Expect Flattery at all Times King Lear

Dear Misfits,

Many argue that the Tragedy of King Lear is Shakespeare's most overpowering work.  Our Misfits, though definitely not Shakespeare scholars, agree that it is overpowering and declared it to be one of the best books we have read.   We found the play to be a riveting portrayal of the suffering and disaster that resulted from the character defects Lear displayed at the beginning of the play.  He foolishly divides his Kingdom among two of his least deserving daughters.  Then he sets up his downfall by banishing his third and most virtuous daughter when she offends him by not fawning over him in professing her love.  He, like many people of power, expected flattery at all times, showing himself to be a man who values appearances over reality.  By his ill-thought action, he sowed chaos and discord throughout his former kingdom.  As a result of his actions he slowly loses his sanity and descends into madness. 

We asked ourselves if Lear learned from his mistakes?  The answer seemed to be, "Yes and No".  He doesn't completely recover his sanity or emerge as a better King.  However, as he faces death at the end of the play, we could see that his values have changed.  We saw that he slowly comes to understand his own weakness and his insignificance especially when compared to the awesome forces of nature.  In the end, he has developed a certain humility and he emerges as a caring, loving individual who comprehends how deeply he has hurt his kingdom and those who loved him the most.  As he faces death, he declares that he would rather live in prison with the daughter he has wronged than once again rule as a king.  He comes to cherish Cordelia's selfless love and places his love for her above every other consideration.  At the end, his defects are purged but at terrible cost and suffering.

Now to the future:

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, December 11, when we will discuss Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis.  This is the first book of Lewis' celebrated Space Trilogy.  The story begins the Space Trilogy with the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom, a man who is abducted by a villainous physicist and taken in a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra.  First published in 1943, "Out of the Silent Planet remains a mysterious and suspenseful tour de force."  But wait, there is more!  We will meet to discuss this book at Claret Farm, the new location of Loome Theological Books.  Owner, proprietor, bookseller extraordinaire, and fellow Misfit, Chris Hagen, has invited us to have our meeting there.  We appreciate this kind offer and the venue it affords.

Our meeting at Claret Farm will also be a Christmas Party for the Misfits.  I do hope as many of you as possible can attend and help us celebrate not only our love of reading Catholic literature, but also to recognize the great fellowship shared by men who love our Faith and the Catholic Church..  Our book discussion and celebration will start at 7:00 pm.  Please let me know what you can bring by way of treats, delectable's, or something to imbibe.  (I plan to bring a mulled wine.  I believe Misfit Druffner will bring a Bourbon suitable for the occasion.)  We will have a good time as we begin our celebrations in anticipation of the miraculous birth of the Christ Child.

Please come and help us celebrate.  And also, please let me know if you are coming.

And finally, we will read the second book of the Space Trilogy, Perelandra in January, 2014 and the third book, That Hideous Strength, in February, 2014.

May God bless each of you,

Misfit Buzz

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Who said it? An Exercise in Historical Theology

Who said it?

Hint: the quotations are historically chronological and each one is from a different author.

1. “It has always been the custom of Catholics, and still is, to prove the true faith in these two ways; first by the authority of the Divine Canon [Scripture], and next by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Not that the Canon [Scripture] alone does not of itself suffice for every question, but seeing that the more part, interpreting the divine words according to their own persuasion, take up various erroneous opinions, it is therefore necessary that the interpretation of divine Scripture should be ruled according to the one standard of the Church’s belief.”

2. “We believe the successors of the apostles and prophets only in so far as they tell us those things which the apostles and prophets have left in their writings.”

3. “Scripture has an absolute sovereignty; it is of divine origin, even in its literary form; it governs Tradition and the Church, whereas it is not governed by Tradition or the Church.”

4. “It is clear, therefore, that Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God’s most wide design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”

5. “It is already possible to identify the areas in need of fuller study before a true consensus of faith can be achieved . . . the relationship between Sacred Scripture, as the highest authority in matters of faith, and Sacred Tradition, as indispensable to the interpretation of the Word of God.”

Hint #2: This collection of quotes inspired by the reading of Vincent of Lérins and the Development of Christian Doctrine by Thomas G. Guarino.

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Loome Theological Booksellers in the News

Dear Loominaries,

Since moving to Claret Farm last year a couple news organizations took notice and printed some articles about the move.  Also, I was recently interviewed about "Why Catholic Books still Matter".  This post simply collects all three articles together in one place.

The first was an article written by Susan Klemon of the Catholic Spirit newspaper.  She visited the farm one morning and did a long interview with me and my wife.  You can read the article here.

Me and Christelle

Then on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary Joseph O'Brien sat down with me for another lengthy interview for the Catholic Times.  How do these reporters condense such long interviews into their short articles?  Read the article here.

Me and books.

