Nancy Piccione

Wow, February in the Midwest is here with a wallop–with a blizzard predicted for later today in Illinois.


It’s perfect weather for staying inside and curling up with a good book.


Here are my answers to the four questions I ask on the first of each month:
first, what are you reading?
what do you like best about it?
what do you like least?
what’s next on your list/pile to read?

I hope you’ll consider sharing yours on your blog and/or sharing yours here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?

I just finished the young adult novel Scrawl, by Mark Shulman, a first-person narrative told from the bully’s point of view. 


I also finished the book 168 Hours:  You Have More Time than You Think by Laura Vanderkam, a time management book.

What do you like best about them?

I really expected NOT to like Scrawl, subtitled, “What Does This Bully Have to Say for Himself?” because I find over-realistic young adult fiction too graphic for me, but this book was fantastic.  First of all, the narrator is instantly recognizable as an individual, and eventually, likeable.  Second, the book does not tell every.gory.detail of the events, but the impact and emotional intensity is just as dramatic.  See, YA authors, you can tell a hard-to-put-down, well-crafted story without sharing TMI.

168 Hours was really eye-opening for me.  Instead of just offering tips and tricks for saving time or maximizing efficiency, Vanderkam suggests people keep a long of how they spend each of the 168 hours in the week, and then work from their to become more efficient.  Then, she suggests people find a way to spend more time on their “core competencies,” things they can do well, and less time on things that take them longer than someone else to do.  An example, Vanderkam suggests most people have a core competency of spending quality time with our children (something we obviously do better than anyone else), but failure to plan for it, or getting caught up in the busyness of life, prevents us from maximizing this time.  She writes of a busy working mom who reads Hardy Boys mysteries to her kids in the few minutes before school, and suggests parents look for little and big chunks of time for connecting in a mindful way as families.


Here’s one anecdote from the book that had me thinking “outside the box” in trying to maximize limited time and resources best:  A young man, without a large income, realized after doing his time survey that he spent way too much of his time shopping for and preparing food.  So he hired a private chef to come to his house once a week and prepare meals.  It turns out that in addition to saving him hours of time, he actually ended up saving money by hiring the private chef.  He actually had been buying a lot more groceries and eating out a lot more than the chef (food included) cost.  Who knew?


This started me thinking, not about a private chef.  Surprise!  Both my husband and I enjoy cooking, so that would be a core competency for us.  Still, the book points out there are a lot of ways to save money that are not always doing things “the cheapest” way.  I’ve always read in the “frugal” books, that making one’s own food from scratch is better from every angle, but this has me rethinking.  Penny-wise and pound foolish is not best.


I started a time survey last week but gave up pretty quickly, so I’m sure it will take me a few tries to be consistent in writing down my activities for an entire week.  After that, I’ll have a good sense of how much what I do aligns with my values and goals.

What do you like least about them?

Scrawl is very good; there’s not much there not to like.  Now that we have a snow day (probably a few), I will encourage my older children to read the book.  


One of the criticisms of 168 Hours is that Vanderkam is writing for a chiefly affluent audience, and she suggests things like personal shoppers and private chefs, that many single-income families would not afford.  I don’t really agree with this, because the book helped me to think in a different way about so many ways I spend my time.

What are you reading next?


Other than my general resolve to read more classics on my Kindle App, I need to consider some good books for bedtime reading time with my 7-year-old.  We are approaching the end of C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, and I want to find something equally as good to pick up.  I’m open to suggestions!

I’m also previewing a lot of books for March and April columns, chiefly books with a Lenten theme.  Any suggestions from you?  What are you reading?

I’ve promised to share Catholic Apps that might be of interest to Catholic Post Book Group readers, and I expected to share the many Catholic Apps I use on my iPhone.

But in the last few days, there’s been quite a bit of chatter around about Confession, a “Roman Catholic App.”

Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com shared her generally positive experience with it.  And I first saw the App highlighted on Mary DeTurris Poust’s post on the OSV Daily Take blog, to which I responded, “I love Apps!”

I did download it because, hey, I love Apps!   And I love to support Catholic developers, especially since Apps are so inexpensive–this one is  $1.99.   But I have not used it yet, and I must confess (pun intended?) I’m totally sold on the concept.  I’m not sure that I’m willing to use an App, even a password-protected one, to prepare for Confession (or to take into the confessional), but it might be good for a nightly examination of conscience.

Have you used this App?  What do you think about this idea?

This weekend, readers can meet a local author who has a new book based on the spirituality of St. Therese.


Father Gary Caster, author of The Little Way of Lent:  Meditations in the Spirit of St. Therese, will be signing books at Lagron Miller Catholic book and goods store, 4517 North Sterling Ave., Peoria, Illinois, from 1 to 3 p.m. this Saturday, January 29.

Father Caster is a priest of the diocese of Peoria, but currently based at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.  I’ll be reviewing Father’s book for the blog soon, and I hope to have a Q&A with him as well.

Our family has a connection with Father Caster that we like to laugh about, every year.  Many years ago, Father was my boss when I was a teacher at Peoria Notre Dame High School.  When I announced I would not be returning to teaching because I was expecting, Father was gracious and asked for my due date.  I told him early November, and he said, “I hope you have the baby on November 30, because that’s my birthday.”  I told him, laughing, “I hope I don’t, because that means the baby will be three weeks late!”

I bet you can guess our oldest daughter’s birthday.  That’s right–November 30.

And Father Caster sends a card every year.

Today is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, the patron of this blog, (as I explain in the “About” page).  St. Francis is the patron saint of journalists and writers.

In a procrastinating move to avoid my to-do list– quick check of what people are saying about St. Francis on this, his feast, I found a couple of interesting tidbits:

Universalis, as often is the case, has a nice little reflection on today’s saint. Here’s what he has to say about St. Francis:

“St Francis taught that we can all attain a devout and spiritual life, whatever our position in society: holiness is not reserved for monks and hermits alone. His wrote that ‘religious devotion does not destroy: it perfects,’ and his spiritual counsel is dedicated to making people more holy by making them more themselves. ….

*Jen at Conversion Diary (who will be speaking at this year’s Behold Conference in our diocese) has decided to take on a year of St. Francis de Sales.  She has a great way of translating St. Francis’ writing for a modern audience, as you can read in this post on “banishing the spiders.” 

*’bearing’, a blog I visit occasionally, is also blogging through Introduction to the Devout Life.  I haven’t had a chance to read too much of the series, but again it’s nice to see some of the “young ‘uns” writing and learning about this great saint.

*The Ironic Catholic has a free e-book giveaway for today only.   I already have this book and it is fun to read! (St. Francis de Sales is also the patron of her blog, proving she has great taste in saints, in addition to her excellent sense of humor).

 Today is also the baptism anniversary of our oldest daughter.   We tend to really mark baptism anniversaries in our house, so we’ll be celebrating at our house tonight!