Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

first what are you reading?

First, What Are You Reading? Volume 20, April 2012

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Last year, I did an April Fool’s version of First, What Are You Reading?, but this year I don’t want to waste an opportunity to share some really good books with you.  Enjoy, and I can’t wait to hear what you are reading.

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 to read? 

As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?  

Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists with an introduction by Leonard S. Marcus

Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman

What do you like best about them?

The graphic book I was going to talk about in this space was so bad I don’t even want to name it .  It was about media bias and media coverage, and it was terrible.  Far better for kids and adults to have a healthy sense of

So I decided to substitute another graphic novel read that is well-done, and Nursery Rhyme Comics fits the bill.  I really enjoyed the interesting takes on classic Mother Goose-type rhymes.  Some are better than others, but it’s a neat idea.  Leonard Marcus’ introduction talks about how each artist was able to craft a “back story” for the rhymes.  I especially loved “Pat-a-Cake” by Gene Luen Yang and “Hickory Dickory Dock” by Stephanie Yue.

Love, love, LOVE Nerd Camp.  Gabe is 10 years old, and heading off to the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment, better known as Smart Camp for Geeks and Eggheads, or Nerd Camp.  He realizes he is a nerd because of his soon-to-be stepbrother Zach, who scoffs at things “nerds” would like, like reading actual books, being in math club, and going to camp to learn.  Gabe decides to make a logic proof of the whole summer, deciding whether or not he is, in fact, a nerd. 

I read Nerd Camp one weekend afternoon after a morning of cleaning and when I was too tired to do any “real” writing or tougher reading.  It was just the right pick-me-up.  I laughed out loud, delighted in the story and in how terrific it is to be a nerd. 

Great things about the actual camp, and why I want to go there:

*a Funny Quotes poster, where Gabe and his buddies write down funny things they say

*learning the digits of pi.

*the  karaoke sing-off between Gabe and his girl nemesis (or friend?) Amanda.  The song?  An alphabetical listing the countries of the world.    I’m “this” close to writing the author of the book to see if such a song really exists.

*Jeopardy with Alex Trebeck as the actual host.

*a 13-year-old who is the “cool” nerd for making a clandestine lab at camp.

What do you like least about them?

Because there are so many artists in Nursery Rhyme Comics, there are plenty that fall flat, or just really aren’t as good as others.  But so many do work, I think the book is a worthwhile read overall.

It’s just a little sad that part of Nerd Camp revolves around a divorce, with parents sharing custody of Gabe, and his father getting married again.  But it’s not handled negatively or positively.  It primarily serves as a plot device to put Gabe in the path of a non-nerd in the form of his soon-to-be new step-brother.  In our family, this just served as a discussion topic, brought up seamlessly.

What’s next on your list to read?

Working through a list of potential fiction for my June column.  This is no problem, as I love fiction.  Finding the time amid spring cleaning and “life” has been more of a challenge lately.

So, what are you reading these days?  Any books you would like to share?

First, What Are You Reading? Volume 19, March 2012

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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 to read? 

As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?  

Ready for Anything: Productivity Principles for Work & Life by management consultant David Allen.

Love Multiplies by Michelle and Jim-Bob Duggar.

What do you like best about them?

I first read David Allen’s Getting Things Done a few years back, but found his ideas (more than a system, really) a little too daunting. The idea of “getting things out of your head,” and clearing your in-box to zero, just seemed impossible.  The only thing I remember taking away from it was if you can do something in 2 minutes, you should just do it then, because otherwise it will take up space in your brain that slows you down.  This really does make a difference with household things, like setting the timer for a few minutes and trying to clear off a surface, empty the dishwasher, etc.   It’s remarkable how much progress you can make.  A recent “Meet a Reader” Dr. Andy Bland, mentioned David Allen as a favorite author (and Andy mentioned he regularly has an empty in-box), I thought I’d give this productivity guru another try.