Lastly, I found a request in my inbox one day from Brandon Vogt for an interview regarding the state of Catholic books.  He emailed me the questions and I answered them at my own pace.  After asking my wife and colleagues at the bookstore to review my answers I sent them back to Brandon.  He published the interview on his blog here.

Me and Oxford

The hard thing about promoting your favorite bookstore as the owner, is that it often involves promoting yourself.  Therefore, although I've included pictures of me in this posting, what is most important is that good books get in the hands of good people who will read and study them into the Truth.  That's what Loome Theological Booksellers is all about and why I promote the work of the bookstore.

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A Very Scary Book for All Hallows' Eve

Dear Misfits,

The consensus at our book discussion  last Wednesday was that Charles Williams All Hallows' Eve is a very scary book! We also agreed that it is also one of the strangest novels we've ever read.  The story is oddly compelling; just as you are about to give up on it, Williams hooks you with some unexpected revelation, a weird twist in the plot, or some unspeakable evil presents itself.  At the same time, it is a strangely spiritual and deeply religious novel.  Charles Williams was one of the Inklings and friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. It has been widely noted that Williams' had a profound influence on his Oxford friend in Lewis' That Hideous Strength (the last book in Lewis's space trilogy...see our upcoming books for December-February) and in The Great Divorce. Williams was also a friend of T.S Eliot who wrote the preface to this book.

One Misfit mentioned at the meeting that the novel could be scripted for a modern special effects horror movie in the Stephen King genre.  It was also noted that Williams' Descent into Hell is regarded as his best novel.  We will read that in the near future.  For those interested in learning more about Charles Williams, we recommend you visit the web site of the Charles Williams Society at http://www.charleswilliamssociety.org.uk/  It is very good.

Next Month:  We will again read a work by William Shakespeare who the Misfits unanimously agree is one of the greatest Catholic authors in literature. (We have consensus in that regard!)  We will read King Lear, one of Shakespeare's darkest tragedies.  The play tells the story of the foolish and Job-like Lear, who divides his kingdom among his daughters, as he does his affections, according to vanity and whim. Lear’s failure as a father engulfs himself and his world in turmoil and tragedy.   There are at least 11 film versions of this play with critics widely divided on which is best.  That said, many agree that the 2009 film with Ian McKellen as Lear is perhaps at the top of the list.

The play is available from Amazon in many editions, some for as little as $6.26 in paperback.

In December, the Misfits will begin reading C. S. Lewis’ classic Space Trilogy.  We will start with Out of the Silent Planet which begins the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. Dr. Ransom is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra.  The physicist is in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom was selected to fill that role. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity. Even though it was first published in 1943, Out of the Silent Planet remains a topically current, very modern read.

The Space Trilogy, continues with Perelandra (our January, 2014 book) and concludes with That Hideous Strength (our February, 2014 book).

And for those interested, I have attached two lists: A list of Books Read and  A List of Authors we have read since our beginning in September, 2002.

Finally, I will make another plug for Chris Hagen’s excellent blog Ex Libris Theologicis.  This time, I recommend you go there to read Misfit Tom Loomes wonderfuly written essay,  “Bare ruin’d choirs where late the sweet birds sang”:The dissolution of Catholic libraries during the period 1967 to 1996 -a personal and anecdotal account.  I guarantee that you will be moved by Tom’s account of the unwarranted destruction of the priceless libraries that occurred at Catholic Universities, Seminaries, and Convents over the past 40 years.  It is a very compelling read.  You will not be able to put it down once you start reading it!  To read Tom’s essay, go to:  http://loomebooks.blogspot.com/search/label/Loome%20Lore

I conclude with a reminder:  we always meet at 7:00 pm on the second Wednesday of every month in the St. Thomas More Library Room, the Church of St. Michael, Stillwater, MN.  Therefore, our next meeting will be at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 . (Our meetings and discussion always end at 8:30 pm.)

Warmest regards,

Misfit Buzz

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Knowing More while Knowing Less and the Faith of Walker Percy

Dear Misfits,

At our meeting last Wednesday, there was unanimous agreement that Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos is a very challenging and enlightening read. Witty, provocative, original, somber are some of the adjectives that only begin to describe this book.  We also concluded that it is a very dense book that bears rereading and study.  Percy begins by describing each of us as a "self" in a Cosmos "about which you know more and more while knowing less and less about yourself, this despite 10,000 self-help books, 100,000 psycho-therapists, and 100 million fundamentalist Christians".  In the end, Walker firmly concludes that the Catholic faith, with its "preposterous" claim to truth is the key to survival in the Cosmos.  Without Faith, the "gap between our knowledge of the Cosmos and our knowledge of ourselves widens and we become ever more alien to the very Cosmos we understand..."  Faith is the sole remedy for the “predicament" the human self finds itself in.  We may be lost in the Cosmos but we can anchor ourselves in the man-God who gave us the Catholic Church and the certain promise of His return.

