New Library Books recommended by Friends House Bookshop

Two new purchases offer us theological and historical insights. In A Word from the Lost, David Lewis explores the early Quaker James Nayler’s theology as expressed in his 1656 pamphlet Love to the Lost, putting his thought into its historical and biographical context. Following Jesus by Henri Nouwen (Dutch theologian, 1932-1996) draws on a series of Nouwen’s lectures about the importance of following Jesus in an age of anxiety. Nouwen considered how we could integrate the life of Christ in our daily concerns. For him,

‘intimacy with God and solidarity with all people are two aspects of dwelling in the present moment that can never be separated.’

A welcome addition to our small collection of novels and set in Winchester of the 1930s, A Single Thread, by Tracy Chevalier, is an engrossing and moving exploration of the effects of loss and society’s expectations on a woman whose fiancé was killed in World War 1.