I’m reading Ready for Anything in the hopes of gleaning good information about general productivity skills for family and work.  With managing our household, my work for the Catholic Post, and now my wildly busy but amazingly fun volunteering work for the Behold Conference, I find myself missing critical e-mails and not staying on top of things they way I should.   At the moment, I’m just soaking up the wisdom in the short essays and questions in Ready for Anything, and hoping some of that will stick and help me manage everything better.  I have to confess this book, to me, is like Flylady for professionals, and I do love Flylady.

Why do I feel a wee bit embarrassed to admit reading Love Multiplies by Duggar family?  (For those who don’t know, they are famous for their TLC reality series, 19 Kids and Counting.) For some reason, we have been Duggar-focused in the last few weeks.  I had DVRd some of the shows on TLC, and watch with the kids when we just need some downtime.  Trust me, it’s a very engaging, wholesome show.  My husband watched a few with us, and has taken to joking sometimes, “Are we watching the Kardashians today?”   This is what we like to call at our house, “theologian humor,” but we all laugh.  Can I ask again, why are the Kardashians famous?  It’s completely baffling.

When we watch the show, we point out where the Duggars’ beliefs might not be exactly Catholic, but a lot of their ideas are very practical and they display a very honest, earnest desire to be the best they can, and thereby serve and glorify God.

So both of their books came from the library, and I have to say that after reading more from them, it’s clear they are pretty sensible people with good hearts.  I found myself thinking, like I did about Steve Jobs last fall:  “not far from the kingdom of God.” 

The Duggars’ faith and their parenting is based on love, not fear. They truly try to help their children develop healthy relationships with one another and the world.  The parents work hard on their own marriage and on managing distress and anger.   They have some helpful ideas about living below your means. They try to live out the Gospel as they see it, and raise their children to be servants.

I was definitely skeptical before reading their books, and even dismissed them as a “full quiver” type of Christian, but in fact they specifically say they don’t believe in that, and really just are committed to remaining open to life, and grateful for God’s gift of children.

Some might laugh at this, but I found myself thinking of the Duggars again last weekend, when our family attended liturgy at Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church–we try to go every few months, because it’s an awesome liturgy and a beautiful, icon-filled church.  During the liturgy, this thought popped up: “Imagine if the Duggars were Byzantine Catholic.”  I know it seems far-fetched, even incongruous, but how beautiful, for the Duggars, who really do have such a heart for following Christ, could see it brought to its fullness to experience the transcendent and beautiful liturgy.  All the chanting, incense, and reverence.  And the Duggars, with their diligence, honesty and desire for good, would be amazing apologists for the faith.   Hey, stranger things have happened.

What do you like least about them?

What’s most annoying about Ready for Anything is not being able to implement things because I’m just too darn busy.

As far as the Duggars, I’m old enough now to take away the good things from the Duggars without going overboard.  Instead of thinking I need mirror them (I need to shop exclusively at thrift stores! wear only skirts! make tater tot casserole!

My family doesn’t look like their family.  Earlier in my marriage and my family life, I might have thought, “I need to take all these ideas, our days need to look like theirs, my kids need to dress matching, etc.”  Instead, I take away the good and leave behind the not necessary, but truly, there is a lot of good among the Duggars.

Most apealling about both of these books is the attraction of virtue.  It’ natural to be attracted to what is good there.  But we don’t have to emulate every bit of it.  Look at the variety of saints—all so different in the way they exhibited holiness.  Think of the difference between a St. Catherine of Siena and a St. Gianna Molla, or the difference between St. Francis of Assisi or St. Francis de Sales.

To paraphrase Tolstoy (actually, he said the opposite), all happy families are happy in their own way.  There are many ways to be a happy, productive person and a happy, healthy family.

What’s next on your list to read?

Normally I set aside Lenten reading well ahead of time, but I have not done so this year.  The only spiritual reading I’m doing  (other than the tons of books I peruse for the Post) is my usual reading of the Divine Liturgy (that I read on my most used app, hands down, the Universalis App, and as usual this time of year they are really good).  I need to remedy that, so let me leave you with a quote from The Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales.  This is a book I try to read each Lent. 