Group Therapy

I have also [linked to] an excellent essay on Walker Percy’s life that was sent to me by Misfit Brad Lindberg.  The essay by Father Damian J. Ference explains many of the themes that Percy writes about in Lost in the Cosmos.  Father Damien is particularly insightful on the subject of suicide which claimed many of Walker Percy’s closes family members early in his life.  It explains many of the comments on suicide that Percy makes in Lost in the Cosmos.

Now to the future:

For October, we have chosen to read All Hallows Eve by Charles Williams.  Williams—novelist, poet, critic, dramatist and biographer—died in his native England in May, 1945. He had a lively and devoted following  and achieved a considerable reputation as a lecturer on the faculty of Oxford University. T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers and C. S. Lewis were among his distinguished friends and literary sponsors. He was also a member of the Inklings, a group of Christian writers that included J.R.R. Tolkien. 

 

Charles Williams

All Hallows' Eve is the story of a man and woman whose love was so great it could bridge the gap of death; of evil so terrible as to be unmentionable, of a vision so beautiful it must be true. A consideration in our choice of this novel is the occurrence of Halloween next month.

The novel is available from Amazon $13.81.

For November, we return to William Shakespeare, one of the greatest Catholic authors in literature.  (Some may argue that Shakespeare wasn’t a Catholic author.  The Misfits think he was, so get over it!)  We will read King Lear, one of Shakespeare's darkest and most savage plays.  It tells the story of the foolish and Job-like Lear, who divides his kingdom, as he does his affections, according to vanity and whim. Lear’s failure as a father engulfs himself and his world in turmoil and tragedy. 

The play is available from Amazon in many editions, some for as little as $6.26 in paperback.

In December, the Misfits have decided to begin reading C. S. Lewis’ classic Space Trilogy.  We will start with Out of the Silent Planet which begins the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. Dr. Ransom is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra.  The physicist is in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom was selected to fill that role. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity. Even though it was first published in 1943, Out of the Silent Planet remains a topically current, very modern read.

The Space Trilogy, continues with Perelandra (our January, 2014 book) and concludes with That Hideous Strength (our February, 2014 book).

Finally, let me recommend a web site wherein the Misfits are mentioned by another of our Misfits, Chris Hagen.  The web site features an interview titled, “Why Catholic Books Still Matter: An Interview with Christopher Hagen.”  Give it a read.  I think you will enjoy it (and the mention of The Misfits.)  (See: http://brandonvogt.com/why-catholic-books-still-matter/)

. . .

And to remind, we always meet at 7:00 pm on the second Wednesday of every month in the St. Thomas More Library Room, the Church of St. Michael, Stillwater, MN.  Therefore, our next meeting will be at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, October 9^th. (Our meetings and discussion always end at 8:30 pm. )

With warmest regards,

Misfit Buzz

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Walker Percy = Bad Catholic

Dear Misfits,

We are about to begin our 12th year of reading the great books of our shared Catholic literary tradition.  What a journey it has been.  We have read so many great books together.  It is exciting to realize that there are so many more to be read!

When we took our annual summer break we hadn't decided the book we would read next.  So I've chosen one I've long wanted to read...and I hope you will all agree that it is a good choice; lets read Walker Percy's classic,  Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book.  To quote: "Walker Percy's mordantly funny and wholly original contribution to the self-help book craze deals with the Western mind's tendency toward heavy abstraction. This favorite of Percy fans continues to charm and beguile readers of all tastes and backgrounds. Lost in the Cosmos invites us to think about how we communicate with our world....Walker Percy (1916-1990) was one of the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he was the oldest of three brothers in an established Southern family that contained both a Civil War hero and a U.S. senator. Acclaimed for his poetic style and moving depictions of the alienation of modern American culture, Percy was the bestselling author of six fiction titles--including the classic novel The Moviegoer (1961), winner of the National Book Award--and fifteen works of nonfiction. In 2005, Time magazine named The Moviegoer one of the best English-language books published since 1923."  (The Misfits read The Moviegoer in May, 2003)

. . . 

Shown below is a short interview  given by Walker Percy on his Faith as a Catholic.  (I think he perhaps speaks for all of us Misfits!)

. . .

With warmest regards,

Misfit Buzz

*****************************************************************

Walker Percy on his Faith (From Magnificat Magazine)

Q: What kind of Catholic are you?

 A. Bad.

 Q: Are you a dogmatic Catholic or an open-minded Catholic?

 A: I don’t know what that means . . . . Do you mean do I believe the dogma that the Catholic Church proposes for belief?

 Q: Yes.

 A: Yes.

 Q: How is such a belief possible in this day and age?

 A: What else is there?

 Q: What do you mean, what else is there? There is humanism, atheism, agnosticism, Marxism, behaviorism, materialism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism, Sufism, astrology, occultism, theosophy.

 A: That’s what I mean.

