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Books
The
Holy Bucket has produced many books over the years, and no doubt will
continue to do so in the future. Below are a selection of our titles.
"A woman passing, bent with the
climb, towing her shopping trolley. 'It's a beautiful day,
isn't it?'
'Thank you,' says Arthur, beaming. "
Arthur, second son of God, lives at Bob's Ponsonby boarding house with the other psychs. The time has come for him to let people know that God's about to wind things up, that people must sort themselves our while they've got the chance. Time, too, to find the Queen of Heaven and book a motel room.
For Margaret, married-with-two of Howick, the second coming heralds the inconceivable. For banker husband Brian, a shot at redemption. For friend Penny, self-reconciliation. For the Reverend Kevin Connor, a crisis of faith. For TV journo-bitch Karen, anointment with celestial ambrosia.
Arthur and his boarding house mates, in the meantime, face the prospect of a homeless future, while the heavenly host are treated to a spectacle such as they have rarely witnessed. The moon is waxing over cappuccino city - giant, pendulous, insatiable…
Reviews
"Where do shadows fall? What
space do they occupy? Sometimes I suspect
we are incapable of seeing our own shadows until they turn up in other
people."
Alex Hanson is a respected Anglican vicar caught up in events surrounding the rape and murder of a small child. Joe Bailey is a career criminal with an interest in meditation and a gift for violence. Their lives, and the life of Tessa Bromley, a young girl who loves rabbits and dreams of flying, are about to be changed in ways that can never be recovered.
Masks & Shadows is a complex exploration of guilt and innocence. Told through the voices of the main protagonists, it invites the reader into the murky world of the human psyche, where all is not as it may first appear. More alarmingly, the story crosses boundaries in such a way that it remains impossible to stay on the outside of the dark events described. Readers confront their own capacity for evil as the plot moves towards a shocking conclusion.
Reviews
"John opens and shuts cupboards,
in an uncoordinated fashion. He's clearly looking for something.
Aren't we all? thinks Siobhan."
John moves into the house shared by Tasha, Siobhan, Quentin and Claire. Something about John, his 'in your face' cheerfulness, the fact that he is a social worker… something gets the others going. Suddenly they seem to be arguing about things that matter. No-one quite knows who suggested it, but soon they are spending Friday evenings eating and talking about money, sex, God, marriage, drugs, politics, parents, goals. And each of them finds they are beginning to change.
Deep Stuff is a contemporary tale of five young urbanites who share a flat as well as a desire to find meaning in their lives.
'No snail crosses a garden path
without leaving a trail to mark its passing; a testament made sliver by
the light of the sun. And what of you and I, as we travel from birth to
death?"
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by Mike Riddell
"A woman passing, bent with the
climb, towing her shopping trolley. 'It's a beautiful day,
isn't it?' 'Thank you,' says Arthur, beaming. "
Arthur, second son of God, lives at Bob's Ponsonby boarding house with the other psychs. The time has come for him to let people know that God's about to wind things up, that people must sort themselves our while they've got the chance. Time, too, to find the Queen of Heaven and book a motel room.
For Margaret, married-with-two of Howick, the second coming heralds the inconceivable. For banker husband Brian, a shot at redemption. For friend Penny, self-reconciliation. For the Reverend Kevin Connor, a crisis of faith. For TV journo-bitch Karen, anointment with celestial ambrosia.
Arthur and his boarding house mates, in the meantime, face the prospect of a homeless future, while the heavenly host are treated to a spectacle such as they have rarely witnessed. The moon is waxing over cappuccino city - giant, pendulous, insatiable…
Reviews
by Mike Riddell
"Where do shadows fall? What
space do they occupy? Sometimes I suspect we are incapable of seeing our own shadows until they turn up in other
people."
Alex Hanson is a respected Anglican vicar caught up in events surrounding the rape and murder of a small child. Joe Bailey is a career criminal with an interest in meditation and a gift for violence. Their lives, and the life of Tessa Bromley, a young girl who loves rabbits and dreams of flying, are about to be changed in ways that can never be recovered.
Masks & Shadows is a complex exploration of guilt and innocence. Told through the voices of the main protagonists, it invites the reader into the murky world of the human psyche, where all is not as it may first appear. More alarmingly, the story crosses boundaries in such a way that it remains impossible to stay on the outside of the dark events described. Readers confront their own capacity for evil as the plot moves towards a shocking conclusion.
Reviews
by Mike
Riddell
"John opens and shuts cupboards,
in an uncoordinated fashion. He's clearly looking for something.Aren't we all? thinks Siobhan."
John moves into the house shared by Tasha, Siobhan, Quentin and Claire. Something about John, his 'in your face' cheerfulness, the fact that he is a social worker… something gets the others going. Suddenly they seem to be arguing about things that matter. No-one quite knows who suggested it, but soon they are spending Friday evenings eating and talking about money, sex, God, marriage, drugs, politics, parents, goals. And each of them finds they are beginning to change.
