The Introvert Charismatic, the gift of introversion in a noisy church by Mark Tanner

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This book was featured in the Sarum College Bookshop Facebook page – so such is the power of social media...

The C of E loves Myers-Briggs, and therefore here we are using “Introvert” in its technical Myers-Briggs definition. In these terms I am an Introvert and it was that hook in the title that drew me in.

The message of the book is that people are different, and that God given difference enriches the life of the Church.

This is a simple message, one you might perhaps assume was self-evident, one you would assume you didn't need to write books about.

Unfortunately I think books like this are needed.

That said Tanner not only makes his point, he does rather labour it... I think this could have been a Grove booklet rather than a 200 page book with no real lose of impact or even content, I did catch myself adopting the 1 in 4 approach to reading the book (1 in 4 pages, 1 in 4 words...).

I think I got the message even before I start to read, so maybe their will be others for whom the experience of reading the book will be a “journey” and therefore the long form approach to the message will give them the space to think and get “on board”.

Daniel's Beetles by Tony Bianchi

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This is a novel in two parts, the first successful, the second totally lost me...

Bianchi's writing gives a strong sense of person and of place – and I think that is maintained throughout the book. The problem is that I failed to follow the narrative in the second half.

The first half is typical small town, social realism, kitchen sink stuff – perhaps it is not pushing any literary envelopes but it is well written and engaging. I believed in Daniel, identified with him even.

The second half is … well the trouble is I am not really sure what it is.

There is a well worn literary trick to build an essentially ordinary character, which draws the reader in, and then throw them, the character, into some extra-ordinary situation, and so through the prior relationship of the reader to the character take the reader on that extra-ordinary journey too.

This is clearly what Bianchi attempts – but somewhere along the way I got lost and didn't get to the destination...

Stations of the Cross Words by Timothy Radcliffe Images by Martin Erspamer

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I find the Stations of the Cross a very powerful structure to reflect upon/within, and I think the different responses and different interpretations which you get often show the creative potential of the artist working within a set format.

As a set of reflections on the Stations Timothy Radcliffe's words are rich, there is a humanity, an earthiness, which might be unexpected from this learned monk (that is unless, of course, you happen to know Dominicans). There is a lightness of touch, in which the big ideas are shared in ways that are not scary.

But these reflections stand apart from the images. This means that you could use them, personally or as a group, as part of meditations on any set of Stations that you might have access to. This adds versatility to the collection, but it also leaves a gap, it would have been good for the reflections to response to the particular set of Stations that have been included in the book.

However perhaps the reason that Timothy Radcliffe has not drawn more closely on the images is that they are rather odd. For example in the Seventh Station it looks more like Jesus is doing a cartwheel than falling for the second time, in the Tenth Station, where Jesus is stripped, all that came to my mind was Mr Benn and the Shop Keeper. There is no pain or agony - the overall effect is rather comic.