Memoirs I've Read Recently

I have always been fascinated by people, and so memoirs, biographies, conversion stories, pop psychology, educational theory and such are some favorite reading categories for me.

A Grief Unveiled: One Father's Journey Through the Death of a Child (15 Years Later) by Gregory Floyd

This an extremely, almost uncomfortably, intimate relating of the grief of a dad and his family over the loss of his six year old son in a car accident. Comes from a profoundly Catholic perspective. What I found perhaps most interesting was the "15 Years Later" part, in which each family member reflects back on their son and brother and what he has meant to them, even after death.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachia Trail by Bill Bryson

Entertaining, edifying, educational, and sometimes a little crude, Bill Bryson paints a picture of a rather hidden part of our world while relating the story of his adventures along a substantial portion of the Appalachian Trail. I found his commentaries on how people today (and in the past) tend to interact with and treat nature to be thoughtful and balanced.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

This was an engrossing, heart-wrenching - and at times depressing - memoir of a young woman whose life is torn apart by the untimely death of her beloved mother. After four years of destructive behavior (extreme promiscuity, drug experimentation, etc.), she sets off for a solo three-month hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, through California and Oregon, to try to "find her way".

I enjoy memoirs partly because their perspective is different than my own. That is certainly the case here, where, for example she justifies her own abortion because of her mother's difficult history. But these differences bring into sharper focus the parts I especially relate to, such as an understated and touching theme of reverence that runs throughout the book.


Mature content.


Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West

In watching a DVD on White House history a few years ago, I became fascinated by the human stories behind the presidency, which were told primarily through the staff. (I think it was National Geographic: Inside the White House - oops! I sat down and watched this one and it was interesting, but not the same one). So when this book showed up on BookBub (which is a subject for a different post), I jumped on it. I was not disappointed. It was a welcome diversion during a sick week. J.B. West was a White House usher (and chief usher for many of those years) from 1941-1967, who shares interesting and very human insights into the presidents (FDR thru Nixon) and their families, as well as a substantial bit of history surrounding them and their temporary home. Not a must-read, but a good read.

Conversion Stories I've Read in the Last Year

 I really think that we cradle Catholics would do well to listen carefully to what our converts have to teach us about how God works (through their story of how God worked in their lives - which is amazing, profound, mysterious, crazy, etc.!!!) and how we can learn to better interact with our culture and bring God to the world. These are all wonderful books, and good reading for high schoolers too!

Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler 

Wonderful atheist-to-Catholic conversion story with a good dose of humor. God works in mysterious and sometimes hilarious ways! An autobiographical story about how God came into her life at various times and places and led her to a place she would have never imagined as a feminist, pro-choice atheist: the Catholic Church. I especially enjoyed the humorous stories about her antics as a stubborn kid, such as moving all the Bibles in the library to the "Fiction" section. Yes, God really doesn't give up on anyone! ;)

Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms by Holly Ordway

Fascinating atheist-to-Catholic conversion story by a literary-academic type who converted partly thanks to her competitive saber sword-fighting. No really! I love the way she skillfully and accessibly weaves through the series of ideas and arguments she worked her way through in the process of conversion.I am also completely fascinated by the fact that she is a Catholic holding the chair of apologetics at Houston Baptist University. So naturally there's a lot of good apologetics content here.

Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line by Abby Johnson

A must read, especially for anyone involved in the pro-Life movement. This is a great story anyway, but especially highlights how various ideas about how to fight abortion helped or didn't help in really making progress in this most important struggle. 

Books I've Read Lately: In No Particular Order (Still in Progress)

And it might be long since it's been about a year since the last time I did a big reading update post. This one will be in progress for a little bit, especially since I'd like to write up more detailed overviews. Starting for now with a quick run-through:

Please see separate posts for Conversion Stories and Memoirs that I've read recently. This post encompasses "everything else".

C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength

John and I and Ria all re-read the whole series last summer and enjoyed it very much - especially as a fun group project, so we could chat about it. Last time I read them, I was in eighth grade, and some of it definitely went over my head.

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

This was a fascinating slice of history in a connected format. So many things were intertwining at this point: Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, the Model T, Prohibition, the Ponzi Scheme, and much more. I especially appreciated the remarks about eugenics. A fair amount of mature content.


