Book Review: Christians by Greg Sheridan

 Christians

by

Greg Sheridan

 

The urgent case for Jesus in our world

 

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

 

Publication date: August 2021

 

Genre: Non Fiction / Religion

 

Pages: 384

 

RRP: $32.95 AUD

 

Format read: paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via DMCPRMedia

 

About the book

 

From the historical Jesus and his disciples through to the present day, Greg Sheridan has written an impassioned, informed and utterly compelling case for the truth and importance of Christianity in our lives. He presents a strong argument for the historical reliability of the New Testament, meets the living Jesus there, explores the extraordinary personality of Paul, celebrates Mary's activism and examines the magnificent richness of John.

Filled with insights, intelligence, warmth and humor, Greg also introduces us to a range of fascinating Christians today, among them political leaders, and young activists offering the radical Christian interpretation of love to their generation. His book explores the journey of those who have been guided by faith, such as Gemma Sisia, whose school in Tanzania has transformed the lives of thousands of children, and the dynamic Chinese Christians pursuing their beliefs under harsh restrictions. He examines where Jesus can be found in popular culture and talks to Christian leaders - Pentecostal, Catholic, Evangelical and others - in Australia, the US and Britain.

 

My review

 

From the media release: At a time when the chasm of understanding between secularism and faith has never seemed wider, Christians is timely, relevant and convincing. Bill Hayden tells the moving story of his long journey to belief and Peter Cosgrove recounts the experience of prayer and religious belief in the midst of deadly combat.

Christians is a new take on Christianity in popular culture, revealing how people and the New Testament work to powerfully affect lives today. 

 

Christians is a book to learn about the living Jesus. An awe-inspiring look inside the New Testament. Sheridan is not so much trying to convert people but give Christians a fresh look at Christianity and re-invigorate their faith.

Filled with indisputable facts. It does help to know some basics of the bible to understand what Sheridan is explaining about history.

 

Written in a conversational tone Sheridan explores the gospels and uses historical fact to back up his musings. I did find the book hard to read as a novel. It was more a case of picking it up and reading parts of the book to suit my mood.

 

 "Much of the New Testament is sublimely beautiful as literature. Apart from it's religious significance, it justifies reading for aesthetic pleasure as well as literary appreciation and scholarship."

 

Christians was highly entertaining, fascinating reading and thought provoking.

 

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Greg Sheridan is foreign editor of The Australian and a hugely respected journalist for over 40 years. Greg is fascinated by intellectual, spiritual and human aspects of Christianity, and his previous books include God is Good For You and When We Were Young and Foolish.

Challenges entered: Non Fiction Reading Challenge

                                  Aussie Author Challenge

 

 

 

Book Review: The Hush by Sara Foster

 The Hush

by

Sara Foster

 

Everything can change in a heartbeat

 

Publisher: Harper Collins

 

Publication date: 27th October 2021

 

Genre: Thriller / Dystopian

 

Pages: 359

 

Format read: Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy Better Reading Preview 

About the book

 

Six months ago, in an English hospital, a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth. Since then there have been more tragedies, and now the country is in turmoil. The government is clamping down on people’s freedoms. The prime minister has passed new laws granting authorities sweeping powers to monitor all citizens. And young pregnant women have started going missing.

As a midwife, Emma is determined to be there for those who need her. But when her seventeen-year-old daughter Lainey finds herself in trouble, this dangerous new world becomes very real, and both women face impossible choices. The one person who might help is Emma’s estranged mother Geraldine, but reaching out to her will put them all in jeopardy …

The Hush is a new breed of near-future thriller, an unflinching look at a society close to tipping point and a story for our times, highlighting the power of female friendship through a dynamic group of women determined to triumph against the odds

 

My review

  

Keep them meek and keep them scared.

Sara Foster’s The Hush, set seven years post Covid, is a dystopian novel that is highly believable in many aspects.
Smart watches are used to monitor a person’s health, every movement and purchase. Okay not so unlike present day Australia so far. It’s all for the citizens safety. So that’s okay?

When the still birth rate begins to dramatically rise new laws are introduced to monitor all pregnancies. Then pregnant teenaged girls start to go missing.
Anyone who posts or protests about these missing girls is dealt with severely and shut down immediately. The only right people have is ‘to obey’.

The Hush is so scarily real I raced through it. I was devastated at how helpless the people were and eager to see where Sara Foster was going with the plot.

Foster gives us a society where the very existence of human beings is threatened and a Government that is consumed with control and hidden agendas.

