Book Recommendation January 27, 2010

I NEED TO GO BACK AN GET THE LINK TO THIS.  I DIDN’T REALIZE I DIDN’T HAVE IT!

 

“Per Emily’s request in a previous comment, I thought I’d post a short list of my absolute favorite books. This one is entirely fiction, mostly novels with a few children’s tales thrown in for their rare quality of wonder. God in his mercy knew I would need story to come to terms with life and godliness and to be honest, these tales have been some of my most poignant spiritual mentors. But they are also my rest and delight, my comfort after long, dusty days, my friends in the twilight of evening. You probably know many of these, but perhaps you’ll find a new literary adventure, and that is always worthwhile.”

Elizabeth Goudge
Pilgrim’s Inn
Gentian Hill
The Dean’s Watch

Penelope Wilcock
The Hawk and the Dove

E.M. Almedingen
Ellen
Katia

George Eliot
Middlemarch
Daniel Deronda

G.K. Chesterton
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Father Brown Mysteries

George MacDonald
At the Back of the North Wind
The Highlander’s Last Song
The Marquis’ Secret
Phantastes
Lilith

Leif Enger
Peace Like A River

Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop
My Antonia

Wendell Berry
Fidelity

J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

C.S. Lewis
The Space Trilogy
The Great Divorce
The Chronicles of Narnia

Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend
David Copperfield

Elizabeth Yates
The Journeyman
Hue and Cry

Madeleine L’Engle
A Wrinkle In Time
A Wind in the Door

Chaim Potok
The Chosen

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamazov
Dreams of a Ridiculous Man

L.M. Montgomery
The Story Girl

The Better Part – A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer – Catholic Spiritual Direction January 24, 2010

The Better Part – A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

by Father John Bartunek, LC

No one who is learning or desires to learn to pray more deeply and meditate more effectively on the person and work of Christ should go without this book. It offers a basic but at the same time sufficiently comprehensive overview of how to meditate in the Christian tradition (no New Age or Hindu/Buddhist influences here.)

Beyond the solid instruction on meditation method, Father John provides us with meditations through the four Gospels and group study questions at the end of each of the 303 meditation units.

via The Better Part – A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer – Catholic Spiritual Direction.

If You Like P D James You Might Like January 23, 2010

L.R. Wright Laurali R. Wright [1939-2001]
	Derrick Murdoch Award from Crime Writers of Canada, 2001
	Karl Alberg, a staff sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada:
	The Suspect (1985) 1986 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Finalist 1986 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel Sleep While I Sing (1986) A Chill Rain in January (1990) 1991 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel Fall from Grace (1991) Finalist 1992 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel Prized Possessions (1993) Finalist 1994 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel	A Touch of Panic (1994) Finalist 1995 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel Mother Love (1995) 1996 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel Strangers Among Us (1997) Acts of Murder1 (1998)
	1. Eddie Henderson introduced.
	Edwina “Eddie” Henderson, a woman officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada, in the continuation of the series:
	Kidnap (1999) Finalist 2001 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel	Menace (2001)

