Author Daniel Nayeri never talks down to children. He respects them and clearly remembers what it was like to be thirteen or even eight. He reveals the realities of war in an age-appropriate manner.
Read More“What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
This is the premise of Oscar Wilde’s compact novel The Picture of Dorian Grey.
Read MoreParenting has always been difficult. Yet in the last few years, as a Christian, attempting to guide my children toward holiness has become increasingly more difficult. My children are inundated daily with lies about who they are and their place in this world.
It was in the midst of this frustration that I found Sally Read’s Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World.
Read MoreI read over 50 books a year so many ask “what were your favorites?” I decided to make a list to share.
Read MoreThis book is a companion, not merely something to read.
Read MoreIt has been a while since I read a collection of short stories as captivating as Fragile Objects by Katy Carl.
Read MoreIn Mining the Bright Birds: Poems of Longing for Home, Jody L. Collins invites the reader into a moment, a minute of quotidian life, to witness. These poems reflect both in outward revelation of God’s glory in creation but also inward, the secret space within a heart attuned to His love.
Read MoreThe books I read in January. These are all very short books. Less than 200 pages.
Find your next read.
Read MoreIf you don’t know by now, I read A LOT.
People keep asking me what I’ve been reading lately so I thought I’d put them down in one post to share.
Read More"Once we know we are loved, it is easy to choose joy."
My new reflection for Loyola Press on Father Gregory Boyle new book!
Read MoreEach opening sentence of Uwem Akpan's short stories in his debut collection "Say You're One of Them" pull the reader into the story:
"Selling your child or nephew could be more difficult than selling other kids."
Or "Now that my eldest sister, Maisha, was 12, none of us knew how to relate to her anymore."
Each of these five short stories is told from the perspective of a child, and with the first sentence, Akpan demands your attention.
Jane Goodall once said, “It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.” Author and writing professor at the University of California, Berkeley Kaya Oakes would agree and has written a new book, The Defiant Middle: How Women Claim Life’s In-Betweens to Remake the World, to tackle this very issue.
Read MoreDo you ever wonder if you even know the sound of your own voice — what stream of thoughts running through your mind are authentically yours? Or are you just hearing an echo of voices from throughout the day or your life?
Read MoreFrank Mc Court’s childhood in Limerick, Ireland was so dire, reading his memoir, Angela’s Ashes, you’ll be grateful you ever had a full egg all to yourself.
The bleak stories seem to spill over one another with Mc Court’s run on sentences and dialogue meant to evoke the Irish cadence of speaking over one another (and not necessarily listening). This style of writing works well to convey desperate nature of the lives of the Mc Court’s but leaves very little in the way of respite.
Read MoreI read about a book a week. Sometimes for reviews. Sometimes for fun.
I get asked often what I am reading, so I thought I’d make this a regular feature on my website. Maybe you’ll discover a new read or reminded of one you’ve been wanting to pick up.
Read More“Perhaps someday we’ll recall with joy even these things”
These are Aeneas’s words in Virgil’s The Aeneid; spoken to encourage his men in the face of hardship. They are also the words of Lucille, the seventeen-year-old narrator of Josephine Humphreys’ novel Rich in Love, spoken to encourage herself. This is the story of the unravelling of the Odom family and the seventeen-year-old who tries to keep them together.
Read MoreThere is a tenderness of language in Julian of Norwich’s A Revelation of Love. These sixteen mystical revelations manifested at what Julian had thought was her deathbed one night over several hours.
Read More“No commonplace soul inhabited the body of this stray woman-child of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert was so ludicrously afraid.”
Read MoreHave you ever wanted to get inside the mind of a teenage girl? Me either, but this is exactly where we live for 229 pages in E. Lockhart’s The Boyfriend List.
Read MoreThrives on moments where storytelling, art and faith collide.
I must pinch myself that I am part of this collection from Ignatius Press ! It comes out next month but is available for preorder now.
How easily we forget that we are, at every moment, shaped with care by a Creator. Artists, however—who know intimately the blood, sweat, and tears of the creative process—can help us sense how marvelous it is to be created: the patience, the detail, the joy. In this essential collection, thirty-one Christian artists from various disciplines, from music to poetry to film to sculpture, offer personal essays on the strange experience of following God’s lead by making beautiful things.
Goldberg is much more practical than many of the texts that I have read. She gives you much to hold onto.
If you know me, you know I love encounters with strangers. Here is one that left me encouraged.
First time writing for Catholic World Report. I have wanted to tell this story for a long time. Read my essay on the theology of the body as it pertains to our last moments here on earth.
If we keep our eyes on Jesus, small acts of service and love, like those lived out by St. Francis Xavier, will reap more rewards than we could ever imagine.