The Catholic Book Club discussion

It is time to vote for our May BOTM. You may vote for up to 2 of the books listed below. The book(s) with the most votes will be our BOTM. If there is a tie, the moderator uses a random list generator to determine the order and they are all read over however many months. Books that receive fewer than 2 votes will be removed from the Voting List, with those that receive 1 vote being placed at the end of the Nominations List.

Voting will remain open until 11:00 PM Eastern Time on April 18.

The Awakening of Miss Prim, by Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera, nominated by John
In this #1 international bestseller, a young woman leaves everything behind to work as a librarian in a remote French village, where she finds her outlook on life and love challenged in every way. Set against a backdrop of steaming cups of tea, freshly baked cakes, warm fires, and lovely company, The Awakening of Miss Prim is a delightful, thought-provoking, and sensitive novel that gives rise to theories about love and companionship, education, and the beauty of every passing moment.
Voting History: None

Bodies and souls, by Maxence Van der Meersch, nominated by Fonch.
This dramatic novel about doctors, students, nurses and patients, has become a classic. It seems to be difficult to obtain in English (it doesn't even have a page in Goodreads), but it can easily be got in other languages (French, Spanish or Italian). This is their page in Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Voting History: August 2020 - 2; September 2020 - 2; October 2020 - 3; November 2020 - 3; December 2020 - 2; January 2021 - 4; February 2021 - 2; March 2021 - 2; April 2021 - 2

Characters of the Reformation, by Hilaire Belloc, nominated by Manuel
This may well be Belloc's most interesting work. It includes Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, St. Thomas More, Cranmer, Calvin, Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary"), Mary Stuart ("Queen of Scots"), Cardinal Richelieu and many others--23 in all--analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, motives and mistakes and showing how this or that seemingly insignificant factor actually changed the course of history. An amazing book!
Voting History: None

Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, by Athanasius Schneider, nominated by John
In this absorbing interview, Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers a candid, incisive examination of controversies raging in the Church and the most pressing issues of our times, providing clarity and hope for beleaguered Catholics. He addresses such topics as widespread doctrinal confusion, the limits of papal authority, the documents of Vatican II, the Society of St. Pius X, anti-Christian ideologies and political threats, the third secret of Fatima, the traditional Roman rite, and the Amazon Synod, among many others. Like his fourth-century patron, St. Athanasius the Great, Bishop Schneider says things that others won’t, fearlessly following St. Paul’s advice: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). His insights into the challenges facing Christ’s flock today are essential reading for those who are, or wish to be, alert to the signs of the times. Reminiscent of The Ratzinger Report of 1985, Christus Vincit will be a key point of reference for years to come.
Voting History: February 2021 - 7; March 2021 - 5; April 2021 - 11

Chronicles of the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle, https://www.goodreads.com/series/1836..., Manuel Alfonseca, Fonch
A set of five fantasy books in another world, where the seven lost pieces of a magic jigsaw puzzle must be found and rejoined. In the far country of Tiva, king Tivo learns that the only way to cure his betrothed, Aquamarine, will be by means of one of the lost pieces of the magic jigsaw puzzle. Fifty years later, his grandson Elvor wishes to imitate his exploits and become the owner of one of the pieces of the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle. And so on...
Voting History: April 2021 - 2

The Day is Now Far Spent, by Robert Sarah, nominated by Mariangel
Robert Cardinal Sarah calls The Day Is Now Far Spent his most important book. He analyzes the spiritual, moral, and political collapse of the Western world and concludes that "the decadence of our time has all the faces of mortal peril."
A cultural identity crisis, he writes, is at the root of the problems facing Western societies. "The West no longer knows who it is, because it no longer knows and does not want to know who made it, who established it, as it was and as it is. Many countries today ignore their own history. This self-suffocation naturally leads to a decadence that opens the path to new, barbaric civilizations."
While making clear the gravity of the present situation, the cardinal demonstrates that it is possible to avoid the hell of a world without God, a world without hope. He calls for a renewal of devotion to Christ through prayer and the practice of virtue.
Voting History: None

