2022 Reading List

When I started reading my third book of the year, I decided it might be interesting to keep a record of what I had read: and whether or not it would eventually make it to publication, the drafts folder of my blog seemed like as good a place to keep it as any. And hey now it is written, it might as well be published. So this is what I have read this year ...

Two Lives - Vikram Seth

Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

A Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende

A Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel

The Pier Falls - Mark Haddon

Little Brother - Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus Antia

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler - Gene Kemp

Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis de Bernieres

In the Full Light of the Sun - Clare Clark

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

The Silent Boy - Andrew Taylor

Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change and Courage - Tori Amos

The Wreck - Meg Kenneally

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul - Deborah Rodriguez

Those Who are Loved - Victoria Hislop

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See

The Wall - John Lanchester

The Humans - Matt Haig

Resistance - Anita Shreve

My Name is Why? - Lemn Sissay

The History of Bees - Maja Lunde

Circle Song - Nawal El Saadawi (from God dies by the Nile and other Stories)

The Discomfort of Evening - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

The Echo Chamber - John Boyne

The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

Klara and the Sun -  Kazuo Ishiguro

When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman

The Second City Trilogy - Steven Camden

Redemption Song and Other Stories - The Caine Prize for African Writing 2018

Spanish Steps - Tim Moore

Summer - Ali Smith

The Memory of Love - Aminatta Forna

Hope in the Dark - Rebecca Solnit

The Girl in the Picture - Denise Chong

Home - Salman Rushdie

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

The Kindness of Strangers - Edited by Don George

No Friend but the Mountains - Behrouz Boochani

I have also read far too many social media posts! I sometimes wonder just how many more good books I could read if I didn't waste quite so much time on twitter ... but there you have it, my reading list for the year

And the Word was God

This week, it was my turn to lead our bible reflection. We usually reflect on the following Sunday's gospel, but, it being Christmas, I probably had a choice of readings, and it may seem strange that I opted for the prologue of John: but I love this reading. 

I love it for its mystery and complexity. I also love it because, as a lover of language and someone passionate about words, God being identified as the word deeply appeals to me. It is a text so rich and deep and complex that of course we cannot unpack it fully in a short space of time so I am just going to focus on that single word, the word.

The original Greek word in the text is logos, and I have commonly heard it said that “the word” is an over simplified translation of a word that holds much deeper meanings within it. In some ways, I would take issue with that, because I think “word” also holds complexities within it: but the point that a word from one language cannot be adequately translated into another still stands.

I remember when I first read this text in French where logos is commonly translated as “le verbe”: a small change that instantly implies something slightly different, something more active. Hearing that made me reflect on my understanding of the text. I think it would be fascinating to know how other languages translate it, and to think about how each translation might shape how we hear this reading.

The word that is God also cannot be adequately translated into our language or culture: our understanding of God is, I would argue, all the richer when we understand that all the words we use can only ever be an approximation: at its best, describing God as the word could perhaps help remind us of this: In the beginning was the untranslatable word.

Logos could, I am told also be translated as “meaning”: and again, if we put this in place in the text I think it adds another layer to how we hear and understand this text: If each Christmas we heard the familiar words: “In the beginning there was meaning” and “the meaning was made flesh”, or “the meaning was made tangible or real” would it change how we understand what John is trying to say?

Apparently the etymology of logos goes back to ‘to pick up, to collect, to gather together’. The gathering of our thoughts of our sense of meaning. Words.

Linguists have long argued about whether language describes reality or whether it creates reality and I suspect while there are probably people on both extremes, consensus is that it does something of both. The words we hear and the language we use shape our understanding of the world around us as well as being the means by which we describe our reality and experiences. There are lots of examples of the ways people speak or the different words they have access to leading to them understanding things differently. There are also plenty of examples of how language is used both unintentionally and deliberately to shape people’s thinking and their action and behaviours.

If God is the word, God is present in how we do both of these things. God as word, God as language helps us to describe and make sense of our experiences and our reality; but God as word, God as language also shapes and co-creates our reality, but perhaps in ways that are subtle and unnoticed, much the way we don’t always notice how the words we use are shaping our sense of our selves and our world.

And then sometimes, we also need to challenge the way words are used: or allow and accept them being challenged by others; and through those challenges to our language, subtle shifts occur in how we understand the world. The same is undoubtedly true of the word that is God: there are times when we also need to challenge, or allow ourselves to be challenged about the way God is used too, and allow our understanding to shift.

So perhaps, just as having access to more words allows us to better describe and make sense of and create our reality; perhaps growing and deepening our connection to God, gives us the same gift.

Next Steps

I am on the move again... because just before Christmas is an eminently sensible time to do that, right?

This time I am moving into the house which, several years ago, was bought to be entrusted to Hope Projects to house destitute asylum seekers. We always knew the gift of this space to others might, at some point, have to come to an end, and as circumstances have changed, this is the right next move. 

I would be lying if I didn't admit to having had to process some sadness that we can't continue to support Hope Projects in this way. I continue to really believe in their model of supporting people but also challenging the injustice that leave people in need of that support. I know some of those who have benefitted from living in their houses, including ours, and I know the tangible difference they make to people's lives.

But I hope and trust that the last six years of support has made a difference to the individuals, and to the organisation. I hope that perhaps something of those early news stories offered some inspiration to others, not necessarily to do the same, but to believe in the possibility of making choices that make a difference. And I hope and trust that I am continuing to make choices which, in other ways, still benefit those who are victims of the hostile environment.

I am aware that there is going to quite some adjustment to this latest move. This house has been, in some ways part of my story for a number of years and yet it has always been, intentionally, kept at arms length. Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't set foot in this house for six years. It was our house, but other people's "home". 

So now, once all the packing and moving and unpacking has been done, the next task is, in this house, to create "my home". I am sure it won't take long. I am looking forward to discovering the community that will be created, the stories that will be celebrated and the memories that will be made here, in this space.