AMAZING GRACE FROM THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Tuesday, March 14, 2006Finding God in unexpected placesA journalist queries celebrities about God. The answers are sometimes surprising. By Jane Lampman On the brink of her teen years, Cathleen Falsani experienced one of those indelible moments that can orient a life. A friend put a rock album on the stereo, and a raspy voice shouted out praise to God. It was a revelation to the highly religious youngster. “I was absolutely transfixed by... Read more

TGF IN THE CHICAGO READER CRITICS’ CHOICESCATHLEEN FALSANI Spirituality is many things to many people, but whether it’s held close and private or preached to the masses it’s intensely personal, as evidenced in Cathleen Falsani’s new book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Falsani, the religion writer for the Sun-Times, has collected 32 interviews on the subject with a wide range of famous folk including Bono, Hugh Hefner, and Mancow (he loves... Read more

GODSTUFF: BLASPHEMY LIKE PORNOGRAPHY: YOU KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT It would seem that, much like beauty, perfection and the difference between Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, blasphemy, at least these days, is in the eye of the beholder. We don’t really talk much about blasphemy, or its cousin, sacrilege, anymore. It kind of sneaks up on us and catches us by surprise when we’re not looking. Such was the case with cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon... Read more

GOD GIRL DOES GOD FACTOR ON PUBLIC RADIO Jason DeRose, a consummate gentleman journalist who covers religion for WBEZ (91.5 FM), the NPR station in Chicago, interviewed Cathleen about her book,The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People and her own peculiar faith on the morning magazine show, “Eight Forty-Eight” Thursday. It was a fun, provocative, and relaxed interview — Jason is a marvelous conversationalist — sandwiched between musical snippets from U2’s “Gloria” and “The Unforgettable Fire” Walk... Read more

TOUGH NEW YORK CRITICS CHIME IN: NICK&JAKE GIVE TGF TWO (MOSTLY) ENTHUSIASTIC THUMBS UP, TAKE BOOK TO SCHOOL FOR SHOW-AND-TELL Nick&Jake are two of Gotham’s savviest young critics. Nick is an avid non-fiction enthusiast, while Jake’s tastes usually run more toward late-19th-century fiction and magical realism. Both gave God Girl’s first literary venture the New York nod. Although Jake seemed to have mixed feelings about the jacket photo … Read more

SHOUT OUT FROM MY HOMIES: THE WEDNESDAY JOURNAL PROFILES GOD GIRL Wednesday, March 8, 2006The Wednesday Journal (Oak Park, Illinois) The God factor: Sun-Times religion reporter Cathleen Falsani finds God in unlikely places By LYDIALYLE GIBSON Cathleen Falsani should have been home in bed. Instead, she was at her desk long after 9 o’clock on a Tuesday night, tweaking and re-tweaking her lead for the next day’s story, proofing copy and checking facts in the sprawling quiet of the Sun-Times’... Read more

HELLS TO THE YEAH!!! Read more

GODSTUFF: GIVING UP GUILT FOR LENT By the time I arrived at Assumption parish at 12:25 Wednesday afternoon, three lines of people waiting to get in spilled down the front steps of the church toward Illinois Street. It was Ash Wednesday, after all, but the number of people clambering to get inside the church on a busy streetcorner in Chicago staffed by the Servite Fathers, a Roman Catholic religious order, surprised me. As I hustled toward the line to the... Read more

KIND WORDS FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL FOR TGF Library Journal ReviewsMarch 1, 2006SECTION: REVIEWS; Arts and Humanities; Pg. 94 LENGTH: 143 words HEADLINE: The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People BYLINE: Graham Christian BODY: Falsani, Cathleen. The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People. Farrar . 2006. c.304p. ISBN 0-374-16831-2 . $24. REL In this charming book, Falsani, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, interviews more than 25 people of note-politicians, celebrities, writers, and musicians-about their spirituality... Read more

‘WHY DO YOU DEFY ME?!’ Don’t make it mad.Mmm.Girl. Read more