Piece of My Heart: A Chief Inspector Banks Novel - Peter Robinson

My wife gave me a signed copy of this for my birthday this year & I have finally got around to reading it.
I am so pleased she brought it for me.

We had seen a TV dramatisation of an Inspector Banks story last year, but I had read none of Peter Robinson's books before & didnt really know what to expect but it is a really good read.

Robinson weaves two seemingly separate stories together, one in the 1960's & the other in present day.
The novel pulls you & you cant wait to get to the next part of the story in both eras.

Impressed & will be going along to the library so I can read the rest of the books & journey with Banks from the beginning.

Fatherland - Book Review

Somehow managed to miss this when it first came out but saw an interview with Robert Harris on TV & so thanks to my local Library have managed to read it now. Very impressed.

It is April 1964, Hitler managed to win World War II & the world is a very different place; Germany has become the world's super power & is what the Third Reich wanted it to be. We view this terrifying world through the eyes of  a Policeman called March & a case he investigates which opens up a dangerous can of worms.

Harris story weaves together real people & fictional ones & the story really draws you in - I couldn't put it down & most of my free time this last weekend has been spent buried in this.
Highly recommend.

Fighters against Fascism (British Heroes of the Spanish Civil war)

A friend gave me this book a few months ago & though I started it then, reading others has made finishing it difficult -  I'm sure I am not the only one who this happens to!

It is a collection of personal stories about how ordinary people left the UK to fight against fascism in Spain.
I knew virtually nothing about this period of history & found the testimonies at times to be riveting. The courage & single mindedness they showed is very impressive.

There is though an assumption that the reader has a good knowledge of the era & at least a basic working knowledge of the Spanish Civil war. I don't understand why the author didn't put a brief factual note to ground the testimonies (battles, sites & time lines etc) alongside these personal accounts.

It would have been  far better read too had the author included a chapter or two explaining the reasons the war happened, including the political situation in Spain before & after, & how that all related to the rest of Europe.

I will certainly have to do some more detailed serious historical reading to answer those questions for myself.

Thank you John for the book.

Love wins - Rob Bell

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Wins-Heart-Lifes-Questions/dp/0007420730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306758163&sr=8-1

After so many terrible reviews & aggressive posts I couldn't wait to read it for myself.
Rob Bell's style of writing is conversational & the book is easy to read & i got through it very quickly.
It's worth a read, & if your in the Stafford area you can borrow my copy as long as you return it.

I am not sure he said much that I haven't thought & believed for a long time. I am unsure why so many people have reacted so badly to Love Wins - i suspect that many who have commented have never read it.

Its not a deep theological book but i don't think that's what he was trying to write.
I do however think that more needs to be said about how judgement / justice fits in.

I think his vision of God's grace & enormous love is needed though, especially when so many who claim to be in a relationship with Jesus (like Harold Camping but sadly too many mainstream preachers & believers too) shout so loudly that God's great desire is to judge & punish for all eternity. Personally I think that message is devoid of the hope & grace of Jesus, & that it is way more dangerous.

Yes we need to hear about the vastness of God's grace & of course this isn't a new message. A hymn i use a lot in worship 'There's a wideness in God's mercy' by Frederick Faber (Hymns & Psalms 230) deserves to be the final note here.


There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.


There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.


There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss.


For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.


But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.


If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be illumined
By the presence of our Lord.