Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Book Reviews

Real Books Still Matter {My @TheCatholicPost column}

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Here is my column that appears in this weekend’s print edition of The Catholic Post.  I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions of other “real” books that matter.

Do real live books matter any more?
Since I write about books, you probably think that I am required to say “yes.”  I am a huge book lover, having a houseful of many genres.  I get books from publishers nearly every day and am always searching out the best of new Catholic books to share with readers.
But I’m no Luddite when it comes to reading.  I get much of my news from news apps on my phone & the computer; I have a Kindle app that I use frequently; and regular readers of the Catholic Post Book Group blog know that I love to promote Catholic titles available for e-readers.
And yet, there is “something” about a well-done book that inspires admiration.  Books—the real thing– are a unique format for transmitting ideas, stories and life that simply can’t be replaced in any other way, particularly in a digital format.
Take the YOUCAT, for example—the Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church—released this year worldwide in advance of World Youth Day next month, but intended to be a perennial resource.  YOUCAT is an extraordinarily well-produced volume that takes seriously how books can-and should- matter.   The feel  of YOUCAT is “just right,” the photos are handsome, and the line drawings exhibit both a sense of humanity and humor.  It’s clear that the design team took care to make it both beautiful and fun. This book matters, and not just because of its comprehensive content.
I had the book for more than a month before the design “sense of humor” caught up with me, and I discover new elements each time I open YOUCAT.  For instance, each section of the 10 Commandments begins with a tiny line drawing of Moses leaning on a tablet displaying the commandment’s number.   Another clever touch that will make you laugh: if you have a copy of the YOUCAT, start at the first page and look in the lower right hand corner, and you’ll know what to do.
Even though the YOUCAT is full of extras, it doesn’t have that cluttery feel some modern books-with-lots-of-sidebars exhibit.
One very minor frustration with the YOUCAT—the numbering doesn’t mirror the Catholic Catechism of the Church, since the YOUCAT has 527 entries, and the CCC has more than 2000.  This isn’t a huge problem, as both volumes follow the same four-section organization (creed, sacraments, morality and prayer), so it’s pretty easy to look something up in the CCC if you want to expand on a particular topic.
The other downside is that the terrific quotes that line the pages of YOUCAT are not indexed.  So when you want to find that great little quote you might have to search.  That’s not the worst thing, as YOUCAT is a joy to spend time with.
Most will consider YOUCAT a reference, but I hesitate to call it that lest it be left on a shelf like a dictionary, to be consulted rarely.  YOUCAT should be in constant use.  As Pope Benedict XVI writes in the introduction, “Study this Catechism with passion and perseverance.  Study it in the quiet of your room; read it with a friend; form study groups and networks; share with each other on the Internet. You need to be more deeply rooted in the faith than the generation of your parents.”
Young people and others will appreciate another book that matters, in both content and design:  Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints, by Colleen Swaim.  This book is a gem, plain and simple.  Here are just three of the best elements:
*the book include several well-known saints, like St. Dominic Savio and St. Maria Goretti, but these bios aren’t the “same-old” facts.  Swaim infuses the stories with a fresh, invigorating voice that shows these remarkable people as more 3-dimensional than the usual narratives.
*the bulk of the book is new-to-most saints, or saints most will only have a passing knowledge of, from St. Kitizio of Africa to Blessed Chiara of Italy, and many others.   Their stories are told in a way that makes Ablaze a must-read.  It truly inspires a sense of longing for holiness.
*each saint/chapter ends with “saintly challenges,” offering readers a chance to apply the lessons of the saint’s life to his or her own, through media, prayers and recipes.  Think trying a homemade chai tea recipe to give as a gift after reading about St. Alphonsa from India, or being challenged to put into practice a daily schedule to emulate St. Stantislaus.  There are movie suggestions, simple virtue development ideas, and tons of other great ideas and challenges.

Meet a Writer: Matt Pope

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This month on the book page of the Catholic Post, I tried something a little different.  Instead of “Meet a Reader,” in which I interview a local reader, I featured two local writers, and why they love to write.  On the blog, there are not space considerations, so I’m able to feature the longer answers and my mini-reviews.


Today I’m featuring Matt Pope, author of a slim but beautifully inspiring poetry-novel called Emily’s Verse.  The book is a little hard to describe–it might sound strange, a novel in the form of poems–but Emily’s Verse is easy to read and quite moving, with a pro-life message that is well-done and powerful. 


 Enjoy!
 
Who: Matt Pope
How You Know Me: I work as a copy machine repair technician,  and write in my spare time. My wife Mandy, a teacher at Holy Cross school in Champaign, and I have two small children, and our family attends St. Patrick’s parish in Urbana.
Why I love writing;  I love writing because it gives me the opportunity to introduce potential readers to the pantheon of characters that are running around in my head.  As writers we see the world around us in a slightly different vein, we see potential characters and story lines.  This is the way of a writer and part of the reason why I love to write.  The other reason I love to write is because it is who I am as a person.  I have always been scribbling things down in notebooks for as long as I can remember.  No with the advent of the smart phone, my little notebook has been replaced, but the outcome is still the same.
My current book;  My current book is Emily’s Verse, a book in poem form about the full, rich, long  lifethat “could have been” of an aborted baby.
This book had been bouncing around in my head for the better part of 2 years.  I really put off writing, EV because I was working on other projects.  My hopes for this book would be that as young women read this book as possible.  I would be proud if this book saved the life of one baby, but I think that it has the potential to save many babies.
What I am Writing next:  Since I have a 2 and a 4 year old at home, my next project is a book of poetry for little kids.  Little rhythmical poems that make kids laugh, and introduce them to God at the same time.

Meet a Reader: Johnathan Steffen

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There’s such a funny story to go with how I found this month’s reader.

 



 
The deadline for this month’s print Catholic Post book page fell during Holy Week (prompting many “Catholic” jokes between my editor and me), and I was really scrambling to get everything completed.  As usually happens, I seem to have some trouble lining up a person to be a “Meet a Reader,” and in my haste to finish my column, I had completely let it slip again.  I was at our diocese’s Chrism Mass, held on Tuesday of Holy Week at the lovely Cathedral of St. Mary, because my three children were among the students representing our Catholic school.  In front of our pew sat a group of young men, and they struck me as seminarians.  I thought during the Mass, I bet I can get one of these guys to be my “Meet a Reader.”  Turns out they were high school students (our family runs pretty short, and they were tall). 
 
But the idea of finding a seminarian for “Meet a Reader” had taken hold, so after the Mass I enlisted the help of a bolder-than-I, dear, and talented friend also at the Mass to help me find one.  She assured me she knew several, so we walked around the cathedral looking for a likely candidate.  We found the absolutely delightful young man featured here. 
 

 

Thanks, Johnathan, for being such a good sport and providing such thoughtful answers to the four Meet-A-Reader questions!  We will be praying for you as you prepare for ordination.
 



How you know me:  I am a seminarian for the Diocese of Peoria studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.  I have been in seminary for five years and am looking forward to being ordained to the transitional diaconate on Sunday, May 22, 2011, at the Cathedral.  Before entering seminary, I taught high school English for five years and practiced law for 4 years.

 

Why I love reading:  Mostly, I enjoy reading because I like watching what an author can do with words.  Without ever having seen the 19th century unsettled prairieland of the Midwest, Willa Cather in My Antonia can place that prairie with its scents and colors and sounds directly in my mind simply by arranging letters on a page.  James Joyce in Ulysses can expand a single day with his words in a novel that takes a couple weeks of sustained and deliberate reading.  Truman Capote, Nathaniel Hawthorne, A.S. Byatt, and hundreds more all have special gifts:  keen description, shrewd commentary, textured characters….  Books are just wonderful places for readers to hide in for a while, and then reappear in the real world hours later with a sort of secret knowledge. 

What I’m reading now:  Currently, I am making my way through the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction 7th ed., a compendium of shorter titles from the American and English literary canons.  Short fiction—or poetry—works well for me during the academic terms in seminary since I am frequently interrupted with other classroom projects and don’t always have the leisure for longer works.  So far, my favorite stories from the collection include “Sonny’s Blues,” by James Baldwin;  “Death by Landscape,” by Margaret Atwood;  and “Heart of Darkness,” by Joseph Conrad.

My favorite book: I have never quite been able to convince myself of established criteria for determining what makes a novel a “good novel,” but if I find myself still thinking about the book, its characters or plot, months or even years after I’ve finished it, the story must have impressed me in some way.  


Of the novels I have physically laid down years ago but have never quite been able to put away from my own thoughts, two stand out:  Jealousy by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham.  Jealousy is an experimental French novel that subordinates plot and character to the details of the world perceived through the obsessive mind of the jilted narrator.  Its genius is that while the author explores so thoroughly the theme of jealousy and goes so far as to name his entire work with the word, the story never once describes any emotion at all.  Of Human Bondage is a more conventional novel in form that introduces the reader to a main character who struggles with grinding poverty, finding his vocation, and resolving philosophical ideals, but ultimately finds that the most perfect patterns in life are often the simplest.

Poetry Friday, Beatification Edition: A Poem by John Paul II

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I feel honored to be able to share one of my favorite poems from Karol Wojtyla, who became John Paul II, who will be beatified the day after tomorrow.

