books – Page 6 – SIMCHA FISHER

Is Your Facebook Feed the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea?

I don’t have non-Catholic and secular Facebook friends merely because I want to proselytize them (although I try to answer any questions they have about my faith, and I’m delighted when I hear that they have learned something about the Church through me!). Instead, I have non-Catholic and secular Facebook friends because I like them, and find them interesting — and yes, I learn from them. Of course I do.

Read the rest at the Register.

P.S.: I heartily recommend the book I mention, Peter Kreeft’s Your Questions, God’s Answers. I’ve been reading a section a day with the kids ages 9 and up, and it does a good job of answering questions, reviewing stuff they already know, or opening up discussions about things they really wonder about. (And the rule is always: let the discussion happen! Doesn’t matter if it sticks to the original topic or not. If they ask a question about God, then right now is the right time to answer it, period.)

The segments are short enough to read in five minutes or less. It’s intended for teenagers and is slightly goofy but not pandering. It’s theologically meaty and profusely studded with scriptural references, but written in a clear and chatty style that is easy to understand. Not every last section is a whizz bang success, but it’s a painless way to keep a regular conversation about God open, and some of the discussions we’ve had have been really memorable.

***

What book gets your region right?

It’s hard to say which is more satisfying: a book that introduces you to a fascinating, new, unfamiliar world, or a book which is set in a time and place that you know intimately, and which really nails it.

For me, The Dogs of March by Ernest Hebert is a great example of the latter. It’s set in a fictional small town of Darby, New Hampshire, and man, is it familiar. It gives us painfully accurate picture of the small town full of foster children, incestuous shack people, pompous little fief lords, renovating interlopers, and limping, buck-toothed junk car collectors, who see no difference between the beauty of the snow on a stone wall and the beauty of a burnt-out washing machine riddled with bullet holes for target practice.

The Dogs of March (first in a series, The Darby Chronicles) introduces us to Howard Elman, foreman at a weaving factory in the early ’80′s. He hasn’t yet figured out that he’s going deaf, and he hasn’t yet figured out that there is nothing he can do about the way his world is coming apart and being rebuilt for some new purpose that doesn’t mean anything to him.

Here he appears around Thanksgiving in the dorm room of his son Freddy, the first of his children to go to college, with an early Christmas present:

Father and son looked at each other as if each had come across a crime. Both spoke at the same moment. Freddy said, “‘Lo,” and Howard said, “Where’d you get that goddamn beard?”
“I didn’t get it; I grew it,” said Freddy.
“Ain’t you smart,” yelled Howard. This phrase he could utter in a hundred ways, to convey degrees of sarcasm, exasperation, frustration, criticism, irony, cosmic outrage, even affection; a phrase that filled in when he had no other words; a staple–like rice or potatoes or refried beans–that could be fed into the maw of a starved vocabulary.
“You’re always yelling at me,” yelled Freddy.
Dark hair enveloped his face from the bottom of the eyes to the throat. A pink slash showed where his mouth was. His ears were partially hidden.
“You look like a goddam A-rab,” yelled Howard.
“The word is Arab,” yelled Freddy.
“Ain’t you smart,” yelled Howard.
“Arab, Arab, Arab,” yelled Freddy.
“Ain’t you smart,” yelled Howard.
“Oh, I ain’t smart,” yelled Freddy, with emphasis on the “ain’t.”
“I’ll smarten you up,” yelled Howard, taking menacing steps forward, rifle at order arms, its butt skipping along the floor.
Freddy stood his ground, teeth chattering, clenched fists quivering at his sides.
The two stood breathing fire on each other for a few seconds.
Then Howard backed up. He realized he had been wrong. For man who had never learned to apologize, he did his best. He brought the rifle to present arms, and said, “Merry fucking Christmas.”
“No, not to me,” said Freddy.
“Trade it for a shotgun, then,” said Howard.
Freddy shook his head no no no no and retreated.
Howard remained in the middle of the room, holding the gun in offering.
“Ain’t nothing wrong with this rifle,” he said.
“I’m not interested in killing animals,” said Freddy with a shrug of hopelessness.
Dread rolled over Howard. College had pulled his son apart, scattered beliefs, habits, and loves like so many bits of a machine, and was now rebuilding him into a customized version of Freddy Elman.

