JESUS- A. N. Wilson

 

The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith are two separate beings, with very different stories.  It is difficult enough to reconstruct the first, and in the attempt we are likely to irreparable harm to the second.

Wilson studied theology and and was a practicing Christian for many years  but

..as the years went by, however, and I had read more, and reflected more deeply on what I had read, this would not quite do.  I had to admit that I found it impossible to believe that a first-century Galilean holy man had at anytime of his life believed himself to be the second person of the Trinity.  It was such an inherently improbable thing for a monotheistic Jew to believe.

This is a great read, its not anti in anyway but as above Wilson points at the improbability of it all.  As someone who had Jesus's story rammed down his throat as a child, his conclusion is the same as mine, much more intelligently put of course, but, there was this guy called Jesus and his followers started a Jesus cult.

This is a book I will read again.

RUSSIA REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR 1917-1921 -Antony Beevor

 

Another very good read from Beevor. I didn't know that it took nearly 5 years before the Bolsheviks took total control and that the US, Britain and Japan were all involved.

The slaughter and cruelty was horrendous, the white Russians were actually worse than the Bolsheviks during the civil war but as we know the 'Reds' made mass slaughter their own in the following 70 years.

As always very readable .

THE ELIZABETHANS - A N Wilson

An interesting read about the characters and happenings during the reign of Elizabeth I.

I found it harder read that Wilson's 'Victorians set' but that maybe have just been my mood at the time.

But what a blood thirsty bunch even the "nice people " were

 

CREATORS - Paul Johnson

 

I love reading Paul Johnson and this is a lovely collection of essays about people who created things.

He is much more positive here than he was in the first book of this set "Intellectuals" where I agreed with every word he wrote.

I agree with every word he writes here apart from his religious opinions, a great read and now just have to track down the third in the series "Heroes"

KITTY'S SALON - Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Julia Schrammel

 

Reading this is three hours I'll never get back, pretty much junk

JERUSALEM - Simon Sebag Montefiore

 

Simon Sebag Montefiore writes another book of brilliant narrative history on a 'town' which probably has more history than any on earth.

Fascinating, fact upon fact.  Like all his work you could spend years segueing off following characters that are major historical figures in their own right.

THE DICTATORS - Richard Overy

 

This isn't a biography of these two monsters, rather a comparison of their two systems of dictatorship.

Its a brilliant read.  There are 200 pages of notes and bibliography.  Just fantastic 

WORDY - Simon Schama

 

A book of essays which as the title suggests are very wordy.

But if you relax and accept that eleven words will do instead of three you get a very enjoyable read.