Here are 100 books that Lepanto’s Lady fans have personally recommended if you like
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I am a Catholic wife and mother and desire to share my Catholic Faith. Growing up in the 1970's and 80's, I enjoyed reading books by Beverly Cleary. As I grew, my tastes for books grew to include true stories of the lives of saints and Catholic history, including the apparitions in Fatima. I also enjoyed reading fictional stories about time travel. Then it came to me. Why not write about a girl who, after coping with loss, finds solace after traveling back to the place and time where the apparitions took place? Bingo. Janie's Prayer was born. In my writing, I hope to inspire others and help spread the Catholic Faith.
A classic, this book is timeless. Lewis conveys a message of courage, hope, and triumph through a unique perspective. Young Lucy and her three older siblings are refugees staying at the home of a professor during WWII. Lucy discovers a large wardrobe that acts as a portal to a strange land where she discovers many mystical creatures. I felt for Lucy when she wasn't believed by her siblings at first and cheered when they finally discovered the truth.
In the land, the kids participate in a battle between good and evil, symbolic of the Catholic church. This was a fun book to read, as I was on the edge of my seat (the first time) cheering for Lucy, who was my favorite of the bunch.
Lucy steps into the Professor's wardrobe - but steps out again into a snowy forest. She's stumbled upon the magical world of Narnia, land of unicorns, centaurs, fauns... and the wicked White Witch, who terrorises all. Lucy soon realises that Narnia, and in particular Aslan, the great Lion, needs her help if the country's creatures are ever going to be free again...
I am a Catholic wife and mother and desire to share my Catholic Faith. Growing up in the 1970's and 80's, I enjoyed reading books by Beverly Cleary. As I grew, my tastes for books grew to include true stories of the lives of saints and Catholic history, including the apparitions in Fatima. I also enjoyed reading fictional stories about time travel. Then it came to me. Why not write about a girl who, after coping with loss, finds solace after traveling back to the place and time where the apparitions took place? Bingo. Janie's Prayer was born. In my writing, I hope to inspire others and help spread the Catholic Faith.
As a fan of Catholic history and historical fiction, this story is surely one of my favorites. Set during the Great War, WWI, twenty-one-year-old Julia has her heart set on meeting her future husband. She makes and purchases expensive gifts for him–she's ready. Surely, she will meet her beloved soon.
When Julia is sent overseas with the Red Cross, she finds herself caring for injured soldiers in a field hospital in France. As she matures, Julia begins giving the gifts she'd made or purchased to the injured soldiers. A touching addition to this book was the addition of beautiful sonnets between Julia and her beloved.
"Outstanding and unforgettable book!" Jean Heimann, authorAs a young girl, Julia began buying gifts for her future spouse, a man whose likeness and personality she has conjured up in her mind, a man she calls her “beloved.” Soon after the United States enters the Great War, Julia impulsively volunteers as a medical aid worker, with no experience or training. Disheartened by the realities of war, will Julia abandon the pursuit of her beloved? Will Julia’s naïve ‘gift scheme’ distract her from recognizing her true “Great Love?” From Philadelphia to war-torn France, follow Julia as she transitions from unworldly young woman…
I am a Catholic wife and mother and desire to share my Catholic Faith. Growing up in the 1970's and 80's, I enjoyed reading books by Beverly Cleary. As I grew, my tastes for books grew to include true stories of the lives of saints and Catholic history, including the apparitions in Fatima. I also enjoyed reading fictional stories about time travel. Then it came to me. Why not write about a girl who, after coping with loss, finds solace after traveling back to the place and time where the apparitions took place? Bingo. Janie's Prayer was born. In my writing, I hope to inspire others and help spread the Catholic Faith.
So captivating! I couldn't put it down! This book is about a 16-year-old Catholic girl named Katelyn who discovers a bead from her grandmother's rosary one year after the devastating plane crash that took the life of her grandmother. The beads of her grandmother's rosary had been specially carved with the initials of family members–and this was her bead!
In time, Katelyn discovers that other beads have been found–and lives have been saved! Katelyn's mission has begun. I was deeply engaged in the book and eager for the mystery to be solved. It's so refreshing to find Catholic-based stories like this one.
On the anniversary of the plane crash that took the life of her beloved grandmother and threw her own mother into a deep depression, 16-year-old Katelyn Marie Roberts discovers a single bead from her grandmother's rosary--a rosary lost in the crash. A chance encounter with a stranger, who tells Katelyn that a similar bead saved her friend's life, launches Katelyn and her family on a mysterious journey filled with glimmers of hope, mystical events and unexplained graces.
