New books for teens, kids focus on morality, Bible, Jesus

 The following books are suitable for Christmas giving.

"The Spider Who Saved Christmas: A Legend" by Raymond Arroyo, illustrated by Randy Gallegos. Sophia Institute Press (Manchester, New Hampshire, 2020) 38 pp., $17.95.

Every so often a Christmas book stands out among the rest. "The Spider Who Saved Christmas" is not only the charming retelling of the legendary origin of tinsel, but it also gives readers a renewed opportunity to know and appreciate the trials the Holy Family faced after Jesus' birth. This is the tale of how a spider, both feared and fearful herself, saved the baby Jesus from King Herod's murderous soldiers with her intricate web. This also is a story of a gentle Mary, the watchful Joseph and the baby they all work to protect. The pictures beautifully illustrate the wonder of God's design in creation. Ages 4-10.

'Pray and Work' - Author of popular mystery novels has personal story of faith, grace

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Catholic Post)

By Tom Dermody | Catholic News Service

 "The source of justice is not vengeance but charity."

This quote from St. Bridget of Sweden appears just before Chapter 1 of Susan Furlong's latest mystery novel, "Shattered Justice."

But you won't find "Shattered Justice" in your local Catholic bookstore. The third and final installment of Furlong's popular Bone Gap Travellers series, like its predecessors, is gritty crime fiction.

Msgr. Barr’s ‘Skellig’ Continues The Saga of Conor Archer

Conor Archer, the young man imbued with fantastical powers is back in “Skellig,” Msgr. Eric Barr’s sequel to his earlier book “Roan.”

Released in March, just as the COVID crisis was closing bookstores and other retail outlets, publishing in e-book and  paperback formats made the launch easier on fans who wanted copies right away. 

Categorized as science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy, the book opens with a prologue set on a “glorious All Saint’s Day, a beautiful autumnal morning after such a night of horror.” 

The night of horror was where we left Conor, after a battle as dramatic and deadly as anything in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series.

Although we don’t see Conor in the opening prologue, we see the legacy of the Halloween night battle on Conor’s friend Jace and the others left behind in southwest Wisconsin.

Conor, however, was Ireland-bound and as the first chapter opens, we find his new story beginning much as did his first tale. The scene is an Irish pub where two women watch as what appears to be a dreadful comet heads right towards them.

Conor soon turns up in a conventional way, via jet to Shannon airport, and heads into the Irish countryside to explore his past and encounter his future. 

Coming Next

Expected to be ready in late spring, “Gods in the Ruins: A Vatican Archives Thriller”  is Msgr. Eric Barr’s next work of fiction.

— Sharon Boehlefeld, features editor

Books Take on Raising Kids in A Culture that Devalues Faith

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 Kim Cameron-Smith cuts through a great deal of fluff that's out there in the Christian/Catholic parenting world and gets to the heart of the matter in her book titled "Discipleship Parenting." She asserts that raising your children for heaven must be the goal for every Catholic parent in a society that asks much more shallow questions and is more concerned with superficial concerns.

She puts forth the mission of Catholic parents in the introduction, "The Great Commission of Parenting": "Our mission must be to raise children who know and love God. Our mission is to raise children with searching hearts who continue to grow spiritually for the rest of their lives. Our mission is to raise children who possess a heroic fidelity to the truth, so they cannot help but share that message with others." This is a monumental task, but it's the only real task that supersedes everything else a parent does.

Guide offers valuable information

 Investing is a very human behavior. We invest time in a hobby with the hope of being paid back with enjoyment. We invest in an education with the hope that we will benefit from what we learn. We invest money in a bank account or in the stock of a publicly traded company with the hope that we will be rewarded monetarily.

There are, thus, many ways to invest our assets. In "Faithful Investing," an interdenominational writing team of financial leaders representing many Christian churches presents an argument and steps for successfully investing church assets in such a way that they not only create a financial gain on one's investment but also a moral and ethical gain as well.

New books for summer reading focus on Jesus, forgiveness, saints

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The following books are suitable for children’s summer reading.

