The Catholic Book Club

message 1: by Manuel (new)

Feb 15, 2024 12:46AM

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It is time to vote for our March 2024 BOTM. You may vote for up to 2 of the books listed below. You should vote by adding a comment here. If you vote in any other way, your votes may not be counted.

The book(s) with the most votes will be our BOTM. If there is a tie, the moderator uses a random list generator to determine the order and they are all read over however many months. Books that receive fewer than 2 votes will be removed from the Voting List, with those that receive 1 vote being placed at the end of the Nominations List.

Voting will end at 11:00 AM Eastern Time on Sunday, February 18.

The Voting List for March is:

An Average Man by Robert Hugh Benson, nominated by Michael Greaney
The fourth of Robert Hugh Benson's "mainstream" novels, "An Average Man," first published in 1913, is a far from average production. The novel may well be Benson's finest achievement, ripping to shreds the assumptions on which Edwardian upper class society believed civilization itself was built. Worldly success destroys one "average man," while it presents another, afflicted with seemingly endless and crushing defeats, with the opportunity of practicing virtue of a heroic stature.
Voting History: NONE

Beheading Hydra: A Radical Plan for Christians in an Atheistic Age, by Dwight Longenecker, nominated by John
Never before has humanity existed in a culture that rejects belief in a transcendent power. Previous cultures ― even when rent by bitter disagreements ― shared a common belief that a greater force stood above the material realm. But when one side acknowledges an ultimate source of truth while the other side denies it, debate is dead, and mutual understanding is impossible. So claims Fr. Dwight Longenecker in his most captivating book yet,
Voting History: December 2023: 2; January 2024: 2; February 2024: 6

The Burning Bush by Sigrid Undset, nominated by Fonch
The Burning Bush, the second volume of Nobel Prize-winning Sigrid Undset’s novel The Winding Road, continues the story of Paul Selmer. His reception into the Catholic Church brings not peace, but conflict, into Paul’s life. The world plunges into the Great War and then begins to rebuild; Paul’s business swings between success to failure and his marriage starts to succumb to its wounds. Yet conversion is not a single, enclosed event, but a measured process of the heart’s return to God.
Voting History: NONE

The Chronicles of the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle (5 vols.), by Manuel Alfonseca, nominated by Fonch
Inspired by the Narnia Chronicles, these five fantasy books show how redemption could have been in a different world. The books are:
1. The Journey of Tivo the Dauntless: Book One in the Chronicles of the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle
2. The Mystery of the Black Lake
3. The Silver Swan
4. The Secret of the Ice Field
5. The Lost Continent
Voting History: August 2023 - 2; September 2023 - 2; November 2023 - 5; December 2023 - 5; January 2024: 6; February 2024: 7

Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour?: How to Cultivate a Deeper Relationship with the Lord through Eucharistic Adoration by Florian Racine, nominated by Mariangel
Fr. Florian Racine offers us a beautiful formation guide on Eucharistic adoration that will help us to practice it in all its depth, and with a missionary perspective. God has made himself particularly close to mankind in Jesus his Son. The redemptive Incarnation of his Son is how God reconciles mankind with himself. The memorial of the Passover of Christ is therefore at the heart of our relationship with God. In the Blessed Sacrament, the resurrected Jesus is really present and acting; he draws all mankind into his filial relationship with the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Voting History: NONE

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, nominated by Susan
Willa Cather's best known novel is an epic--almost mythic--story of a single human life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert. In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows--gently, all the while contending with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events, Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended.
Voting History: February 2024: 7

Elfling by Corinna Turner, nominated by Fonch
Alone on the streets of London, young Serapia Ravena seeks her father, her only hope of survival. When the elusive Duke suddenly returns to the city, Serapia finds a loving father, who quickly thwarts her uncle’s murderous plans. But it soon becomes clear that he hides a dark secret, one that threatens his very life, and his very soul. The search for his salvation will carry Serapia hundreds of leagues, to the heart of the wild places, and to the fort of the elfin, bringing her face to face with her own mysterious heritage.
Voting History: ; December 2023 - 2; January 2024: 3; February 2024: 2

The Eternal Woman: The Timeless Meaning of the Feminine by Gertrud von le Fort, nominated by Stef
Mary's fiat to God is the pathway to our salvation, as it is inextricably linked with the obedience unto death of Jesus her son. Like the Son's acceptance of the Cross, Mary's acceptance of her maternity symbolizes for all mankind the self-surrender to the Creator required of every human soul. Since any woman's acceptance of motherhood is likewise a yes to God, when womanhood and motherhood are properly understood and appreciated, the nature of the soul's relationship to God is revealed.
Voting History: August 2023 - 4; September 2023 - 4; November 2023 - 6; December 2023 - 6; January 2024: 3; February 2024: 5

