This year, I read all but one of the books on my Books to Read in 2017 list. Spiritual Letters by Dom John Chapman is in progress (so it doesn't have its checkmark yet), but I didn't read The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges, O.P. for the second year in a row, so it's coming… Read More
Tag: Bookshelf
My Favorite Books of 2017
Nonfiction about prisoners and dead bodies, just one work of fiction (alas!) about tiny dragons, lunar tipplers, and attack oragami. These were my favorite books I read for the first time this year, or, technicallyDec 2016-Nov 2017. I like to put the list together a little early each year, in the hopes of getting some… Read More
Wizards and the Wounds of the World at Doxacon
I had the pleasure of being the keynote speaker at Doxacon (a scifi/fantasy + theology conference). I got to speak about the different kinds of magic on display in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series and Lev Grossman's The Magicians trilogy. And I managed to find an excuse to bring up Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft, too.Diane Duane's Young… Read More
Diversity, Leaky Roofs, And Aging Priests: The Changing Catholic Church
"The Catholic Church in America is slowly catching up with its shifting flock. The recent classes of ordinands are more diverse and better mirror the multicultural populations they will serve; painful but necessary mergers and closures are taking place; and churches are opening and expanding in the South and the West. But if Catholic Parishes… Read More
Books on deck for me for 2017
Getting married meant I read a lot fewer books this year than usual. According to my Goodreads account, I read 195 books this past year (that comprised a total of about fifty-eight thousand pages). And eleven and a half of those were books I specifically set out to read in last year's Books on Deck post. (Ok,… Read More
My Favorite Books of 2016
These are my favorite books I read for the first time in 2016 (here's last year's list). Well, technically, my favorite books I read from December 2015-November 2016, since I always put this list together in time for people to grab Christmas gift ideas. And, if you're looking for other book recommendations from me, you… Read More
‘You Are What You Love:’ Accentuate the Ordinary
"In Smith’s diagnosis, one of the ways we neglect God is by refusing his humblest gifts. We might meditate on the readings at church, do a little devotional reading at home, and keep tabs on blog posts online, but we run the risk of 'approach[ing] discipleship as primarily a didactic endeavor—as if becoming a disciple… Read More
Give Us This Day Our Daily Hedgehog
"After Aslan is resurrected [in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe], he travels to the witch’s castle and frees the animals she had turned to stone. A lion he rescues is so overwhelmed by this grace that he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself. The most pleased of the lot was the… Read More
Screwtape in Vegas: Addiction & Acedia
"Slots, video poker, and other gambling machines are often described as games, but Schüll’s description [in Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas] makes it clear how completely play is lacking from these terminals. Some machines allow gamblers to “autoplay”: they simply insert their money, press a single button, and let the machine spin… Read More
The Little Way of Terry Pratchett
"Reading [Terry Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax] as an atheist, it was the first time I’d seen a definition of sin that didn’t sound like, as Francis Spufford describes our modern use of the word in Unapologetic, a kind of “enjoyable naughtiness” that seemed mostly to do with sex or very expensive chocolates. But the kind of sin… Read More