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St Andrew's Church, Taunton

A menu for book lovers

Three very different books for reading in quiet moments reviewed by Katharine Smith

For this festive season I’ve picked out three books which I’ve enjoyed (or look forward to reading) in the hope that others might also find them entertaining and/or informative.  All of them are available in the parish library.

Starter

“The St Gargoyle’s Diet” by Ron

Forget calories, weigh-ins, points and sins – try the ABC diet or the Top Ten Diet as described in this entertaining book by Ron whose cartoons appear each week in the Church Times.

Meet Jason, scarred, studded and pierced with a “dog like a Tasmanian Devil”, who, as a new Christian (Jason, not the dog), wants to know what car Jesus drove and Mrs General who runs the village stores and suddenly and inexplicably frees her customers from their out-standing accounts.

There’s a campaign to keep a supermarket (Saneways) out of the village, a plot to blow up the church, a pub called the ”Temporary Sign” and a variety of larger than life characters.

Hidden amongst all these are some cleverly disguised parables but mainly it’s just a light and enjoyable way to start a meal of books!

Main Course

“The 100-Minute Bible” published by 100-Minute Press with Preface by Bishop John Pritchard

I haven’t actually read this yet so I don’t know if you really can read it in 100 minutes.  However, over Advent I’m planning to read it at a gentle pace of a couple of sections a day.

In his Preface Bishop John Pritchard says that this book is for:  “people who may not know very much about the Christian faith”, “People who want an easy access into the central Christian story” and “Christians who want to revisit the big picture.” So that covers just about all of us. 

He continues, “Read this and you’ll see the whole sweep of God’s loving purposes for his world and all its people….If we’re to understand Christianity more fully ….. we need to get hold of the overall story.  And this is what the 100-Minute Bible provides so succinctly and elegantly.”

That’s a good enough re-commedation for me and I’ll be interested to hear what other people think about this book when they’ve read it.

Dessert

“The Good Little Christmas Tree” by Ursula Moray Williams

Time for coffee and mints, an easy chair and this wonderful story before going to bed.

I can’t be objective about this lovely, enchanting and magical book.  It was given to my older brother when he was born in 1943 and was one of my absolute favourites which I demanded to have read to me at all times of the year!  I’m delighted it’s been re-published with new illustrations by Gillian Taylor.

It’s a children’s book and could be classed as a fairy tale telling, as it does, a special, magical story which grown ups will enjoy reading themselves.

A little Christmas Tree is brought home by a peasant for his children.  The family is poor and can’t afford to decorate the tree.  So at night the tree goes out to look for decorations and succeeds but at an extraordinary cost to itself. 

Like most fairy tales this story has a happy ending but I won’t spoil it by telling you how that is brought about – just keep some tissues handy!

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