Book Club Update #3

I've been terrible about reading lately.  It comes from working so much in the evening through half of April.  Here's the rundown for the last few months!

The rest of February was not as productive as I would have liked, but still a lot was read.  I finished the month with 1,068 pages read.  I finished The Backyard Homestead and kept reading on The Discerning Parent.

March ended with 904 pages read.  I finished The Brothers Karamazov, The Discerning Parent, Child of the South Dakota Frontier, The Cross & the Beatitudes, and The Screwtape Letters.  That's a lot of books finished!!  I also started reading Saint Fernando III (great book!!).  At that point I had read 3,079 for the year.  Not bad for three months.

Then April got ugly!  Wow, it's almost embarrassing.  I only read 287 pages total.  Ugly.  The only book I finished was The Privilege of Being a Woman.  I also started Black Elk.  

Then this month I have been slowly reading through the current books and added in The Grace of Enough.

That means, at this moment, I am reading:

The Grace of Enough

Black Elk

Orthodoxy

The Discernment of Spirits

Saint Fernando III

Wow, I better get to finishing something before I start another book.

Book Club Update #2

I finished out January with 1,107 pages completed.  

I only finished Sarah's Keys and With God in Russia.  With God in Russia is an amazing story of a priest in Russia.  I couldn't put it down.  I think I must have 60-80 pages a night with that book.  I give it 5 stars, okay maybe 6.5 stars on a 5 star rating.

I started The Discernment of Spirits and The Brothers Karamozov in January as well.  I'm still working on both of them as well as Othodoxy.  I've only read 578 pages so far in February.  I'm a bit behind last month's totals for this point in the month.  I did start and finish all three Brothers of Belle Fourche books.  They were quick reads at 130(ish) pages each.  I read one a night.  I also started The Discerning Parent. 

So that means, yes....count them with me....I have four books going right now.  This is a great example of how I read books.  I might read 400 pages of a 600 page book in a four day period...and then not pick it up again for a week. Or I might read a 200 page book in a day.  Depends on the day, my patience level, and how I'm feeling.  I spent the first part of February with a 11 out of 14 days with a headache. That doesn't help my reading log at all!

Here's to finishing one or even all four books this month!!!  What are you reading?  Send me a message!!

Book Club Update #1

I have read 680 pages in 10 days.

I finished Sarah's Keys in hardly any time.  Powerful book full of fiction and non-fiction, sin and goodness.  I'm sure the average person would be almost overwhelmed with the death in the book.  It will touch you down to the very core of your being.  I had to remind myself not to be pissed at French, Germans, and anyone else who killed or helped kill the Jews during WWII.  So much death.  So much pain.  I am rating it (not that you care) a solid 4 stars.  Why not 5 stars?  I think it could have done with less sinfulness in the fiction section.  We are all broken - I get that - but do main characters have to have EVERY vice under the sun to make it a great book?  Not in my opinion.

I also started reading Orthodoxy at this time.  It is hard to digest.  I'm about 48 pages into it I think.  I have read it in bits and pieces so I have a plan of having two books going at the same time.  Even two religious books going is better than one slow book.  So far I've learned who madmen are.  I've met a couple legit madmen according to the description.   

After I finished Sarah's Keys I started reading With God in Russia as my second book to read at a time.  Wow, another powerful and very much true story of a priest who spent twenty-three years in Soviet prisons and Siberian labor camps.  Incredible read!  I can't put it down!!!  I have just under a hundred pages left in this book.  I'm sure it will be getting 5 stars!

What are you reading?  Drop me a note!  I'd love to know!!

Another Book Club

My dad, family, husband, enemies, friends...everyone basically...has said I am an extremist.  I can do nothing little.  Go big or go home.  So, keeping with tradition, I present for you another book club list I plan to tackle this year.

CathLIT2019 Book Club (no official accountability partner yet)

1. A spiritual memoir - With God in Russia by Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.

2. A classic spiritual work - Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

3. A book about Mary - True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort

4. A book by a Catholic novelist - Helena by Evelyn Waugh

5. A book by a Pope - In the Beginning by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

6. A book by a Catholic woman - The Secret Diary of Elizabeth Leseur by herself

7. A book about liturgy - Nothing Superfluous by Fr. James W. Jackson, FSSP

8. A book by an Early Church Father - Didache

9. A conversion story - Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler

10. A book about apologetics - Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton

11. A book by an Orthodox Christian - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

12. A hagiography - Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala by Michael Steltenkamp

13. A LONG Catholic book - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
     *** as a bonus I'm going to read Frodo's Journey by Joseph Pearce (Blase said I had to.)

14. A book by a Catholic Philosopher - The Privilege of Being a Woman by Alice von Hildebrand
     *** I have read this before about a decade ago.  I feel the need to reread it.

15. A Catholic classic - Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson

16. A book by a saint - The Cross and the Beatitudes by Fulton Sheen
    *** Yes, I know.  Not a saint.  Close enough.

17. A book by a Non-Catholic that all Catholics are reading - Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

18. A book about a Catholic Monarch - Saint Fernando III by James Fitzhenry

19. A recently published Catholic book - The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More by Haley Stewart

BONUS BOOK

20. A spiritual guidance book - The Discernment of Spirits by Timothy M. Gallagher, OMV

These books all total 7,383 pages.  (panicking)

Book Clubs and Accountability

This year I decided I needed to read more and electronic less.  Not an easy challenge.  I read a lot.  Last year I read over 50 books AND I didn't read for two months.  The thing is that I read a lot of nonsense, quick, light reading books. (this doesn't count the books I read out loud to the kids)  This year I decided to challenge myself into reading heavier books.  That requires accountability and a plan.  SO here it is!

My brother, Paul, and I are going to read twelve books this year.  Twelve books of our own choosing but under the idea brackets of the 2019 Reading Challenge of Modern Mrs. Darcy.  Paul agreed to be my accountability partner a little begrudgingly.  It shall be an interesting experience for both of us. 

Here's my reading choices:  

1. A book you've been meaning to read:  The Discerning Parent by Tim & Sue Muldoon

2. A book about a topic that fascinates you: The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan

3. A book in the backlist of a favorite author: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J.R.R. Tolkien

4. A book recommended by someone with great taste: Born Only Once by Conrad Baars

5. Three books by the same author: Brothers of Belle Fourche by Kari Trumbo
         **** These books are going to be quick reads like I read a lot of in 2018.  Old habits die hard.

6. A book you choose for the cover: Sarah's Keys by Tatiana de Rosnay

7. A book by an author who is new to you: Child of the South Dakota Frontier by Lenna Kolash

8. A book in translation: Inferno by Dante (shoot me now!)

9. A book outside your (genre) comfort zone: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

10. A book published before you were born: Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis