Two good books

An excellent book covering issues of "true self/false self". What I particularly liked was the way Pitchford, as a sociologist, came at these issues from a slightly different perspective. I also enjoyed her very honest and down to earth illustrations from her own life. I would definitely lend this book to anyone struggling with the "who am I" questions - especially if they have had hurtful and difficult past experiences that cloud their sense of self.
Pitchford is a third order Franciscan and quotes people like Richard Rohr and Ilia Delio - who are perhaps better known contemporary Franciscans.

This is an intriguing story linkingWorld War 1 to the present day. The thread is a valuable painting and the circumstances in which it disappeared during the German invasion of a Parisian town. The heart of the story addresses what happens when it is discovered in the 21st Century, in an era of "restitution of stolen art works". In typical Jojo Moyes style she brings all the characters alive and weaves in the historical setting in a way that certainly kept me reading right through the final twists and turns to a very satisfying ending. (The version I borrowed from the library has a different cover.)


(If you have seen the movie Woman in Gold, this book has an interestingly similar plot. Woman Gold had a WW2 setting whereas The Girl You Left Behind begins in WW1.)