Book Review : English Lessons by Andrea Lucado @christianaudio

Tags

audiobook, book review, christianaudio, memoir

 

The Book

The Questions Would Teach Her More Than the Answers

It wasn’t long after arriving in Oxford for graduate school that twenty-two-year-old Andrea Lucado – preacher’s daughter from Texas – faced not only culture shock, a severe lack of coffee, but also some unexpected hard questions: Who am I? Who is God? Why do I believe what I believe?
 
“So many nights in Oxford, I felt like the details of my faiths were getting fuzzier. Nights turned restless with the questions and the thoughts. I questioned God’s existence and the doubt, it was getting into my bones….”
 
In this engaging memoir, Andrea speaks to all of us who wrestle with faith, doubt, and spiritual identity. Join Andrea as she navigates the Thames River, the Oxford Atheist Society, romance in ancient pubs—and a new perspective on who God is. As Andrea learned, sometimes it takes letting go of old ideas to discover lasting truth.
The church wasn’t just a part of Andrea Lucado’s childhood. It was her childhood. It provided more than happy moments. It provided an invitation to know Jesus.

When Andrea arrived in England the year after she graduated from college, she expected to meet God there. What she didn’t expect was that God would be much bigger than she knew.
 
In English Lessons, Andrea takes us through the roads of England and the paths of the soul. Here she explores the journey of a changing faith and an unchanging God—and why growing up starts with realizing just how small we are.

My Thoughts

I’m a sucker for anything to do with Oxford, having had a family member live there for many years, so when I saw this audiobook available for review I jumped at the chance. It’s a lovely short memoir beautiful written in a poetic style making it a delightful listen. As I Brit listening to an American struggle with a new country, language and culture I cringed at times but also laughed as she got to grips with it all.

Sometimes when an author reads their own book it doesn’t always work for me, as they can seem unsure and rather mechanical. Fortunately Andrea Lucado read this perfectly, full of emotion as if she was reliving each moment as she was reading. I particularly enjoyed her recollections of giving up caffeine for Lent, going along to the Oxford Atheist Society, and getting used to living without a microwave.

I definitely recommend this for anyone going off to college or moving to a different country. I think it would work really well in a youth group setting and make the perfect  gift for a new student.

Thanks so much to christianaudio.com’s reviewers program for my free copy.

Standalone Sunday

Tags

family life, meme, memoir, Standalone Sunday

Standalone Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by  Megan@bookslayerreads. Standalone Sunday was created to let others know about all the standalone books you have loved, but maybe don’t get the attention they need. Megan created the banner as well and anyone joining in can use it too. Why not check out her blog too

As it’s Mother’s Day in some parts of the world today my choice this week is Life With the Lid Off by Nicola Hodgkinson, a feel good memoir written by a single mother.

Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:

“Like many women after a divorce, Nicola Hodgkinson found herself facing a stark reality. With three young children to raise, a ramshackle cottage by the sea she had a choice: to wallow in self pity or pull herself together and get on with it. She chose the latter. And with her choice came the decision to embrace a more casual approach to parenting, convinced as she was that fresh air, a positive outlook and the freedom to learn from mistakes would be good for the whole family. And so life with the lid off, began.

This is a book about all the magic, and the chaos, of family existence. Steering her way through village life, Nicola discovers the hazards that solo domesticity can bring, from a disgraced cat sailing through the window into a jam-and-scone cottage tea sale, to a car which acquires a resident mouse. Constantly surrounded by a haphazard menagerie, along the way we meet a spirit donkey, a pig with empty-nest syndrome and a lot of quails.

As Nicola learns to muddle through, and even delight in, a less than perfect existence, Life with the Lid Off is a brilliant, profound, and funny evocation of a universal theme: how to find yourself again amongst the hurly burly sandwich of family life.

 

 

 

 

Blogging from A-Z Challenge – T

Tags

Blogging from A-Z Challenge 2017, challenges, Greg Mortenson, memoir, pakistan

I’m taking part in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge April 2017 with the theme of books. I’ll be blogging about the books on my Goodreads shelf that I’ve read or want to read.

Today’s letter is T and the book I’ve chosen is Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin. I really enjoyed this memoir and really do recommend it if you enjoy uplifting stories about people who want to change the world.

Here’s the Goodreads blurb:

“The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard.

Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth.

As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.”

What do you think of my choice for the letter T?

What would you have chosen?

