The Magic Pudding is a delightful Australian Children’s Classic by Norman Lindsay about puddin’-owners, puddin’-thieves and, of course, a cantankerous puddin’ that answers to the name of Albert. It’s basically an excuse for food, fighting and nonsense poetry. Thanks to former-housemate C. for alerting me to it’s existence! Just finished reading it out loud with some friends on a holiday to the mountains – lots of chuckles at the tongue-in-cheek humour.
Persuasion is probably my favourite Jane Austen novel. It lacks the bright humour of Pride and Prejudice, but both book and heroine share a lovely, gentle pensiveness. It explores ideas of regret and duty, as well as the difference between being persuadable and being spineless. If you have read and enjoyed any of Jane Austen’s other novels and haven’t read Persuasion then you should READ IT IMMEDIATELY. And if you’ve only read Pride and Prejudice and you found it a bit fluffy then you should give Jane Austen a second chance by reading Persuasion!
Joined-up Life provides a Christian framework for ethics. It encourages ethical thinking rather than quick or simplistic answers. It’s readable and thought-provoking. It provides an overview of approaches to ethics before suggesting a framework for considering a topic from the perspectives of creation, redemption, new creation, God’s character and God’s commands. It then applies the framework to character qualities, different life circumstances and then some thorny issues. The rationale for the order of these last three is that this sort of God-centred thoughtfulness should be impacting our everyday life and not just be pulled out for the special occasions when we have to make a major decision. The chapter on singleness was probably the best thing I have read on singleness (both in theological reflection and pastoral sensitivity).
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a delightful book set just after WWII and featuring an unlikely group of people who learn to love reading under the Nazi occupation of the British Channel Isles. It is an epistolary novel with beautiful characterisation and a charming storyline.
All Quiet on th
e Western Front provides a great insightinto the human cost of World War I as it portrays a generation of men whose formative years are spent in the trenches. Remarque weaves narrative together with reflections on the effects of war in this fictional book based on his time fighting on the German side in WWI. It provides a strong contrast to the simplified picture of nationalism and heroism that sometimes characterise portrayals of this period. It’s darkly humourous and very gripping but not a light read.
Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome is an amusing account of a boating trip up the Thames. Rich in hypochondria, satire and altercations with tents and pineapple tins, it is a delightful story of enjoying the outdoors in late 19th century style. It is richer in characterisation, reminiscences and atmosphere than it is in plot movement, so would be a good book to go to if you want a light-hearted read with occasional chuckles rather than something fast-paced.
My sister gave me Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie, illustrated by Robert Ingpen, for my 20th birthday and warned me that although I might not be excited to receive it, she had got it for me anyway. K’s awesome present-giving powers are usually evident right away but they became apparent as soon as I started reading. How could I not love a book where the villain’s evilness is attributed to his British public school upbringing and desperate need to achieve Good Form?
“I saw something nasty in the woodshed!”
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is an hilarious 1930s novel about Flora Post, a young woman with no useful skills but a strong desire for tidiness. She goes to live with the very untidy Starkadder family at Cold Comfort Farm.
Aunt Ada Doom comes downstairs twice a year for ‘The Counting’
This book includes such quotable lines as, “I saw something nasty in the woodshed”, “There’s always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm” and “There’ll be no butter in hell!”
The film of the same name is perhaps the best book to movie adaptation I know of! Mystery, melodrama, humour and fun characters make this a relaxing and enjoyable read as it pokes fun at the dark melodramas of the late 1800s.
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle