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Two Books by Benedictine Priest Share Goodness of Persistence & Pizza

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I can say without a doubt that Brother Jerome and the Angels in the Bakery, by Benedictine Fr. Dominic Garramone (known for his “Baking Bread” PBS cooking show earlier this decade) is a keeper of a picture book.  That’s no small feat, as good picture books are in the minority of those published.

Here’s how:  when I was looking for my review copy of Brother Jerome to get the some details, I couldn’t find it anywhere.   A search of the house found it half-hidden under a certain seven-year-old’s bed.   Even though our son is an independent reader, we have a tradition of reading picture books together, so I had read it to all my kids earlier that week as a kind of “test” of its appeal.    (I’ve done this with other children’s books that have come in for reviews; sadly, many get rejected this way). 

Since then, various family conversations consist of said seven-year-old repeats something chuckle-inducing from the book.  He’ll remember how the angels joke that St. Michael and his armies will be coming down to the bakery for a coffee break, or when Brother Jerome’s guardian angel Gus (short for Gustibus) tells him to open the bakery door and that “they will come flying in.” 

And they do, both angels, and eventually, happy human customers.  Brother Jerome learns about persistence, making the best of every situation, gratitude and cheerfulness, and we learn along with him. The only thing missing was a great bread or corn muffin recipe to go along with all the wonderful, mouth-watering descriptions of baked treats.

That’s where Thursday Night Pizza:  Father Dominic’s Favorite Pizza Recipes, Father Dom’s other new book, fits in beautifully.  At the Abbey, pizza is most often eaten on Thursday night, during the Benedictine community’s tradition of “Haustas.”

 Haustas,  (Latin for “to be filled” or “satisfied”) is the weekly night of snacks & relaxation in Father Dom’s Benedictine community. Because Friday is a monastery day of fast & abstinence, many pizzas would be off -limits, so Thursday night becomes the time when pizza, snacks and special drinks are provided as the brothers play board games, debate politics and otherwise catch up.

I enjoy cooking and especially sweets baking, but I’ve never been consistently successful at breads or pizzas.  Thursday Night Pizza encourages me to try again to make homemade.  With Father Dom’s easy-to-follow recipes and careful descriptions of different crusts, American-style and Italian-style crust (I’ll be going with the Italian), I feel a new confidence to try, and soon.  More importantly, the  brothers’  weekly tradition of “haustas,” of relaxation & snacks, challenges our family to carve out a new fun tradition of our own.

Meet a Reader: Father Dominic Garramone, OSB

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Meet a Reader:  Father Dominic Garramone, OSB
1.  How do we know you?
I could be known for any number of things!  I’m a 1979 grad of Spalding, a Benedictine priest of Saint Bede Abbey, religion teacher and drama director for Saint Bede Academy, TV baker on public television, cookbook author and children’s author.
2.  Why do you love reading? 
I used to love reading mostly because it transported me to other worlds and alternate realities—I’m a big fan of fantasy writers like Tolkien, Anne McAffrey, Patricia McKillip, etc.  But as I grow older and (one hopes) more mature, I especially appreciate that reading is such a reflective exercise—it promotes reflection, meditation, discussion.  You always have the luxury re-reading a paragraph or having recourse to a dictionary or reading it aloud to someone else in the room, or just saying to yourself: “Stop—I want to think about this for a minute.”
3.  What are you reading now?
Right now our monastery table reading is And There Was Light, the autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, blind hero of the French Resistance—absolutely gripping.  I’m reading Everyday Life of Medieval Travellers by Marjorie Rowling, as part of class prep for teaching church history.
4.  What is your favorite book, and why?
Apart from the Bible and the Rule of Saint Benedict, my favorite book is The Supper of the Lamb: a Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon.  No other book has influenced my cooking and my view of creation as much as this work—a great read for anyone who can see preparing food as a spiritual act and a share in God’s creative work.
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Note from your blog host:  This month’s “Meet a Reader” is also the author of both of this month’s featured books, Thursday Night Pizza and children’s book Brother Jerome and the Angels in the Bakery.  I’ve always wanted to feature local authors here, and when the chance popped up I was delighted, and resolved to ask him to be our “Meet a Reader” this month, as well.

Thanks, Father Dominic, for being willing to be a part of this feature!

Bethlehem Books is Having a Sale–Some Early Ideas for Your Christmas List

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Bethlehem Books is having a Christmastime sale, and that makes me want to go shopping.  Yes, I am a book geek (if that were not obvious yet), and books are almost always my favorite gifts to give and receive.
Bethlehem Books self-describes as a book publisher “dedicated to putting good literature into children’s hands by re-printing quality books from the earlier part of the 20th century. We publish tried and true historical fiction, adventure tales, biographies, and family stories which help children and young adults expand their imagination and understand the past.” 

Amen to all that!  Virtually every single Behlehem book our family owns or anyone in our family has read from the library has been a “hit.”  That’s an amazing track record for any publisher, so it should be obvious the people at Bethlehem Books have amazingly taste in good older books.  One proviso is that the books are often best, at least to start, as a “read-aloud,” and then often various children (or adults) will abscond with the book to read ahead.

Bethlehem Books are often found in Catholic and Christian bookstores, as well as their website, and other online retailers.   On a recent family trip to England, I even saw a few titles of Bethlehem books at the Daughters of St. Paul shop in London.

I’ve only just started my own wish list from Bethlehem Books.  I wish I had a paper catalog to peruse, because unfortunately, the website is a little tricky to navigate.  Meanwhile, here are some of our family favorites:

*The Bantry Bay series:  This series about an Irish family and their adventures in 1930s Ireland is written by popular author Hilda von Stockum.  The Cottage at Bantry Bay is first in the series, followed by Francie on the Run and Pegeen.   I love all three, but my favorite would have to be Francie on the Run for his various adventures and mishaps trying to return home solo after a stay in a Dublin hospital to fix his “lame foot.”

