Paradise News
by David Lodge
Viking, 1992
ISBN 0670842281
A cultured, British academic joins a tourist group on a “Hawaiian Paradise” vacation package so his father can visit his dying sister. The British academic also happens to be an ex-priest who is barely making a living as what we would call a part-time adjunct at a second or third [...]
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Posted in Priests on September 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Catholics
by Brian Moore
Loyola Classics, 2006
ISBN: 9780829423334
Catholics is a very short novel and easy to read, but it is anything but light. The story takes place at an Irish monastery built on a remote,rocky island on a cold, harsh rainy night. The stormy weather matches the personal and internal conflicts of the characters. There’s not much plot; [...]
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Even though I’ve already suggested one book by Jon Hassler (Dear James), since he has recently passed away, I would like to honor him with another entry. All of Hassler’s works are eminently worth reading, but three of my personal favorites are The Dean’s List, Simon’s Night, and North of Hope.
The Dean’s List is the [...]
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The Poems of Alice Meynell
Scribner’s, 1925
April is National Poetry Month, so even though Alice Christina Meynell did not write fiction, I’m going to recommend her Catholic writings anyway. The first time I ran across Meynell, I was in a gift shop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I discovered a delightful little book of love [...]
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Posted in Priests, School stories on March 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“First Confession”
by Frank O’Connor
Sometimes you go through periods when you just can’t find anything to read. You’re stressed; you’re busy; you’re a little overwhelmed. When you find the time to sit down and relax with a good book, you can’t choose one. You pick up one book, read a few pages, put it down; you [...]
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A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
by Ellis Peters
Mysterious Press, 1994
ISBN: 978-0446400152
A great way to handle the stress of the end of the semester is with a nice, short, light, comforting book like one of the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters (pseudonym for Edith Pargeter). Relaxing with some light reading [...]
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Dear James
by Jon Hassler
Ballantine Books 1993
ISBN: 0-345-41013-0
Young women who recognized themselves in the brainy Hermione Granger may also see themselves – or at least themselves at 70 – in the character of Agatha McGee.
Agatha is a perfectionist; she has extremely high expectations of others, especially of the clergy and her sixth grade students, but [...]
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