Friendship is an over-arching theme throughout the book, along with mother / daughter relationships. Women band together to help each other putting their own lives in danger.
I enjoyed the inclusion of the teenagers and how they united and were ready to protest about the way people were being treating. The way some of the teenagers got around the constant surveillance with the watches gave me a laugh. It was so believable.

I know the media had been shut down and threatened as well but I would have liked to have seen more of the spin the media put on the events.

I liked how the parts of the book were divided into the different stages of labour, very cute.

 

My rating 4 / 5

 

Challenges Entered: Australian Women Writers Challenge AWW2021

 

                                   Aussie Author Challenge #Aussieauthor21

 

About the author

Sara Foster is the author of six previous bestselling psychological suspense novels: You Don't Know Me, The Hidden Hours, All That Is Lost Between Us, Shallow Breath, Beneath the Shadows and Come Back to Me. Sara lives in Western Australia with her husband and two daughters, and is a doctoral candidate at Curtin University.

https://www.sarafoster.com.au/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves

 The Heron's Cry

by

Ann Cleeves

 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

 

Publication date: 2nd September 2021

 

Series: Two Rivers #2

 

Genre: Crime / Mystery

 

Pages: 382

 

Format read: Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder--Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter's broken vases.

Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though, to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.

Then another body is found--killed in a similar way. Matthew soon finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home.

 

My review

 

I loved Ann Cleeves' Shetland and Vera series. She has proven time and time again that she can write compelling stories. I think that is why I was so disappointed in The Heron's Cry.

 

I haven't read The Long Call so I can't say how this compares to the first in this new series.

The Heron's Cry is narrated through multiple points of view. I found the content repetitive with the three main detectives questioning the same witnesses, at different times, and getting the same answers then meeting back at the station and going over it all again.

 

I found the characters one dimensional (maybe I missed something by not reading the first book). I'm fine with flawed characters however to be reminded that Venn had a strict childhood and traumatic exit from The Bretheren every few chapters was overkill. Jen continually apologised over get drunk at a party and angst over being a bad mother. Stop  apologising!!  You're a strong woman, be you!

 

The plot was boring and slow, even my 7 year old granddaughter was saying, 'give it up nan.' She was tired of my moaning.

I hadn't intended to be so scathing in my review but I wanted to convey everything.

 

What did I like? Jonathan, sweet gorgeous Jonathan, Matthew Venn's husband who was always thinking of Matthew and how he could make Matthew's life more pleasant. I also liked Detective Ross May and the little glimpse into his private life and his love for his wife.

Cleeves touches on the difficulty families face with a family member with mental health issues and the enormous burden it places on families when there is little to no support from hospitals.

 

I don't think I will continue with this series however I will be on the lookout for other books by Ann Cleeves. 

 

My rating 2 / 5  ⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Ann Cleeves is the author of over thirty critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez, who can now be found on television in ITV's Vera and BBC One's Shetland. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide.

Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann is also a passionate champion for libraries and was a National Libraries Day Ambassador in 2016. Ann lives in North Tyneside near where the Vera books are set.

https://anncleeves.com/
 

 
 

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from The Burgeoning Bookshelf - 2021

 

Book Giveaway: The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

Thanks to the generosity of The Reading Nook online bookstore I have a great #giveaway today for 1 of 2 paperback copies of:

 

The Last Thing He Told Me

by

Laura Dave

 

 

 Blurb:

 

We all have stories we never tell.
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her.

Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated.

 

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Giveaway:

Enter via the form below. (Open to Australian addresses only). Entries close at midnight on 28th December 2021. 

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winners Jodie K & Tracy M were announced HERE

 

Book Review: Chimera Island by Martin Roy Hill

 Chimera Island

by

Martin Roy Hill

 

Publisher: 32-32 North

Publication date: 1st November 2021

 

Series: USCG DSF-PAPA

 

Genre: SciFi Thriller

 

Pages: 303

 

Format read: Kindle copy

 

Source: Courtesy of the author

 

About the book

 

A transport plane sent to Chimera to evacuate frightened scientists from a climate research station on the island disappears, along with a Chinese spy ship prowling nearby waters. The U.S. Coast Guard sends its most secret team to investigate, Deployable Specialized Force-P—the P is said to stand for phenomenon.

DSF-Papa, led by Lieutenant Commander Douglas Munro Gates, discovers there is more to the legend of Chimera Island than rumors and folklore. The climate research station is wrecked. Strange creatures skulk through the jungle overgrowth. And reality may not be as it seems. Worse, someone - or something - is determined to stop the Coasties from discovering the truth about the island.

With evacuation impossible, DSF-Papa must discover the secret of Chimera Island or become part of its legend.

 

My review

 

My favourite investigative team is back again in this science fiction, mystery novel. The US Coast Guard Deployable Special Force is sent to investigate the disappearance of twelve people  from a climate change research station on Chimera Island.

The six strong team from the US Coast Guard are  a well developed crew, each has their own specific specialty and combine to make a well oiled team complementing and looking out for each other.

 

The team of six is joined by USN retired officer Dr David Handley who was assigned to the case due to his knowledge of Chimera. Once on the island Handley is immediately on the offensive and, as they investigate, the use of the facility comes into question and strange things begin to happen.

 

Chimera Island is a riveting read! A mystery with an all encompassing eerie atmosphere. As the mystery of the island intensifies a science fiction element is introduced with spectrums, lightforms, electromagnetic fields, strange phenomena and thought transference.

Snippets of humour are included as breaks between the intensity of the plot.

 

Hill melds fact and fiction to create a story that is not wholly unbelievable. Strange disappearances do happen all over the world. 

 

The suspense is real as the team find themselves in a life or death race to get off the island. And, of course, there is the explosive ending I have come to expect. Hill loves to blow things up!

 

Hill delivers time and time again! I would highly recommend all of Martin Roy Hill's novels.

 

My rating 5 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Martin Roy Hill is the author of the Linus Schag, NCIS, thrillers, the Peter Brandt thrillers, DUTY: Suspense and Mystery Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, Polar Melt: A Novel, and EDEN: A Sci-Fi Novella. His latest Linus Schag thriller, The Butcher's Bill, received the Best Mystery/Suspense Novel of 2017 from the Best Independent Book Awards, the Clue Award for Best Suspense Thriller, the Silver Medal for Thrillers from the Readers Favorite Book Awards, and the award for Adult Fiction from the California Author Project. His latest Peter Brandt mystery, The Fourth Rising, was named Best Mystery of 2020 by the Best Independent Books Awards, 2020 Best Crime Thriller by the American Fiction Awards, and the 2020 Clue Award for Best Suspense Thriller by the Chanticleer International Book Awards. 

 

https://www.martinroyhill.com/

 

    

Storybook Corner Book Review: Where's My Dinosaur? by Ashling Kwok

 

 

Where's My Dinosaur

by

Ashling Kwok

Illustrated by Jasmine Berry 

 

Publisher: Yellow Brick Books

 

Publication date: 30th September 2021

 

Genre: Children's Picture Book

 

Pages: 32

 

RRP: $26.95AUD

 

Format read: Hardcover

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

 

Back cover blurb

 

Daddy told me I'm getting a new playmate.

 

I'm so excited!

I hope it's a puppy. Or even a little chick.

Ooh, it might even be a bunny.

But most of all I hope it's a dinosaur - I love dinosaurs!

 

As mum's tummy gets bigger and bigger, a little girl dreams about what could possibly be growing inside....

 My review

 

Where's My Dinosaur? is a fun story about a misunderstanding. When daddy tells his daughter a new playmate is growing in mummy's tummy she starts to speculate about what that playmate would be. She would love a dinosaur but mummy's tummy is too small.

 

As mummy's tummy grows so does the idea of the new playmate; a chicken, a rabbit, a bear, an elephant. Until mummy's tummy is soooo big she is convinced it is a dinosaur. 

 

When the new baby arrives she is not happy but soon the baby grows and loves dinosaurs just as much as the little girl.

The story ends with mum expecting again and the once baby, now a toddler, is hoping for a dinosaur.

 

We all loved this funny, engaging and heartwarming story. Told through the eyes of a young girl as she awaits the new addition to the family.

The story features a culturally diverse family and the vivid full spread illustrations are imaginative and colourful. I loved how the story ends back at the beginning!

Where's My Dinosaur? would make the perfect gift, not only for young children awaiting the arrival of a sibling but also little dinosaur enthusiasts.

 

My rating 5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Ashling Kwok is a children's author from Sydney and loves immersing herself in worlds where anything is possible. Ashling has been dreaming of creating stories for children since she was 14. In the time since, she has become an accomplished journalist, magazine editor and freelance writer. Her previous books include Lola and Grandpa and The Battle. 

 

About the illustrator

 

Jasmine Berry is an illustrator and graphic designer from Perth, Western Australia. Jasmine has over 10 years of experience creating masters and artwork for a leading Australian Educational Publisher.

Where's My Dinosaur? is her debut picture book.