“The Creator’s Love Story” by Madeleine Carroll, illustrated by Jen Olson. Isaiah Books. (Little Bookham, United Kingdom, 2020). 28 pp., $9.
“The Creator’s Love Story” teaches children with simple verse and soft watercolor illustrations major events in the New Testament. Wholly focused on Jesus, this picture book is truly a love story for young disciples to help them know Jesus and his divinity on an introductory, but personal level. Ages 0-5.

Authors explain Catholic topics clearly

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But each writes from certain ideology

 These two books give readers an overview of what it means to be Catholic. They share the strengths and weaknesses that any such book is bound to have.

On the positive side, each gives clear explanations for topics related to being Catholic in today's world. On the negative side, each encourages the reader to believe that there is only one acceptable Catholic point of view, one acceptable Catholic answer to ethical and moral conundrums -- indeed, one acceptable way to be a good Catholic.

In other words, these books present a black-and-white view of Catholicism, as if no gray areas exist. They tend to overlook G.K. Chesterton's observation that Catholics know the relatively few "transcendental truths on which they do agree, and take rather a pleasure in disagreeing on all the rest."

Book launches historical series

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James Papandrea's "The Early Church" is the first in a series of books on "Reclaiming Catholic History." The seven books in the series will recreate for general readers the experiences and development of the church through the periods of the Roman Empire, the Dark and Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and into modern times.

Judging from the quality and readability of this initial effort the series should prove to be a great help to Catholics interested in understanding the development of church doctrine, theology, philosophy and responses to changes in society throughout the centuries.

Authors celebrate cathedrals in wake of Notre Dame fire

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Among the many disasters of 2019, the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris evoked, possibly, the most universal sadness as this cathedral and the Eiffel Tower are the two most famous symbols of Paris. The cathedral fire which started April 15 destroyed the roof, brought down the spire and damaged many precious objects housed in by the cathedral.

The silver lining is that no human lives were lost; an alarm was sounded and the cathedral was cleared a half hour before flames were sighted. There has been no evidence found, as of yet, that the burning was the act of a terrorist.

Catholic history of Civil War era blends scholarship, storytelling

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"Faith and Fury" by Father Charles P. Connor aptly describes the atmosphere that 19th-century American Catholics must have experienced. Then, waves of Irish and German Catholic immigrants invigorated the church and also encountered nativist rage and violence from the Protestant majority.

Debates about slavery's morality swirled everywhere, not only in the halls of government but also in the churches. There was no respite from sharply divisive conflicts and moral soul-searching. When war finally came in 1861, Catholics on both sides, convinced of their righteousness, implored God to grant them victory.

Book may help readers understand some who leave the church

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Timothy Egan, author of "A Pilgrimage to Eternity," writes a biweekly opinion column for The New York Times. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the winner of a National Book Award for nonfiction. He also grew up in a large Catholic family in the Pacific Northwest where he graduated from a Jesuit high school.

Egan and his Jewish wife raised their children with the intention of leaving them free to make their own choices vis-a-vis religion. To his credit, he admits that this may not have been the smartest move he and his spouse ever made. While he remains by choice at quite a distance from Catholicism he continues to be attracted to certain elements of the church's life and theology.

Author Examines Nuances of the Crusades

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Untangling the nuanced religious, political, economic and territorial complexities of the Crusades is an endless task. The complexities are so interwoven in the 200-plus years of fighting between Christian kingdoms and Muslim empires that eight centuries later people are still trying to untie the knots.

Complicating the matter is that there were no good guys and bad guys in this succession of wars that stretched from the end of the 11th century to the end of the 13th century. Christian and Muslim armies rivaled each other in massacres, pillages and territorial gain by brute force. In the name of religion and freeing the world of "infidels" both sides slaughtered defenseless women and children.

Flannery O’Connor’s Letters Sparkle in New Collection

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 This new book of Flannery O'Connor's letters will, inevitably, beg comparison with "The Habit of Being," the 1979 collection edited by Sally Fitzgerald. 

One of the pleasures of that book was its length and the leisurely pace that allowed a reader to watch O'Connor's development as a writer, a Catholic and a woman living with illness -- to watch, in other words, her unique vocation taking shape and being lived out. It was informed by Fitzgerald's impeccable scholarship and editorial modesty, her long friendship with O'Connor and her knowledge of the literary circles she moved in.