The Catholic Book Club

message 1: by Manuel (last edited Sep 15, 2025 02:36AM) (new)

Sep 14, 2025 11:42PM

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It is time to vote for our November 2025 BOTM. You may vote for up to 2 of the books listed below. You should vote by adding a comment here. If you vote in any other way, your votes may not be counted.

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 end at approximately 11:00 AM Eastern Time on Thursday , September 18.

The Voting List for November is:

The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity by Carrie Gress, nominated by Emmy
In the late ’60s, a small group of elite American women convinced an overwhelming majority of the country that destroying the most fundamental of relationships—that of mother and child—was necessary for women to have productive and happy lives. From the spoiling of this relationship followed the decay of the entire family, and almost overnight, our once pro-life culture became pro-lifestyle, embracing everything that felt good. Sixty million abortions later, women aren’t showing signs of health, happiness, and fulfillment.
Voting History: NONE

Behold the Man: A Catholic Vision of Male Spirituality by Harold Burke-Sivers, nominated by Jill
Lucid and inspiring, Behold the Man is a unique exploration of Catholic spirituality for men. Much of the literature written for Catholic men focuses on topical issues such as fatherhood and sexuality. While this book does not exclude these subjects, it is the first to present a comprehensive picture of Catholic male spirituality.
Voting History: July 2025: 2; August 2025: 2

Champions of the Rosary by Donald H. Calloway, nominated by Ann
From the best-selling author of the classic Catholic conversion story, No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy by Fr. Donald H. Calloway, comes a powerful and comprehensive history of a spiritual weapon: the rosary.
Voting History: April 2025: 3; June 2025: 2; July 2025: 2; August 2025: 2

The Execution of Justice, Elisabetta Sala, nominated by Susan and renominated by Fonch
When Jack Digby’s father is executed for high treason, the boy’s dream life turns into the worst of nightmares; and when he is forced into the murky, ruthless world of double agents and cowardly betrayals, his fate would seem to be already written. As he grows up, however, he discovers that something is wrong with the official narrative concerning his father’s tragic end. It will take time and suffering for him to discover that things are rarely as they seem, that the King’s Men – the greatest playing company of all time – are not just simple entertainers; that our most bitter enemies may turn into our best friends; that, at times, Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair.
Voting History: NONE

Finding Happiness in a Complex World: Rules from Aristotle and Aquinas by Charles P Nemeth, nominated by Rachel
Why, since happiness is so universally sought after, are so many people so miserable? The answer can be found by unpacking the wisdom of two of history's intellectual giants who set out to answer the question that has confounded man from time What makes us happy? Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas existed sixteen centuries apart, yet each reached similar understandings about what makes a person happy and what makes him miserable.
Voting History: July 2025: 2; August 2025: 2

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful by Joseph Pearce nominated by Fonch
Christ is "the way, and the truth, and the life";, but fallen mankind, although made in Christ's image, is not so pure. Human history—including Church history—is a tapestry woven of three the good, the bad, and the beautiful. This book tells the story of Christendom over two millennia, focusing on what was good, bad, and beautiful in each century. These three threads run through the heart of every person, revealing the pattern of our individual lives. These very same threads bind together the collective lives of men and make up the fabric of culture and civilization. No one saw this three-dimensional form more clearly than Benedict XVI. For him, the goodness of the saints and the beauty of art are the only antidote to the dark thread of evil that runs through history.
Voting History: July 2025: 2; August 2025: 3

The Hermit: The Priest Who Saved a Soul, a Marriage, and a Family by Kevin Wells, nominated by Kristi
In his raw and tender memoir, biographer Kevin Wells pulls readers into the unforgettable story of a parish priest turned hermit, Father Martin Flum, who orchestrated the slow resurrection of his wife, Krista, from the nightmare of her deep wounds and addiction. In gripping fashion, Kevin tells the story of his family’s own long suffering, which culminated in the dark spring of 2020, as a strange fear pressed down upon the world and his wife spent most nights drinking away long-held shame. When a near-universal chorus of politicians, medical professionals, and Catholic clergy megaphoned the command to “isolate,” Kevin couldn’t imagine a more dooming word for his family, his marriage, and the life of his wife. Yet God had other plans. Wells’ honest tale of inner crisis and hope-filled resurrection takes readers on a spiritual rollercoaster, offering a penetrating exploration of the sacramental grace of marriage and the mysterious movement of God in dry, lonely places.
Voting History: NONE