The arc of the story follows a series of losses, errors, and painful discoveries, but it is somehow not a difficult book to read. Along with the brutal and tragic are dozens of little jokes and lavish gifts of beauty, as Howard, his long-suffering, teardrop-shaped wife Elenore, and his circle of malformed friends and privileged enemies rearrange themselves into a new world order — while other things, like Howard’s duty to strike back against the savagery of the dogs of March, never change.

A beautiful, frightening, tender-hearted book. And if you’ve ever been to a town meeting in a small town, you won’t want to miss chapter 13, where the wealthy, litigious newcomer tries to ram through her own agenda; the delusional, power-hungry selectman makes a tactical error; the white-bearded old loon is, as usual, the only one who talks sense, and the single-minded fire chief just wants a new firetruck, and can’t seem to get it.

What book or movie would you recommend, if you wanted someone to understand the place where you live?

Autographed books about marriage for Valentine’s Day

I’m not going to tell you to get your wife a book or two for Valentine’s Day, but IF you are VERY SURE that she would want a book or two for Valentine’s Day, here’s a deal for you: I’m offering …

The Sinner’s Guide to Natural Family Planning (OSV list price $9.95)

and

Catholic and Married: Leaning Into Love (OSV list price $14.95) with my chapter, called “Mirrors Around a Flame: The Gift of Children”. This is a new book from OSV. You can read a nice review of it at Aleteia here.
(If the Aleteia link isn’t working, cut and paste this into your browser:
aleteia.org/en/society/article/9-wise-funny-and-totally-catholic-takes-on-marriage-5872273021992960)

both autographed by me. $12 each, $20 for both, including shipping.

*****

If you’d like to order either or both of these books,

1. Email me at simchafisher[at]gmail[dot]com and put “SIGNED BOOK REQUEST” in the subject heading.

2. Include the following information:
(a) which books you would like: just SGNFP, just CMLIL, or both
(b) exactly what you would like me to write on each book’s title page (if nothing is specified, I’ll just sign my name). If you would prefer to have them without anything written in them, please specify that.
(c) the address to which you’d like the books delivered.

If any of this information is missing, I may run out of books before we can straighten it out.

3. The cost is $12 per book or $20 for both, which includes the cost of postage and shipping materials. Please pay with PayPal. You can use the link on the right sidebar (where it says “Tip tip tip tip tip!”) or use simchafisher[at]gmail[dot]com as the recipient address. Please specify “signed book” in the “note” section. (Yes, please pay via PayPal AND send me an email. Trust me, I need the email.)

4. No Valentine’s Day orders will be accepted after February 7. You may still order signed copies after February 7 if there are any left, but I cannot guarantee it will get to the recipient before Valentine’s Day.

5. I have a limited number of copies on hand. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. If you ask very nicely, I may be willing to give up the one I inscribed for my bishop but then chickened out and didn’t give to him.

That time you were so busy, you forgot you wrote that book

Well, one chapter of it, anyway.

This is so dang stupid. Right before supper, FedEx delivers a box of ten copies ofCatholic and Married: Leaning Into Love , which looks good, but I have never heard of it, and I certainly didn’t order ten copies. So I fire off a note to the publisher, saying that I think I got the author’s shipment by mistake, and what should I do with them? Ha ha, I says to myself, I’m not the only one who flakes out from time to time! They don’t even know who wrote their own book! Ha ha, it is to laugh!

So then Laraine posts this picture to Facebook:

. . . and I suddenly remember, Oh yeah, I did write a chapter of that! Duh. Boy, life is so exciting and unpredictable when you have no long term memory whatsoever. I can remember what we had for supper a few hours ago, but mainly because the kids did such a lousy job sweeping that a lot if it is still on the floor, looking at me. (Tacos.)

Oh, so that’s what my chapter is about (apparently): children. It’s called “Mirrors Around a Flame: The Gift of Children.” I forget whether or not it was a taco night when I wrote it. Anyway, it’s a good title, whoever wrote it.