Blogging from A-Z Challenge – J

Tags

Blogging from A-Z Challenge 2017, challenges, memoir, Shelia Hancock, travel

I’m taking part in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge April 2017 with the theme of books. I’ll be blogging about the books on my Goodreads shelf that I’ve read or want to read.

 

Today’s letter is J and the book I’ve chosen is Just Me by Shelia Hancock. It’s her very honest and refreshing account of life as a widow in the 21st Century.

“‘Well now, prove it, Sheila. As John would say, “Put your money where your mouth is.” Be a depressed widow boring the arse off everyone, or get on with life. Your choice.’

In “The Two of Us “Sheila Hancock relived her life with John Thaw – years packed with love and family, work and houses, delight and despair. And then she looked ahead. What next? Gardening, grannying and grumbling, while they all had their pleasures, weren’t going to fill the aching void that John had left. ‘Live adventurously’, a piece of Quaker advice, was hovering in her mind. So, putting her and John’s much-loved house in France on the market – too many memories – she embarked, instead, on a series of journeys. She tried holidaying alone, contending with invisibility and budget flights. She tried travelling in a group, but the questions she wanted to ask were never the ones the guide wanted to answer. She tried relaxing – harder than you might think. Finally, heading out of her comfort zone, she found her travels and new discoveries led her back to her past: to consider her generation – the last to experience the Second World War – and the kind of person it made her.”Just Me” is a book about moving on, but it is also about looking back, and looking anew. Sheila, whether facing down burglars and easyJet staff (cross her at your peril) or making friends with waiters and taxi drivers, whether unearthing secrets in Budapest, getting arrested in Thailand, exulting in the art of Venice or mingling with the Mafia in Milan, is never less than stimulating company. Honest – because if you can’t say what you think at seventy-five, when can you? – insightful and wonderfully down-to-earth, she is a woman seizing the future with wit, gusto and curiosity – on her own.”

 

What do you think of my choice for the letter J?

What would you have chosen?

Blogging from A-Z Challenge – A

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audiobook, Blogging from A-Z Challenge 2017, brennan manning, challenges, favourites, memoir

I’m taking part in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge April 2017 with the theme of books. I’ll be blogging about the books on my Goodreads shelf that I’ve read or want to read.

 

Today’s letter is A and the book I’ve chosen is All is Grace by Brennan Manning, a memoir. I really enjoyed listening to this on audiobook and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys memoirs/biographies. As Brennan himself says he is a survivor and is very honest about his life. It is upsetting at times but very inspirational throughout.

Here’s the Goodreads blurb:

“It has been over twenty years since the publication of The Ragamuffin Gospel, a book many claim as the shattering of God’s grace into their lives. Since that time, Brennan Manning has been dazzlingly faithful in preaching and writing variations on that singular theme, Yes, Abba is very fond of you!

But today the crowds are gone and the lights are dim, the patches on his knees have faded. If he ever was a ragamuffin, truly it is now. In this his final book, Brennan roves back his past, honouring the lives of the people closest to him, family and friends who’ve known the saint and the sinner, the boy and the man. Far from some chronological time-line, these memories are witness to the truth of life by one who has lived it.”

 

What do you think of my choice for the letter A?

What would you have chosen?

You Will Not Have My Hate

Tags

grief, inspirational, memoir, netgalley, non-fiction, Paris

Nobody will forget the terrorist shootings in Paris a year ago and none more so than Antoine Leiris.

This is his beautiful and moving account of the moments and days following the murder of his wife, his ‘moon’ as he lovingly calls her.

There is no rant or rage in this book, but a slow moving grief as he comes to terms with what has happened and how he must carry on for the sake of his young son.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

The Unbreakable Boy

Tags

audiobook, autism, christianaudio, favourites, memoir

I really did enjoy this heart-warming memoir by Scott Michael LeRette.

I don’t have any personal experience of autism, so it was a real eye opener listening to his journey and his family’s. It thought it might be a struggle to listen to, but actually it is very funny in places and it filled me with admiration for anyone who has a special needs person in their lives.

Lloyd James narrates this book perfectly and drew me into the adventures and stories the author took me on. There were a lot of life lessons in this audio but not cringey or embarrassing, but profound and definitely worth another listen sometime.

I definitely recommend this audio to anyone who wants to listen to a really uplifting book, it’ll make you appreciate the simple things in life as extraordinary, especially when you see them through Austin’s eyes!

Thanks to christianaudio.com Reviewer’s Program for this copy.