 Q: I don’t understand. Would you exclude, for example, scientific humanism as a rational and honorable alternative?

 A: Yes.

 Q: Why?

 A: It’s not good enough.

 Q: Why not?

 A: This life is too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then to be asked what you make of it and have to answer “Scientific humanism.” That won’t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God. In fact I demand it. I refuse to settle for anything less. I don’t see why anyone should settle for less than Jacob, who actually grabbed aholt of God and would not let go until God identified himself and blessed him.

 Q: Grabbed aholt?

 A: A Louisiana expression.

 Q: But isn’t the Catholic Church in a mess these days, badly split, its liturgy barbarized, vocations declining?

 A: Sure. That’s a sign of its divine origins, that it survives these periodic disasters.

 Q: You don’t act or talk like a Christian. Aren’t they supposed to love one another and do good works?

 A: Yes.

 Q: You don’t seem to have much use for your fellowman or do many good works.

 A: That’s true. I haven’t done a good work in years.

 Q: In fact, if I may be frank, you strike me as being rather negative in your attitude, cold-blooded, aloof, derisive, self-indulgent, more fond of the beautiful things of this world than of God.

 A: That’s true.

 Q: You even seem to take certain satisfaction in the disasters of the twentieth-century and to savor the imminence of world catastrophe rather than world peace, which all religions seek.

 A: That’s true.

 Q: You don’t seem to have much use for your fellow Christians, to say nothing of Ku Kluxers, ACLU’ers, northerners, southerners, fem-libbers, anti-fem-libbers, homosexuals, anti-homosexuals, Republicans, Democrats, hippies, anti-hippies, senior citizens.

 A: That’s true – though taken as individuals they turn out to be more or less like oneself, i.e., sinners, and we get along fine.

 Q: Even Ku Kluxers?

 A: Sure.

 Q: How do you account for your belief?

 A: I can only account for it as a gift from God.

 Q: Why would God make you such a gift when there are others who seem more deserving, that is, serve their fellowman?

 A: I don’t know. God does strange things. . . .

 Q: But shouldn’t one’s faith bear some relation to the truth, facts?

 A: Yes. That’s what attracted me, Christianity’s rather insolent claim to be true, with the implication that other religions are more or less false.

 Q: You believe that?

 A: Of course.

Taylor Caldwell Gets the Job Done

Dear Misfits,

On last Wednesday evening, we had a very good discussion of Taylor Caldwell's novel, Dear And Glorious Physician, her epic story of St. Luke. The novel was an instant best seller and hugely popular when first published in 1958. It has since sold millions of copies in multiple editions and was recently reissued by Ignatius Press.

Caldwell begins her epic novel two thousand years ago when St. Luke was Lucanus, a Greek 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?" Lucanus is portrayed first as a man struggling with his faith who defies God, a God who does not stop suffering and allows the horrors of disease and the painful death of seemingly innocent people. Caldwell gives a very moving account of Luke's struggle to find meaning in the midst of suffering.  He eventually comes to terms with his struggle to understand man's condition and becomes one of Christianity’s earliest converts. He then sets out to write the story of Jesus laying out what has come to be known as The Gospel of St. Luke.

Not all of the Misfits at the meeting were equally taken with the novel. Some cited the language which often borders on the florid. Another criticism were the exaggerated coincidences Caldwell frequently used to develop the plot of the story. There is also the sense that she plays fast and loose with many of the facts of Luke's early life.  Much of what she relates is obviously made up and fictional. That said, the final chapters are strongly biblical and completely based on the Gospel of St. Luke. The Canticle of Zachariah and the Canticle of Mary are both very moving and set in the context of their relation to Luke's Gospel. Caldwell's regard for the Virgin Mary is obvious and her story is very well told, particularly as it relates to the strong Marian character of St. Luke's Gospel.

So, if you are looking for a fast-paced "Christian" novel with strong and interesting characters, this is an exciting book to read. It is not great or timeless literature. However, it gets the job done and is a good read for Catholics and people of faith.

Our final book before our summer break is Hilaire Belloc's The Path to Rome which was first published in 1902.  Belloc, a prolific author, considered this his best book, an opinion shared by most critics. It is a delightful story of the pilgrimage Belloc made on foot to Rome in order to fulfill a vow he had made to "...see all Europe which the Christian Faith has saved…” In The Life of Hilaire Belloc, Robert Speaight states: “More than any other book he ever wrote, The Path to Rome made Belloc’s name; more than any other, it has been lovingly thumbed and pondered…. The book is a classic, born of something far deeper than the physical experience it records.”

I think we are really going to like this book.