Other than ridiculously flaky me, this book includes a fantastic line up of authors! Here is the table of contents:

Here is the description from OSV:

“And they lived happily ever after.” Only in fairy tales, you say. But there is life after the honeymoon-messy, challenging, happily-married life. That’s the great promise of Catholic marriage, and if you’re married or considering marriage the joy is there for you, too.

Many Catholics today share the culture’s unease-fear of divorce, the prevalence of cohabitation, the wounds of past relationships all conspire to make til-death-do-us-part seem like a risky proposition. But the authors of Catholic and Married all agree, marriage is the adventure of a lifetime.

In these sometimes funny, tell-it-like-it-is chapters, this diverse group of men and women offer you their insights and advice on:

Children – the gift that keeps on giving

Marrying young – objections and object lessons

Contraception – an honest discussion on a touchy subject

Parenting skills – it’s not rocket science (it just feels like it sometimes)

And much more!

These stories will encourage you to lean into love. Hold nothing back. And experience the Catholic marriage God intended for you.

I couldn’t be more delighted/astonished to be part of this great project!
P.S. I wrote that chapter before I was pregnant, so there is at least some chance that it makes sense, unlike this post.

First Things likes The Sinner’s Guide to NFP!

Reviewer Christine Emba says in First Things:

What especially recommends The Sinner’s Guide to a broader audience is Fisher’s ability to use NFP as a starting point to engage with the larger and more universal questions facing anyone attempting to live out a Christian life day to day. What is prudence? How does one persevere in adversity? What does charity actually look like in relationships, and in daily life? As Fisher asks, “Does God just hate women, or what?” The question “Is it the right time to conceive” gives way to a plainspoken yet illuminating discourse on the phrase “God’s will.” A chapter entitled “Groping Toward Chastity” helps define the oft-misunderstood word in terms relevant to any reader—single or married.

Read the rest of “Marriage with Benefits” here. This review makes me realize how desperately I was longing for someone to describe it as “this slim volume.” I feel so happy.

You can order SGNFP in paperback directly from Our Sunday Visitor or from Amazon. Also available: the ebook for Kindle or Nook, and the audiobook, read croakily by yours twooly. And looky, it has 230 reviews, with an average of 4.9 out of five stars!

Seven books that fell behind my bed

Seven quick takes! I hope you can see the pictures – WordPress is being a bag of butts, and won’t let me upload in the normal way, so I just pasted them in. Here are seven books I either just finished or am in the middle of, perhapsh indefinitely. “Perhapsh” was a typo, but I kind of like it.

–1–

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller.

I have never read a book like this before. It’s so harrowing and so appealing. A memoir of growing up poor, white, and crazy in Africa in the 70′s and 80′s. It’s like Dostoevsky meets Florence King. I haven’t finished this one yet – had to take a break.

–2–

The Most of P.G. Wodehouse

Ah, I forgot I had this book! I was reading stories to the older kids occasionally, and it warmed my heart so much to hear them shouting, “He’s been throwing cats all the evening!” So delightful, so nice, so insane. Must get more P.G. Wodehouse into my life. This particular collection is nearly 700 pages long.

–3–

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Meh. I wanted to like this book, but I just wasn’t buying it. She would have these wonderful, lyrical passages full of beauty and anguish, and then all of a sudden we’re back to, “Representative Black Man felt this way about his father, and, so you see, that is why he did those things to women. When will white folk see?” I don’t mind beingshown that, but being told that is just odious. I also don’t think she really pulled off the central conceit of the book, the stuff with the children’s rhyme. It was supposed to unify everything, but it felt tacked on. Maybe I’m missing something.

–4–

The African Witch by Joyce Cary

I don’t know if I can count this one, since I honestly don’t quite understand the plot. More white people behaving badly in Africa. I loved The Horse’s Mouth (about the artist) so much, maybe I should just go back and read that one again. Charley Is My Darling (about evacuees from London during the war) also broke my heart but landed much more tenderly than I was expecting.

–5–

Bob and Ray: Write If You Get Work

Transcripts of their nutty little radio skits from the 40′s and 50′s. Would this be funny to someone who hasn’t heard the audio? I have no idea. Here’s an excerpt of an interview with a P.R. rep from the Oatmeal Institute near Thanksgiving:

Bob: Well, this is an aspic mold, isn’t it, that you brought, and you’re gonna put that on the center of the table and try to make people think it’s a turkey, or what?
Gibbes: No, no, you can’t fool — no, no, no, that’s not the idea at all. No, Bob, you’re pulling my leg.
Bob: You mean you bring it out and say, ‘Look at the mold in the shape of a turkey, this is oatmeal’?
Gibges: No, you say, ‘I think I’ll slice the oatmeal,’ and that’s it. It’s just that it’s in the shape, you can have it in the shape of anybody. I mean, I just pick a turkey because you have that at Thanksgiving a lot.
Bob: What success have you had with orienting the public, or changing the public’s conception of Thanksgiving dinner?
Gibbes: I haven’t changed the public’s conception of oatmeal one iota.

–6–

Bossypants by Tina Fey

I bought this at some airport and immediately become the worst seatmate ever. I was laughing so hard I had to put it down before I had to call the flight attendant for terbutaline. It’s not exactly a biography, and some parts were clearly just patched together to get the word count perking along, and she’s, you know, she’s not Mother Teresa. But oh my gosh, funny funny funny.

–7–

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

Technically I’m not reading this yet, because I haven’t gotten past the first few pages. But I read the first sentence and shouted, “WHAT?!?!” and read it three more times. Here is the first sentence:

I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte.

I wanted to kiss Hammett for going to the trouble. Talk about earning your readership.

So, what are you reading? Thanks to Kelly of This Ain’t the Lyceum for hosting the link-up!

My book sale phinds and phooeys

I used to try to make extra money selling used books online. I would go to library book sales and try to spot rare and unusual volumes that people would be willing to pay a fortune for. Using only my intuition, I paid $1 for a probable first edition of a biography of Charles de Gaulle, which I turned around and sold for $80. Wildly encouraged, I used that same intuition to buy another fifty or sixty likely-looking books, also for a dollar each. And every single one of them, nobody wants because nobody needs. Thus ended my bookseller’s career.

People do actually make money buying and selling used books online, but you have to really love every single thing about books – and, less romantically but more practically, you probably also need to have a handheld ISBN scanner, which will instantly tell you if you’ve found a rare gem or a turkey before you decide whether to buy it.

As with so many other things, the money value of a book is more about how rare it is than how good it is. And so people who sell books because they love reading may find themselves scooping up junk because they know it will turn a profit, which is kind of a heartbreaker.

Anyway, now we have the luxury of just buying books that we want to read ourselves. This time, we filled four shopping bags. Here’s what stands out this time around:

Book there were inexplicably three zillion copies of:

Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Really nicely written, overall. I have no idea how faithful it is to the actual biography of Vermeer, but it was a good, sad story, if a bit heavy handed at times. After reading it, I checked out the author’s earlier work, The Virgin Blue, and found it very much an earlier novel, and unbearably message-y. Should I keep reading, anyone? She’s done five more novels.

The Thorn Birds. This I read, I don’t know why. It is one of the worst novels I have ever encountered. If that one guy said, “I’m not a man, I’m a priest!” one more time, I was going to tear out the page and eat it in a rage. It’s so painful to read something by someone who clearly has talent, but who is overwhelmed, chapter after chapter, by fawning prejudice and a weakness for the easy way out. She opted for goo every time, until her characters were just little stubs of puppets struggling under a greasy load of caricature.

Stephen King everywhere. Holy mackerel, can we say overrated? I read several of his books in high school, and you know what he is? Competent. Hooray! Let us crown him with many crowns!

Book I put my foot down about this time: books that make noise. I long ago gave up the battle against toys that make noise, but I’m holding the line when it comes to books; and yes, five-year-old, that includes books whose batteries are dying and so they only make a small amount of noise.

The kids didn’t even ask for books that summarize Disney movies.

I also said no to a Care Bear puzzle that smelled like cats.

I did, however, green light a Harry Potter trivia game

which miraculously had all the pieces. They’ve played it at least five or six times, so it must be pretty good. Apparently it has a few inaccuracies, which only adds to the drama.

Things I buy every single time I see them:

The Family of Man (got two hardcover copies this time!)

Wrote about this wonderful collection of photographs and quotations here. I can’t pick it up without losing at least fifteen minutes. If you can find a clean copy, this would make a really nice wedding present. If you wanted to explain to an alien from Mars what human life is like, you could just show him this book.

Things I buy in hopes that I can leave them around the house and they will be so nice and bright that someone will learn something for once around here:

The Colour Library of Art: GOYA. 49 plates in full color? Yes please.

Byzantium: City of Gold, City of Faith by Paul Hetherington and Werner Forman. Gold! Candles! Mosaics! O Byzantium!

Replacement books that no one will be thrilled to see because we already have a few copies, but these ones have ALL THE PAGES:
Great Brain books. So weird and funny.

Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain. Actually, I haven’t found any kid who especially likes these books, but there are still plenty more kids, so I keep buying them.

Henry Huggins and other Beverly Cleary books. I am always on the lookout for Otis Spofford, Ellen Tebbits, and Emily’s Runaway Imagination. These aren’t as common as the Henry and Ramona and Beezus books, but they capture the puzzles and comforts of childhood just as honestly.

Homer Price books

Defiant purchase:

Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.

I like Toni Morrison, but I have less patience than I used to for books that just flit around here and there and make you figure out what happened when. I could also do without the recurring made-up phrases. You know who could get away with that? Homer. But “Baby Suggs, Holy,” is just not the same, and I do not need to hear it twenty-three times. But,I still like Toni Morrison, in small doses.

Trash books I considered buying just to remove them from circulation, but cheaped out because it wasn’t fill-a-bag day:

Dan Brown nonsense. I read The Da Vinci Code out of curiosity, and at first enjoyed it because of the astonishing things I was reading. I have worked with editors before, and I was just endlessly entertained trying to imagine who could actually do this for a living and yet let these passages see the light of day. But after a while, it just got depressing, and I ended up feeling like my brain had been worked over on some kind of exceedingly silly lathe.

Judy Blume nonsense. It’s recently come to my attention that Judy Blume has “written” “novels” for “adults.” I picked one up at the dump one time and read the first few pages.

It was like, “One day, the house wife was housewifing around, because her loutish and impotent husband forced to make sandwiches, which were made out of wheat bread, mayonnaise, turkey, and iceburg lettuce, which she preferred over romaine lettuce, even though she knew it was somewhat less nutritious. Then a mysterious stranger came by on a motorcycle and masturbated at her. THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED.” Geez louise. There oughta be a law.

And of course The Golden Compass, which I wrote about in Things that have no right to exist.

I took comfort from the fact that it was day two of the sale and there will still plenty of copies lying around, so maybe they will just send themselves to the garbage without any effort from me and my social conscience.

Take-a-chance books:

What It Feels Like to Be a Building

I haven’t read this one yet, but it looks like a neat concept. Here’s a review:

Have you ever felt squashed? Squeezed? Pulled? Tugged? If so, then you know what it feels like to be a building! Here, with playful drawings and humorous text, award-winning author Forrest Wilson uses human figures (plus some dogs and rams) to show that architecture and people have more in common than you might have believed. This book will delight everyone who is fascinated with the buildings around us.

SUPER SCORE:

CDs of The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce

For like $2 each! Foolproof plan: play these for the older kids at night while we fold laundry. This has got to be better than our current system, which is to never ever ever fold laundry.

The most-read book of the lot so far:

A Birthday for Frances

Pure pleasure.

Frances is probably the realest little kid in all of children’s literature. There is no more exquisite passage portraying the triumph of man’s higher nature over his own passions, than this short work depicting a young badger’s struggle to relinquish the Chompo bar that she bought for her undeserving little sister Gloria’s birthday party.

Guilt purchases:

None! Yay me! No “I really ought to finally read this,” “my kids ought to know this”, “we ought to have one of these around the house,” “it’s really time I learned how to quilt,” etc. I already stock my brain with stuff like that — no need to clog up the living room, too.

How about you? Any good book sale finds?

Oh, and as long as we’re talking about books, I forgot to take my ebook of sale, so you can still get The Sinner’s Guide to NFP ebook for $2.99! I’ll leave it up for another day, and then it will go back to full price.

It’s our 17th anniversary SALE-abration!

I can’t even believe I just said that.

Anyway, tomorrow is my and Damien’s 17th wedding anniversary, which we will be celebrating with great joy, eventually. Heck, we’ve kept it together for seventeen years, more or less, so I guess we can hold out for one more week.

Seemed like as good a time as any to put my dear beloved ebook back on sale. I wish I could put the paperback or audiobook on sale, but the ebook is the only one I control.The price is now as low as Amazon will let me set it: $2.99.

Here is an excerpt from a recent review that I really liked:

The chapter on discerning when to use NFP, and when not to, is well balanced and empowering. The chapter on free will and discerning God’s will is brilliant, easy to understand and should be cut and pasted into any book about discerning God’s will for your life! The chapter on laughing and sex is helpful and also very amusing. Her chapter on what husbands and wives can do for each other is also helpful, but all these things do not make the book as valuable as the main thread of her argument that runs through each chapter.

Fisher’s main point is this: sex is for grown-ups. So if you want fantastic sex, you need to grow up! When we are childish, petulant, selfish and lazy in our approach to sex, it will be disappointing to say the least. So the struggles with married life are a gift in that, learning to be a grown-up in our most intimate relationship not only makes that relationship much more fun, frolicsome and fulfilling, it teaches us to be grown-ups in every other aspect of our lives. In short, marriage helps us grow in holiness.

I like that very much. Happy anniversary to us!

Seven Quick takes: Seven Really Good Books for Young Adults

Wow, I haven’t done a 7QT in forever! And I’m not actually doing one now. This post originally ran in 2010. I was inspired to rerun it when the The New Yorker printed this appreciation of A Canticle for Leibowitz . Enjoy, thou parents looking for some decent fiction for your older kids!

***

Sorry this is so long. I didn’t have time to write anything shorter.

Seven Quick Takes: Seven Really Good Books for Young Adults

When I was in high school, everything we read had to be about either the Holocaust, or suicide, or both. An exception could be made for books about racism, provided several lynchings were described in technicolor. Then, after we finished our assigned reading for the year, the school board would hold a workshop on what to do about rampant and debilitating depression in the student body.

Well, it’s too late for me, of course. As soon as I’m done with this post, I’m going to go huff some wood glue, write a note blaming my parents, and OD on some Xanax I stole from the locker room while listening to Nevermind (to my younger readers: check your oldies station if that reference puzzles you. Oh, lord. . . )

But you still have a chance. Here are seven books of fiction I recommend for your teenager or almost-teenager. Kids that age do enjoy a good bout of angst, but these are books that don’t glorify teenage gloom, or teach that it’s the world’s job to learn to appreciate the delicate genius that is Teenage Me. Not all of the books are about teenagers, and all of them could easily be enjoyed by adults. Most of these books are about courage, and about something that teenagers really need to know: how to discern true love from its flashier counterfit. With the possible exception of the Patterson novels, I don’t think this list is too girly. The only other thing they have in common is that they are stuffed with good ideas that young people need to hear, and the writing is far above average. There is even one post-apocalyptic dystopian novel, such as the young parsons enjoy these days.

–1–

Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

This one is often included in YA lists, but not for the right reasons, I think. Teenagers won’t fully appreciate the themes of love and fidelity in this fleshing-out of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but there is plenty else in this gorgeous and searing novel to grab them by the scruff of the neck and shake the stupid ideas out of them. Heartrending and intense. For grades 9 and up.

–2 and 3–

Two novels by Katherine Patterson:

Jacob Have I Loved is a coming-of-age novel about twin girls living on a crabbing island in the Chesapeake Bay in the 1940′s. One sister is lovely, talented, fragile, and secretly vicious — the other, the narrator, is plain, strong, and full of rage. The character of the horrible old grandmother is unforgettable. The book achieves something I always look for in a novel: honesty about the flaws of the main character, with flashes of sympathy for even the worst characters. Flawless in structure, characterization, and style. For grades 7 and up.

Another excellent novel by Patterson, suitable for grades 5 and up, is The Great Gilly Hopkins.

It’s like Flannery O’Connor, Jr. Great portrayals of hypocrisy, great portrayals of genuine love by a genuine Christian, who happens to be a fat, trashy, semi-literate foster mother named Trotter. It could easily have dissolved into melodrama, but resists. My only quibble is with the character of the black teacher, Miss Harris — she seems a bit too glibly drawn as the hard-as-nails and smart-as-a-whip black teacher with a heart of gold, etc. All the rest of the characters, though, are thoroughly believable, from Trotter, to her pathetic ward William Ernest Teague (W.E.T.), to the greasy-haired would-be sidekick, Agnes Stokes. (See, I remember all their names, and I haven’t read this book for years. It sticks with you!) I believe it’s sold as a novel about racism, but it’s really just about love, failures of love, and redemption.

–4–

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

I know, I know. The guy passed it off as an autobiography, and it wasn’t. Pretty awful — but darn it, I still like the book. It is beautiful and funny, and I feel happy while reading it. I wish I knew the characters in real life, which is more than you can say for most novels or autobiographies. If you’ve heard that this book is just a piece of anti-white propaganda, you’ll be surprised. I suppose there’s a message in it, but it’s not the main point — the story is, and it’s a wonderful story about a boy growing up with his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather in the mountains during Prohibition. Also, it makes descriptions of scenery interesting.

Apparently it’s been criticized as perpetuating the “noble savage” stereotype of the American Indian, but, again, I just don’t see that. What I read was an ancient story of happiness, broken by a terrible grief and darkness of separation, and then a return to happiness, until Eden is outgrown. To read more into it than that is to deprive yourself of a good story. For grades 6 and up.

–5–

A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

This one is for older teens, for sure. The story is complicated and demands a lot of the reader. To be honest, I’m too tired to explain the plot to you. It’s about Catholic monks and Jews and miracles and nuclear war and space travel and mutants. It’s a crazy, grotesque, hilarious, fascinating epic with lots and lots of ideas. There is a disturbing theme of the cyclic nature of history that seems to imply a “new” Immaculate Conception, but a teenager with a good grounding in the faith won’t be troubled by it. I like how the priests are real men. It will appeal to lovers of science fiction, but is so much more than that.

–6–

The Don Camillo stories by Giovanni Guareschi

Three collections of short, sweet, funny and poignant stories from post-WWII Italy about a large and rash village priest and his rival, the equally large and rash communist mayor Peppone. If you don’t enjoy these stories, there is something wrong with you. I could do without the cartoonish illustrations by the author, but the stories are hugely entertaining, and touch on all kinds of interesting theological ideas. Don Camillo’s conversations with the crucified Christ in his church are authentic and moving. For grades 7 and up.

–7–

Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra by C. S. Lewis

Please note that, for your edification, I hunted until I found what is probably the most hideous and irrelevant book cover ever to cover a book. I mean, look at it! What the hell is that?

The first two books of the space trilogy are great stories and provide so many memorable scenes (the third in the series, That Hideous Strength, takes a different turn and is not for the kiddies). It was from Perelandra that I learned that evil isn’t interesting and the devil isn’t clever or charming — as Ransom learns one night as keeps watch on the beach with the Un-Man, and they have the following dialogue all night long “Ransom.” – “What?” – ” . . .Nothing.”

For more mature teenagers — there are ideas about sexuality which are entirely Catholic (yes, I know Lewis wasn’t), but which less mature kids won’t be able to manage. The only part that might strike readers as dated is the fact that the villain wants to conquer worlds and force humankind on the universe, whereas today’s humanist villains are more interested in shrinking and curtailing the human race. It might be an interesting conversation to discuss what the current evil ideas have in common with the ones in the books.

There are many, many wonderful scenes in both books. I was especially affected, as a teenager, by the passage in Perelandra where Ransom protests to God that there is a representative of Evil in the world, fighting for the soul of the unfallen Lady — and why is there no champion of Good? And the silent and terrifying answer comes booming back at him: you. There is also the memorable phrase, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, here goes! I mean, Amen!” Lewis’ descriptions of scenery are the only drawback to these books — he does go on and on, and you have to read really carefully to understand what he is describing. I think these passages could simply be excised without any damage to the books. For grades 10 and up.

————–

You’ll notice there is no Madeleine L’Engle in this list. I read her books several times as a Young Adult, and I’m sure they influenced me, but I just don’t like her. I don’t like her smarmy characters, I don’t like how her ideals of family life are utterly saturated in six kinds of snobbery. I don’t like the loosey goosey games she plays with comparative religion, and her stories leave me cold, irritated and unsatisfied. I’m always astonished that she’s described as some kind of genius — her prose always strikes me as hokey and stilted. She is very original, I’ll admit, but I have very little patience with her “Oh-the-aching-wonder-of-it-all” genre. I wouldn’t say “don’t read her stuff,” but I think you’ll do just fine if you never do read her.

Okay, so, yay, I wrote a blog post! Thanks to the gracious and prolific (in every way)Jen Fulwiler for hosting Seven Quick Takes every Friday.

UPDATE: In the comments of the original post, several readers mentioned Patterson’s Bridge to Terebithia and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. My take: yes, Bridge to Terebithia is just awful. As reader Suburban Correspondent put it, “It was everything that was wrong with YA books in my youth – all the hopelessly messed-up adults, the characters manipulated by the author to send some sort of message.” Yup, pretty much a blight on Patterson’s career. Her books that I recommended are totally different. I also remember that her novel The Master Puppeteer was quite good, and is about a boy. She has written many historical novels for young adults.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is fantastic — good call, folks. I can’t imagine a boy really enjoying it, but it really is a wonderful book, despite some hokiness It’s about a girl growing up in the slums in Brooklyn before and during World War II. Betty Smith’s other books, unfortunately, are dreadful! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is fiction, but obviously semi-autobiographical, and is very moving and full of insight into a young girl’s mind. Some of her notions about sex could be a little damaging to susceptible girls, though, so you should probably read this one first, and discuss it with your daughter.

The American Catholic Almanac is meaty and fascinating

If you’re like me and most of my American Catholic friends, any combination of the words “American” and “Catholic” gives you the heebie jeebies. Either you’re going to get one of those “Jesus was a republican, and food stamps are a mortal sin” tirades, or else we’ll be treated to another learned treatise on how the one thing the Pope needs to do right now, IF he’s really the Pope, is to pronounce anathema against people whose disgusting little irreverent offspring eat Cheerios during Mass.

Well, relax. This is not that. Not at all. Instead,The American Catholic Almanac: A Daily Reader of Patriots, Saints, Rogues, and Ordinary People who Changed the United States does us a great service: it reminds us, or teaches us for the first time, that the United States would not be the United States if it weren’t for all her Catholics.

The book is entirely factual, not pious, and will appeal to people who like history but are skeptical about the contributions of religious people. It’s a companionable, well-sourced antidote to the idea that Catholics are a monoculture of biddable, brainless sheep. You can’t read this book and not be impressed, at very least, by how much variety there is in our complicated congregation, and how much individuality, not to mention courage, ingenuity, and good humor.

It’s my favorite kind of book these days: a one-a-day volume of 365 dated entries, each one highlighting some noteworthy American Catholic, place, or event. Some of the folks profiled are famous (Norma McCorvey, Thomas Merton), but many are less so (songwriter Harry Warren, war hero John Basilone). Some don’t act very Catholic at all (Justice Anthony Kennedy, mobster Dutch Schultz) and some, I had no idea were Catholic (Buffalo Bill, Clare Booth Luce).

The book also offers tidbits of history, anecdotes about cities and monuments, and stories of love, war, crime, politics, evangelization, and of course sports. In all, a fascinating, variegated, and informative book, and clearly a labor of love by authors Emily Stimpson and Brian Burch.

I love the idea of a return to the almanac. It’s suited to the short attention span of modern readers (*sheepishly raises hand*) but is written for adults or intelligent kids, and it is meaty. The American Catholic Almanac would make a nice Christmas present in case you crazy American Catholics are already thinking that far ahead!

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