Living Your Strengths: Discover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your Community by Albert L. Winseman, Donald O. Clifton, and Curt Liesveld 

This is a companion book, with a religious flavor, to the Gallup Clifton Strengths-Finder. A good read, but not as important as the Strengths-Finder itself, which is worth a look!

Praying Our Goodbyes by Joyce Rupp

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Whose Body (A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery) by Dorothy Sayers

My husband and I went through an extensive Lord Peter Wimsey phase early in our marriage. There was a paperback book exchange near where we lived, and we got several of these and kept trading them in. Just decided to jump back in and finished Whose Body last night. It's a somewhat gruesome murder mystery, but engaging, thoughtful, and funny as well. Not for the faint of heart. At first,  Lord Peter struck me as a smart Bertie Wooster. In the end, he turned out to be more thoughtful and more human too. I really appreciated the discussion/theme on what we would call "confirmation bias" today. First published in 1923!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

North and South was originally a serialized novel, published in 1854 and 1855 in an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens! It's an engaging novel, heavy on the quirks of human relationships and interactions and perspectives (with a pleasing romantic thread), with a strong social commentary undercurrent relating to the Industrial Revolution. I was left unsatisfied by the BBC Adaptation from 2004. Some of it didn't make sense to me as there too many jumps. So, I decided to go and read the original book and was not at all disappointed.

Books I'm Still Working On:

 The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker

Self-Esteem without Selfishness by Michel Esparza

Quiet: The Power of the Introvert in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal

The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang

Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners by Zack Hample

Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis by Robert M. Edsel

What I've Been Reading...

I've been rather neglectful of Goodreads for awhile, so I thought I'd try to catch up a little here.

UPDATE: I keep remembering more books that I've read, so I've been adding to this list over the past few days.

Finished Books:

Deathbed Conversions by Karen Edmisten
Loved this - especially since I'm already a pretty big fan of the biography/memoir category.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This was just a lovely book in every way - interesting concepts, great characters, beautiful language, amazing perspective, etc. etc.. I bought a bunch of copies of this book (and Karen's book too!) to share with friends last Christmas.

We really enjoyed the movie as well. While movies typically fall short of the book (for pretty understandable reasons, though the liberties taken are at times egregious!), I particularly recommend this movie to those who enjoyed the book, because the quality of the unique characters shines through SO beautifully. Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush  are absolutely fabulous in their thoughtfully understated roles of Mama and Papa.

The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel
I picked up this book a couple of years ago because I had a music teacher in high school (at Kolbe Academy) who was involved in discovering one of the huge Nazi art depository caves outside of Paris. It was more fascinating and engaging than I expected, and appropriate and of interest to the kiddos too. We all went and saw the movie as well, which was good, but not quite great. I'm also looking forward to reading the sequel, Saving Italy.

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
I enjoyed this little book. I don't remember it as well as I'd like, except for the fact that I had wished that more of the book focused on the boy and his experiences than it did. I am hoping to see the movie too.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
This was a re-read for me for a high school literature class that I help out with. I think is the fourth time I've read this book, and I love it more each time I read it. The way she loves her characters (of all sorts) shows through everywhere, and with wonderful humor in addition to it. We had a particularly interesting discussion about how this book had a big impact on the culture of the time and who exactly it was written for. We decided that it was aimed at people like the maiden aunt from Vermont that came to help her brother's family in New Orleans (can't think of ANY of the names at the moment), which is an interesting and surprising comment, in my opinion.

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
The book is very gripping, as well as an important first-hand account of slavery in the U.S. Solomon Northup was a free slave (born free), happily married with three children, when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the south. I have more mixed feelings about the movie because of an unnecessary and incongrous opening scene (of a sexual nature) that seems contradictory to the book. Other than that, the movie is really well-done, but extremely intense, which is understandable, given the nature of the material (and the reality of history!).

Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
This is a very engaging and thought-provoking story, in the same (or at least similar!) genre to the Hunger Games. While I didn't enjoy it as much as the Hunger Games (which I need to spend some time writing about sometime as it seems to come up in conversation frequently, and I liked it even more the second time around), there was really a lot to like, and some parts of the story really blew me away! (Recommending a maturity level here is tougher than with the Hunger Games because there's quite a bit more in the way of sensuality involved in the story line.) Terri and I also saw the movie.

Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter by Michael White
And in a totally different realm, I rather enjoyed this thought-provoking and somewhat audacious book about one priest and his pastoral associate's attempts to revamp a dying parish. I didn't necessarily agree with everything in the book (when do I ever?) but found it quite worthwhile and eye-opening on the whole. In particular, I appreciate the distinctions made about the attitudes we ought to have regarding our parishes and the church in general (such as trying to get away from a consumer mentality).

Books in Progress:

Momnipotent by Danielle Bean
Already blogged about this book here.

Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler
I'm eating this one up, but had to slow down as I decided to start reading it aloud to the kiddos. It's turning out kind of funny, actually, because I was switching back and forth today between this book and Harry Potter.

Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin
I'm a fan. Really liked The Happiness Project too.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Family re-read-aloud in progress.

Abandonment to Divine Providence Jean-Pierre De Caussade
I've been working on this one for a long time, as I find the material so dense that I digest it best in small doses. I generally read a chapter (or section, or whatever) each week at adoration.

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Slow, often-distracted read-through in progress, but I do love this book.

Just Dabbling Again

(Originally published 2/27/14 on Chezvh.com.)

I've really been aching to start writing again, especially over the past few months. The problem of course, is where to start. We've had a dramatic life event (more on that later) happen in our extended family this month and that's made me want to start writing even more. Facebook updates just don't cut it.


Reading (and even watching) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a piece of this puzzle, to want to write. Not only did I love the writing in The Book Thief, but it somehow made the idea of writing (more) more accessible; perhaps something about the quirky turns of phrases that were so clearly part of the author's "voice" made me feel like my own "voice" might be worth trying out again.



Here are a few quotes which are also making me think.


“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”


Maya Angelou


"I write to find out what I think."

Stephen King

A Little of What We've Been Reading and Watching Lately...

Books:

I just started reading Hallie Lord's Style, Sex and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter and am really enjoying it (lots of laugh-out-loud stuff as well as some most excellent substance). Avoided the sold-out-on-first-day-on-Amazon problem by getting it on Kindle. ;)

I'm also enjoying Fr. James Martin's Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life. It is quite good and true and VERY FUNNY, but I knew I'd like it as I heard him give a talk on the same subject in Milwaukee last year.

I did finish the aforementioned Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture by Living Our Faith by Cardinal Wuerl. It's an excellent book.

And it seems like I'm always, slowly, re-reading Caryll Houselander's beautiful classic The Reed of God.



Movies:

Downton Abbey - John and I watched the entire first two seasons (all that's available so far) in about 10 days last month. Quite enjoyable in many ways, though there were a few spots early on where I began to wonder if it was going to turn out to be a soap opera. Really quite the contrary - excellent character development, historical perspective (how many World War I era dramas set in England have you watched or read?), etc. etc. For those not in the know, it's not a story for the whole family, though we are now watching and discussing our way through it with some of our teens.

The Way - I very much enjoyed this movie. I love stories about the intersection of modern secular culture with the faith - especially when they don't take their ideas too seriously. I also found all of the on-location stuff along El Camino de Santiago to be very fascinating and beautiful. Makes me want to make trek myself one day.

Midnight in Paris - This was a fun, quirky movie with some rather lovely ideas and dialogue scattered throughout. I don't want to spoil the plot, so I will say very little, but I do rather enjoy movies that seem to embrace a healthy melding of idealism with the beauty of reality.