Yours in Christ,

Misfist Buzz

The Blood of the English Martyrs

Dear Misfits,

We've just finished reading and discussing the remarkable autobiography of Fr. John Gerard, a Jesuit priest in Elizabethan England at the time of “the stripping of the Altars”. We may never know how many Catholics were condemned for their faith during the persecution of the Catholics who remained faithful to the Church. We do know that the standard penalty for all those convicted of “Catholic treason” was execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered. Estimates of the number of executions carried out by Henry VIII range from 57,000 to the 72,000 claimed in Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles (the mass murder following the Catholic rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace accounted for many of them). The troops of his son Edward VI massacred more than 5,500 Cornish Catholics in the wake of the Prayer Book Rebellion. Elizabeth I was more sparing of formal executions, though St Margaret Clitheroe was pressed to death at York and Mary Queen of Scots beheaded; but the butchery of Catholics in Ireland was particularly appalling. There, Edmund Spenser, author of The Faerie Queene, supported a policy of extermination by artificial famine on a scale that was not exceeded until Stalin in the 1930s.

Father Gerard's autobiography presents a detailed account of the part he played in keeping the Faith alive during this troubled period of our Catholic history. One can only marvel at the incredible bravery of the men and women who supported Catholic priests by sheltering and hiding them in their homes. To be discovered with a priest in your home was to invite immediate imprisonment and often, execution by being hanged, drawn, and quartered.

This book is a "must read" for any young man now considering the priest hood. It describes what it is like to be on the “front lines” of the struggle for the Faith.  Father James V. Schall of Georgetown University notes in his introduction to the present edition that he did not believe that the persecution of Catholics during this period of English history could happen here in America when he first read the book as a young seminarian.  He then opines, " One is no longer quite so sure. It may, in fact, be a very up-to-date book in its own way." Michael Cohen, a Canadian author and TV personality notes, " Attacks on marriage, disdain for the Church, distortions of morality, lying for power and prestige, abusing the dead. Good Lord, it feels like the sixteenth-century all over again!" Perhaps, Perhaps!

. . .

The Risen Christ is with us always!

Misfit Buzz

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Farm Piety and a 100 year old Church of England Liturgical Rarity

Today’s bibliosite is a hand written prayer out of a 100 year old Church of England liturgical text:


“O Almighty & most loving Father, who in Thy Holy Word art declared to be willing to save both man & beast we beseech Thee to look upon our present distress & grievous loss through disease among the cattle. We pray that the measures taken to limit its diffusion & to free us from its deadly effects may bring a blessed deliverance so that what remains unto us may be spared & we may recover the fruits of our toil in farm & in market. We ask it for Thy tender mercies’ sake in Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
Amen.

The simple piety of the farmer who composed this prayer stands as a witness to faith in the face of natural adversity.  May his words speak to all those who suffer today from tornadoes and the other destructive forces of nature.


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Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - One of Loome's Top 5 Novels

Dear Misfits,

I am pleased to report, we have another winner!  Gilead by Marilynne Robinson was warmly praised by all who read it.  I personally found it to be one of the most moving books I have ever read.  Misfit Loome places it in the top five novels he has read.  We all want to thank Misfit Gatschet for recommending the book.

Why the high praise?  Simply because Robinson's prose is completely captivating--the woman can tell a story!  And the story is told in a letter the Reverend John Ames, a 77 year old Congressionalist preacher, is writing to his 6 year-old son.  It is his attempt to give an account of himself to his son as he tells him of his forebears, all men of the cloth.  It is also a story of the sacred bonds formed by fathers and sons and the manner in which they are tested by the challenges imposed by these bonds.

As you begin to read the letter Reverend Ames is composing for his son, you learn that he is physically ailing even though he is still mentally sharp.  His letter reveals him as a deeply pious man who considers the Bible an incontrovertible source of moral authority. He describes life as “the great bright dream of procreating and perishing.” and speaks of the “courage and loneliness” of every human face. 

I am tempted to draw a comparison between Flannery O'Conner and Marilynne Robinson in what I think are two areas of distinct similarity.  First, both novelists depict a God-haunted existence in the lives of their main characters.  God is a presence in their lives and redemptive grace always a possibility.  Secondly, Robinson like O'Conner, tells her story largely through a male protagonist.  This is especially the case with Gilead where women and the feminine are sparingly portrayed.  In fact, women seldom speak or intersect with the largely masculine story line as related through the voice of Reverend Ames.

Some might ask, "Yes, but is this a Catholic novel?  I thought the Misfits was a Catholic Men's Reading Group."   I would argue that if you are a Catholic with a strong fundamentalist bent (me!), you will read this novel as a deeply Christian expression of faith.  Hence, it is a Catholic novel!