Your language should be restrained, frank, sincere, candid, unaffected, and honest.  Be on guard against equivocation, ambiguity, or dissimulation.  While it is not always advisable to say all that is true, it is never permissible to speak against the truth.  Therefore, you must become accustomed to never to tell a deliberate lie whether to excuse yourself or for some other purposes, remembering always that God is the “God of truth.”
So, what are you reading these days?  Any books you would like to share?

First, What Are You Reading? Volume 16, Christmas Book Edition, December 2011

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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 to read? 

As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

Normally, I finish my “first, what are you reading?” post well in advance of the first day of the month, but  this month I did not.  Rather than make it a “second, what are you reading?” post, I’m going to quickly list a couple of Christmas classic books, and invite you to share yours.  No “what I like best, least or next” this time.  You’ll have to fill in for me.  And don’t forget to enter the book giveaway that ends tonight.


First, what are you reading?  


Linda, a fellow library volunteer, shared with me a great book that I read to kids this week in the school library.  It’s called Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto.  It’s a very sweet and funny book, makes you want to make tamales after you finish, and also funny.  A couple of the classes of kids and I worked out the math problems if four kids had to eat the 24 tamales, how many tamales each?  Thanks for introducing it to me, Linda!

We haven’t gotten out any of our Christmas books yet, but two of our absolute favorites are The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy by Jane Thayer (note that we have that actual older edition, given to me several years back by one of my sisters).  It’s fairly goofy, but I pretty much have it memorized after reading it four Christmases ago literally every day from about December 15 to mid-February, so fond was our then four-year-old of that book.  We all still love it.

The other every Christmas must read aloud, though my kids are getting older, is Rumer Godden’s The Story of Holly & Ivy”


.  I see a handsome new edition came out last Christmas, and I might have to invest in that this year.  We have a very old edition of this.

What are the favorite perennial Christmas books at your house?

First, What are You Reading? Volume 15, November 2011

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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 to read? 

As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?  

Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith.    Esquith teaches in a troubled Los Angeles school with few success stories, and yet manages to transform the lives of his 5th grade students year after year.

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles is by Padraic Colum, and illustrated by Willy Pogany.  My 8-year-old son and I are reading this to each other, with other family members listening in from time to time.

What do you like best about them?

Here’s what I loved about Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire:  Esquith writes all about making a great classroom culture and holding kids to a high standard.  He teaches them problem-solving as a key skill, and challenges the students to act right at the highest level of behavior.  He and his students perform an acclaimed Shakespeare play every year.  He takes his students on trips to broaden their horizons and shows them classic movies to foster a sense of media literacy—I could go on and on.  He’s a powerhouse, and his many awards are well-deserved.  This would be a great book for any teacher, or really any parent, to get great ideas (or be confirmed in your own) for enriching the lives of children.

Padraid Colum was an Irish writer.  I’m not sure where I picked up the handsome Aladdin paperback of The Children’s Homer, but once I started reading it with my 8-year-old son, we were hooked.  Other than various adaptations over the years, I’ve never been good at reading The Odyssey and other classic Greek literature.  I downloaded an Odyssey App once, but found the language less than friendly to my style.  Colum’s language, while a little old-fashioned, hooked us quickly and we love the amazingly great stories.  After we finished The Children’s Homer, we started on The Golden Fleece.  Colum won the Newberry award for The Children’s Homer, The Golden Fleeceand The Children of Odin.

What do you like least about them?

A big deficit of Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire is the amount of stuff Esquith is able to accomplish with his kids, and how someone reading it might feel inadequate.  It reminds me of when we used to educate our children at home—a danger could be visiting the blogs of other moms who seemed to be able to “do it all,” and how that kind of information was depressing instead of challenging.

Esquith is an amazing teacher, but in a way it’s more of a vocation.  It doesn’t appear he has children; his wife is very involved in helping his classroom succeed.  His kind of dedication and single-minded pursuit of great teaching isn’t realistic for most people, with families and other responsibilities.

I don’t necessarily think that a teacher, whether in public, private or homeschooling, should attempt to replicate, even over the course of a lifetime, Esquith’s successes.  However, there are so many great take-away points that it’s a very helpful read.

I don’t really care for the Willy Pogany illustrations in The Golden Fleece and other Colum books.  They are not terrible, just not my style.  Otherwise, these Colum/Pogany books are all good.

