The Catholic Book Club

message 1: by Manuel (new)

Sep 15, 2024 02:32AM

Mod

It is time to vote for our November 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 approximately 11:00 AM Eastern Time on Wednesday, September 18.

The Voting List for November is:

Ancient of Genes by Dan Gallagher, nominated by Dan
Prehistoric Resurrection... or Genetic Warfare? A geneticist’s regeneration of Ice Age animals AND humans is stolen and becomes the basis for genetic warfare weapons – and the prophesied Resurrection of the Dead!
Voting History: NONE

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; March 2024: 3; March 2024: 2; June 2024: 2; August 2024: 3; October 2024: 4

Exogenesis by Peco Gaskovski, nominated by Steven R.
Out of the collapse of Old America rises Lantua, a glittering thousand-mile metropolis where drones patrol the sky and AI algorithms reward social behavior. The most compliant citizens enjoy the greatest privileges, the poorest struggle to rise up the echelon system, and criminals are subjected to brain modification. Birthing and genetic quality are controlled through mass embryonic selection, with fetuses grown outside the body in artificial wombs—a technology known as exogenesis. But rebellion is brewing.
Voting History: August 2024: 2; October 2024: 4

The Ghost of Madison Avenue by Nancy Bilyeau, nominated by Fonch
In this compelling and poignant story, bestselling author Nancy Bilyeau takes readers to New York City’s Morgan Library in December 1912, when two very different people haunted by lost love come together in an unexpected way.
Voting History: October 2024: 4

The Mango Murders, by Mara Campos, nominated by Madeleine
All is not what it seems in Old San Juan, in the Pio Nono home for boys, in the life of the island's most famous artist, or in the memories of his models. Detective Sergeant Julio Ramos and gringo FBI agent Steve Halloran work in uneasy alliance to catch a serial killer with a penchant for mangoes and a need to avenge lost love and innocence lost to corrupt priests. A shadowy puppet master lies behind it all. To come to truth, the investigators have to face their own painful issues, and even their targets must choose between light or darkness. In language, memory, race, and blood, the novel tells the story of the burden and the promise of recovered identity.
Voting History: NONE

The Marian Option: God’s Solution to a Civilization in Crisis by Carrie Gress, nominated by Marlicia
“How can we save civilization?” It’s becoming a common question. As the world descends into chaos, Christians are thinking deeply about how to stem the tide. Many options have been presented to overcome Christian persecution and cultural decadence, but the The Marian Option is one that is already in motion…and has been for centuries.
Dr. Carrie Gress provides a thoroughly researched account of the significant cultural and military events where Mary interceded on behalf us, her children.
Voting History: October 2024: 6

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; March 2024: 5; March 2024: 4; June 2024: 2; August 2024: 3; October 2024: 7

The Queen's Tragedy by Robert Hugh Benson, nominated by Fonch
In The Queen's Tragedy, Benson tells the story of Mary Tudor "as honestly as I can."
Voting History: October 2024: 5

The Resurrection of the Son of God, by N.T. Wright, nominated by Frances
Why did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did? To answer this question – which any historian must face – renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright focuses on the key points: what precisely happened at Easter? What did the early Christians mean when they said that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead? What can be said today about his belief?
This book, third in Wright’s series Christian Origins and the Question of God, sketches a map of ancient beliefs about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians’ belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This, together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the gospels, not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his "appearances."
Voting History: October 2024: 8

The Rifle, and Other Stories by Tomás Carrasquilla, nominated by Steven R.
The Rifle, and Other Stories collects eleven stories spanning the literary career of Tomás Carrasquilla, the "first Colombian novelist", whose work is widely known within the country, and a high-school standard in the department of Antioquia, home to the city of Medellín. His novels and short stories straddle the traditional stylings of Costumbrismo and an anti-Modernist, picaresque realism, with a consistent focus on manifestations of Catholicism in both domestic and communal spheres. The stories collected here reveal a striking attention to preserving everyday and festive details of life in and around Medellín during its shift from haphazard ruralism to worldly urbanism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Voting History: October 2024: 2

The Second Greatest Story Ever Told, by Michael E. Gaitley, nominated by Manuel
In The Second Greatest Story Ever Told bestselling author Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC, reveals St. John Paul II’s witness for our time. Building on the prophetic voices of Margaret Mary Alacoque, Thérèse of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe, and Faustina Kowalska, The Second Greatest Story Ever Told is more than a historical account of the Great Mercy Pope. This book expounds on the profound connection between Divine Mercy and Marian consecration. It serves as an inspiration for all those who desire to bear witness to the mercy of God, focused on Christ and formed by Mary. Now is the time of mercy. Now is the time to make John Paul’s story your own.
Voting History: August 2024: 3; October 2024: 2

The Sentimentalists, by Robert Hugh Benson, nominated by Fonch
THE SENTIMENTALISTS represents Robert Hugh Benson's first foray into "non-genre" fiction, as well as a significant and sensational switch from the historical novels by which he had achieved widespread popularity. This novel also marks Benson's change to an increasingly universal outlook, as well as to a more pointed form of satire, a quality that endeared him to Evelyn Waugh.
Voting History: NONE

Sex and the Unreal City: The Demolition of the Western Mind, by Anthony M. Esolen, nominated by John
Unreal City: a zany cartoon megalopolis where towers are built of cotton candy, facts scatter like pixie dust, and the truth is whatever you feel it to be.
And it's no fantasy. It's where we live. "We dwell in Unreal City. We believe in un-being."
Voting History: July 2024: 2; October 2024: 2

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: March 2024: 3; March 2024: 3; June 2024: 3; August 2024: 2; October 2024: 3

Voyage to Alpha Centauri, Michael D. O'Brien, nominated by Fonch
Set eighty years in the future, this novel by the best-selling author Michael O'Brien is about an expedition sent from the planet Earth to Alpha Centauri, the star closest to our solar system. The Kosmos, a great ship that the central character Neil de Hoyos describes as a "flying city," is immense in size and capable of more than half light-speed. Hoyos is a Nobel Prize winning physicist who has played a major role in designing the ship. Hoyos has signed on as a passenger because he desires to escape the seemingly benign totalitarian government that controls everything on his home planet. He is a skeptical and quirky misanthropic humanist with old tragedies, loves, and hatreds that are secreted in his memory. The surprises that await him on the voyage--and its destination--will shatter all of his assumptions and point him to a true new horizon.
Voting History: ; June 2024: 2; August 2024: 2; October 2024: 6

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message 2: by Margaret (new)

Sep 15, 2024 03:08AM