Deep Stuff is a contemporary tale of five young urbanites who share a flat as well as a desire to find meaning in their lives.
by Mike
Riddell
'No snail crosses a garden path
without leaving a trail to mark its passing; a testament made sliver by
the light of the sun. And what of you and I, as we travel from birth to
death?"This inspiring and challenging book is for anyone who has ever asked, 'What now?' or 'What will be left of my life when I'm gone?' Storyteller and writer Mike Riddell identifies brilliantly the malaise which is particularly common in mid-life, and shows us how to make it a time for refocusing on what really matters.
In an engrossing blend of reflection and story, he encourages us to regain our capacity for wonder and to discover the unique gift which only we can bring to the world.
'So let us go then, you and I. Forging our way into the undiscovered territory of the mystery which constitutes our living. It is the most ancient of all human undertakings - the journey... It is the adventure we have been made for, and we will never know ourselves or others while we ignore it.'
Winner, Foreword magazine's Book of the Year for Spirituality.
by
Mike Riddell
'To see Godzone is to be a part
of it. Or, if you prefer, it is only when you are a part of it that you
can see it. The first and overwhelming discovery is that God is in it -
everywhere. Waving in the trees, laughing in the thunder, shining in
old eyes, speaking in the silence. Through it and in it and over it and
beyond it - God.'' This is a book for travellers, those who have never quite settled in the world, who follow an inner urge, a voice that calls from the depths, a desire to explore the territory.
In
the beginning was the road. The long and winding road that
leads… where?
Godzone is a book of mystery and illumination, a guidebook to the travels of the heart. With humour, storytelling and captivating originality it entices the reader to join its hitchhiking author on the most important journey of all....
by
Mike Riddell
'The Christian church is dying
in the West. This painful fact is the cause of a great deal of
avoidance by the Christian community. To use terminology drawn from
pastoral care, the terminally sick patient is somewhere between denial
and bargaining.'The recognition that we are blind and poor and naked is the beginning of hope. The purpose of this book is not to plunge the church into despair. Rather, it is to call the community of Christ back to its radical roots and its essential character as a missionary body.'
Threshold of the Future is a handbook for the Christian journey into the Third Millennium. Surveying the Church, Scripture, spirituality, holiness and salvation, it presents a way to escape lethargy, despair and endless waiting around for revival to descend miraculously from on high. In the process it finds radical answers to the question of how we can live with integrity as a believing, witnessing faith community and, in so doing, truly release the power of God.
'The
things we have to say are broken and fragmentary, like our own lives.
We have no package to offer...we don't even know what we think until we
say it, and even then it might change next week.'The Prodigal Project argues passionately that we need to revitalise our worship, our spirituality and our theology if the church is to remain faithful in the third millennium. Mike Riddell, Mike Pierson and Cathy Kirkpatrick have discovered in 'alternative worship' a movement which is culturally relevant, creative and community-based. Here mystery encounters multi-media, the radical is infused with the old and familiar, the traditional and contemporary are combined.
The ideas and resources contained in the Project explode into spectacular life when viewed on the accompanying CDROM, which contains music, video, animations and extras. This is much more than a book; it is a beginning.
by
Mike Riddell
'I want to know the
truth… I want to know what's (out/in) there. I refuse to die
before I die. There are rumours of God, and I mean to follow the trail.
I wish someone could have written me a handbook, a sort of spirituality
in Levis. But no one would, so I've had to write it myself. A scrapbook
of the psyche, a subway map of the heart, an entertainment guide for
the cosmos. (What's on this millennium - anything interesting?)' Weaving its way through this kaleidoscope of thoughts and images is the love story of two ordinary mixed-up urbanites, Generation Xers. Their story mirrors the reflections along the way.
by
Mike Riddell
'Few documents are as subject to
misunderstanding, misuse and abuse as is the Bible... Every second mass
murderer seems to find it necessary to quote some obscure section of
scripture before laying waste the innocent. Televangelists hold it high
in their right hands, which does have the effect of drawing attention
away from the other hand, which is just as likely in the till.'For many people, reading the Bible is like browsing a telephone book, but less exciting. It reeks of history and nagging. Who needs it?
Mike Riddell attempts a new look at one of the oldest resources around. This is a fresh, lively and perceptive case for the passion and relevance of scripture in the third millennium. Riddell restores the subversive and challenging heart of divine dialogue, and provides practical help for making sense of the Bible.
by Mike
Riddell
The script of
the international hit play, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, based on the final years of New Zealand poet
and social reformer, James K. Baxter.Baxter was one of New Zealand's most controversial sons; foul mouthed, honey-tongued, a wild prophet. He entranced and scandalised the population in equal measure, before his untimely death in 1972.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, based structurally on Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, brings Baxter back to life with all his vitality and passion.
Now you have the chance to read the script which entranced audiences around NZ and in the UK.
by Nicholas Scott
'Throughout
the centuries men and women at different stages of civilization, as we
think of them now, dance to strange drums, worship different gods, and
obey differen laws about the joining of men and women. But down through
those ages some things remain unchanged.'Two Chariots is an epic novel spanning generations and continents: a tale of heritage and continuity. The book covers the spread of time from the Roman invasion of Scotland through to the present day, through a series of linked stories.
It is an exploration of human life - men and women and their communities - described in the context of diverse eras. History comes to life in these pages and reminds us of our own place in the great sweep of the ages. An intelligent and gripping read.
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