I made it! By the skin of my teeth, I’ve successfully finished the challenge 🎆🎉🎊🎇🎈. Stay tuned tomorrow for a list of all 50 books I’ve read, as well as a top 3.

This book is by the worship leader and songwriter Matt Redman. It points the reader towards worshipping God for His glory and awesome power. Whilst it is a very useful resource for worship leaders, any worshipper would find it a helpful insight into deepening their relationship with God through worship. 
The book looks at silence, awe and posture in worship. Redman advocates for literally falling facedown in front of God. For what else does God deserve? But how often do we actually do it? 

A challenging, inspiring read which I’m wanting to read again. 

This is a very short book so a nice one to get near the end of the challenge with!

You may have seen the film with the same name, but that really just takes the character from this story and expands on his daydreaming tendencies.

This is a lovely story that just takes place on a shopping trip one afternoon. Mitty has an active imagination so he imagines he’s a fearless airplane pilot, a brilliant doctor, and other dashing figures as he waits for his wife to get her hair done. 

This will appeal to any of my fellow daydreamers, I really enjoyed it and wish it was longer!

Erwin McManus may be a familiar name to you if you’ve read The Artisan Soul. This book is also written in a very creative, eloquent and passionate way, occasionally quite like a stream of consciousness. 

The main premise of the book is that the desires and “cravings” we have point towards the existence of God. It’s definitely very thought provoking and some of the things he writes can be quite controversial. It appears McManus is quite renown for being cynical about religion, even Christianity (and he’s a pastor!), and it is true that there can be some inconsistencies between belief and practice. It does get quite ranty at times and I didn’t agree with everything he said. However, his arguments for the existence of God are very convincing (not that I need convincing!) and, if anything, faith-affirming. 

So this is an interesting book to read if you’re wanting something that’s going to challenge your assumptions about the Christian faith as well as to affirm your personal faith. I’m quite tempted to read it again when I’m not near the end of a reading challenge…

Dear 2016,

You have been an… interesting year… Both on a personal and global level, you have been a year which has taught us many lessons.

You seem to have been set on reminding us of our mortality, as our heros and idols who we revered as gods turned out to be… human. You’ve been showing us who and what we truly value as these celebrities each received headlines, photo collages and tributes while each person who died in Aleppo became a number.

You’ve shown us how we can reach for greatness, inspire each other and cheer each other on in Rio, France and Wimbledon.

You’ve been showing us how we can be driven by fear; fear of others and fear of the unknown. We have been surprised at what we deem to be the stupidity and ignorance of others, failing to see the wooden planks in our own eyes.

You have shown us the havoc and chaos we humans can inflict on each other and on this planet we call home. Cities destroyed, children denied refuge, terror unleashed and and and.

You have tried again and again to divide us, to segregate us, to place us in a hierarchy. To think of humanity as “us” and “them”. 

But we’re learning something else. Something we’re going to teach you and the years to come. We’ve started to grasp it, we’re not quite there yet, it’s going to take a lot of effort and time. But we’re starting to understand that there is no “us” and “them”, there is only “us”. There is no “here” and “there”, there is only “here”, this planet. 

We’ve been using our voices to speak for the voiceless. We’ve been using our money to support those doing the hard graft, where our hands can’t reach. We have been inspired by what our fellow humans have been capable of. Technology has connected us to war torn cities and we have heard their cries and pleas for help. Our neighbours are no longer faceless, we know their names. We know we can no longer claim to be ignorant, to look the other way. As tempting as it is to change the channel, we cannot claim we didn’t see.

We are learning that we are each responsible for each other.

So I have hope that things will get better. I have hope that 2017 will be a brighter year. I have hope that each of us can learn to see each other as of infinite value. I have hope that we can love each other, even those we disagree with.

So, goodbye 2016. You won’t be missed by many. But thank you for the lessons you have taught us. Thank you for preparing us for the year to come. 

Here’s to 2017.

This book is number 4 in the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series. However, I think you’d be able to appreciate and enjoy this book without reading the others. I think I’ve only read a couple of them. 

There is a rival detective agency in town, Mma Makutsi opens up a typing school for men and Mma Ramotswe helps a wealthy man redeem his past. 
This is a lovely, light, quite whimsical story told in the warm, evocative tone the series is renowned for. The country of Botswana is just as much a character in the novel as the people, and you really feel transported there. 

A light, easy read with elements of humour and intrigue. 

I gobbled this book up in a few days and I really think that’s the best way to read it. It moves sometimes at breakneck speed (like a train, hawh hawh) and keeps you guessing until near the end.