*The Mitchells series:  We’ve only read the first in this other Hilda von Stockum series –The Mitchells:  Five for Victory–about a Washington, D.C. family during WW II, so  I guess I’d have to put Canadian Summer and Friendly Gables near the top of our wish list.  The interplay of the siblings, their family, friends and neighbors is realistic and just plain fun.

*Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard.  This is a great historical fiction account of how St. Augustine brought , told through the eyes of St. Augustine, two local (fictional) children, Fritha and Rolf.  An exciting story with lots of historical detail.   When another family tried to borrow it, we couldn’t find our copy, so I might have to order another one.  It’s jus such a great book!

*Madeleine Takes Command  by Ethel Brill tells the story of how 14-year-old Madeleine, her two younger brothers and a few others work to hold off an Indian attack on their French Canadian fort in the 1690s.  Exciting and read numerous times by various members of our family.

*Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford Hicks.  This is probably the best of the Alvin mystery stories written by Hicks, though I see Bethlehem also publishes two other of the Alvin books (Alvin Fernald, Foreign Trader and Alvin Fernald, Mayor for a Day); both now on my wish list.  Alvin’s Secret Code concerns a Civil War treasure and the mystery of its location, and Alvin of course solves it, at the same time learning about secret codes.  

More than a year ago, we read Alvin’s Secret Code in the girls book group my daughters and I host, and I contacted Mr. Hicks to see if he would be a “virtual visitor” to our group via phone.  He was so sweet in responding to me by letter to say his hearing was not very good, so a phone call was not a good idea, but he answered lots of questions and thanked us for our interest.  He passed away just a few months ago, so I will especially treasure that letter and his friendship to our book group.
*Finally, I must share a great little biography of my favorite author, Jane Austen.  Presenting Miss Jane Austenby May Lamberton Becker is a gentle introduction to the life and work of the great Jane.

I could go on and on, but this is a good start.

If you are familiar with the Bethlehem Books, take a moment to share one or two (or more!) of your favorites in the comments.  If you’re not, do take some time to check out this great publisher.

Father Dom

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I’m excited for the appearance of Father Dominic Garramone, OSB, at Lagron-Miller, the Catholic bookseller here in Peoria.  Fr. Dominic will be at a book signing Friday, November 26, at the store, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
This won’t be my first Fr. Dom book signing.  I have great memories of another one, and I can testify that he is delightful in person.   In 2000 or early 2001, my husband sent me to Lagron-Miller, for a booksigning for Father’s new book at the time, Breaking Bread with Father Dominic 2.    We had a newborn and a three-year-old at the time, and I think my dear husband wanted me to have a morning out.  So, baby in sling, I made my way there.
Father Dominic was, if possible,  far nicer in person than his television persona.  I remember being somewhat apologetic and “confessing” to having a bread machine, and he made a joke, something about bread machines not being the spawn of the devil.  With small children, and someone who doesn’t like kneading much, it could be a good way to make fresh bread, he said.
I no longer have the bread machine, because as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a not very successful baker of either bread or pizza.    But Father Dom’s newest book, and some ideas for crusts, I have a new confidence to try, and I’ll try my hand again at “food blogging” this month as I did in August when we discussed Fr. Leo’s book Grace Before Meals.

A Laugh for Early November

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You might, like me, need a good laugh early in the day.  I  recently discovered (via Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com & Faith and Family Live!)  a great group of charming videos produced by a Harvard grad student, Matt Weber, that are Catholic, engaging and fun.

This article tells the whole story about how this enterprising young man started making these videos.

Here’s one video on confession.  This brought many, many laughs at our house:

We also love this one, an appreciation of letter-writing, the Mother Teresa stamp. I can’t find it on YouTube to embed here, for some reason, but if you visit Catholic TV you can view it. Well worth the visit!

First, What are You Reading? Volume 3

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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 (I’ve abandoned the Mr. Linky for now!) and/or sharing yours here in the comments or on Facebook.  This month, I’m scrunching all my answers into one, because I’m concerned otherwise this might never post.  Happy reading and I hope you’ll share what you are reading!

First, what are you reading?


I’m reading a ton of books right now, preparing for December’s gift column (don’t you agree books make a good gift?), as well as improvement books for January, as in turning a new leaf.  Lots of interesting reading to share.

There are two that I’m especially enjoying:

The Grace to Race by Sister Madonna Buder.  This is the story of an 80-year-old nun who is also a record-breaking triathlete.  This impresses me, because while I’m a triathlete (having completed the Seattle Danskin Women’s Triathlon last year with my four sisters–that’s a great story for another time), I am by no means fast.  She didn’t start running until her late 40s, and still keeps going.  I wasn’t sure I would like this book, but so far I am loving her style, her call to vocation, and her sheer energy.   Also, she has a special fondness for the Blessed Mother and St. Therese, the Little Flower, so I’m hooked.

Carney’s House Party/Winona’s Pony Cart: Two Deep Valley Books (P.S.)
in an excellent new edition. I could.not.WAIT for this new release of an old classic, by Betsy-Tacy author Maud Hart Lovelace, because the foreward for Carney’s House Party was written by prolific blogger and fellow Betsy-Tacy fan Melissa Wiley.  I knew about Betsy-Tacy books before I knew about Melissa Wiley’s blog, but she’s made it so much fun to be a superfan of this great series.  And I was not disappointed in her great foreward, and I’m so enjoying reading this great classic again.