taught in Sunday school, and he talks of people he met, who died years before he was born.

But the biggest thing for me in this book was the dads attitude. The book is written by the father, who himself is a church pastor. Every single time his son recounts something from that trip, he immediately goes to his bible and checks that it tallies and corresponds, and most importantly does not contradict what he finds there.

Of course the cynics claim it’s all made up, no story is without it’s disagreers, but I definitely found it an encouraging read, not just for the glimpse of what heaven might be like, but the things the family learnt as they went through that awful time too.

Read it and see what you think 🙂

heaven is for real


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Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy – by Helen Fielding

29 07 2014

I was quite nervous about this book. The first two were excellent, but there are some major changes in Bridget’s life between books 2 and 3. We know that at the end of book 2 she and Mark Darcy were happy, settled, and engaged. Book 3 fast forwards several years…

**SPOILER ALERT**

Ok, technically it’s not a spoiler as it’s how the book opens, but some people would still be upset to find out, so I’ve put that there in case.

The book opens with Bridget, in her early 50s, with two children, Billy in year 3, and Mabel in year R. Mark Darcy died 4 years ago.

So instead of singleton, hopelessly-alone-forever Bridget, we have widowed single mum Bridget. I was worried how this would ever work, how she could still be the Bridget we know and love.

But fear not, she totally is 🙂

We travel with Bridget as she discovers twitter, works to get a screenplay she’s written made into a film, and deals with her friends telling her it’s time to move on and sleep with someone else, and see where that takes things.

I won’t say any more as there’s so much that’s just better enjoyed as you read, but Bridget is still the Bridget we know and love, still rather socially awkward if she’s not drunk with her friends, but totally wonderful.

There are obviously a few more sad moments in this book than the last two as she still deals with the loss of her husband, and there’s a beautiful bedtime story that he wrote for Billy and Mabel, but the book is full of humour too. Do try it!

bridget jones - mad about the boy


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Billy and Me – by Giovanna Fletcher

7 07 2014

I should admit the main reason I bought this book was because it was written by the wife of Tom from McFly, but I’d also had a friend read and like it, and it’s chick lit, so thought it was definitely worth a try.

The book focuses around a girl who lives in a small village, working in a tea shop, and falls for a young man who happens to be a massive teen movie star (which she doesn’t realise) who is filming locally, and what happens when she’s thrown massively into the limelight.

I enjoyed the read, it was an easy holiday book, though it got a little sickly sweet in places and though it has it’s ups and downs, it’s all a bit too easy!

billy and me


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The Vow – by Kim & Krickett Carpenter

1 07 2014

This book was not at all what I expected.

I watched the film when it came out at the cinema. A story of a couple who have an accident and the woman loses all memory of her husband and he has to win her over again.

The key word in that trailer is “inspired by”, not “based on” true events. Technically that outline also covers the story in the book, except the details are very different, and for one key point: The book is a testimony. The book is the story of how God was central to their relationship, their marriage, and how they both had to lean on Him to get through it all. It is an autobiography and the focus is God. He doesn’t even get a look in on the film!

The book is also very different in the way they meet, how the relationship develops, the wedding, the relationship between the husband and her parents – it may as well be a different story but for the very basic outline.

I love this book because it shows how through the most truly awful circumstances, God worked through it, and brought them to a much better place than they could have imagined.

At the time apparently their story got a lot of press coverage, I don’t remember this, but they were so passionate to share what God had done each time they shared their story. It’s inspirational!

the vow


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The Fault In Our Stars – by John Green

28 06 2014

This is the first time in years and years that I’ve “binged” on a book. When I woke this morning I was on page 76. I’ve not had lunch yet and I’ve finished it, all 313 pages! I haven’t read that much in one go since Harry Potter as a teenager I reckon!

I know the film’s out at the moment and it’s a very current book (I bought it about 6 months ago but only just got round to reading it) so I don’t want to give away any spoilers. There’s so much I could say, but not without giving away major plot points.

