One Catholic Life Blog

My Year in Books

Books and Reading

My Favorite Reads of 2017 Plus My Favorite Reads of the Last Decade

2017 was a wonderful year in reading for me. Not only was it my most productive reading year ever, but it was also my first year participating in reading challenges. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. This is also the tenth year in a row that I’ll be posting my favorite reads of the year. To mark the occasion I’m going to end this post with my favorite reads of the last decade. But first, a few statistics about my reading in 2017, courtesy of Goodreads: I read...

Books and Reading

Mount TBR 2017 Reading Challenge Wrap-up

Alan Vernon [CC BY] One of the most successful reading challenges I completed in 2017 was the Mount TBR challenge from Bev at My Reader’s Block. I have way too many books that I’ve purchased over the years sitting unread on my bookshelf or in the Kindle cloud. So I’m very happy that I was able to read 36 books from my TBR pile, climbing Mount Vancouver. Some books I acquired mere months before the challenge started, while others had been languishing on my shelves for decades. The...

Book Review / Books and Reading / Spirituality

A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr

“Remember, always remember, that the heartfelt desire to do the will of God is, in fact, the truest will of God. At that point God has won, the ego has lost, and your prayer has already been answered.” My constant companion each morning this past year was A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr. Like water dripping onto a stalagmite, this book slowly dripped onto my soul, building it up each day. Rohr writes with great spiritual maturity, and his words always challenge...

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb is a historical murder mystery set in England in 1363. The book opens with two suspicious deaths in the infirmary at St. Mary’s Abbey. The Lord Chancellor of England then sends his former captain of archers, Owen, to try and find out what happened. The mystery centers on an apothecary shop run by Master Nicholas Wilton and his wife/apprentice Lucie. Owen has orders to go under cover and insinuate himself into the lives of the people of York in order to discover why and...

British Book Challenge

Books and Reading

British Books Challenge 2017 Wrap-up

I’ve always been fond of classic British authors, so the British Books Challenge (hosted by Chelley at Tales of Yesterday) fit right into my reading plan for 2017. I read thirteen books for this challenge, only two of which I had read before, Emma and Nineteen Eighty-four. My favorite was Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and my least favorite was Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson. Genres included epic poetry, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and satire. The most recent book was Agatha Christie’s 4:50 from Paddington from 1957, and the earliest book was Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year...

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall is a contrived, preachy story where most of the action takes place off stage. Despite all of that it’s still worth reading. The plot revolves around Jason Stevens, a spoiled young man who stands to inherit a life-changing amount of money if he fulfills certain tasks set out in the will of his rich great-uncle Red Stevens. Red is an old-school Texas oil-man who upon his death leaves behind twelve video messages to teach Jason the important life lessons that he failed...

The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton

“When our last bow is broken, Queen, And our last javelin cast, Under some sad, green evening sky, Holding a ruined cross on high, Under warm westland grass to lie, Shall we come home at last?” Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse is wonderful epic poetry, but I found myself rushing through it. Part of the reason was my lack of knowledge about English history, and part of it was that I just wasn’t in the mood for poetry. But I think anyone who loves Dante, Homer, or...

Alfred Hitchcock

Book Review / Books and Reading

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night

12 Stories for Late at Night is the second of three anthologies edited by Alfred Hitchcock that I read for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge this year. It contained some of the creepiest stories of the year, including “The Cocoon” by John B. L. Goodwin, “Vintage Season” by C. L. Moore, and “Our Feather Friends” by Philip McDonald. I always enjoy these Hitchcock anthologies, but this is one of the better collections, especially since it contains several top tier authors including Ray Bradbury, M. R. James...

Les Miserables Read-along Logo

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Preparing for the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along

The Read-along Is Nearly Here It’s less than a week until the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along begins, and I’m excited to have so many of you along for the ride. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or if you haven’t had the chance to sign up, be sure to read the post announcing the read-along for all details. Also, be sure to follow this blog so you don’t miss any posts about the read-along throughout the year. There are lots of ways to follow along. You can...

Christmas Creche

Spirituality

Welcome to Our World: A Christmas Prayer by Chris Rice

Christmas is ever so close now, and life often gets crazy busy about this time. If you have a spare two minutes and forty-seven seconds today, I offer you this beautiful Christmas meditation by musician Chris Rice. Christmas is a perfect time to welcome the Christ child into our world more deeply. What is your world right now? Is it chaos and confusion? Frustration and fear? Doubt and anger? Or perhaps your world right now is peace and harmony, joy and fulfillment, love and acceptance. Regardless, the Christ...

Sherlock and Watson

Books and Reading

Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge 2017 Wrap-up

It’s time now for me to make my case in Bev’s Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge. The challenge was to read a certain number of mysteries and link them in a chain of evidence from one to the other. As she explained: To follow a set of clues furnished by the mystery books you read to create a body of evidence to support a book court case. Each book clue should lead you to your next read. The connection can be anything at all from author names to...

Back to the Classics 2017

Books and Reading

Back to the Classics Reading Challenge 2017 Wrap-up

The Back to the Classics Challenge was hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate, who asked participants to read a classic in one of twelve different categories. For completing 6, 9, or 12 books, participants also earned entries into a drawing for a $30 Amazon gift card. I finished and reviewed the full twelve books, but at times it was a chore. I had difficulty making it through Far from the Madding Crowd, The Trial, and Dead Souls. On the other hand, Rebecca and Kristin Lavransdatter were books I couldn’t wait to get back...