Hope by Pope Francis
Read as part of CBR17 bingo: white cover Will preface this by saying I know a lot of people have suffered religious trauma, especially at the hands of the Catholic Church. This review is not meant to convert or convince you that your pain is not real. I also know that faith is not for everyone. This is not meant to be an evangelizing post. Despite my frustrations with the Roman Catholic Church, I had always been a fan of Pope Francis. I believed he […]
Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry
Retired detective Tom Kettle sits in his wicker chair in front of the window of his seaside apartment in a small, nameless Irish village. He watches the cormorants, he looks at the boxes of books he still hasn’t put up, and he thinks about cleaning his oven and about his deceased wife June, his long-lost children. One day, two detectives show up at his door to ask about a cold case: a priest, stabbed and thrown off a cliff a decade or so earlier. New […]
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Heloise & Abelard: A New Biography by James Burge
The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici by Elizabeth Lev
Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr
I thought I was going to need some time to recover from the exquisite The Everlasting, but really it flung me head-first into a literal rabbit-hole. A warren. An abbey. A nunnery, if you will. Also- The Atlantic just posted a list of books that were done dirty by pandemic releases, and OF COURE The Everlasting resides within those vaulted halls. I was immediately drawn to Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici after she was mentioned several times in The Everlasting. A distant relative of her spots her likeness in the […]
The Everlasting by Katy Simpson Smith
I picked this one up because of the cover. I saw it featured at my local bookstore and put it in my basket without even reading the blurb on the back. Had I read the blurb, I would have KNOWN that it was meant for me none the less, but something about the neon pile of bodies reached into my brain and demanded to be brought home. Unfortunately, “brought home” was as far as the demand went. It sat in my literal TBR pile until […]
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Before I begin, know that there is a special place in my heart for not-good movies. I don’t know if it comes from watching Sunday afternoon disaster films like the Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno with my sister when we were little, but I’d almost prefer to watch a movie I can laugh at than one I laugh with. It’s just a good time. Perhaps this helps you understand where I’m coming from when I say that I absolutely LOVE the Da Vinci Code […]
The Catholic Hipster Handbook: Rediscovering Cool Saints, Forgotten Prayers, and Other Weird but Sacred Stuff by Tommy Tighe
Goodreads’ recommendations usually leave me scratching my head. It seems to make irrelevant connections, like Oh, you’ve liked a book with a red cover before – try this! But, I was intrigued by the Goodreads algorithm putting The Catholic Hipster Handbook in front of me. I’m not Catholic, but I did go to Catholic school for a bit. I don’t label myself as a hipster, but that’s only because I’m too busy with my vinyl collection and third-wave coffee and pipes to worry about labels. […]
