I’m kicking off banned book week with a book that has gotten a lot of attention, both positive and negative, in Catholic circles. Is it a banned book? If it isn’t yet it probably will be. The author has been banned from several Catholic speaking engagements because of it. But he has also received support from prominent bishops and wouldn’t have been able to publish without support from his order, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). This book, considered incendiary by alt-right Catholics, is not really […]
A prayer of thanks for sweet, fast reads.
A Book of Uncommon Prayer is a fast and sweet read. Each section follows the format of “A prayer for…” “A prayer of gratitude for…” “A prayer of bemused appreciation for…” all for very mundane, everyday stuff. Cashiers (may their customers be pleasant and their feet not hurt), newts, summer beaches. It’s charming to the point of twee, but there are worse things to be in the world and at 192 pages (many of them half pages), it doesn’t outstay its welcome. I would absolutely […]
When a book is (way) more than just a book.
This review requires a lot of backstory that isn’t directly related to the actual quality of the book, so bear with me. Some facts pertinent to what I’m leading up to: My husband and I are Catholic adult converts. Our daughter took years and fertility treatments to conceive, and trying for kid #2 has not proven one bit easier. When I finally did get pregnant, I had a difficult pregnancy and good reason to think she might not make it. For the first time I […]
A great book for a VERY niche audience (of which I am not technically a part).
The title of this book is a bit misleading, so let’s spend this review focusing on what exactly this book is and is not. It is not: A crash course on how to go about practicing Natural Family Planning (widely misunderstood to be “the rhythm method”) in accordance with Catholic teaching. NFP is generally used to avoid pregnancies. I suppose you could technically use it to achieve one, but most often when you’re talking about NFP you’re talking about using it to space pregnancies. This […]