To give a vague outline of the plot, it is told through the eyes of three women: Rachel, Anna and Megan. Rachel is an alcoholic who travels on the train to London every day looking into people’s houses and gardens from the track (got to admit, I do that too… minus the alcohol). She gets to know one house and its occupants really well, and one day sees something she can’t ignore. Then one of the women goes missing…. Duh duh duhhhhhhh. Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that, but I don’t want to give it away!

There was a lot of hype about this book and, whilst the writing isn’t amazing, the plot is full of twists and surprises and guessing. Arguably fancy adjectives and long words may have slowed the story down unnecessarily. It reads very well and gives enough for you to be gripped and to be able to picture the scenes.

It’s a thriller so obviously some bits are violent so if you don’t like books like that then this won’t be for you. However, I really enjoyed it and would read it again, even knowing the conclusion. Quite interested to see the movie version… though may regret it, like after seeing the film version of Gone Girl….

As I’ve not been feeling great recently, I have greatly neglected my book reviews! So sorry about that! So here are a couple of (very brief) reviews.

All the Light we Cannot See  by Anthony Doerr

I chose this book because I was recommended it by a friend ages and ages ago and when I saw it in the shop, I liked the cover so I bought it! The novel is based in the Second World War and is told through the eyes of two characters, a blind French girl and a German boy who becomes involved with the Hitler Youth (though this is never fully expressed). The novel is fantastically written with many sub plots keeping it interesting, despite its length (if I remember pushing 500 pages). I often find myself reading war fiction, despite not being particularly interested in history, but this novel is all about the characters and not about the fighting. The two protagonists are good, generous people trying to do good amongst the bleak, violent and dangerous situations they find themselves in. It is often very moving, but also occasionally has a lightness to it since, for most of the book, both of the protagonists are children. I hadn’t even heard of Doerr before but I’d be interested in reading more of his work. I would highly recommend this book to someone looking for a good read. It’s a long one, but a beautiful one.

The boy who taught the beekeeper to read by Susan Hill

When I picked up this book from the uni library, I didn’t realise it was actually a collection of short stories (or that it was written by the author who wrote The Woman in Black, which I was forever traumatised by after seeing it in the theatre in sixth form). However, thankfully none of the short stories were ghost stories! I chose it because I liked the cover and title… shallow I know. I find short stories really intriguing as they need to capture your imagination and make you believe in the characters and plot in a few pages. I actually kind of wish the whole book was about the first short story, as that was the one I found most captivating. However, each story has its own grit, joys and sorrows. I really enjoyed diving into multiple situations and spending time with different characters for a short time. The writing is fantastic and each story is different enough to be interesting. I’d recommend it if you like short stories, because I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. A good holiday read, perhaps.

I read this book over the weekend as Sam and I went away for a much needed rest. I feel that how I’ve responded to this book is intrinsically linked with how I feel at the moment so I’m just briefly going to talk about that.

Basically, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been struggling with anxiety and low mood. I basically feel like a tiny baby elephant is sat on my chest, restricting my breathing. It’s not fun. It’s been made apparent to me that no one is immune from suffering with poor mental health and, as much as you look after yourself, it is unpredictable. Whilst a number of things may have built up to make me feel this way, it was reading a distressing email attachment at work that seems to have triggered these emotions. Without wanting to psychoanalyse myself, it pushed a lot of buttons and my brain went “nope”, to put it bluntly. Since, I have been decidedly un-Emma-ish. So there you go, that’s where I’m at right now.

This book, Simplify by Bill Hybels, was a helpful companion over the weekend as I sought to rest and sort myself out a bit. It leads you through ten steps to simplify your life by “uncluttering your soul”. It may sound a bit wishy-washy, but it is intensely practical with action steps at the end of each chapter. Hybels encourages you to write your thoughts in a journal and decide on how you are going to put the teaching of each chapter into practice. His tone is firm but compassionate, wise and kind. The book is filled with stories from his life and stories he has been told as pastor of Willow Creek, a massive multi-congregational church in America. He demonstrates with examples how to simplify your life, and how it has helped him. Perhaps surprisingly, the main thrust of the book isn’t about doing less, it is about investing more in things that actually matter. So putting exercise, family time and fun into the calendar and treating them with as much significance and importance as work commitments. Recognising which relationships in your life are healthy and happy, and which are doing more harm than good. Forgiving people and letting go of the weight of resentment. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t an easy book with a “to do” list you can tick through. If you’re going to use it properly, it is hard graft. 

Ultimately, this book kept pointing me back to Jesus, his ever present place in my life and the hope he offers. In a time where I’m struggling to be in the church that I love (it’s full of lovely people, but so many of them!), this reminded me that it’s all about Jesus and your relationship with him. So I know I’ll get through this tricky season because he is my strength. One of the chapters of the book is about choosing a “life verse”, which is actually quite hard. I decided upon Isaiah 41:10, at least for this time in my life, so I’ll end with that:

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.