Until semi-retired some five years ago, I seldom read just for my own pleasure and relaxation. Since then, I seem to go through two or three books a month, which is a lot for me. I'm far from an avid reader or an informed critic, but I appreciate it when someone recommends a book to me to try, so that's what I'm doing here.

Newest items:

The late Carl Sagan not only simplifies science so that even I can almost understand it, but he says it with humour. I've been enjoying his Billions and Billions as a light read, even if some of the topics are a bit heavy. A bobbing rubber ducky helps us understand light (and other) waves. Exponentials are illustrated by doubling the grains of wheat for each square on a chess board (1,2,4,8,16, etc.) with a note that if there were 100 squares rather than 64, the weight of the wheat would equal the weight of the Earth. (Count them, but your simple calculator may not have room for all those numbers.) He's a good teacher, simplifying complicated subjects like global warming and the question of abortion.

Our friend Wendy Read has just published A Conspiracy of Love. Wendy suffered sexual abuse as a child, and the book contains Scripture-based reflections on her facing and dealing with what happened. In some ways it's a very disturbing book, with hints at details of her suffering and the reminder that this may be happening somewhere down the street where we live. At the same time it's an uplifting book, testifying how the human spirit, accompanied by a Holy Spirit, may find refuge during suffering, and the courage to face head-on the many later effects, in spite of a childhood of betrayal, torture, fear, and loneliness. Although written especially for others who were sexually abused, I found it had a message for me, whose childhood was relatively loving and secure. If Wendy could find the Presence of the Holy One coming to comfort and guide her again and again, so can I welcome a different Truth than the hurts and doubts which sometimes attack me, and I too can take courage to live toward my best in spite of so much that might hold me back. This book is not pie-in-the-sky, but real-life Amazing Grace experienced in spite of undeniable memories of terrible suffering.

On controversial subjects, I like to find someone whose opinions I can trust, like Jimmy Carter. In his new book Our Endangered Values, Carter says American policy has changed terribly, with the new Bush regime using lies to create war; making the poor poorer; ignoring international treaties; increasing terrorism; denying environmental problems; risking a renewed nuclear arms race; risking a return to back-room abortions; and especially letting narrow fundamentalist religion direct American legislation. His book is scary. And yet there is also hope, for if Americans can be persuaded to follow Bush's agenda, they may also be persuaded to return to the better values of earlier American regimes, and individuals can still do much good by supporting groups that work for something better, like this president's own Carter Center (see "Surfing"). The book also alerts us Canadians to what we don't what to see happening here, to "stand on guard for thee!"

It's not exactly relaxing, but there's hope in it, and that's uplifting. A friend lent me some copies of Sojourners Magazine. I think I'll have to subscribe - there's so much in each one. Take just he January '06 edition. We're told of an American war hawk against the Iraq war, of small signs of hope in Israeli-Palestine relations such as a joint Israeli-Palestinian radio station telling the other sides the suffering of their supposed enemies, of how torture fails to yield helpful information. An article on families urges parents to try to keep one parent at home and how European laws make this easier. There's a story about how criticisms of Wal-Mart are forcing some improvements, of many American Evangelicals wanting to protect endangered species (though end-of-the-worlders couldn't care less), of small loans to the poor making a wonderful difference. There's a correction of media mis-information about supposed black violence during New Orleans flooding, and a description of how a few youth bring practical help to a poor neighbourhood. Many of the stories are about the U.S., but I think we Canadians need to know what's really happening with our influential neighbour. These stories made me hope that positive change is possible, whether by exposing what's wrong, or by learning from what's being done right. (I already receive the weekly Sojomail, but the magazine has a lot more in it. See www.sojo.net to find out more.)

Some older ones:

Diarmuid O'Murchu is an Irish priest and social worker who also speaks around the world. I had previously read his Quantum Theology which argues that the "illogical" ways quantum physics has discovered suggest people's traditional thoughts about God need re-examination: openness to surprise, incomprehensible mystery, sensing connections to a larger whole, these expectations, and not a reliance on philosophical ideas, are ways to glimpse God. His newest book, Evolutionary Faith, shows his underlying theological perspective. The whole story of Earth is where God is to be seen. The evolutionary story suggests we humans had better co-operate with Mother Earth, or else. But God's encouragement of biological and spiritual development would still carry on, and the end is endless. His idealization of pre-religious human spirituality is questionable but I appreciated the cosmology and biology, something my unscientifically-eduated mind is curious about. This book opened my mind some more to think in terms of the Earth and our human role as a neglected but vital dimension to religious thinking.

I enjoy, often re-read, any of the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. I like historical fiction if it's well written with research behind it and characters well developed, and I enjoyed Brother Cadfael when he was on TV. So these books were a natural when I started looking for mysteries for light reading. They're short too, an added plus. I have really enjoyed them.

If you think you're too busy, take a look at In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore. Written by a journalist, so easy to follow, it describes the many ways most of us live too fast, try to crowd in too much (example: the average Canadian sleeps 90 minutes less a night than a century ago) and various ways being found to simplify life, changing quantity to quality, and enjoying our lives more. It's nice to think there may be a movement toward going slower growing in the industrialized world.

I have no scientific background, and have been looking for something simple for me to understand about new findings and theories since I went to school, but most of it is beyond me. A sort of simple encyclopedia like Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat? helps with a reference I don't understand, or am still trying to get my head around. The PBS TV series The Elegant Universe, about string theory fascinated me, and so I read the book by the same name. Much of it was beyond me, but I'm still intrigued to think that vibaring "strings" of different energies may be behind the various parts of atoms, hence of everything, and that this string theory opens the possibility to many dimensions and to other universes. I wish it were even more simply told, though. I also wonder if scientists should take time out from such speculations and apply themselves to solving some current, urgent threats to life on Mother Earth!

I don't understand poetry much better than science (some would say they're related because creation is more poetry than machinery), but the latest hymn book by the United Church,Voices United, contains many poems that are accessible, moving, and modern. Even those who are not religious would, I think, identify with # 374: "Come and find the quiet centre in the crowded life we lead/ find the room for hope to enter/ find the frame where we are freed/ clear the chaos and the clutter/ clear our eyes that we can see/ all the things that really matter/ be at peace and simply be." Lots of good stuff here; I pick it up to find a new one, or to experience again an old favourite.

I've done some reading in Celtic Christianity. The Celtic Way of Prayer by Esther de Waal, while somewhat personal as are many collections of Celtic Spirituality, is also informative; de Waal is a scholar as well as a pray-er. Anything by Ian Bradley is scholarly, which my historical curiosity prefers to romantic admiration. His Colonies of Heaven is a good overview of the field. Unfortunately, his books may be more difficult to find in a library than some of the less informative writers. I'd also recommend Timothy Joyce's Celtic Christianity, a Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope. The popular How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill is a good place to start for those who know nothing of the field.