The Last Homily: Conversations with Fr. Arne Panula, Mary Eberstadt, John
The Last Homily captures with poignant authenticity the dying thoughts of a brilliant priest who dedicated his life to bringing others to Fr. Arne Panula, of Washington DC's fabled Catholic Information Center. Recorded with Fr. Arne's permission during his months in hospice care, his exchanges with noted author Mary Eberstadt expound on the Church and history, art and music, books and ideas, as well as on more immediate questions about how the faithful should live, how they should work, and how they can best help to build the Kingdom on earth. Via this gift to posterity, Fr. Arne's spiritual guidance is no longer limited to those who knew him, but extends to generations of the present and future.
Voting History: NONE

Light From Darkness: Nine Times the Catholic Church Was in Turmoil- and Came Out Stronger Than Before, by Steve Weidenkopf, nominated by John
In this book, Weidenkopf shows how the Church’s past ages were no less tumultuous than our own. Yet, whether it was decadent hierarchs selling out the Faith for pleasure and power, or hostile princes, heresies, or ideologies (sometimes all three at once) menacing Christendom, the Catholic Church not only persisted during hard times but came through them stronger than before.In each case, though, Weidenkopf demonstrates how the Church’s survival was not an accident or a last-minute miracle. Instead, good Catholics (lay and clergy alike) cooperated with God’s grace to beat back error and corruption and reform the house of God from within.
Voting History: February 2024: 2

Paradoxes of Catholicism, by Robert Hugh Benson, nominated by Sergio
The mysteries of the Church, a materialistic scientist once announced to an astonished world, are child’s play compared with the mysteries of nature. He was completely wrong, of course, yet there was every excuse for his mistake. For, as he himself tells us in effect, he found everywhere in that created nature which he knew so well, anomaly piled on anomaly and paradox on paradox, and he knew no more of theology than its simpler and more explicit statements.
Voting History: December 2023 - 2; January 2024: 6; February 2024: 3

Prison Journal, Volume 1 The Cardinal Makes His Appeal, by George Cardinal Pell, nominated by John
Innocent! That final verdict came after George Cardinal Pell endured a grueling eight years of accusations, investigations, trials, public humiliations, and more than a year of imprisonment after being convicted by an Australian court of a crime he did not commit. Led off to jail in handcuffs, following his sentencing on March 13, 2019, the 78-year-old Australian prelate began what was meant to be six years in jail for "historical sexual assault offenses”. Cardinal Pell endured more than thirteen months in solitary confinement, before the Australian High Court voted 7-0 to overturn his original convictions. His victory over injustice was not just personal, but one for the entire Catholic Church.
Voting History: February 2024: 5

The Quiet Light: A Novel About Thomas Aquinas by Louis de Wohl, Fonch
The famous novelist de Wohl presents a stimulating historical novel about the great St. Thomas Aquinas, set against the violent background of the Italy of the Crusades. He tells the intriguing story of St. Thomas who defied his illustrious, prominent family's ambition for him to have great power in the Church by taking a vow of poverty and joining the Dominicans. The battles and Crusades of the 13th century and the ruthlessness of the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II play a big part of the story, but it is Thomas of Aquino who dominates this book. De Wohl succeeds notably in portraying the exceptional quality of this man, a fusion of mighty intellect and childlike simplicity.
Voting History: NONE

The Saint Monica Club: How to Hope, Wait, and Pray for Your Fallen-Away Loved Ones, by Maggie Green, nominated by Maggie.
In the fourth century, a young man named Augustine turned his back on the Church, plunging into a frenzied life of lust and dissipation. His renunciation left Monica, his pious Catholic mother, weeping and praying for his salvation . . . for more than a decade! In these pages, author Maggie Green provides wise, compassionate guidance for members of what she calls “The Saint Monica Club”: good Catholics suffering like Monica the rejection of the Faith by persons they love dearly.
Voting History: ; July 2022 - 2; September 2022 - 2; November 2022 - 2; February 2023 - 3; March 2023 - 2; April 2023 - 5; May 2023 - 5; June 2023 - 2; August 2023 - 3; September 2023 - 2; November 2023 - 7; December 2023 - 5; January 2024: 3; February 2024: 3

Vipers' Tangle by François Mauriac, nominated by Susan
Vipers’ Tangle tells the story of Monsieur Louis, an embittered aging lawyer who has spread his misery to his entire estranged family. Louis writes a journal to explain to them—and to himself—why his soul has been deformed, why his heart seems like a foul nest of twisted serpents. Mauriac’s novel masterfully explores the corruption caused by pride, avarice, and hatred, and its opposite—the divine grace that remains available to each of us until the very moment of our deaths.
Voting History: NONE

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message 2: by Fonch (new)

Feb 15, 2024 01:36AM