I loved the characters, the humour, the location, the relationships, the realities – trying to keep this as vague as possible! It didn’t go down the path I expected it to at all in the end. All I can say is please read it!

Just a line from right near the end, but that doesn’t give anything away – I read it and thought how similar it is to the strapline of my blog in a way, and just how my head so often works:

“My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations”

the fault in our stars


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Red Letter Christianity – by Shane Claiborne & Tony Campolo

22 06 2014

My colleague Wendy recently said, “Most people who go to a Tony Campolo event know that they’re going to get ‘beaten up’ for justice.” and this book wasn’t far off of a punch in the face either – in a good way of course! I’ve heard both of these guys speak before, and always find they challenge my way of thinking and being. The book was no different.

The idea of Red Letter Christians is that they live their words specifically by the words that Jesus said. In some copies of the bible, every word Jesus spoke is printed in red so as to stand out from the black text.

Each chapter of the book took a different topic that Campolo and Claiborne would then discuss between them, sharing thoughts and perspectives. I found some of what they shared truly refreshing; they didn’t just go down the line you might expect them to!

In the chapter on pro-life, I expected this to just be a discussion on abortion, and of course some of it was. But there was also a lot of discussion on the quality of life throughout the whole of a persons life: “from womb to tomb”. They covered poverty, sin, and the death penalty alongside the obvious.

In the chapter on homosexuality, they open by discussing gay marriage, but actually when Tony shared his view on it, it took a whole new direction:

“While I believe that the government should not legalise marriage for people who are gay, I also believe that it should not legalise marriage for heterosexuals either. In fact, the government should get out of the marriage business completely and instead focus on civil rights for all of its citizens. It should treat both homosexual couples and heterosexual couples the same, guaranteeing both the same rights and privileges. Homosexual couples and heterosexual couples should be able to go down to the city hall and register as couples who want to be legally recognised as belonging to each other and receive the same civil rights available for all citizens who want to be in committed relationships. Then, if a couple wants to call the relationship a marriage, that couple should go down to a church and let the church perform the ceremony.” – Tony Campolo

The chapter on giving I found particularly helpful, confirming some stuff I’d been thinking about recently anyway, and looking at some prosperity gospel stuff which seems to keep rearing its head lately too.

Every chapter of this book had something to make you think, from liturgy to the middle east, from reconciliation to national debt, there isn’t a lot they don’t touch on somewhere and just stir some of your thought patterns that maybe had sat still for a bit too long.

Red Letter Christianity


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The Help – by Kathryn Stockett

15 03 2014

I’d seen the film, but it was quite a while ago and I didn’t really remember it, so in many ways, this was like reading a new book.

The story is set in 1960s Mississippi, and looks primarily into the lives of a few white women, their maids and their children. Now I wasn’t anywhere near alive in the ’60s, but I thought I knew a bit about what had gone on. I know about Rosa Parks, I know about Martin Luther King, and I know about Apartheid in South Africa. I did not know that a white woman would consider, let alone actually build a separate toilet outside her house for her maid to use so that she wouldn’t catch diseases from her. I didn’t know that to serve a white woman her coffee you would set it on the table rather than give it to her for her fear that her hands may touch yours and catch something. I am privileged to have grown up in an environment where this would never be tolerated, though I know that in some places things still aren’t quite right.

It was really encouraging to find out at the end that while it this wasn’t based on the authors life per say, she did grow up with a black maid who she was close to around this time, and so in general it was based on life at that time, though the book itself is fiction. It does close with a nice little account of her story in the back though.

The book itself has three women sharing the job of narration, two black maids and one white woman who isn’t quite like the rest of them. Just home from college and living back with her mother while her friends are married and enjoying high society life, she is far more interested in what life is like for the maids.

Definitely a bit of an emotional rollercoaster – there’s time for laughter, sadness and anger definitely, but it really opened my eyes to what things used to be like compared to what they are now, but also was genuinely a great read. One of those books you carry around with you incase you find a chance to read a few more pages!

the help


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