Yours in Christ,

Misfit Buzz

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TOWN REWRITES CODE TO KEEP ONE SMALL BUSINESS REACHING A GLOBAL CLIENTELE

Relocating the Largest Theological Bookstore in the World to a nearby Family Farm Required Negotiations with Town Officials, and More Than 100 Minivan and Trailer Loads

In early 2012 when Christopher Hagen, proprietor of Loome Theological Booksellers of Stillwater, MN, decided to relocate the bookstore, he had no conception of the obstacles he would face in accomplishing the move.  After finding the perfect new location on a farm in West Lakeland Township, Hagen soon discovered that the town code prohibited operating a business of the scale of Loome Booksellers from the farm site.  In addition, Hagen faced the seemly insurmountable task of moving the largest theological bookstore in the world, consisting of nearly 100,000 books, while keeping the doors open and filling internet orders.  Undaunted, Hagen plunged into negotiations with town officials to get the code changed, while his employees began to dismantle and pack up the bookstore from its original location in a vertically challenging 100-year-old church building.  From September through December Hagen attended meetings with town officials regarding the change in town code while supervising the bookstore move.  Finally, Hagen got a green light from the town officials and an approved revision to the town code shortly before Thanksgiving, just in time to open for business on the farm.  Now he is putting the finishing touches on the new Loome Theological Booksellers farm location just in time for the Grand Opening Celebration on April 26 and 27.

Christopher and his wife, Christelle, dreamed for 15 years of running a bookstore together and living on a farm with their 5 children.  In the winter of 2012 they decided to fulfill that dream by aiming for something they’d never heard of before: a bookstore combined with a family farm.  However, there were two obstacles to fulfilling their dream; they didn’t have a farm and Christopher owned a bookstore with nearly 100,000 volumes, a daunting amount to consider moving.  Since the early 1980s the bookstore was in the landmark 100 year old Swedish Covenant church building near downtown Stillwater, MN.  Packed with books and bookcases lining the walls, stairwells, and balconies, the store was a destination for spiritual bibliophiles from all over the world, many making annual “pilgrimages” to buy books.  How could Christopher move out of that location with only a handful of employees while keeping the internet orders, the primary revenue stream, open and working efficiently?  “When first deciding to move the bookstore,” Christopher says “I didn’t have a clue as to how we would actually move it.  I just decided it had to be done”.  First, however, they needed a farm to move the bookstore to.

“Thanks be to God,” Christopher says “my wife, Christelle, loves to comb craigslist for houses!  We had set a deadline of June 30^th, 2012 for finding a farm.  On June 30^th my wife spotted a craigslist ad for the farm we now live on.”  The farm location was better than the Hagens thought possible.  Not only did it have a beautiful restored farm house, but it also had a shed large enough to hold all the books with an already finished portion as ideal retail bookstore space.  Also on the property was a separate building suitable for hosting speaking events and reading groups, a long term desire for the bookstore.  To top it off there was enough field acreage to begin their adventures in family farming.  There was only one significant catch.  The property was in West Lakeland Township, MN which had a home occupation code that allowed a home based business to have only one employee on-site.  There were 3 full-time and 3 part-time employees at the bookstore.

“I decided to appeal to the town board to allow all my employees to work from the farm location since they are what make this business great and the farm was big enough that I couldn’t use it effectively without them,” Christopher says.  During the first meeting with the town board, the board indicated that they were willing to try and make changes so that the bookstore could continue at the farm with all the employees.  It took three more monthly meetings before the revisions to the town code became law, just in time for Hagen to open for business at the farm Thanksgiving 2012.  “I was so pleased to see local government do what it could to help my family live and work on a farm together and also keep all my employees together,” says Chris “I’m very grateful”.

Moving the bookstore was physically daunting, somewhat dangerous, and very long.  For four months, sawing and pulling apart bookcases, packing thousands of books, loading the moving minivan and trailer in rain, snow, and ice was routine for the bookstore.  “I couldn’t have done it without my ingenious, efficient, and dedicated employees,” said Hagen, “many volunteers helped as well.  There was great goodwill from unexpected places during the move.  I can’t believe we did it”.

The last load from the old location arrived at the farm the Friday before Christmas.  During the winter the bookstore has continued to build bookcases and unpack books at its new location at 2270 Neal Ave. N.  Now, to celebrate the relocation and successful move, Loome Theological Booksellers is holding a two-day Grand Opening celebration on Friday and Saturday April 26 and 27.  All books will be on sale at 20% off.  On Friday evening customers may attend a talk entitled “The Family Farm and the Restoration of Society” and on Saturday morning attend a talk on England’s famous convert, John Henry Newman, entitled “Newman’s Quest for a Real Spiritual Life”.  Visit www.LoomeBooks.com for more information.  There will also be refreshments and tours.