If You Like Janet Evonovich You Might Like

Carolyn Hart [1936-]
	Author Website
	Annie Laurance, a mystery book store owner, and Max Darling, investigator, in Broward’s Rock, South Carolina, in the Death on Demand series:
	Death on Demand (1987) Finalist 1988 Anthony Award for Best Paperback Finalist 1988 Macavity Award for Best First Novel Design for Murder (1987) Something Wicked (1988) 1988 Agatha Award for Best Novel 1989 Anthony Award for Best Paperback Honeymoon with Murder (1988) 1990 Anthony Award for Best Paperback A Little Class on Murder (1989) 1990 Macavity Award for Best Novel Finalist 1989 Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist 1990 Anthony Award for Best Mystery Deadly Valentine (1990) Finalist 1990 Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist 1991 Macavity Award for Best Novel The Christie Caper (1991) Finalist 1991 Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist 1992 Macavity Award for Best Novel Southern Ghost (1992) Finalist 1992 Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist 1993 Anthony Award for Best Mystery	The Mint Julep Murder (1995) Yankee Doodle Dead (1998) White Elephant Dead (1999) Sugar Plum Dead (2000) April Fool Dead (2002) Engaged To Die (2003) Murder Walks the Plank (2004) Death of the Party (2005) Dead Days of Summer (2006) Death Walked In (2008) Dare To Die (2009)
	Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins, a 70-something reporter in South Carolina:
	Dead Man’s Island (1993) 1993 Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist 1994 Macavity Award for Best Novel Scandal in Fair Haven (1994) Finalist 1994 Agatha Award for Best Novel Finalist 1995 Macavity Award for Best Novel Death in Lovers’ Lane (1996) Death in Paradise (1999)	Death on the River Walk (1999) Finalist 1999 Agatha Award for Best Novel Resort to Murder (2001) Set Sail for Murder (2007)
	Bailey Ruth Raeburn, who dies during a storm and then returns as a ghost to help solve crime in her hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma:
	Ghost at Work (2008)	Merry, Merry Ghost (2009)

If You Like Agatha Christie You Might Like

or so I’m told on this website.

Anne Morice Felicity Worthington Shaw [1918-1989]
	Tessa Crichton, an actress and sleuth in England:
	Death in the Grand Manor (1970)Murder in Married Life (1971)Death of a Gay Dog (1973) Murder on French Leave (1973) Death and the Dutiful Daughter (1974) Death of a Heavenly Twin (1974) Killing with Kindness (1975) Nursery Tea and Poison (1975) Death of a Wedding Guest (1976) Murder in Mimicry (1977) Scared to Death (1977) Murder by Proxy (1978) Murder in Outline (1979)	Death in the Round (1980)The Men in Her Death (1981)Hollow Vengeance (1982) Sleep of Death (1982) Murder Post-Dated1 (1983) Getting Away with Murder?1 (1984) Dead on Cue (1985) Publish and Be Killed (1986) Treble Exposure (1987) Fatal Charm (1988) Design for Dying (1988)

P D James

THE PRIVATE PATIENT Vintage Trade Paperback | November 2009 | 0-307-45528-9Cheverell Manor is a beautiful old house in Dorset, which its owner, the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell, uses as a private clinic. When the investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, arrives to have a disfiguring facial scar removed, she has every expectation of a successful operation and a peaceful week recuperating. But the clinic houses an implacable enemy and within hours of the operation Rhoda is murdered.THE LIGHTHOUSE Vintage Trade Paperback | October 2006 | 0-307-27573-6 Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered.    FIRST ONE I READ THE CHILDREN OF MEN Vintage Trade Paperback | May 2006 | 0-307-27543-4 The human race has become infertile and the last generation to be born has grown into adulthood. Despair permeates everyone’s lives, but one young woman and her band of revolutionaries may have the key to survival. A TASTE FOR DEATH Vintage Trade Paperback | November 2005 | 1-4000-9647-2 In the little vestry of St. Matthew’s Church in London, two bodies are found butchered like animals–one a government minister and the other a local derelict. The gruesome double murder soon becomes one of the most complicated of Commander Adam Dalgliesh’s career, made even more difficult by his familiarity with one of the victims. THE MURDER ROOM Vintage Trade Paperback | November 2004 | 1-4000-7609-9 Commander Adam Dalgliesh, P. D. James’s formidable and fascinating detective, returns to find himself enmeshed in a terrifying story of passion and mystery—and in love.   READ THIS DEVICES AND DESIRES Vintage Trade Paperback | May 2004 | 1-4000-7624-2 Commander Adam Dalgliesh has just published a book of poems and has taken a brief respite from publicity on the remote Larksoken headland in a windmill left to him by his aunt. But escape is not so easy, and he finds himself caught up in the search for a dangerous killer. <!–THE MURDER ROOM Knopf Hardcover | November 2003 | 1-4000-4141-4 Commander Adam Dalgliesh, P. D. James’s formidable and fascinating detective, returns to find himself enmeshed in a terrifying story of passion and mystery—and in love.   READ THIS –>DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS Knopf | Hardcover | April 2001 | 0-375-41255-7 The setting itself is elemental P. D. James: the bleak coast of East Anglia, where atop a sweep of low cliffs stands the small theological college of St. Anselm’s. On the shore not far away, smothered beneath a fall of sand, lies the body of one of the school’s young ordinands.   READ THIS

TIME TO BE IN EARNEST Knopf | Autobiography | Hardcover | April 2000 | 0-375-41066-XIn 1997, P. D. James turned seventy-seven. Taking to heart Dr. Johnson’s advice that at seventy-seven it is “time to be in earnest,” she decided to undertake a personal memoir in the form of a diary. This enchanting and highly original volume is the result.A CERTAIN JUSTICE Knopf | Hardcover | November 1997 | 0-375-40109-1 In P.D. James’s first foray into the strange closed world of the Law Courts and the London legal community, she created a fascinating tale of interwoven passion and terror. t begins, dramatically enough, with a trial for murder. The distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge is defending Garry Ashe on charges of having brutally killed his aunt. ORIGINAL SIN Knopf | Hardcover | January 1995 | 0-679-43889-0 Innocent House is a mock-Venetian palace occupied by Britain’s oldest book publisher, Peverell Press. After a spate of malicious pranks, the ruthless managing director, Gerard Etienne, is found dead, the office mascot, a stuffed snake, jammed in his mouth. <!– The Children of Men, 1992 A Taste for Death, 1985 (re-published by Ballantine, Fall 2003) –> Skull Beneath the Skin, 1982  Innocent Blood, 1980  Death of an Expert Witness, 1977  The Black Tower, 1975  An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, 1972 Maul and the Pear Tree, (co-author) 1971  Shroud for a Nightingale, 1971  Unnatural Causes, 1967  A Mind to Murder, 1963  Cover Her Face, 1962

Stephanie Plum

I’ve been checking out Books on CD lately.  I’ve listened to a couple of these and have enjoyed them.  Thought I’d keep track here of what is out there and then indicate which ones I’ve read.

Stephanie Plum Series

One for the Money

Two for the Dough

Three to Get Deadly

Four to Score

High Five

Hot Six

Seven Up

Hard Eight

Visions of Sugar Plums

To the Nines

Ten Big Ones

Eleven on Top

Twelve Sharp

Plum Lovin’

Lean Mean Thirteen  Read It

Plum Lucky

Fearless Fourteen   Read It

Plum Spooky

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen

Time for God – Book Recommendation – Catholic Spiritual Direction

Another to add to the collection:  Time for God by Father Jacques Philippe

Someone once said that true genius is not in understanding complexity but in the ability to communicate complex issues in simple terms that anyone can understand. Father Jacques Philippe accomplishes in a very short easy read what most require volumes to explore and explain about the spiritual life, and specifically the life of prayer.

via Time for God – Book Recommendation – Catholic Spiritual Direction.

Ideas I Found From WWFM September 9, 2009

A possible idea for Aunt Kathleen http://www.presto.com/

The whole darn website, holy cow! http://theprudenthomemaker.com/default.aspx

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/onourbookshelf.aspx

Getting up early http://frugalcrunchychristy.blogspot.com/2009/09/getting-up-early.html this blogger is Catholic and regnum christi.  I need to read more on her blog.

A fun, happy video http://therockspot-tkc.blogspot.com/2009/05/when-you-know-notes-to-sing.html

Reading With the Family July 12, 2009

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers is the true, real-life story of the Von Trapps of The Sound of Music movie fame.  I have heard  that the real story beats the movie hands-down! Their family life was far richer and more God-centered than the movie even begins to let on, and all with very little money once they left Austria. This heritage is obvious in that their descendants are still Christian and still travel about singing the way Maria and Georg and their children did in the late thirties and forties.

This will be a great book to read when I find our own copy.    I appreciate the suggestion from Econobusters.