Trish Moran has conceived a tantalising plot and from it woven an exciting story for teenagers. Rich celebrities have donated stem cells, which are being preserved at the Centre so as to be able to repair the donor’s body in the event of injury or disease. However, these cells are secretly cultivated into multiple super clones of the donor, which are stored in a dormant state and used when needed as a source of Spare Parts, the remainder of the body being discarded. Continue reading “Mirror Image by Trish Moran”
Category: English
The Refugees: A Tale of Two Continents, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Two exciting stories in one book. Conan Doyle has diligently researched events and conditions both in Versailles and in French-Canadian North America, and developed two superbly written tales linked by the person of Amory De Catinat, a half-hearted young Huguenot serving as a personal guard of King Louis XIV.
Continue reading “The Refugees: A Tale of Two Continents, by Arthur Conan Doyle”Is God Really Legit? Making Sense of Faith and Science, by Neil Laing
This book discusses many aspects of the common tension between scientists and believers, with some vivid illustrations but no hard and fast answers. It is written in a chatty style, appropriate and intelligible for teenagers, though perhaps a bit patronising and on one occasion moralising. Laing comes across as honest and open, respecting opposing views. He presents the believer’s position plausibly without attempting to force anyone to accept it; instead, he encourages young people to examine the evidence, think things through and form their own convictions. Continue reading “Is God Really Legit? Making Sense of Faith and Science, by Neil Laing”
Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
This is a lengthy, complex, but very human book about relationships between normal, dysfunctional people.
We discover how the two primary players, Paige and Nicholas, are very much influenced by their respective mothers, both of whom abandoned their families in different ways and for different reasons. Continue reading “Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult”
The Knight and the Serpent by John Richard Gabourel
This retelling of a legend of medieval Normandy intrigued me from the start, because a major scenario centres on my home island of Jersey, at Grouville Beach, Gorey Castle and what is now known as La Hougue Bie Dolmen, places I know well. It’s an elaborate tale of loyalty and treachery, love, remorse and forgiveness. The complex plot with its religious and mystical elements is compelling, several characters are historical and the setting is very realistically and accurately portrayed. Continue reading “The Knight and the Serpent by John Richard Gabourel”
The French Peasantry in the Seventeenth Century by Pierre Goubert
This book contains a wealth of otherwise hard-to-find facts about the often poverty-stricken and mostly unnoticed country folk in the diverse provinces and regions we now know as France. Everything warrants a chapter: food, clothing and housing; birth, marriage and death; farming and poaching practices; relationships between peasants, seigneurs, unwelcome soldiers, haughty priests and the revenue-hungry royal bailiffs; taxes and revolts.
Goubert provides invaluable background information for the novel I’m writing Continue reading “The French Peasantry in the Seventeenth Century by Pierre Goubert”
Penhaligon’s Pride by Terri Nixon
Even better than Book 1!
It’s great to find Freya tidying up the old bookshop again, struggling to overcome her terror of the sea with Mairead’s patient help, having earnest talks with her best friend Juliet and generally making sure all is well in Caernoweth. But it’s not long before things start to get very hot.
Terri Nixon has succeeded in conjuring up a complex mesh of everyday events laced with misunderstandings, suspicions, accusations and fears that look as if they are going to Continue reading “Penhaligon’s Pride by Terri Nixon”
The Book that Made Your World by Vishal Mangalwadi
The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization, by Vishal Mangalwadi is a bold analysis of the powerful influence the Christian Bible has had on the development of the western world.
Mangalwadi is an extremely erudite and lucid scholar, who has combined academic learning with political and social action, even at the risk of his and his family’s life. Through his many books and his international lecturing programme he seeks to open the eyes of a world that seems to have forgotten its spiritual heritage.
This book is a mixture of personal experiences and philosophical statements. The author delves into teachings of influential thinkers and artists throughout the ages (Buddha, Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas à Kempis, Francis Bacon, Desiderius Erasmus, Martin Luther, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, J.R.R. Tolkien, Kurt Cobain, etc.). He also refers to significant historical documents (the Qur’an, the Magna Carta, the Geneva Bible, the Huguenots’ “Trilogy of Freedom”, etc.). And he cites specific examples from his own home country of India, as well as Europe and North America.
Continue reading “The Book that Made Your World by Vishal Mangalwadi”Fenny by Lettice Cooper
Ellen Fenwick, commonly known as Fenny or Elena, a burnt-out, single English teacher, jumps at the chance to become a governess for eight-year-old Juliet, whose family is recuperating for some months in a villa near Florence. She has been caring for her sick mother and has never travelled before, never experienced romance.
Continue reading “Fenny by Lettice Cooper”Lion, by Saroo Brierley
An almost incredible but true story, told in a rather unemotional, matter-of-fact manner. Hardly old enough to know who he is and with no idea where he comes from, 5 year old Saroo finds himself trapped in a railway carriage, which ends up taking him to the sprawling, stinking, merciless city of Calcutta. What will his dear mother, his worldly-wise brothers and the baby sister he should be looking after think has happened to him? Will they care?
After several close scrapes with the river and unscrupulous railway workers, Continue reading “Lion, by Saroo Brierley”