Articles - Book Reviews
 

Book Reviews for 1 April

We will all have some particular reason to have been grateful for Jeremy's time with us as curate. For me his book reviews were a welcome addition to the magazine. In order to carry this contribution forward I would like to share with you some of the titles that you may have missed last year. Who knows, you may yet be able to make use of the book token that has been gathering dust since Christmas!

Posh and Beck's Bedside Book of Philosophy has to be top of the list. Like any original contribution to the advancement of human wisdom, this left me with more questions than answers. Is the tackle from behind really a manifestation of the existentialist view that football players are a product of their own actions and decisions rather than being governed by heredity, the external forces of destiny and assistant referees? Does the lack of success for the Spice Girls since the departure of Ginger Spice reflect the Marxist dialectic that thesis and antithesis contain more in synthesis than when considered separately? Alas we will never know.

As PCC treasurer I was eagerly looking forward to reading the latest publication from the Chancellor of the Exchequer entitled Effective Giving. Naturally I thought it would be about the tax benefits of giving to charities, gift aid and so on. What a disappointment! Chapter headings like The Price of a Peerage, Going for a Gong, Acquiring Public Assets on the Cheap, How to Buy Friends and Influence Policy and Blind Trusts in The Cayman Islands will tell you it was nothing of the sort. I'm afraid I can't recommend this book at all.

Finally, readers of Which? Magazine can't fail to have notices their latest offering The Which Guide to Communion Bread and Wine. The highlights are so many I don't know where to start. The catalogue of off-licenses where cheap sherry can be bought for watering down will be extremely useful, as will the comprehensive list of suppliers of gluten free wafers. There are two versions: with and without the chapters on transubstantiation.

Have I forgotten your favourite? Let me know by 1^st April.

David Everett

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