One Catholic Life Blog

Books and Reading

Aubrey/Maturin Read-along Update: Master and Commander Chapter 1

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be weekly updates for the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey. The plan is to make a very brief post each Sunday or Monday to give readers a place to post their thoughts, questions, or reactions to the chapter just finished. If you’ve read ahead or read the series before, please refrain from any spoilers. Each week I hope to post a quote from the chapter, a description of the current setting, and maybe even a nautical or historical...

Books and Reading

My Favorite Reads of 2020

When 2020 began who could have predicted what we were in for? You might think that in the midst of stay-at-home orders and quarantines I would have had a banner year in reading. The reality is that I had to spend a lot of time working from home and planning for how to reopen our school, so my brain was often too tired to read. However, I still did manage to have a fairly robust year of reading, and I met most of my reading goals. Here are...

Books and Reading

War and Peace Chapter-a-Day Read-along: The Wrap-Up

Congratulations on reading War and Peace, one of the great works of world literature! Whether you finished it early, on time, or not yet, thank you for participating. I hope the read-along was as enriching for you as it was for me. (If you liked the experience of reading classic literature in one chapter a day, please consider joining the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along.) I guess the read-along is technically not over, since the schedule calls for reading one final Tolstoy short story tomorrow, “How Much Land Does a...

Books and Reading

Preparing for the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week Read-along: Book 1 – Master and Commander

In just a few days the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey begins. This post is an introduction mostly for those who are unfamiliar with the series or with books set in the Age of Sail. Now, I am about as far from an expert on this series as you can find, but I have read it a few times, so I’ll share a few things that I think might be helpful for a new reader. If you have prior experience with the books I invite you to...

Books and Reading

Preparing for the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along: The Divine Comedy

The 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along begins in a few days and it’s time to get ready for our first book! If you’ve been part of our read-alongs the last few years, you know that we’ve already read some of the greatest novels of all time — works like War and Peace, Don Quixote, and The Count of Monte Cristo. But our first book of 2021 has been called “The Greatest Single Work of Western Literature.” I speak, of course, of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Dante’s masterpiece has had...

Homily

A Scrooge on Gaudete Sunday – Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Today we see the beautiful roses and the rose vestments, and the rose colored candle that represent the third Sunday of Advent. These are visible reminders that no matter what we are going through, no matter what is happening around us, as Christians we are always people of Good News. And when we receive good news, how do we react? We rejoice. And that’s why this Sunday is dedicated to rejoicing. Why? Because we now know that the one we long for, the one our soul longs to...

Books and Reading

Announcing the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey

This is the official sign-up post for the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey. Yes, you read that right. This is a four year challenge to read what some call the greatest historical fiction series ever written, the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin nautical series by Patrick O’Brian. Join me in a long, slow read of this masterful account of life at sea (and on land) during the Napoleonic era. This reading odyssey will require a heart of oak but the journey will be well worth the effort. Why These...

Books and Reading

Announcing the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

This is the official sign-up post for the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along. This marks the fourth year of the read-along, and we are once again back to reading several books instead of just one. As you might remember, there aren’t too many books that have exactly 365 chapters, and we’ve already read the most well known: Les Misérables and War and Peace. So, like we did in 2019, for 2021 we will be reading several different books whose chapters add up to 365. By joining along in reading one...

Books and Reading

War and Peace Chapter-a-day Read-along November Update

As we get ready to say goodbye to November, we flip the pages closer and closer to the end of the War and Peace Chapter-a-day Read-along. I hope you have enjoyed the book as much as I have in this very challenging year. Although I haven’t been able to blog during these last months, I’ve been keeping up with reading a chapter each day and posting quotes on Twitter and Facebook. And now the story is reaching its end. In fact, if you’ve looked at the schedule lately,...

Books and Reading

Tolkien Reading Day 2020: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

Every year the Tolkien Society sponsors Tolkien Reading Day on March 25, the anniversary of the fall of Sauron: It has been organised by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages. We particularly encourage schools, museums and libraries to host their own Tolkien Reading Day events. With the world in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, reading a bit of Tolkien can give us hope. Far from being an escape from reality,...

Homily

The Crucifix on the Wall: Homily for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. On the surface that seems so barbaric. And yet that law, known as the Law of Retaliation, was one of the most civilizing acts in human history. In the ancient world, before there were any laws, if a person was hurt or offended, then they would round up their clan and go after the person who caused the injury and their revenge would often be worse than the original crime, perhaps even leading to death. The Law...

Book Review / Books and Reading

Classics Club #32: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevesky

Was it really the hag I killed? It was myself I killed, not her! I murdered myself in one fell blow, for all time! It has taken me many false starts to try and read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, but I finally managed to do the deed. I’m not sure why it has taken so much effort for me to read this Russian classic. The characters are well developed and believable. The plot is suspenseful and compelling. The issues it explores are timeless and significant. And...