Loome Theological Booksellers was founded in 1981 to provide discerning readers with good hard-to-find or out-of-print books in the Christian theological and intellectual tradition.  Visitors come from all over North America and Europe to browse the largest selection of theological books found in one place.  Thousands of books are purchasable online through www.LoomeBooks.com

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LOOME THEOLOGICAL BOOKSELLERS COMBINES BOOKS AND A FAMILY FARM FOR THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

Inspired by the Writings of John Paul II, Peter Maurin, and St. Anthony Marie Claret Loome Theological Bookstore relocates to Claret Farm in Stillwater

As Peter Maurin, one of the founders, along with Dorothy Day, of the Catholic Worker movement, wrote it is time “to blow the dynamite of the church”. The dynamite to which Maruin referred was the Catholic Church’s counter-cultural social teaching.  After 10 years of studying the writings of John Paull II on work and the new evangelization, Peter Maurin on the restoration of society, and St. Anthony Marie Claret on sustainable family farm life, Christopher Hagen, proprietor of Loome Theological Booksellers of Stillwater, MN, decided to blow the dynamite of the church by relocating the bookstore  to a nearby family farm.  In August of 2012 he moved his family to the farm which they christened Claret Farm, and then soon commenced moving the largest theological bookstore in the world, consisting of nearly 100,000 books.  From September through December the move continued while his family began the adventure of farm life.  This Spring, Hagen is putting the finishing touches on the new Loome Theological Booksellers farm location just in time for the Grand Opening Celebration on  Friday and Saturday April 26 and 27.

Christopher and his wife, Christelle, dreamed for 15 years of running a bookstore together and living on a farm with their 5 children.  Along the way, primarily under the influence of the Stillwater Catholic Worker community, they encountered and studied the writings of John Paul II and Peter Maurin.  John Paull II taught them that “work is for family” and therefore the parents’ careers should serve the family and conform to the family’s needs, not the other way around.  Maurin often wrote in pithy energizing phrases like “eat what you raise, and raise what you eat”.  Maurin also advocated the "agronomic university", a place where he envisioned that workers could become scholars and scholars could become workers.  Maurin taught that the house of hospitality for the poor was necessary, but should be considered as Phase One in a broader plan to renew a dying society.  For Maurin, who had grown up in an agricultural region in France, the house of hospitality necessarily must be followed by a Phase Two, during which individuals and families would learn to provide for themselves, instead of relying on the generosity of others or being dependent on the government.  This process of learning and training was to be carried out in the “agronomic university”.

While preparing a lesson for her homeschooled children, Christelle studied St. Anthony Marie Claret, a nineteenth-century priest, apostle and missionary, who was archbishop of Santiago, Cuba.  While archbishop, Claret wrote a book on farming, originally published in Spanish, that encouraged families to work small farms and own small businesses, because he believed that this provided stability for families and for society.  He encouraged small family farmers to grow a diversity of crops, so that they would be less dependent on the large sugar farms of the day.  He even tried to open a school much like Maurin’s vision of an “agronomic university”!

Challenged and set on fire by these ideas, in the winter of 2012 Christopher and Christelle decided to do what they could to fulfill John Paul II’s call for the new evangelization by aiming for something they’d never heard of before: a bookstore combined with a family farm.  However, they had little hope of finding a location for this farm/bookstore idea to put down roots.  “Thanks be to God,” Christopher says “my wife, Christelle, loves to comb craigslist for houses!  We had set a deadline of June 30^th, 2012 for finding a farm.  On June 30^th my wife spotted a craigslist ad for the farm we now live on.”  The farm location was better than the Hagens thought possible.  Not only did it have a beautiful restored farm house, but it also had a shed large enough to hold all Loome Theological Bookseller’s  books with an already finished portion as ideal retail bookstore space.  Also on the property was a separate building suitable for hosting speaking events and reading groups, a long term desire for the bookstore and classroom space for an “agronomic university”.  To top it off there was enough field acreage to begin their neophyte adventures in family farming.

Hagen finished moving Loome Theological Booksellers the Friday before Christmas.  During the winter the bookstore has continued to build bookcases and unpack books at its new location at 2270 Neal Ave. N.  Now, to celebrate the relocation and successful move, Loome Theological Booksellers is holding a two-day Grand Opening celebration on Friday and Saturday April 26 and 27.  All books will be on sale at 20% off for customers who browse in-store.  On Friday evening customers may attend a talk entitled “The Family Farm and the Restoration of Society” and on Saturday morning they may attend a talk on England’s famous convert, John Henry Newman, entitled “Newman’s Quest for a Real Spiritual Life”.  Visit www.LoomeBooks.com for more information.  There will also be refreshments and tours.  Visit www.LoomeBooks.com for more information.

Loome Theological Booksellers was founded in 1981 to provide discerning readers with good hard-to-find or out-of-print books in the Christian theological and intellectual tradition.  Visitors come from all over North America and Europe to browse the largest selection of theological books found in one place.  Thousands of books are purchasable online through www.LoomeBooks.com.

Claret Farm put down roots in the fall of 2012.  Read more about Claret Farm at www.ClaretFarm.com.

