Huia Come Home - J Ruka

Published by Oati: New Zealand, 2017.

This is a hard book to categorise.

It begins with the author sharing a prophetic dream from his wife, in which there was a giant chicken standing by a tree, and then a voice saying 'Huia, Come Home.' The dreamer - an American by birth - didn't even know what a huia was when she had the dream, and it took some time for the couple to interpret it.

The book then moves to a history of Christianity in New Zealand from the perspective of a Maori Christian, including some mini-biographies of not-always-well-known individuals, such as Piripi Taumata-a-Kura and Wiremu Tamihana. The difference between Christianity in this country pre- and post-Treaty is highlighted.

Then, the author moves into a challenge for Christians in Aotearoa to decolonialize our faith and briefly exploring some ways in which a Māori worldview sits closer to the Hebrew worldview of the Old Testament than our Western worldview does. This is thought-provoking, challenging (in a good way), and occasionally uncomfortable - like the book as a whole.

This book is one that feels important and timely. At times the author makes statements I struggled with, and yet it is good to be challenged like this as well. No matter what your perspective is on the issues raised by this book, there will be something in its pages to provoke and challenge you. 

A book I will reflect on for some time to come.

Completed 23 January 2024.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Image
Published by Tom Doherty Associates Books/TOR Fantasy: New York, 2014. Book 2 in 'The Stormlight Archives' series. Preceded by ' The Way of Kings .' Followed by (spin-off) ' Edgedancer ' and (main series) ' Oathbringer. ' Well, I finally read the second Stormlight book, this one even longer than the last  at a whopping 1080 pages, and once again found myself enjoying Sanderson's world immensely. The plot does take longer than strictly necessary in places - particularly in the storyline following Shallan Davar as she journeys towards the Shattered Plains - but overall is still a page-turner. By the middle of Words of Radiance our three main characters (Kaladin, Shallan and Adolin) are finally in the same location, something that was never achieved in the first book. In keeping them apart for so long, Sanderson is able to give his readers a real understanding of what makes each character tick, and this becomes quite interesting as when these character
Read more