Moneyball - Great story, especially for those who love baseball. It's funny, though, how off-putting the name is. For a quite a long time I suffered from the misconception that it was some sort of documentary on how baseball is financed (ugh!). I also have to admit, as a life-long San Francisco Giants fan, that it was a really odd sensation to find myself rooting for the Oakland A's. ;

Books Read in 2009: A Quick List (Thanks to GoodReads)

Not Lost Forever, My Survival Story by Carmina Salcido

*William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words by John Bemelmans Marciano

*Painting Aalesund by Tod Steward

*Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America by Kati Marton

*Herodotus and the Road to History by Jeanne Bendick

Confessions of a Closet Master-Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado

Boys Adrift: Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax

*Saint Paul by Pope Benedict XVI

*The Iliad by Homer

Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides

*NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

*A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem

The Lost Chalice: The Epic Hunt for a Priceless Masterpiece by Vernon Silver

The Walking People by Mary Beth Keane

*A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

*Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John
City Boy by Jan Michael

*Hamlet by William Shakespeare

*To Whom Shall We Go? by Archbishop Timothy Dolan

*The Midnight Dancers: A Fairy Tale Retold by Regina Doman

*Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg

A World Away: The Quest of Dan Clay, Book One by T.J. Smith

The Harrowing Escape: The Quest of Dan Clay, Book Two by T.J. Smith

Trespasses Against Us by Christian M. Frank

I didn't like all of them, but there were quite a few good ones this year. I've put an asterisk before my favorites. (Naturally this isn't a complete list.) Also, I didn't include picture books here (and I read a lot of them this year). I'm hoping to put together a separate post on favorite picture books and favorite movies that we discovered this year.

Time to Move the Booklists Around

Every September I empty the booklists from the sidebar of my learning notes blog and store them elsewhere (including print copies, when I'm that organized). So here are our 08-09 lists (I really wasn't good about writing down the ones we read at the end of the summer - there were quite a few picture books, especially in the history realm):

Picture Books We've Enjoyed This Year (with the younger set - not a complete list!)

• A Cache of Jewels by Ruth Heller
• A Day on Something-something Farm
• A Picture Book of Jesse Owens by David Adler
• A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard
• Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
• Animals Do the Strangest Things
• Baby Animals by Garth Williams
• Billy and Blaze
• Blaze and the Gray Spotted Pony
• Blaze and Thunderbolt by C.W. Anderson
• Blaze Shows the Way by C.W. Anderson
• Caedmon's Song by Ruth Ashby
• Cat and Canary by Michael Foreman
• Crinkleroot's Guide to Animal Habitats
• Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths by Jim Arnosky
• Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Birds
• Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places
• Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac
• D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths (in progress)
• Danny and the Dinosaur
• David and Goliath (another one - can't remember the author)
• David and Goliath (Little Golden Book)
• Eloise Wilkin's Poems to read to the Very Young
• Father Bear Comes Home by Elsa Holmelund Minarik
• For the Children: Words of Love and Inspiration from His Holiness Pope John Paul II
• Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki
• Growing Up in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David
• Hokusai: The Man Who Painted a Mountain by Deborah Kogan Ray
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
• Katy and the Big Snow
• Kites Sail High: A Book About Nouns by Ruth Heller
• Little Bear's Friend by Else Holmelund Minarik
• Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip
• Magic School Bus Gets Eaten
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
• Paddle to the Sea
• Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow, illustrated by Monica Vachula
• Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
• Pocahontas: Girl of Jamestown by Kate Jassem
• Simpson and Sampson by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson
• Sir Kevin of Devon by Adelaide Holl
• Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
• Starfish by Edith Thacher Hurd
• The Art lesson by Tomie dePaola
• The Blue Number Counting Book
• The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse
• The Frog and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel
• The Good Man of Assisi by Mary Joslin and Alison Wisenfeld
• The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola
• The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
• The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• The Red Letter Alphabet Book
• The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff
• The Story of Jonah (Little Golden Book)
• What Lives in a Shell?
• Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs

Night Time Read-Alouds with Daddy 2008-2009

• Anne of Green Gables
• Canadian Summer
• Friendly Gables
• The Mitchells: Five for Victory

(He's also working on Sun Slower, Sun Faster right now and I'm pretty sure there were a few others I missed on this list.)