Intercession by Kevin J Haar, nominated by Madeleine
Full of Irish and Catholic folklore, Intercession weaves through the history and myths of Ireland to its thrilling and mysterious conclusion. In a place steeped in legend, Aoife must decide for herself what stories are worth believing and suffer the consequences of those beliefs, for better or worse.
Voting History: August 2025: 2

The King's Achievement, by Robert Hugh Benson, nominated by Fonch
The brothers of the Torridon family make their way in the world -- the eldest, Ralph, in service to Cromwell and the youngest, Christopher, in service to God and the Catholic church as a monk in the Priory at Lewes. Their paths carry them to completely different destinations and Ralph is instrumental in turning Christopher and his fellow monks out of their monastery. Christopher, however, manages to rise above his pride and anger and ministers to Ralph in his hour of need.
Voting History: July 2025: 2; August 2025: 2

The Letters of Magdalen Montague by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson, nominated by Emmy
When the amoral and cynical J takes up his pen to describe Magdalen Montague, he little realizes the dramatic changes that will soon be wrought in his life. His fascination for this mysterious woman catapults him into a harrowing encounter with Catholicism, conversion, and discipleship. Through the letters, intimate portraits of four souls appear: the loquacious letter-writer J , his virulently anti-religious recipient R , the silently holy Domokos JuhÃ¡sz, and Magdalen Montague herself. The novella boldly addresses themes of grace, faith, evil, sacrifice, spiritual exile, martyrdom of the everyday, and the redemptive power of narrative, all mediated through the deftly-wielded pen of the protagonist. Drawing largely on the traditions of Decadent literature, The Letters of Magdalen Montague presents a profound portrait of humanity s quest for God.
Voting History: NONE

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: NONE

Oddsfish! by Robert Hugh Benson, nominated by Fonch
Interwoven with the accurately portrayed events and places of the time are fictitious characters, including the narrator, Mr. Roger Mallock and his cousin and lady-love Dolly. Sent by Pope Innocent XI to Charles' court as a diplomatic representative of the Vatican, Mallock becomes a trusted confidant of the King and acts upon Charles's deathbed wish to give his confession to, and receive absolution from, a Catholic priest.
Voting History: August 2025: 3

Race with the Devil, by Joseph Pearce, nominated by Fonch.
Growing up on the rough streets of Dagenham, England, Joseph Pearce was thrown into a life that led anywhere but to God and salvation. A world of hate and violence was all he knew, until one day he picked up the writings of G.K Chesterton and everything changed. "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: June 2025: 2; July 2025: 3; August 2025: 2

This Thing of Darkness by K.V. Turley and Fiorella De Maria, nominated by Emmy
Hollywood, 1956. Journalist and war widow Evangeline Kilhooley is assigned to write a "star profile" of the fading actor Bela Lugosi, made famous by his role as Count Dracula. During a series of interviews, Lugosi draws Evi into his curious Eastern European background, gradually revealing the link between Old World shadows and the twilight realm of modern horror films.
Voting History: June 2025: 4; July 2025: 4; August 2025: 4

Wheat that Springeth Green by J.F. Powers, nominated by Steven R.
This book is a comic foray into the commercialized wilderness of modern American life. Its hero, Joe Hackett, is a high school track star who sets out to be a saint. But seminary life and priestly apprenticeship soon damp his ardor, and by the time he has been given a parish of his own he has traded in his hair shirt for the consolations of baseball and beer. Meanwhile Joe's higher-ups are pressing for an increase in profits from the collection plate, suburban Inglenook's biggest business wants to launch its new line of missiles with a blessing, and not all that far away, in Vietnam, a war is going on. Joe wants to duck and cover, but in the end, almost in spite of himself, he is condemned to do something right.
Voting History: August 2025: 3

GIVE LOVE: A 91-Day Devotional for Searching Catholics by Heidi E. Vincent nominated by Heidi.
This book is in the Current Interest List.

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message 2: by Emmanuel (new)

Sep 15, 2025 05:26AM