I had a nice time searching through the several books of JP II poetry I own, for just the right “one.”  I think I might have to post another one later today, there are so many that I like.  This post may end up being Poetry Friday, Part 1, so stay tuned.

This poem is from “The Church,” written at the Basilica of Saint Peter, Autumn 1962, when Wojtyla would have been in Rome for the beginning of Vatican II.

Marble floor


Our feet meet the earth in this place;
there are so many walls, so many colonnades,
yet we are not lost.  If we find
meaning and oneness,
it is the floor that guides us.  It joins the spaces
of this great edifice, and joins
the spaces within us,
who walk aware of our weakness and defeat.
Peter, you are the floor, that others
may walk over you (not knowing
where they go).  You guide their steps
so that spaces can be one in their eyes,
and from them thought is born.
You want to serve their feet that pass
as rock serves the hooves of sheep.
The rock is a gigantic temple floor,
the cross a pasture.

Meet a Reader: Father Don Roszkowski

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How we know you:  I’ve been a priest of the diocese for nearly 14 years, and I’ve had a number of assignments, from Peoria to Clinton to Bloomington to Odell to my current post of pastor of St. Mary’s Parish, Metamora, and St. Elizabeth, Washburn. 

Why I love reading:  As many people know about me, I have a form of dyslexia.  Throughout my school years, I worked hard at remedial classes, partially to prove wrong those people who thought I wouldn’t do well.  Because reading was so difficult at first, I have a great love for learning and reading and finding out about so many things. 

My favorite book:  I primarily like reading theology, and I especially enjoy Father Robert Barron’s writing style and his analogies.  Probably my favorite book of Barron’s is The Priority of Christ: A Postliberal Catholicism. Another classic I really love is Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ. 

What I’m reading now: Right now I’m reading two books.  One is what I call a “popcorn book,” an easy read with a short reflection for each day: Spirituality You Can Live With: Stronger Faith in 30 Days by Chris Padgett.  I’m also reading Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. 

A Good Spiritual Library is a Hospital for the Soul

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Here is my March column that appears in the print Catholic Post this weekend.
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Are you ready for Lent yet?  Not quite?
I’m not, either.
Lent and Easter are so late this year that it should be a cinch to have all our Lenten devotions and practices spelled out, but it never seems to happen that way.  So I have started to set aside some books.  That’s because I know that alongside prayer, fasting and almsgiving, spiritual reading can make Lent fruitful, even more so than giving up my beloved dark chocolate.
There’s a great book blog called “A Library is a Hospital for the Mind.”  With a nod to that fascinating title, I submit that good spiritual reading is a kind of “hospital for the soul.”  If you haven’t had spiritual reading as part of your Lenten practice, or are looking for something fresh, here are a few suggestions of newer books to consider:
*The Little Way of Lent: Meditations in the Spirit of St. Therese of Lisieux by Fr. Gary Caster, a priest of the diocese of Peoria.  [Full disclosure here:  Father Caster was my boss when I taught high school for two years, and I’ve known him for nearly two decades. ] Father Caster draws on a long devotion to the “Little Flower” to give meditations for each day of Lent.  “What struck me,” Father Caster writes St. Therese, “was her insistence on the way we do things for God and not the things we do for him.  It wasn’t about what I was offering; it was about why.”  There are great little “nuggets” of quotes from St. Therese at the end of each reflection.
*”God speaks to us in the great silence of our heart,” is a famous quote from St. Augustine, and the frontspiece for Finding Your Hidden Treasure:  The Way of Silent Prayer by Benignus O’Rourke, OFA.  This nicely–sized book is truly “treasure”-filled with short meditations and encouragement from St. Augustine and his spirituality.  Finding Your Hidden Treasure is a wonderful read, eliciting a spirit of silence and peace on every page.
*Lent & Easter Wisdom from St. Benedict, by Judith Sutera, OSB, is the newest in Liguori’s “Lent & Easter Wisdom” series (other authors include GK Chesterton, Fulton Sheen and many others).   There’s a short quote from St. Benedict, Scripture verse, prayer, and Lenten action for each day of Lent and Easter Week.  A great instructive guide to St. Benedict’s thoughts.
*If you’re ready this Lent to take on a classic like St. Francis de Sales Introduction to the Devout Life, consider an excellent new edition by TAN Classics.  For many years, TAN was a reliable publisher of classics and great new books, but the graphic design and book quality were… let’s just say they left a little something to desired.
Since TAN was acquired by Saint Benedict Press several years ago, all that has changed.  The books are still the great classics, like Story of a Soul, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and others are here.  The difference is that the books have handsome, durable covers; beautiful typesetting and fonts, and just the right “feel.” Finally, these great classics have a production value that begins to match their greatness.
–What are your favorite Lenten reads?  What are you planning to read this Lent?