It took Sherry at Semicolon to put a name to my recent reading problem. She talked about nothing appealing to her and said she was in a reading slump. Yes! It’s funny how having a label often brings focus to life. I’d been drifting lately, with plenty of good books to read for upcoming podcasts but with nothing that really grabbed me, nothing that made it hard to turn out the light because I had to read just one more... Read more
I had recently positively reviewed Fr. Mike Driscol’s Demons, Deliverance, Discernment : Separating Fact from Fiction about the Spirit World. So when I found that he also recently released a novel I was intrigued. The book is a collection of short stories called The Father Capranica Mysteries: Stories of the Strange and Supernatural. As the author wrote: “The Fr. Capranica Mysteries are my attempt to imitate both G.K. Chesterton’s Fr. Brown Stories and the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night feel of Alice Cooper.” Overall... Read more
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis In the far distant future, an academic, Paul Bentley, moves to Columbia University in New York City for the summer because he’d like to teach a skill he has recently discovered–reading. The head of the University is Bob Spofforth, a Make Nine robot. Make Nines were top of the line, able to run multi-national corporations and dictate global policies. He’s been around for hundreds of years, so unlike his human counterparts on the faculty, he knows what... Read more
The Christian Century magazine asked a lot of famous people “What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life?” Here is C.S. Lewis’s list, which he didn’t explain. Of course, being a list-loving gal, I wrote down my own, which I will explain. (In order of how they occurred to me.) The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) The story of Bilbo trying to pick the troll’s pocket directly influenced me going to read aloud to my mother-in-law.... Read more
Part of my daily devotional reading includes Paul Thigpen’s A Year With the Saints: Daily Meditations with the Holy Ones of God. He finds and frames a wide variety of quotes from the saints. Including the more well known and the more obscure quotes that should be more well known. Just rich spiritual reading. Now another book of his is also part of my daily devotional reading. A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God. Again a... Read more
… “Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods.” Neighbors tell them to take it to the edge of the woods because it’s 2:00 a.m. and “some of us have work in the morning!” They quiet down long enough to discuss Mockingbird by Walter Tevis at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Read more
Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale Donner Dinner Party is another one of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, the series of graphic novels about American history’s most dangerous and arduous moments. This volume is about a wagon train traveling to California in 1846. The group is the infamous Donner Party, who take an ill-advised short cut through modern-day Utah and wind up trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountain range for the winter. The group sets up camp in hopes of rescue but slowly die... Read more
The Contract with God Trilogy by Will Eisner Will Eisner had a long, successful career in comics before he was able to publish these three books. He had written and drawn for newspapers, comic books, and training materials. His style of writing was not considered appropriate for serious drama. Thus these serious dramas about life in a New York City neighborhood were deemed unpublishable in the early 1970s. He finally got the first volume published and it became a... Read more
Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday by Pope Francis My rating: 5 of 5 stars A promise that comforts, a request for generosity, a mission to fulfill. This is how Jesus makes himself present in the life of a Christian. … Promise, request, mission. These three moments are found not only in an active life but also in prayer. First, “a prayer without a word of Jesus and without trust, without promise, is not a good prayer.” Second, it... Read more
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Silicon Valley semi-slacker Clay Jannon has lost his web-design job and is on the hunt for new work. He gets desperate enough that he finds a job from a help wanted sign in a book store window. It’s not just any book store. It’s open 24 hours and he has the late shift (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.). The store is odd for more than the long hours. A whole section of... Read more
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