Three Books

These three books have nothing in common beyond the fact that I have read them recently.

1. The band played on by Steve Turner has sat on my shelf for some time. It is a beautiful hardback full of pictures that came out a few years ago on an anniversary of the Titanic disaster. (It must have been as far back as 2011, the centenary). Anyway it focuses on the band and is full of human interest. It is published by Thomas Nelson and is written by a Christian but does not stress that. Great read. I like Steve Turner's stuff.

2. A pocket guide to Climate Change. This little guide from Answers in Genesis written by various authors does not toe the accepted line, as you might expect but takes a creationist and moderate approach, accepting that the climate is changing but urging no panic. It's a complex subject but the writers are all scientists and it was good to get some scientific light on the subject. It is interesting to know that 31,487 American scientists,including 9,029 with PhDs, have signed a petition opposing the Kyoto agreement. It would seem that people don't decide on this issue simply by looking at the science.

3. The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy. This hardback is a work of art with writing rather than a book in the usual sense. It came into our house as a present from one son to another recently. There was great disappointment on the part of my dyslexic son that he had been given a book but once he sat down he had it read in no time. (It only took me 15 or 20 minutes I would guess - it is there to be savoured). One has mixed feelings about it. On its own terms it is lovely and kind but maybe God (the creator of all boys, moles, foxes and horses) is conspicuous by his absence and there is a certain starkness, even loneliness that stalks the book, despite its positivity. A little research reveals, however, that Charles Mackesy is an atheist turned evangelical so perhaps this is just overhang from his past rather than anything else or perhaps I am just far too harsh on people, always expecting too much.