I am a Catholic wife and mother and desire to share my Catholic Faith. Growing up in the 1970's and 80's, I enjoyed reading books by Beverly Cleary. As I grew, my tastes for books grew to include true stories of the lives of saints and Catholic history, including the apparitions in Fatima. I also enjoyed reading fictional stories about time travel. Then it came to me. Why not write about a girl who, after coping with loss, finds solace after traveling back to the place and time where the apparitions took place? Bingo. Janie's Prayer was born. In my writing, I hope to inspire others and help spread the Catholic Faith.
This book was so good! From the close relationship young Olivia had with her grandmother to the trials she was able to overcome through the help of the Saint Therese Chaplet (a gift from her grandmother), I was moved almost to tears. Moving, making friends, dealing with unkindness...these issues are all covered in a beautiful and touching way. I love the way the author weaves the teachings of Saint Therese of Lisieux (my favorite Saint) throughout the story.
Once again, this was a very refreshing story. I especially loved the way the author included quotes from Saint Therese throughout the book. I can't say it enough–I loved this book!
Fifth grader Olivia Thomas has moved to a new school in a new state, and is eager to make friends! Her best friend quickly becomes someone she has never seen: St. Therese of Lisieux. Follow Olivia's trials as she tries to fit in at St. Michael's School. With the help of her grandmother, she learns about the Little Way of serving God and how it can change everything! 2009 Catholic Press Association award winner, children's books.
Religion, faith, and belief are very personal things that can invoke powerful emotional and intellectual responses. Responses are shaped by social conditioning during childhood that can last a lifetime, engendering spiritual comfort or deep disturbance in adulthood. I began to question my Catholic indoctrination as I started to delve into historical accounts of early Christianity and the evils inflicted on the world under the banner of doing God’s work, politics waged by the Vatican to maintain secular power, distilling it all into something I finally felt comfortable with.
I sort of always knew that the tortuous line of Catholic popes was a road of corruption, war, treachery, conquest, and gathering of secular and sectarian power.
When I started reading this book, my preconceptions were severely beaten. The history of papal rule turned out to be far more bloody. What disturbed me greatly, something I should not have found surprising is that this process is happening even today. I could have dismissed this work as simply another anti-Christian smear campaign were it not for the solid research and undeniable supporting facts. I had to accept the veracity of what I read, understanding why the Church never adopted the concept of separation of powers. To do so would mean its destruction. What to do? More research, of course.
"The truth, we are told, will make us free. It is time to free Catholics, lay as well as clerical, from the structures of deceit that are our subtle modern form of papal sin. Paler, subtler, less dramatic than the sins castigated by Orcagna or Dante, these are the quiet sins of intellectual betrayal." --from the Introduction
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills comes an assured, acutely insightful--and occasionally stinging--critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present.
Papal Sin in the past was blatant, as Catholics themselves realized when they painted popes roasting…
I’m a professor of conflict resolution at George Mason University and have been working for years trying to understand the causes of and methods of resolving religious conflicts. I studied the Middle Ages thinking that I’d find a story about Catholic fundamentalists persecuting innovative thinkers like Copernicus and Galileo. Instead, I found a story about religious leaders such as Pope Innocent III, Peter Abelard, and Thomas Aquinas borrowing ideas from the Greeks, Muslims, and Jews, revolutionizing Catholic thought, and opening the door to modern ideas about the power of reason and the need for compassion. What a trip!
Etienne Gilson was the leading intellectual historian of the medieval Church in France, and this is the clearest, most lucid exposition of St. Thomas Aquinas’s thinking that I have read. Perhaps because the Roman Catholic Church has often used Aquinas’s thinking to justify conservative positions, we often forget that he was a world-class genius who radicalized religious and ethical thought in the Middle Ages, and whose work helped inspire later movements of reform like the Vatican II Council. Gilson’s sympathetic treatment of Aquinas restored this understanding of his thinking and helped produce the modern neo-Thomist movement. It is worth reading – and it is readable!
In this final edition of his classic study of St. Thomas Aquinas, Etienne Gilson presents the sweeping range and organic unity of Thomistic philosophical thought. The philosophical thinking of Aquinas is the result of reason being challenged to relate to many theological conceptions of the Christian tradition. Gilson carefully reviews how Aquinas grapples with the relation itself of faith and reason and continuing through the existence and nature of God and His creation, the world and its creatures, especially human beings with their power of intellect, will, and moral life. He concludes this study by discussing the life of people…
As a mom of four busy kids in grade school, middle school, high school, and college, reading a novel is my reward at the end of a hectic day. I’ve read hundreds of novels, many of them Christian romances, while sitting at my children’s bedsides. They have to be well-written, no smut, and if the characters are Catholic Christians like me, all the better.
