Less challenging book reviews!

If you want some Serious Reviews, check out the blog of Bob, my better half - but I have just finished The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs, and then I re-read Harnessing Peacocks by Mary Wesley.

One is American, the other (very) English - but in both the protagonist is a single mother with a teenage child. The plots both involve relationships between women who are friends, and also involve older 'wiser' women, and the fathers of the teenagers. I enjoyed the Knit Club book - although it is heavy in parts and rather sad at the end, whilst Mary Wesley's book was light and amusing (But the characters live according to a totally different moral code from my own, and use very ripe language at times - sensitive readers be warned!)

The really sad thing about both books is that they describe the messes which people make of relationships by not dealing with rifts and problems when they occur, but rather let things build up to complete breaking point. People DO make mistakes in life, which have a knock-on effect and hurt others, but to cut off ties with family members, or friends, and leave the hurts festering for years, and sometimes turning into bitterness is such a bad thing. Often the initial issue was one of misunderstandings not cleared up at the time. What the speaker says and what the listener hears are not always the same! I was glad that both books showed some measure of reconciliation for many of the characters though - I believe passionately in forgiveness, redemption and hope.

Speaking of misunderstandings, are there any other Archers Addicts out there who are getting irritated with some of the current story lines? I know Alan (the Vicar) wants to marry Usha (the Hindu) but I do think that the scriptwriters should have done a little more research before they penned the lines for Mabel (the mother of Alan's late wife) If M is meant to be an Evangelical Christian then she probably wouldn't say she was praying for Usha "to convert". It is surely more likely she would say praying for her "to become a Christian" or "to come to Jesus". It takes away Mabel's credibility to have her speaking 'the language of Zion' but using the wrong regional dialect!

I did glance at the Archers Webpage Messageboards - but after wading through heaps of posts about "What do clergymen know about real life? they only work on Sundays" I gave up in disgust!

I ventured out to the Coffee Drop-In at church this morning. Everyone was extremely kind and told me not to do too much. I am trying hard to listen to this advice. Thank you Scott for being willing to take my Sunday School class for me this week!