I wish Jesus had told the Parable of the Mindless Consumer to show how stupid it was to quietly accept advertising’s blatant failure to deliver. Consumerism fails even at a most basic level. Yet lamely, blindly, deafly and stupidly, people roll over and beg for more.

There are some writers who are so thoroughly dependable that a new text becomes requisite reading regardless of reviews and recommendations. The poet and novelist, Margaret Atwood, falls into this category for me.

Most families have their secrets. They vary from family to family. It could be the relative who is never mentioned, the brother who’s avoided, the aunt who is never visited. Most of the time though these secrets remain unspoken. An uneasy peace is maintained. And no one wants it disturbed.

Philip Yancey is editor-at-large of Christianity Today, and author of a number of Christian books which have appeared in recent years and proved immensely popular, including The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, and Where Is God When it Hurts? This book, as the title indicates, is about the Old Testament.

Philip Pullman’s trilogy for young adults has been completed with the recent release of The Amber Spyglass. This series began as a beautifully written fantasy with endearing characters, fast-paced, suspenseful action, and an intriguing plotline. It ultimately concludes with a novel which is as popular – it spent six months on the New York best seller lists –as it is anti-Christian.

Sometimes I Wake Up Grumpy is Karen Scalf Linamen’s latest, lighthearted attempt to speak practical wisdom to women who feel trapped in a rut.

Serving the Cross: the striking ambiguity of the phrase says a great deal about the Darlinghurst parish. An earlier rector, ‘Anniversary Archie’ Morton, first used it in 1962 in newspaper articles on the changing history of St John’s. Paul Egan has revived it, with telling effect, in his far from short historical account.

I wish I had read this book at the start of my ministry and not twenty years down the track. Not because it is all new to me - though I have learnt a lot reading it - but because it says things so sharply, urgently and well.