Christian book reviews, Rob Seabrook, Recent Reads

Redeeming Dust – Jacq Marlow

Redeeming Dust is a retelling of the story of Christ’s ministry, told very much with a political slant, mixed up with the religious fanaticism…

Ezekiel’s Song – Naomi Craig

Ezekiel’s Song tells the story of the prophet Ezekiel, and his wife, as they walk a perilous path of faith, following God when those…

Write It On Their Hearts – Chris Swain

‘Being a parent is such an important job’ … sorry if it seems a bit pretentious to quote my own writing, but I wrote…

Courageous Inspirations – Doyvon Montgomery

Courageous Inspirations is a collection of teachings collated from Doyvon’s blog, that offer some short insights and solid teaching on how to lead a…

The Pilgrim – Joy Margetts

Having read The Healing a few months ago, to which this book is the prequel, The Pilgrim offers an opportunity to learn the full…

Nehemiah For You – Eric Mason

This is an excellent study of the book of Nehemiah. It begins with some helpful background as to how the book of Nehemiah fits…

The Gift of Sun Lee – Diane Bostick

This is a delightful story for children, about a little girl in post war China, a time when Christianity was still quite new into…

Becoming Queen Bathsheba – Amanda Bedzrah

This novel takes a key story from the Bible, so often discussed and presented from King David’s point of view, but told here from…

Don’t Fuss, Love God, Don’t Fuss – compiled by Ruth A Bamforth

Ruth has created such a lovely tribute to her father, The Revd Stuart Bamforth, compiling, editing and publishing this collection of teachings from his…

Revelation Explained – K.J. Soze

Despite the introduction recommending that the reader prepares by reading the first book, The Message For The Last Days, I decided to launch in…

The Great Gardener – Jo Claire

As someone who loves to relax by pottering in my garden, this book attracted me from the start. The author uses a lovely picture…

Fanny Crosby – Laura Caputo-Wickham

Fanny Crosby: The Girl Who Couldn’t See But Helped The World To Sing is a lovely children’s book, looking at the life of Fanny…

The Air We Breathe – Glen Scrivener

The Air We Breathe offers a point of view that I had not really encountered or considered before, but probably should have been aware…

Standing In The Storm – Matt McChlery

Matt has quite some story to tell, and he lays it out in this new book that is clearly written and easy to read…

Northern Soul : Football, Punk, Jesus – David O’Brien

It was the book title that grabbed me for this one. You just know it is going to be an unusual and fascinating story,…

Talking to Calippa Cumberland – Chick Yuill

An unusual story with an unusual title, following the main character’s life from a key moment in her childhood, which then provides an anchor…

The Camera Never Lies – David Rawlings

Truth can often be a rarity… real truth and honesty, especially in a family that is heading rapidly towards a cliff edge of being…

Encounters – Rachel Treweek

Encounters, by Rachel Treweek, the Bishop of Gloucester, captures thoughts on the centrality of relationship and community to the Christian faith, clearly a topic…

Refreshed – John Hindley

Refreshed is a book of devotions specifically to take away to read when you are on holiday. Most people take some holiday reading with…

Initiate : A Journey Begun – Neil Axtell

It has been a privilege to see a preview manuscript of this collection of poems, whilst it is going through the latter stages of…

Jesus : A Novel – Walter Wangerin

“Jesus” is a novel by the much acclaimed Christian writer, Walter Wangerin, who passed away last year, leaving behind a legacy of Christian writing…

The Awesome Super Fantastic Forever Party – Joni Eareckson Tada

What an amazing book! It is filled with beautiful, emotive language, often verging on the poetic, written to explain to children what the Bible…

His Grace Is Enough – Melissa Kruger

I do love a rhyming book like this, exposing children to the joys of language, as well as providing readers with some memorable verses….

What Happened After Mr Jones Died – Paul Wreyford

Recently, I have read a lot of books about heaven, having researched and written about it in Beneath The Tamarisk Tree. But this is…

Hearing God in Poetry – Richard Harries

It should be no surprise that poetry is an ideal artform through which to worship God. Large parts of the Bible are written in…

The Dark Star – H R Hess

Fantasy novels may not be my usual reading, but I really enjoyed escaping into this new world, engaging with the young heroine and hero….

The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom

What a great story. When arriving in heaven, the main character, Eddie, gets to meet five key people whose lives he touched on his…

Ramah – Rob Munday

Biblical fiction, as a genre, creates stories around what we do know of the Bible, filling in gaps, not as an alternative to scripture…

The Trials of Isabella M Smugge – Ruth Leigh

It was so nice to be back in Isabella’s company for another season of relaxation and enjoyment. This is the second book offering us…

Abused . Addicted . Free – Trudy Makepeace

Abused . Addicted . Free by Trudy Makepeace, is such a powerful autobiography. It is far from appropriate to write a “book review” as…

Believing is Seeing – Michael Guillen

I read Believing is Seeing by Michael Guillen, as background research for another project that I am working on, and I am so glad…

The Diary of Isabella M Smugge – Ruth Leigh

I have seen great things about the recently launched second book in this series (The Trials of Isabella M Smugge), and am very keen…

The Christing – Paul White

The Christing, by Paul White, was a great find. Paul comes across as being informed and authoritative, wise in fact, but never academic or…

The Gardener’s Daughter – K A Hitchins

The Gardener’s Daughter, by K A Hitchins, is a story of a young girl, on a roller-coaster of a journey searching for her true…

Amazing – Simon Ponsonby

I have never been a big fan of poetry. I studied it a long time ago at school but was never very inspired by…

The Robe – Lloyd C Douglas

I felt like it was time to revisit a classic, by having another read of The Robe by Lloyd C Douglas. It stands the…

The Stranger in the Lifeboat – Mitch Albom

This one took me by surprise. The story dives straight in, leaving reader intrigued and focused on the events unfolding. It is well written,…

The Edge of Belonging – Amanda Cox

This is a debut novel from Amada Cox and credit to her for stepping out and applying her superb storytelling abilities to this story….

The Road to the Father’s House – Alistair Forman

We read different books in different ways. A novel we may want to binge read, becoming immersed in the story, obsessed with the characters…

Secrets She Kept – Cathy Gohlke

I do love it when reading one book leads so naturally on to another, when it opens up your eyes to a story, a…

The Red Tent – Anita Diamant

Reading part one of this book, my instinct was that I shouldn’t be. I felt uncomfortable. I had the feeling of being an intruder…

Phoebe : A Story – Paula Gooder

This book ended very suddenly for me. I got to the end, thinking I still had about a third of the book to go,…

Safely Home – Randy Alcorn

I was at a breakfast meeting recently and the chap I was talking to was just in the throes of changing jobs. His deep…

The Healing – Joy Margetts

The Healing is a lovely story, a medieval road trip, which like all road trip stories is a journey of discovery, or in this…

Lead – Karl Martin

This article was first featured by the publisher, Muddy Pearl, on their web site, back in December 2020, a time when the world of…