What’s next on your list to read?

I am reading many, many books that would be good as gifts for my December column.

So, what are you reading these days?  Any books you would like to share?

First, What Are You Reading? Volume 14, October 2011

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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 to read?
As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!
First, what are you reading?
The Wilder Life:  My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure.

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo.


What do you like best about them?
The Wilder Life is so wonderful—it’s writer Wendy McClure’s poignant, meandering and very funny months-long pilgrimage to Laura Ingalls Wilder sites and re-reading the books and related books.  McClure had grown up loving the books (not the television show, as she continually tells us), like I had, so I found her perspective so … me.   And I know I’m not the only one–those of us who loved the Laura books as a girl are featured in this book, primarily McClure herself.  We’re a varied bunch, but it’s a fun sorority to be a part of.

Heaven is for Real is very poignant and sweetly written story from a Dad’s perspective about his son’s near death experience and visions of heaven.  Todd is an evangelical pastor, but nothing in the book contradicts the Catholic faith that I could tell.  In fact, he makes a point of mentioning Catholics several times in a respectful way, which I find refreshing.  I did enjoy reading this quick, inspiring read after a fellow school mom recommended it (See, I actually do ask people in person, what are you reading? Thanks, Jeanne!).

What I love most about this book is not the book itself.   When my 5th grade daughter saw it on my nightstand, she mentioned that her teacher was reading it, and was it okay for her to read?  I said sure.  Since she is a fast reader, she finished it by the next day and was ready to talk.  Wow, the conversations, especially late-night conversations, we have had about this book.  I also just found out in recent days that a junior high teacher is reading it with all the upper grades, and so my 8th grader has read it and discussed it as well, so we’ve been able to share a lot about it.

My husband is a theologian, and I’ve been known to joke on many occasions, well, I’m not the theologian in the family.  Turns out my husband has some more competition in the theologian department.  This is a fact we already knew with the Zen-like questions our son used to ask when he was 4 (such as, “Can you spell Jesus without any letters?”).

What do you like least about them?
Oh, I cried and cried at the end of The Wilder Life, not only because I finished the book on my late father’s birthday, as McClure reflected on her own mother’s death a year before.  I also cried because I expected a plot twist that didn’t happen.  That may sound odd, but I don’t want to give anything away about the book.  If you have read it and were also waiting for a  certain “plot twist,” let’s talk about it in the comments, and see if you agree with me that the ending is so poignant on many levels.  Crying at the end of a book is not really a bad thing, so it’s not really something I “didn’t like.”

This isn’t really a think I disliked about Heaven is For Real, just an interesting point that came up in discussions with a young theologian in our house.  Todd Burpo keeps mentioning that his son couldn’t possibly know some of the details from Scripture that describe heaven.  What occurred to our 5th grader was that as a Catholic, even a 4-year-old would have heard some of those Scriptures at Mass, in particular around the certain feasts like we just had several days ago at Mass on the feast of the Archangels.

What’s next on your list to read?
Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire by Rafe Esquith.  Already partway through and enjoying this one.

I truly wish I could be reading Gone With the Wind along with my 13-year-old daughter, but I’m not.  I brought home a handsome new edition from the library thinking I might try to read it, but she absconded with it and I quickly realized I would not have time for this huge read right now.  So I did the next best thing and asked a dear longtime online friend, author and GWTW lover, Cay Gibson, for any “content issues” I should keep in mind.  And because she is dear, she gave lots of great ideas and also comfort, as 13 was the age she first read GWTW.  Much as I would love to keep up with everything my kids read, sometimes you have to outsource, and I’m glad to have friends to count on for this.

So, what are you reading these days?  Any books to share?