Dear and Glorious Physician, by Taylor Caldwell, nominated by Mariangel
Today St. Luke is known as the author of the third Gospel of the New Testament, but two thousand years ago he was Lucanus, a Greek, a man who loved, knew the emptiness of bereavement, and later traveled through the hills and wastes of Judea asking, "What manner of man was my Lord?" And it is of this Lucanus that Taylor Caldwell tells here in one of the most stirring stories ever lived or written.
Voting History: February 2021 - 3; March 2021 - 5; April 2021 - 5

Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn, nominated by Fonch
In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. Tom indeed becomes obsessed. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't and that violates everything Tom knows about history. What's was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?
Voting History: December 2020 - 5; January 2021 - 5; February 2021 - 5; March 2021 - 5; April 2021 - 2

From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith, by Sohrab Ahmari, nominated by Sohrab and John
Sohrab Ahmari was a teenager living under the Iranian ayatollahs when he decided that there is no God. Nearly two decades later, he would be received into the Catholic Church. In From Fire, by Water, he recounts this unlikely passage, from the strident Marxism and atheism of a youth misspent on both sides of the Atlantic to a moral and spiritual awakening prompted by the Mass. At once a young intellectual’s finely crafted self-portrait and a life story at the intersection of the great ideas and events of our time, the book marks the debut of a compelling new Catholic voice.
Voting History: February 2021 - 3; March 2021 -8; April 2021 - 9

The Light: Who Do You Become When the World Falls Away?, by Jacqueline Brown, nominated by Madeleine
A blinding flash … then darkness. Bria Ford and her three closest friends are stranded on a country highway in the middle of a November night. No phones. No car. No lights. Helpless and hundreds of miles from home, they put their lives in the hands of handsome Jonah Page and his flinty sister, East, strangers who somehow know Bria better than she knows herself. As the group bonds to adapt to a new, yet old, way of life, the secrets of Bria’s past provide them with the means to survive the extremes of Mother Nature, and the even more frightening extremes of human nature.
Voting History: August 2020 - 1; September 2020 - 2; October 2020 - 2; November 2020 - 1; December 2020 - 4; January 2021 - 2; February 2021 - 2; March 2021 - 2; April 2021 - 3

The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times, Jean-Charles Nault, Ben
The noonday devil is the demon of acedia, the vice also known as sloth. The word "sloth," however, can be misleading, for acedia is not laziness; in fact it can manifest as busyness or activism. Rather, acedia is a gloomy combination of weariness, sadness, and a lack of purposefulness. It robs a person of his capacity for joy and leaves him feeling empty, or void of meaning.
Voting History: April 2021 - 4

Poor Banished Children, by Fiorella De Maria, nominated by Fonch
An explosion is heard off the coast of sixteenth-century England, and a woman washes up on the shore. She is barely alive and does not speak English, but she asks for a priest... in Latin. She has a confession to make and a story to tell, but who is she and where has she come from? Cast out of her superstitious, Maltese family, Warda turns to begging and stealing until she is fostered by an understanding Catholic priest who teaches her the art of healing. Her willful nature and hard-earned independence make her unfit for marriage, and so the good priest sends Warda to serve an anchorite, in the hope that his protege will discern a religious vocation.
Voting History: August 2020 - 1; September 2020 - 5; October 2020 - 3; November 2020 - 2; December 2020 - 4; ; January 2021 - 3; February 2021 - 4; March 2021 - 2; April 2021 - 4

