I have read several biographies on Pope Francis and they all did a fairly good job covering his life up to his accepting the chair of Peter. While covering the basic facts rather well and giving some measure of the man, I really did not come away feeling I knew him at all really. This new book put out by Ignatius Press is more than just another biography. Pope Francis – Our Brother, Our Friend: Personal Recollections about the Man... Read more
It’s book publishing time and often when I check my mailbox I get that wonderful feeling of receiving an unexpected gift. I haven’t read these books … yet … for the most part, but I will be. However, I wanted to give a heads up on these because I don’t want you to wait on me. Entertaining Angels by Mike Aquilina Catholic Scripture Study Every Sunday Roman Catholics (like many other Christians) stand to profess our faith in God who... Read more
The history of Elizabethan England and the persecution of Catholics is quite interesting. When I think of it I think of the recusants along with the priest holes. A time of severe trial for Catholics along with so many martyrdoms. There are some classic novels covering some aspects of this time period such as Edmund Campion by Evenlyn Waugh and Come Rack! Come Rope! by Mon. Robert Hugh Benson. So I was quite interested when I saw the mention of... Read more
Books come in every week, it seems, and there are more books than time to read them. This, my friends, is BLISS for a bookworm. But for a slightly OCD-list-crosser-offer it is a bit frustrating. For one thing, I debate to myself: do I tell you what’s new to my review shelf or do I tell you what I’m looking forward to reading? Or do I only share the intersection of those two lists? I don’t know. Today, I’m going to... Read more
These things used to be called memes … but whatever they’re called, I find them difficult to resist. Basically Rod Dreher has asked his readers, and the internet at large, what three books they would recommend to provide a basic familiarity with Christian theological ideas to someone with little background on the topic. Read all the guidelines here, which is where Jen Fitz found it. This came to my attention when I saw Jen’s answers (and was insanely flattered, by... Read more
Taking up the challenge (It’s like Jeopardy: follow the link to find out what question I’m answering is) . . . 1. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Christianity writ large. You want to understand Christian spirituality, this is your book. 2. Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Kreeft & Tacelli. You can’t learn everything about the faith by reading apologetics, but you can sure learn a lot. If you actually want to know what folks believe and why they... Read more
When the new Popcak book came my way, I was hesitant. I suppose I thought I’d seen enough in real life that I didn’t need a stinkin’ marriage help book. I don’t need to hear about flower power and snappy sappy stuff. No thanks. Marriage is work. Don’t try to give me roses and tell me otherwise. Now that I’ve been at it for about a decade, I feel pretty confident that, yeah, I’m right about that. I don’t know why... Read more
A quick follow-up note for those who following the threads on this blog about catechesis, young adult literature, and so forth: Joe Wetterling has just re-launched his catechetical website, Ho Kai Paulos. The first article is a very clear, charitable explanation of the difference between objective and subjective truth. If you are looking for the basics well-explained, this is a good place to start. Read more
The Great Movies by Roger Ebert My rating: 5 of 5 stars I miss Roger Ebert. Even when I disagreed with his online personal journal entries, which happened fairly frequently, I still loved reading him. Most importantly, of course, I miss reading his movie reviews every Friday. They were the anchor against which I measured all other critical opinions of a film. Again, I might disagree with him because his range and experience and desires when watching a film were... Read more
Is it possible to write a young adult suspense/horror novel on the theme of human trafficking, without ever resorting to vulgarity, wallowing in morbid violence, or even so much as mentioning sex? Why yes, it is. Last spring at the SC Book Festival, a local romance novelist waved me into her booth, and tried to sell me on her latest book. Not my genre, but I played along. “If this were a movie, what would it be rated?” I asked.... Read more
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