Book review entries

Read this book. No, seriously.

Title:

Red Moon Rising

Author:

Pete Greig

ISBN:

1842910957

Rating:

Doug donated this book to SPEAK, and I spotted it on the shelves today.

Wow.

Everyone should read this book. Like, everyone. From Chichester to St. Petersburg via goodness knows where else, this book is about the start of, and snowballing of, a movement of prayer: 24–7. Based on the Moravians, who organised a rota and prayed without stopping for more than a hundred years, churches take it in shifts and pray continuously for a week, a month, a year…however long.

And God moves.

The stories, the things that have happened…

People discovering God, discovering their heart for those who are marginalised and oppressed and put-down and beat-up.

Prayer. Lots and lots and lots of prayer.

And from the prayer, action. For as the author puts it, "Prayer without action is just religion in hiding." A dreadful challenge for someone who spends her life in hiding. Mostly, it has to be said, from herself. Do I want to make a difference here? Do I want to help? Do I want to reach out? Or am I too afraid of the consequences?

"Some want to live
Within the sound
Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run
A rescue shop
Within a yard of hell." (C.T.Studd)

This book might change your life, just a little. As every good book should.

: 12 Apr 2006 20:28 |  Tags: Book Christian Randomness Speak Book Review Review |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Been a while since my last book review…

Title:

Monstrous Regiment: A Discworld Novel

Author:

Terry Pratchett

ISBN:

0552149411

Rating:

Let me say it right off: I love Discworld. Terry Pratchett is a genius.

Basic summary: Polly Perks dresses as a boy and joins the army to find her brother Paul. And ends up in the Monstrous regiment (they have a troll, a vampire, a kid who talks to gods, a pyromaniac, a sociopath and an Igor (er…like a servant, kind of. They're made up of lots of different people sewn together, and are handy with a needle).

Despite the fact that Granny Weatherwax (pretty much my favourite Discworld character) does not appear, this is one of my favourite books, mostly because of Polly. I sympathise with Polly. The world very suddenly gets a lot bigger for her, and she ends up at war not entirely sure if she could ever actually kill someone.

I especially like it that Vimes makes an appearance throughout the book, as Ankh-Morpork get involved in the scrapping that Borogravia (Polly's home country) does with all the surrounding neighbours.

Nice twists, great characters, five stars. :)

Just read it. I'll even lend it to you, if you like.

: 11 Jan 2006 11:51 |  Tags: Book Review Reviews |  Comments (9) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I LOVE this book!

Title:

The Opal Deception (Artemis Fowl)

Author:

Eoin Colfer

ISBN:

0141381647

Rating:

Yeah yeah yeah. I know. I'm a crazy woman who reads kids' books.

But I don't care because they're great kids' books.

Though I do advise that you read the other books first. It works much better in order. So. Some of the characters:

Artemis Fowl: sometime anti-hero, now fourteen-year-old Irish kid who's too smart for his own good. Back again.

Holly Short: framed for murder. Our heroine, and my favourite character. Well, she would be. She's redheaded and has a really bad temper.

Butler: Just Butler. The…er…butler, bodyguard and ally of our Arty.

Basic summary so far: Artemis was a naughty kid. Kidnapped a fairy (Holly), eventually had his memories wiped and is now back.

Words cannot describe how much I love this series. Well, they probably could, but I'm not in any condition to try. It's like…Die Hard. But with fairies. And the coolest gadgets ever.

: 17 May 2005 13:05 |  Comments (7) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Pride and Prejudice

Ah, I love this book. I really really do. It is a girlie book…well, I think so anyway. It struck me as one.

You all know the story: family with five daughters all trying to get married. Jane; the eldest, I like her and all but she's just too nice for my taste. Her and Bingley both.

And Lizzie. My favourite, obviously, cos she's outspoken and gets all the best lines.

Kitty – no one ever really talks about Kitty. Mary's boring, and Lydia's a tearaway. But Lizzie and Darcy…sigh.

So romantic. And not even in a really soppy way, cos they both spend a considerable amount of time trying to convince themselves they hate each other.

Denial is not a river in Egypt, people.

I really love that expression.

And what I like most is that neither of them are all perfect and goody-two-shoes (never understood that expression). Lizzie's really outspoken and Darcy is a sociophobe. If that's a word. If it's not, it should be. So there.

To Harry Potter and Jane Austen fans: two fanfics. The funniest things I have read in quite a while.

Diaries of a dungeon-dwelling moron
link

and Lamentations of a starry-eyed twit:
link

I laughed and laughed. Do you know what it's like to laugh like that?

Yes. Yes I do.

Wow, I just had an out-of-blog experience. Come on now, somebody tell me where that line's from. Putting it in Google is cheating.

: 20 Nov 2004 15:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem