The Catholic Summer Reading Program
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This summer, why not take some time to discover the rich treasure of Catholic literature? Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, the official sponsor of the Catholic summer reading program, would like to invite you to join in a book discussion at your parish, local Catholic store or online at CatholicBookDiscussion.com. Kids can also get involved by downloading our Catholic Kids Reading Path and filling it in as they read Catholic books during the summer. AdditionalResources:
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A Canticle for Leibowitz(Download the Canticle for Leibowitz discussion guide) By: Walter Miller Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future. In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece. |
The Man Who Was Thursday(Download the Man Who Was Thursday discussion guide) By: G. K. Chesterton This edition of Chesterton's masterpiece and most famous novel, The Man Who Was Thursday, explicates and enriches the complete text with extensive footnotes, together with an introductory essay on the metaphysical meaning of Chesterton's profound allegory. Martin Gardner sees the novel's anarchists as symbols of our God-given free will, and the mysterious Sunday as representing Nature, with its strange mixture of good and evil when considered as distinct from God, as a mask hiding the transcendental face of the creator. The book also includes a bibliography listing the novel's many earlier editions and stage dramatizations, as well as numerous illustrations that further illuminate the text. Illustrated |
Swimming With ScapularsBy: Matthew LickonaFor a wine connoisseur and fan of Nine Inch Nails, thirtysomething Matthew Lickona lives an unusual inner life. He is a Catholic of a decidedly traditional bent ("I believe the same things as my pious old grandmother"). He wears a scapular, a medieval talisman believed to secure God's protection. He fasts during Lent. He and his wife shun modern birth control—they waited four nights after their wedding to consummate their marriage. But he is also a writer of prodigious talent, which is on full display in Swimming with Scapulars, a story of a premodern faith lived with a postmodern sensibility. Lickona's "true confessions" are his painfully honest chronicles of his fitful starts and ongoing efforts to live the faith he is so proud of. (I believe my faith to be a gift, though the gift may sometimes feel like a cross to be borne.) Yet his life as a Catholic is one of great joy, particularly his joy in being intimately connected with God through the sacrament of the Eucharist. About the author: Matthew Lickona is a staff writer and sometime cartoonist for the San Diego Reader, a weekly newspaper. Born and raised in upstate New York, he attended Thomas Aquinas College in California. He lives in La Mesa, California, with his wife Deirdre and their four children. |
The Other Finalists: |
Another Sort of LearningBy: Fr. James SchallA collection of essays on how to learn and suggested books to read to REALLY get an education (in spite of college). |
Mr. BlueBy: Myles ConnollyThe mysterious and magnetic J. Blue spends his inherited wealth as soon as he gets it and lives in a packing box on a New York City rooftop. This beloved novel about a contemporary St. Francis figure, first published in 1928, has intrigued countless readers for decades. This new edition of Mr. Blue includes an introduction by John Breslin, S.J., as well as discussion questions designed to help deepen the reading experience for both individuals and reading groups. |
Strangers and SojournersBy: Michael O'BrienAn epic novel set in the rugged interior of British Columbia, the first volume of a trilogy which traces the lives of four generations of a family of exiles. Beginning in 1900, and concluding with the climactic events leading up to the Millennium, the series follows Anne and Stephen Delaney and their descendants as they live through the tumultuous events of this century. Anne is a highly educated Englishwoman who arrives in British Columbia at the end of the First World War. Raised in a family of spiritualists and Fabian socialists, she has fled civilization in search of adventure. She meets and eventually marries a trapper-homesteader, an Irish immigrant who is fleeing the troubles in his own violent past. This is a story about the gradual movement of souls from despair and unbelief to faith, hope, and love, about the psychology of perception, and about the ultimate questions of life, death and the mystery of being. Interwoven with scenes from Ireland, England, Poland, Russia, and Belgium during the War, Strangers and Sojourners is a tale of the extraordinary hidden within the ordinary. It is about courage and fear, and the triumph of the human spirit. |
Cosmas or the Love of GodBy: Pierre de Calan"The latest book in the Loyola Classics series, this is a short, quiet novel, written by a French banker three decades ago, about a man with a failed monastic vocation. This doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but the book is a gem. The setting is La Trappe, the mother monastery of the Trappists, where a spiritual drama unfolds. Cosmas is a pious, sensitive young man who is convinced that he has a Trappist vocation. But the reality of monastic life disappoints him badly. It seems too worldly. The shortcomings of other monks scandalize him. He leaves, returns, leaves again. Cosmas is convinced that his vocation is real. His monastic superiors are inclined to think so too. It’s a quandary, and Fr. Jim Martin S.J. in his introduction to the book draws out its large implications: "Does unhappiness in a job, or in a friendship, or in a marriage, mean that one should switch careers, sever a relationship or even end a marriage? This is Cosmas’s dilemma. As the narrator asks, ‘Was Cosmas really called to religious life? No other question has ever disturbed me so much.’" |
Those Terrible Middle Ages!By: Regine PernoudAs she examines the many misconceptions about the Middle Ages, the renown French historian, Regine Pernoud, gives the reader a refreshingly original persepective on many subjects, both historical (from the Inquisition and witchcraft trials to a comparison of Gothic and Renaissance creative inspiration) as well as eminently modern (from law and the place of women in society to the importance of history and tradition, with practical suggestions for education). Here are fascinating insights, based on Pernoud's sound knowledge and extensive experience as an archivist at the French National Archives. The book will be provocative for the general reader as well as a helpful resource for teachers of most levels of education. Scorned for centuries, although lauded by the Romantics, these thousand years of history have most often been concealed behind the dark clouds of ignorance: Why, didn't godiche (clumsy, oafish) come from gothique (Gothic)? Doesn't feudal refer to the most hopeless obscurantism? Isn't Medieval applied to dust-covered, outmoded things? Thanks to this book, the old varnish is stripped away and a thousand years of history finally emerge - the Middle Ages are dead, long live the Middle Ages! |
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