Race with the Devil by Joseph Pearce proposed by Fonch.
Joseph Pearce is foremost Catholic biographer of our time, but it wasn't always so. Imagine discovering God for the first time in the confines of a jail cell. Imagine spending the first half your life amidst the seedy underground of the white supremacy movement before becoming one of the foremost Religious scholars in the world. Imagine being converted by the writings of Chesterton, and years later writing a biography on him. Joseph Pearce doesn't have to imagine it - he lived it.
"In Race With the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love" take a journey through the peaks and valleys of one of the most fascinating conversion stories of our time, written first-hand by Pearce himself.
Voting History: October 2020 - 4; November 2020 - 4; December 2020 - 6; January 2021 - 2; February 2021 - 4; March 2021 - 3; April 2021 - 2

The Reed of God: A New Edition of a Spiritual Classic, by Caryll Houselander, nominated by Connie
First published in 1944 and now a spiritual classic for Catholics across the globe, The Reed of God contains meditations on the humanity of Mary, Mother of God. British Catholic writer and artist Caryll Houselander lovingly explores Mary’s intimately human side, depicting Our Lady as a musical instrument who makes divine love known to the world.
Voting History: None

With Two Eyes Into Gehenna, Jane Lebak, Steven R.
Sister Magdalena never heard of the Catherinite nuns until the day she faced her own death sentence. Rome, 1562. It’s the era of the Index of Banned Books and the Roman Inquisition. Kings still burn heretics. The worst threats come from within the Church itself.
Voting History: April 2021 - 2

And from the current interest list:

Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future by Pope Francis, nominated by Faith
In this uplifting and practical book, written in collaboration with his biographer, Austen Ivereigh, the preeminent spiritual leader explains why we must—and how we can—make the world safer, fairer, and healthier for all people now.

Characters of the Reformation
Dear and Glorious Physician.

hello, I'm new here and I'm currently leading a study on The Reed of God. It is has been a treasure to discover Houselander's insights. I would re-read it again in a heartbeat!
So my vote is:

The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander
Race with the Devil Joseph Pearce

I vote for Magic Jigsaw Puzzle by Manuel Alfonseca and Eifelheim by Michael Flynn.

The Awakening of Miss Prim
Eifelheim

Characters of the Reformation
Dear and Glorious Physician

The Awakening of Miss Prim
Dear and Glorious Physician

Characters of the Reformation, by Hilaire Belloc
Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, by Athanasius Schneider

The Awakening of Miss Prim and Eifelheim

"Cuerpos y Almas" of Maxence van der Meersch.Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, by Athanasius Schneider

Miss Prim and Let Us Dram

Characters of the Reformation

Dear and glorious physician
The noonday devil

awakening of miss prim and eifleheim.

With Two Eyes Into Gehenna, Jane Lebak
Poor Banished Children, by Fiorella De Maria,

Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, by Athanasius Schneider

Dear and Glorious Physician

The Light
Dear and Glorious Physician

Christus Vincit
The Awakening of Miss Prim

The Day is Now Far Spent
Bodies and souls

Eifelheim

I vote for
Let Us Dream by Pope Francis
The Reed of God

My votes are for:

Christus Vincit

From Fire by Water

Life is Worth Living by Venerable Fulton J Sheen

Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI

Prim
Noonday Devil

Thanks!

Juan wrote: "Life is Worth Living by Venerable Fulton J Sheen

Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI"

Juan, the two books you have voted for are not in the voting list. Look at the top of this thread to see which books can be voted for.

My votes are for
Dear and Glorious Physician
With Two Eyes Into Gehenna

Chronicles of the Magic and Poor Banished Children

Characters of the Reformation.

Race with the Devil.

My votes for May BOTM are:

The Day Is Now Far Spent, by Robert Sarah

The Awakening of Miss Prim, by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

My votes are:

Christus Vincit
The Day is Now Far Spent

My vote is for
Chronicles of the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle, by Manuel Alfonseca,
And for
Poor Banished Children, by Fiorella Maria Nash

Characters of the Reformation, by Hilaire Belloc,
Poor Banished Children, by Fiorella Maria Nash

Chronicles of the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle
From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith

I vote for Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn,

Christus Vincit

Noonday Devil

The Reed of God
Dear and Glorious Physician

Race with the Devil

Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future

Voting is closed. Results are here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...