The hilarity of this book drew me in from the first pages, as the author finds (good-natured) humor in Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity alike.
Beyond the humor, so much in this story resonated with me, including Julia’s infatuation with musician Dylan. The humor melds perfectly with the deeper themes in this story, and the whole thing is beautifully underpinned by God’s unfailing, patient, perfect love.
Armed with a floral-print Bible cover, Julia must pretend to be “born again” for her Christian housemates—cute EMT Mark and his church-lady mom. Their place is walking distance (cough, stalking distance) from Dylan, her latest musician crush. Mark knows she’s faking her faith. But he needs someone like her to crash his dull routine. So he protects her secret and brings her to his Evangelical church. Hiding her Catholic past, she bumbles her way through hand-raising worship. Other times she sneaks into Mass. Meanwhile, Mark explains how to be “saved.” (Sure, she needs saving—from her alcoholic dad, her copier-jamming job,…
I’ve taught yoga and meditation for decades to children from ages 3 to 93. My Doctorate is in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. I love to experience personal development and child development has a very special place in my heart. I learn so much from them! It is particularly fun to watch children discover and explore life. Everything old is new again! Sages of Young Ages can open our eyes if we simply open our ears to each child’s unique spoken truths.
Short interesting titles to profound short stories. Each story offers a lesson to clearer soulful understandings. Humor, insights, simplicity – all the things I treasure and hope to be as a writer. Anthony deMello has influenced my world with new ways of looking at old things. I find this in children too – their new eyes looking at old things reminds me of how important fresh perspectives are to enjoying and appreciating life.
"Every one of these stories is about YOU." --Anthony de Mello
Everyone loves stories; and in this book the bestselling author of Sadhana: A Way to God shares 124 stories and parables from a variety of traditions both ancient and modern. Each story resonates with life lessons that can teach us inescapable truths about ourselves and our world.
De Mello's international acclaim rests on his unique approach to contemplation and ability to heighten self-awareness and self-discovery. His is a holistic approach, and in the words of one reviewer: "his mysticism cuts across all times and peoples and is truly a…
I have a passion for becoming a better human being and helping others to do the same. I spent 28 years in parish ministry attempting to remind people of the call of Jesus and the needs of the human heart. I left ministry and operated a private practice as a registered psychotherapist for almost 20 years. I am now retired and an author of three books. I'm still working at the task of becoming a better human being and helping others to do the same. The books I have recommended in my book list are all examples of people with similar mindsets.
Exploring a spiritual tradition that predates by many centuries the fall/redemption ideology of mainstream Christianity (which Gandhi referred to as a "Christianity without Christ"), Fox presents an alternative quest for wisdom based on the fundamental conviction that we are, each one of us, born into this world not as blotches on creation but as blessings, precious, beloved and of enormous worth and promise.
Fox's theology eventually won him the ire of the Roman papacy and eventually expulsion from the Catholic Church. His response? "Sometimes you have to take your praise any way you can get it!"
Here is a reissue of the critically acclaimed bestseller, named one of the "20 books that changed the world" in New Age Journal's Annual Source Book for 1995. Maverick theologian Matthew Fox provides a daring view of historical Christianity and a theologically sound basis for personal discovery of spiritual liberation.
In this revolutionary work, Fox shows how Christianity once celebrated beauty, compassion, justice, and provided a path of positive knowledge and ecstatic connection with all creation.
As an author for both adults (Eli) and children (McGee and Me), I’ve sold over 8 million books and videos. My passion is to strip away the religious varnish we’ve coated God in and reveal him as the loving friend and father he longs to be. My first agenda is to entertain, and I never want to get caught preaching. Instead, I use humor and page-turning stories to present his love in ways without ever getting caught.
I love laughing, particularly at our own human foibles. In this book of essays, in fact, in all of Brian Dole’s essays, he captures with both love and humor the peculiarities of what makes us human. His essays celebrate moments of everyday living that help me see profoundly and humorously what a joyful, profound, and mysterious thing this creation we call life can be.
“Brian Doyle is an extraordinary writer whose tales will endure.” —Cynthia Ozick, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Quarrel and Quandary
This is a guided tour through the mind of one of the most acclaimed voices in contemporary Catholic writing. Brian Doyle effortlessly connects the everyday with the inexpressible and consistently marries searingly honest prose with interruptions of humor and humanity.
These essays bear Doyle’s trademark depth and deliver with eloquence his piercing observations on mohawks and miracles, vigils and velociraptors, syntax and scapulars, jail and jihad, and mercy beyond sense.
A 2018 Catholic Press Association Book Award winner.…
