As she approached the hall where the wedding celebration was to be held, Mary was attentive to the individual people within the groups swirling around the festivities. She was aware, although not particularly conscious, of a certain deference that was accorded her and her son as they quietly made their way to their places. She […]
In the June 2014 issue of Columbia Magazine, published by the Knights of Columbus, Alton J. Pelowski offered a profile of Myles Connolly (1897 – 1964), a former editor of that publication. A graduate of Boston College, he would serve in the Navy during the end of World War I, work as a reporter for […]
Dear God, You Can’t Be Serious (Liguori Publications, 2014) is the sequel to Patti Maguire Armstrong’s Dear God, I Don’t Get It, but one need not have read the first one to enjoy the second. While the first book focused on older brother Aaron, a sixth grader who had to move to a new state […]
I recently had the great privilege of reading and reviewing a.k.a. Genius, the first in a new series by Catholic writer Marilee Haynes, published by Pauline Teen. I loved the book and, even though it is aimed at middle-schoolers, found myself laughing out loud at many parts. It was a humorous, faith-based story with an […]
Treason: A Catholic Novel of Elizabethan England by Dena Hunt Published by Sophia Institute Press (2013) “It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.” (Blessed Pope John Paull II, Salvifici Doloris) This quote by Blessed John Paul II could well be the theme of Dena […]
How many books have you read in the past year or so? (This doesn’t count the ones that you started but did not finish and now languish on a shelf gathering dust.) I’m talking about books that you have read cover to cover. That may reduce the number by as much as half if you […]
Few novels are rich enough in characters to become a series, but the Lily Trilogy belongs in this rare company. The characters around Lily, a woman with Down syndrome who has a profound affect on the world around her, are so vividly drawn, so realistic and multifaceted, that they become friends with whom you want […]
When you fall in love, you want to spend as much time together as possible and learn all you can about your loved one. For author Chris Stepien, his ebook Three Days: The Search for the Boy Messiah was about love. His love of God led Stepien to want to know him better. His love […]
How do you present Theology of the Body in a novel that people will not only like, but want to share and passionately recommend? You couldn’t have convinced me that it could be done well until I read the debut novel by AnnMarie Creedon. Angela’s Song is a novel that I should probably categorize as chick […]
Frozen Footprints (Tumblar House, 2012) is the latest contribution to Catholic suspense by Therese Heckenkamp, author of Past Suspicion. I freely admit, suspense is not my genre of choice, but Heckenkamp once again managed to keep me interested and invested in this story. Charlene and Max Perigard are twins, raised by their grandfather, a wealthy […]
Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début by Rebecca Bratten Weiss and Regina Doman Front Royal, VA: Chesterton Press, 2012 Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début is the intelligent Catholic woman’s beach read. This book is so much fun that you won’t want to put it down until you have turned the last page with a […]
Anna’s Song Amy Lemoine Stout “Anna! Stay with your mother! Stay with your mother!” The panicked shrill of a woman’s voice outside her window awoke Ms. Anna Braun of 37 Pine Street as if God himself had spoken into her ear. Heart beating wildly, she leaned up against the window. At the corner Anna could see […]
This is an excerpt from an upcoming work of fiction about the life of St. Paul by Father Tucker Cordani. **** That night Ananias showed up at Judas’s house on Via Recta. This was where they had brought me after the vision. Ananias found me in my room in the back on my bed reading […]
Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So […]
Fiction is as instructive as non-fiction, maybe even more so. The best fiction catches us up in a world outside our own all the while teaching us truths about ourselves and humanity. The pleasure of reading a great story cements those truths into the deepest corners of our mind. Dean Koontz has been quietly reeducating […]
In the midst of living your vocation did you ever wonder what became of some of your college classmates? Since graduating in 1992 I have been continually surprised at how fellow Franciscan University alums have popped up on the radar — locally and nationally. Seeing Regina Doman’s books on the shelf of a local Catholic […]
