Christian Goodreaders discussion

I'm interested in learning more about the Medici family. I see there are quite a few books about them, but I don't want to waste my time and money buying something that is lurid, or just written poorly.
Can you recommend an interesting and clean, accurate historical fiction or historical book about the Medici family? Also, were they involved in the Catholic church, and did they have any doings with mysticism of any kind?

As a kid, I read of lot of written-for-children biographies, and one was a biography of Lorenzo d'Medici. Sadly, though, although I remember that I found it interesting, I don't recall the author or the title.

The Medici family was wealthy and politically powerful in Florence, Italy in the late medieval and early modern era, especially from the early 1400s until the late 1600s. During that time, the Roman Catholic Church was the state church in all of the Italian city states, so all of the Medicis were at least nominal members. Also, like most high-class families, in each generation the parents often designated one of their younger sons for the priesthood, and used money and influence to get him into a cushy position in the church. Between 1513 and 1605, no less than four members of the family rose to the Papacy.

I don't ever recall reading anything about any member of the family having any connection with the medieval or early modern mystical tradition in the Catholicism of that day. From what I remember, the members of the family that I read about didn't strike me as having particularly mystical temperaments. (Bankers and politicians usually don't!) Sorry I can't be more helpful!

Thanks. If any titles come to mind, let me know

Will do, Nancy!

Yeah, I am sorry Nancy, but I would be just like you, doing google searches to see what I could find.

The Medici family definitely had a hold on the papacy for a while, but I dont know that any were into any type of weird mysticism.

What do you mean by Mysticism?

You might try the catholic encyclopedia, which is now completely online. I bet there is a lot of reading there.

Is there any clean Christian book about a true story of a husband gaslighting his wife? I know there's a black and white movie, but was just wondering about that topic.

Nancy wrote: "Is there any clean Christian book about a true story of a husband gaslighting his wife? I know there's a black and white movie, but was just wondering about that topic."

Here’s what I found:
“Gas Light” by Patrick Hamilton was published in book form in 1939 under the same title of the old movie. There is no direct novelization of the 1944 film, but Patrick Hamilton’s play is the definitive literary version of the story.
Because of its mature themes—such as manipulation, mental instability, and criminal behavior—it is not considered "clean" in the sense of being suitable for children or family reading without discretion. It is best suited for adult or mature teen audiences.

I hope this helps!

I can’t think of any books offhand, Nancy. But I would think autobiographies/biographies with spousal abuse would include gaslighting as it’s often entwined with other types of abuse.

Yes, gaslighting is spousal abuse, manipulation, and a desire for control, I've read a lot about it. Calvin, thanks for this information, and it was just for my own reading, not for children or even teens.
Janelle, if you think of any titles, let me know. And, yes, gaslighting often falls under other types of abuse. It's strange that someone would want to even do that to anyone, isn't it?

P. Pherson wrote: "."
Mysticism in the sense of rituals, witchcraft, etc. I heard that they were very evil people.

Nancy wrote: "It's strange that someone would want to even do that to anyone, isn't it?"

It seems strange if you consider human relationships from a healthy perspective informed by God's design. But if you view it in the context of our profound fallenness as a species, it's not strange at all --the basic essence of sin (which drives all human behavior, apart from the grace of God) is desire to be the god of our own world and exert power over others, and spousal abuse in all its forms is all about exerting power. :-(

Nancy wrote: "Mysticism in the sense of rituals, witchcraft, etc."

What you're thinking of is actually what's called "occultism," not "mysticism." The latter is quite different; it refers to an approach to religion that stresses openness to direct spiritual influence from God as a means of knowing or being united with Him (or, in the Christian context, with Christ) more so than, though not necessarily to the exclusion of, more intellectual approaches such as Scripture study. Examples of medieval Christian mysticism would include Catherine of Siena or Julian of Norwich.

As far as I know, there's no historical evidence that the Medici were into either occultism or mysticism. As far as being very evil people, as Jesus recognized, all of us are "evil" people in our unregenerate state; and even though they were nominal members of a state church, I don't see a lot of compelling evidence that most Medici were very regenerate. They displayed a considerable propensity for greed, lechery, vengefulness, and willingness to exploit people and abuse power; but in those respects, I don't know that they were any worse than most rich families of that era.

Looking for a book by an author, female, and in the title is the word Indigo. I tried looking, but too many results. She is a modern author, historical fiction. Can anyone tell me her name?

Nancy, can you help us narrow this down? Is this a book you've read in the past, and are now trying to track down author/title information for? Or is it a book you've heard about, and want to identify exactly so that you can read it? Do you know what time and place it's set in? Am I guessing correctly that it's written by a Christian author? Anything you can tell us about the book will help!

Nancy, more info would help narrow things down, but based on what you've said so far these are the top two that I found: The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd and Indigo by Beverly Jenkins. Neither of those is labeled as Christian though. If I add in Christian to the search, I found a couple more options: The Indigo Heiress by Laura Frantz and Indigo Isle: A Southern Love Story of Redemption, Healing, and Second Chances by T.I. Lowe. Any chance one of these is what you're looking for?