Author Archives: jenny

A book on marriage that’s helpful for singles too: Married for God by Christopher Ash

Married for God by Christopher Ash is a book on marriage from a Christian perspective that is essential to read whether you are married or single. Rather than focussing on how to improve marriage or what marriage actually is, this … Continue reading

Posted in Christian Ethics, Christian Living, Christian Theology, Contemporary, General adult audience | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An insightful Christian analysis of modern sexual ethics: Sex and the iWorld by Dale S. Kuehne

Sex and the iWorld by Dale S. Kuehne is an insightful and helpful book for understanding the rapid changes in how western society thinks about sex and sexuality since the sexual revolution in the 1970s. Tracing these changes back to … Continue reading

Posted in Christian Ethics, Contemporary, General adult audience | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder is the last of the Little House books that Wilder completed and also my favourite. At the end of Little Town on the Prairie Laura received her teaching certificate. Now Laura has … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century YA, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion features an unusual hero on a mission to find a wife. To increase the efficiency of the process, Don Tillman develops a lengthy questionnaire that will allow him to quickly eliminate women who would … Continue reading

Posted in Comedy, Contemporary, General adult audience, Romance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder continues the Little House books. The Long Winter is over, the prairie is filling up and Laura is old enough to get summer work sewing in the growing town. When winter … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, 20th Century YA, Children's Classics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Letters from England by Karel Čapek

Letters from England by Karel Čapek is a book I picked up for $5 in New Zealand, one of those high points of secondhand-bookshopping. As suggested by the title, it’s a collection of letters from the Czech author’s travels in … Continue reading

Posted in 20th Century, Biography/Autobiography, General adult audience, Letters, Social Commentary/Analysis, Travel and Geography Non-Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Door in the Air and Other Stories by Margaret Mahy

The Door in the Air and Other Stories is my favourite book by Margaret Mahy, a fantastic (in both senses) kiwi children’s author. I have two favourite stories from this book. The first is The Work of Art, which makes … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, Children's, Fantasy, New Zealander, Short Stories | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas is a beautiful picture book about the nature of memory. It tells the story of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge who lives next door to an old people’s home where his … Continue reading

Posted in 20th Century Children's, Australian, Picture Books, Under 7 years | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Light a Single Candle by Beverley Butler

Light A Single Candle by Beverley Butler is a great book written in the early 60s that I discovered in high school. Cathy Wheeler becomes completely blind in her early teens when surgery to treat glaucoma goes seriously wrong. As … Continue reading

Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Realism, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian is a historical novel and modern children’s classic set in World War II Britain. Billeting arrangements bring together Mister Tom, a gruff and grieving old man, and Willie Beech, a starved and abused child … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, Children's Classics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment