To Destroy You is No Loss ~ Joan Criddle, Teeda Butt Mam

 narrated by Christina Moore   (5) Biographical

This was a recommended homeschool history book that I never got to read with the children.   A sober, harrowing, and gritty listen. The love, care and respect this family have for one is heartening – along with their deeply held Buddhist faith – they seem to undergird the incredible resilience these people required to endure each next heartache and hardship.  The fact that all, bar one member of their family group make it through that holocaust seems miraculous.  Although the writing may not rank as the very best in literary terms, I felt compelled to keep reading.  This is a story that stays with you, long after the last word is read.       

Extra: while the author/s detail the atrocities of a despotic, genocidal, regime it is done in a more sobering, factual tone without “glorifying” the very real horror or the gore of the events taking place.  Beheadings, mass murders, the horrors of slavery, an account of gang rape, the desperation and vulnerability of fleeing refugees.

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist ~ Tim Birkhead

(2) N/F (epukapuka)

        I started this book with real interest and enjoyment, along with appreciating the photo of Willughby’s commonplace book handwriting – such enthusiastic illegibility.  The initial enjoyment was gradually smothered by writing that degenerated down into little better than dry fact sharing and the author promoting his own belief system and negating  Ray (& Willoughby’s) explaining of the natural world ‘as the result of God’s wisdom has the potential of being facile and teleological’ (& more of the same). The author is pro-natural selection and takes time to have a good thwack against today’s scientists who promote  ‘physico-theology and the centrality of ‘God’ in the form of ‘intelligent design’.’  I was really wanting a BIOGRAPHY about Mr.Willughby’s life and discoveries, not a book detailing Birkhead’s personally held ‘scientific argument’ refuting worldviews that are counterproductive to his own.  I’m so thankful this was a library loan and not a book I’d purchased.   Others may really enjoy this title, sadly, Tim Birkhead snuffed out any interest in my wanting to read on with his grandstanding.  I’m off to try and do my own research about the very interesting Frances Willughby.

Elizabeth the Queen ~ Sally Bedell Smith

narrated by Rosalyn Landor  (4)  (663pgs.  Chunkster)

The author is obviously very pro the Queen, and shows Diana in a less than favourable light.  Smith detailed Diana’s mental health struggles in an open-handed and rather matter of fact tone which may rankle with some.  The retelling of events became a bit formulaic after a while,  yet I still enjoyed this biography about Queen Elizabeth II.  

Extra:  the book does have a few curse words, and, one f-bomb which is dropped by Princess Diana.  

First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill ~ Sonia Purnell

narrated by Charlotte Strevens (4.5)  

I started out with a library book and switched to audio so I'd be able to complete this biography.  Purnell gifts us with a balanced portrayal of the Churchills, warts and all. (I did laugh at the cleverly worded account of Winston’s bath pinked, naked, 5ft 6”, 16 stone figure dashing down the hallway after his baths calling out, “Coming through. Don’t look”.)  I’m so thankful I did not have either Winston’s or Clementine’s parents as mine – abusive, self-centred, negligent of their non-favourite children, and, seriously promiscuous.

Their individual childhoods had a profound effect in how they conducted themselves as a couple with all their collective energy going into Winston – sadly, their children ranked second to that task which bore harvests of broken relationships, substance abuse, violent rages, and suicide (Diana) in later life.  The Churchill’s life seemed to be ALL about Winston and his political career, and, Purnell portrayed them as a couple that used people for that express purpose. Clementine was not only Winston’s mainstay during their devoted, complex, and often, very difficult marriage - she was also a key, though unrecognised, figure in the WWII effort.  

I think this book shows providence at work through the Churchill’s lives; what would our post-war world have been without this couple.  (Any fans of President Roosevelt may want to skip portions of this book – he certainly does not shine in this literary setting.)

First Lady was such an interesting read, both my husband and I enjoyed it and we thought it was a little sad, for the Churchills, how quickly Britain discarded them after V.E day.  The nation desperately wanted to move beyond warmongering and Churchill did not present himself as the leader to spearhead the more positive post-war change the people craved.

Clementine passed away at 92yrs of age having lived a very full, highly pressured life – it’s not until reading this biography that I was even aware of her as anything other than Winston Churchill’s wife. 

If you don’t want to read the book I’d recommend listening to the interview with Sonia Purnell here.

Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret ~ Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor

Narrated by Raymond Todd (4) N/F. Christian.

It took me a while to settle into this book, I nearly abandoned it a few times.  I’m so pleased I stuck with it as I started appreciating this biography more once Taylor actually got to China. This is definitely a book I recommend to other Christians to read. 
The hardship Taylor and his family endured.
As a random aside, the amount of accumulated time Taylor spent in sea travel was phenomenal.