First, What Are Reading? Volume 13, September 2011

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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 to read? 
As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

What are you reading?  
Get Real: What Kind of World Are You Buying? By Mara Rockliff.  This book is about responsible buying and consumerism. 
Good Calories/Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.
What do you like best about them?
Getting Real is very eye-opening in its discussion of where things come from. I like best that it challenges kids to not think as consumers but as people.  The book helps kids realize that they hold enormous power in their buying power, and also that they are influenced by the ads they see, regardless of what they think.   I gave it to my 13-year-old daughter after I read it, and told her that I didn’t agree with everything in the book.  She agreed that she didn’t like everything about it, but especially thought that she was more immune to advertisements than others.  I had to laugh at that, and we had a good discussion about trying to remain conscious about the lure of consumerism.
I think that’s one of the best take-away points.  You are influenced by the culture around you.  Realizing it and accepting it will help you be a savvier consumer, and overall a better person.  That’s not just true about consumerism, but also media we consume.  If you think you can watch or read whatever is around and think it has no effect on you, you’re wrong.
I’m not sure what I like about Good Calories/Bad Calories.  He is good and award-winning science writer, but it’s a science and nutrition book I found hard to get through.
What do you like least about them?
Getting Real is a little, no, a lot, on the frankly polemic side against any sort of non-local business, whether it’s Wal-Mart, Starbucks  or McDonalds. I find those kind of attacks that shed more heat than light, and disregard the strides these companies have made.  I will admit, of course, that it’s because of the strident protests by people like Rockliff.   What I find annoying about Rockliff’s approach is that it’s kind of an either/or, rather than a both.
For instance, I can find much more, and better quality, organic produce, at our closest Wal-Mart than I can at our local grocery store.  I also can find that at our local farmer’s market, which I do in the summer, but I am so grateful to have the source of great healthful produce (and inexpensive other groceries) year-round from Wal-Mart.    And while my kids dislike McDonald’s in general (except for the breakfasts), I enjoy the oatmeal and the salads and enjoy having those healthful options when traveling or needing a drive-through.
I just don’t buy the notion that all big business is bad, just like I don’t buy the notion that big government is bad.  I’m glad that there are McDonalds, Starbucks and Wal-Marts, and I’m glad there are national parks, the military, and lots of other things in federal government.  I know both those “biggies” can improve, but Getting Real seems to think we’d be better off without big business, instead of trying to improve them, in the same way some more radical libertarians want to do away with the federal government.   Both those are too extreme for me.
Good Calories, Bad Calories is frustrating because there’s essentially no conclusion, other than the argument it makes that a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet is not good fit for human consumption.  More troubling, I find, is Taubes apparent claim that the only way to live healthy, long and trim, is with essentially a no-carbohydrate diet.  He claims that people who eat only meat suffer no ill effects.  Some of the arguments in the book just made my head spin.  So if eating only meat and high-protein, high-fat foods is the only way to go, what do you do when it’s your birthday?  No birthday cake?  No vegetables?  Strange.
Reading this gave me a kind of reverse of déjà vu from reading The China Study several years back, a book that makes an equally dense and impassioned, well-documented argument that the only way to live healthy, trim and long is through a vegan diet.   I’d like to get these two authors in a room to duke it out.
My problem with both of those nutrition exposes (not sure how to get the accent there, I mean the noun, not the verb) is a tendency to over-dramatize.   Yes, clearly, the low-fat, refined carbohydrate diet is not healthy, but I thought we all know that by now.  By the same token, few people will be able to stay on either a no-carbohydrate or completely vegan diet forever, regardless of how healthy.
Much more interesting, but only occasionally referenced, was the notion that overweight and obese people do not necessarily overeat, but may have a barely perceptible hormone imbalance.  That would be interesting to explore or solve.
Finally, I just found it ridiculous that Taubes dismisses exercise as a way to manage weight and stay healthy.   I’m not going to even start on that.
What’s next on your list to read?

I’ve actually just finished The Wilder Life:  My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure, and I LOVED it, but I want to wait to next month to write about it.  It’s that good.  Stay tuned.
I’ve also downloaded for the Kindle App some Georgette Heyer books, written in the mid-20th century.  They’re kind of romance/mystery/madcap books for people who love Jane Austen.  I learned from Austenblog earlier this month that there was an e-book sale, so I grabbed a couple of titles I have not yet read.    Unfortunately, I have not had much free “fun reading” time, but having these great Heyer books makes me want to find some time.
So, what are you reading?  Any books to add to my growing stacks?