Ria:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
• Comfort Joyce Moyer Hostetter
• Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem
• How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc
• Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
• King Lear by William Shakespeare
• Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
• Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• Murder in the Cathedral
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
• Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel
• Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
• Sun Slower, Sun Faster by Meriol Trevor
• Thank You Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
• That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
• The Book of Tobit
• The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

Gus:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream (group read-aloud)
• A Tale of Two Cities (audio)
• Alvin Fernald: Mayor for a Day (in progress)
• King Lear (audio)
• Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton
• Much Ado About Nothing (audio)
• Murder in the Cathedral (group read-aloud)
• Myles Standish (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Robinson Crusoe (audio)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (audio)
• The Importance of Being Earnest (audio)
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Red Badge of Courage

Terri:

• Amelia Earhart (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Ethan Allen (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• George Washington Carver (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Gus Grissom (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Jim Bowie (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Little House in the Big Woods
• Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley
• Myles Standish (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Robinson Crusoe (audio)
• The Mitchells
• William Penn (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Pocahontas by D'aulaire
  

Bernie:

• Canadian Summer
• Friendly Gables
• The Last Battle
• The Mitchells
• Thomas Edison (Childhood of Famous Americans)

2008-2009 Teen Catechism Discussion Book/Movie List

The Footprints of God: Saint Paul
How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc
"Catholic" Books of the Bible
Some Epistles of St. Paul
Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton

This Year's Lit Class: Shakespeare

• Midsummer Night's Dream
  
• King Lear
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Twelfth Night
  
• Hamlet
• Merchant of Venice

What Mommy Read (2008-2009)

• Better Off by Eric Brende
• Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg
• King Lear
• Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Murder in the Cathedral
• The Ball and the Cross (in progress)
• The Good Land by Loula Grace Erdman
• The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman
• The Wide Horizon by Loula Grace Erdman
• What it Means to be a Christian by Cardinal Ratzinger

I only started writing out my books read on this list. In the end I found I was more consistent in keeping track of those on GoodReads.

Books I Read, 2008

This one might take awhile, but will be useful to me in various ways, even if it doesn't turn out to be interesting to anyone else. Some of these still need to be officially reviewed for Love2learn. It seems like it's been a slow year in the writing (especially reviewing) department. I also started and didn't finish quite a few books. I've read lots of picture books too, of course, just a little too difficult to keep track of. :)

Shakespeare:

King Lear
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing

Other Literature:

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (3rd or 4th time I think)
Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Beowulf (2nd time)
The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (2nd or 3rd time)

Fiction:

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Atticus by Ron Hansen
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (umpteenth time)
Arms of Love by Carmen Marcoux
Surrender by Carmen Marcoux
Healing Water by Joyce Meyer Hostetter
Blue by Joyce Meyer Hostetter
Fingal's Quest by Madeleine Polland (2nd time)
Catholic Reluctantly by Christian M. Frank
The Good Land by Loula Grace Erdman
The Wide Horizon by Loula Grace Erdman

Non-Fiction:

Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II
Witness to Hope by George Weigel (abridged audio edition)
Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
A Haystack Full of Needles by Alice Gunther
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
The Legacy of John Paul II: Images and Memories by Cardinal Ratzinger
A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson
Alfred of Wessex by Frank Morris (2nd time)
Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story by H.R. DeMallie
Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI (2nd time)
If All the Swords in England by Barbara Willard (2nd time)
What it Means to be a Christian by Pope Benedict XVI
How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc (2nd time)
Great Explorations: John Charles Fremont, Pathfinder to the West by Harold Faber

What Ria Read: 2007-2008 School Year

# Ballad of the White Horse
# Behind Enemy Lines
# Beowulf
# Callista by Cardinal Newman
# Catholic Reluctantly
# Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
# Emma by Jane Austen
# Fabiola by Cardinal Wiseman
# Fabre's Book of Insects
# Fingal's Quest
# Harry Potter 3
# Harry Potter 4
# Harry Potter 5
# Harry Potter 6
# Harry Potter 7
# If All the Swords in England
# Jack and Jill
# Jane Eyre
# Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
# Journey for a Princess
# Judith of France
# Kidnapped
# Manalive
# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
# St. Athanasius by F.A. Forbes
# St. Augustine and His Search for the Faith
# St. Patrick's Summer
# The Good Land
# The Hound of the Baskervilles
# The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
# The Napoleon of Notting Hill
# The Poet and the Lunatics
# The Princess Bride
# The Robe
# The Song of Roland
# The Tall American: The Story of Gary Cooper
# The Wide Horizon Loula Grace Erdman
# Tirzah
# Tripods Attack (Young Chesterton Chronicles)
# Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
# Waking Rose