I decided sometime earlier this year that I'd like to preach a series on the women listed in Jesus' genealogy.  Partly this came out of leading a "ladies' meeting" where we'd looked at 'good' and 'bad' women in the Bible and discovered that it isn't as simple to delineate as first appears; we then focussed our thoughts on Tamar.  Why Tamar?  Because there are (at least) three Tamars in the Bible and most people don't know their stories.

Anyway, I was looking forward to making up as I went along my sermon series when I visted the online shop that can sometimes lead to adventures (Amazon) where, as if by magic, the following title appeared in 'your recommendations'...

'Mother Roots' by Helen Bruch Pearson is a carefully researched approach to the stories of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and finally Mary.  For each she uses both history and 'her-story', Biblical shcolarship and some sort of Midrash-ish work (I'm never entirely sure I understand what Midrash technically is) and relates the stories to contemporary human rights issues.  I guess it is kind of gently feminist in style, but not misanthropic.  A fairly easy and interesting read, suitable for personal or group devotional use too.

Once more my original idea has been pre-empted by someone who can do it so much better than I can!  But at least I have some literary support for my assertions whern the sermons happen!