catholic – Page 3 – Kristin Houlihan, Writer

A Curse That Bites Deep

You all will recall my reviews of The Fever and The Mossback Cafe Cookbook by Thomas Fenske. SO good! Well, I finally finished his latest, A Curse That Bites Deep, and now I can’t wait for book 3!!!

Much like when I read The Fever, I thought the beginning of the book was nice and steady – I was happy to read a chapter or two in a sitting and come back when I had more time. This, unfortunately, coincided with the birth of my now nine-month-old baby, and I took a looooooong break from reading it. So, in the mood for fiction, I picked it up again a week or so ago. Again, like The Fever, but better(!), the story picks up partway through. I binge-read the rest of the book over two nights, staying up way too late to finish. The kids get up at 6… I get up with the baby lots of times in the night…sleep is crucial. And I sacrificed sleep to read this book! I DON’T do that anymore.

I loved in The Fever how the characters and story were so real. That same authenticity carries through in A Curse That Bites Deep. The story is rounded out and made believable by the nuances of the characters, and the author presents so much life wisdom through them. In one scene, for instance, Sam reflects on his life as he washes dishes at The Mossback, noting that “his life was a tradeoff” in which he balanced pursuing the mine and his relationship with Smidgeon (15). Isn’t life full of tradeoffs for all of us? Life requires constant assessment and reassessment of priorities and how well our actions align with those priorities. Sometimes we do well, and sometimes we don’t. Sam experiences this same reality throughout the book.

Another “real” moment that I love, probably because I’m Catholic, is Fenske’s portrayal of Smidgeon’s relationship with the Catholic faith she was brought up in. Through Smidgeon and her respect for the Church and its sacraments, Fenske very powerfully conveys the loving reality the Church teaches. Due to life choices at odds with Church teaching, Smidgeon is unable to participate in the sacraments, particularly the reception of Holy Communion. She tells Sam, “I can’t fully participate but…well, you know, it doesn’t mean I can’t be a part of the church family” (45). This is so beautiful and powerful – it speaks a truth that is often misunderstood by those inside and outside the Church, and it felt nice to read it so simply put in an otherwise-nonreligious book.

So these are the kind of things I enjoyed in the “slower” part of the book.

And THEN. Oh my. The action starts! I don’t want to give away too much of the story, so I won’t get into details. I will say this, though – I was surprised a LOT, which was fun. I mean, I knew there had to be bad stuff going on — it’s about a curse, after all — but there was so much I didn’t see coming and I really enjoyed that. I’d have these moments of shock and just have to keep reading. Accidental deaths, murders, arson, ghosts! All revolving around a gold mine in west Texas, of course. I figured out the identity of the villain well in advance of when it was definitively revealed, but even that didn’t keep me from being surprised by the action.

All-in-all, it was a fun read – surprising and compelling and yet also reflective of so many realities.

Five stars!

First book of 2017! Benedict XVI – Last Testament

Does that not sound ridiculous from a book blogger? It does explain my absence, however – it’s tough to blog about books when you’re not reading books… In all fairness, I have been reading a LOT with my kids, but not a lot for me. I suppose I could blog about the kids’ books (as I have in the past), but instead I’ve used that precious free time to try to actually read for myself. It barely worked – until we moved the baby (henceforth known as “A” – she is 7 months old and spectacular!) out of our room. Now I’m reinstating my read-in-bed time right before I go to sleep. I sooooo missed it!

So, on to the book! I received it as a gift for Christmas, and it took me from Christmas until Easter to read:

I was initially surprised to find that the book is essentially a transcript of interviews Peter Seewald did with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, but I quickly came to enjoy the format. As the title states, the book truly is “in his own words,” and that is my favorite thing about the book. I’ve read some of Benedict XVI’s writing in the past, both for personal reading and for research purposes during my stint in grad school, but I had not known much about him as a person. Reading this book allowed me to see the Pope Emeritus in much more human, personal light, as opposed to as…you know…Pope.

My least favorite thing about the book is how it makes so many references to previous interviews between the Pope Emeritus and journalist Peter Seewald. Along those lines, I would have understood a lot more of the book had I been more familiar with Pope Benedict’s life. There are a lot of references that I just didn’t understand.

Overall, I’m really glad I read the book. I learned a lot about Pope Benedict XVI that I didn’t know before, and I have a greater understanding of how and why he decided to take the unprecedented step of resigning from the Papacy.

As a standalone book I’d give it a pretty low rating of a 2 out of 5 stars, but as a Catholic seeking to learn and understand more about my Church and its leaders, it gets a solid 5.

Book Review(ish): 9 Days to a Deeper Prayer Life with the Holy Spirit

I got this short e-book for free when it was first released (in December 2014), but didn’t pick it up and actually open it until 10 days ago. Since the authors, John-Paul and Annie Deddens, run a website called praymorenovenas.com it probably should have been obvious to me that a book called “9 Days to a Deeper Prayer Life with the Holy Spirit” would be a novena to the Holy Spirit…but for some reason it never occurred to me. So, I opened it up to see what this book was all about and discovered it’s an e-book version of a novena the authors wrote for the express purpose of praying for a deeper prayer life. While I’ve been a subscriber to the authors’ site for a couple of years, I have to say it’s been a long, long time since I’ve actually prayed any of the prayers…so I decided to “read” (ie, pray) the book. Below are some thoughts I have about the book!

So, firstly – I’m impressed that the authors made the effort to get an “imprimatur,” which is a simple declaration from a representative of the Catholic Church that a book is “free from doctrinal or moral error.” Essentially, you can be sure there is nothing in the book that will expressly contradict established teachings of the Church. There are lots of books that have one, and lots that don’t. I like it when they have one – then I don’t feel like I have to weed through and be attentive that I’m not leading myself astray.

Secondly, the book gives a nice little background explanation about what a novena is, how it came to be, and why one might consider praying one. I’d never read about the origins of novenas before and so I found this to be quite useful and interesting. The authors also provide some background thoughts on why it’s important to strengthen our relationship with the Holy Spirit. While this is super basic and takes only a few pages, I think it was a great section to include and touches on some important ideas. If you’re interested in understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, this provides a nice, short explanation.

Finally, the book then goes into the nine days of prayer. The prayers are short and simple and took me between five and ten minutes to pray each night for nine nights. I don’t know exactly that I’d say I have a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit today than I did ten days ago, but I can say that reading the book motivated me to actually pray every night for the past nine nights. As important as my Catholic faith is to me, I fall very, very easily into an “academic” or “intellectual” rather than a truly lived faith. I appreciate and make an effort to understand the doctrine and the “rules,” but have a hard time talking to God or allowing an emotional connection. Alas, all the thinking is nothing without the relationship, and I do feel this book was, for me, one small step in the direction of strengthening that relationship.

What surprised me the most reading this book is how easy and comfortable it felt to simply open up my Kindle every night before bed and pray the short prayers. I’ve tried a lot of different formats in the past with little success (this has more to do with me than the formats, of course), and this, I think, could be a winner for me. It occurred to me that I could even put all the prayers of a novena together (if that’s what I chose to pray) in a Word document and email it to my Kindle…and then just do the same thing I did with this book. It’s occurred to me since reading this book, also, to get an e-copy of the Bible – maybe it would feel less intimidating to read a short passage on my Kindle before bed than to break out the actual book? Who knows… the point is, I think, that the authors accomplished their purpose with me (a year + after gifting me and their other subscribers with the book) – I prayed more because of this book, and I’m thinking about praying more than I had been before. It’s a perfect, almost-effortless way to touch your toes back into the waters of nightly prayer.

5 stars!

*While the book was free, the decision to review was my own. Many thanks to John-Paul and Annie Deddens for the book and the service they provide through praymorenovenas.com. You can buy the book here on Amazon for only $.99!