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Books and the Conversion of Saint Augustine

Dear Misfits,

We've finished reading another classic of Catholic literature, St. Augustine's The Confessions.   For me, it was also one of the most compelling conversion stories I have ever read.  In this remarkable autobiography, St. Augustine, a 40 something Bishop, sets out to write of his journey of faith from his birth to his "second birth" when he is received into the Catholic Church.  Every part of St. Augustine's story is as relevant today as it was 1600 years ago when he wrote his "confession".

One of the most striking things about The Confessions is the role that books played in the eventual conversion of St. Augustine. The books that Augustine read throughout his life were the guides used by God to bring him into the Faith. One of the most compelling stories related by St. Augustine is the scene with the children in the garden chanting "tolle lege, tolle lege" ("Pick up and read, pick up and read").  (See Book VIII, Chapter 12)  He turned to the Bible, read the first lines that came to him, and was converted to the Faith when he read the words that lay before him: "Not in dissipation and drunkenness, nor in debauchery and lewdness, nor in arguing and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh or the gratification of your desires." (Romans 13: 13-14).  There are many other examples in The Confessions where St. Augustine was moved by books but it was the book of Paul's letters that was the occasion of his accepting Christ and the gift of faith.  

The Confessions is, simply put, a spiritual classic.  And again, I recommend the translation by Sister Maria Boulding, OSB as edited by Father David Meconi, S.J., and published by Ignatius Press as a "Critical Edition". I think it is simply the most readable translation that is out there. (Ok, you defend the translation that you read...I think think that the Ignatius Edition is the best!)

And now to the future:

For March, we have chosen to read Marilynne Robinson's highly acclaimed novel, Gilead. The novel won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was a 2004 National Book Critics Circle Winner. Gilead is the fictional autobiography of the Reverend John Ames, an elderly Congregationalist pastor in the small, secluded town of Gilead, Iowa who knows that he is dying of a heart condition. The novel begins in 1957 as the Reverend Ames explains that he is writing an account of his life for his seven-year-old son so his son will have memories of him after he is gone.

The story spans three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century. It is a profound examination of the relationship of fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. “Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows "even the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order" (Slate)”. The luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life. The novel is available at Amazon.com for $10.99.

For April, we will read a novel by Dean Koontz, an author who may surprise some of you. I've only recently learned that Koontz is a convert to the Faith and a wonderfully articulate one at that. We will read the first book in the Odd Thomas series (now four novels) called, strangely enough, Odd Thomas. Odd Thomas, who narrates the story, is odd indeed: only 20, he works contentedly as a fry cook in a small fictional California town, The story line of this novel, "like most great stories, runs on character-and here Koontz has created a hero whose honest, humble voice will resonate with many. In some recent books, Koontz has tended to overwrite, but not here: the narrative is as simple and clear as a newborn's gaze. This is Koontz working at his pinnacle, providing terrific entertainment that deals seriously with some of the deepest themes of human existence: the nature of evil, the grip of fate and the power of love." The novel is available at Amazon for $9.99.

For May, we will read an autobiography that will resonate with and enlarge upon a number of the fictional works we have read on the persecution of Priests and Catholics during Elizabethan England. We will read The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest written by Father John Gerard, SJ. Father Gerard was a remarkable Priest at a time when being a Catholic in England invited torture and imprisonment; to be a Priest was treason as declared by act of Parliament. The book is available from Amazon for $10.64.

Finally, let me wish each of you a joyous Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year. I look forward to another year of reading with you and encourage you to submit any recommendations you may have on books you want us to read. (I have attached an updated list of books we have already read along with a consolidated list of authors.)

Our next meeting will be on March 13, 2013, at 7:30 pm in the St. Thomas More Library at The Church of St. Michael in Stillwater, MN.

Yours in Christ,

Misfit Buzz

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The Whole Thing

If you like looking at great books like we do, check this one out:

It is:
Biblia, Das ist: Die gantze Heilige Schrifft, Alten und Neuen Testaments. Nach der U[e]bersetzung und mit den Vorreden und Randglossen D. Martin Luthers, mit Neuen Vorreden, Summarien, weitläuffigen Parallelen, Anmerckungen und geistlichen Anwendungen, auch Gebeten auf jedes Capitel: Wobey zugleich Nöthige Register und eine Harmonie des Neuen Testaments beygefüget sind. Ausgefertiget unter der Aufsicht und Direction Christoph Matthäi Pfaffen...


In case you didn't get that, it is, to translate the German loosely: The Bible, that is: The entire Holy Scripture, Old and New Testaments [--the whole thing folks!--] with translation, preface, and marginal notes by Dr. Martin Luther, with [lots of other helpful information by others] under the direction of Christoph Matthäi Pfaffen.
 
Here are some fun facts about the book:

• It was published in 1729 by Cotta
• One of the rare complete copies still in existence.
• 1830 pages, plus prelims
• Bound in pigskin over wood boards
• Remnants of the embellished brass clasps remain
• Copper engraved headpieces, initials and plates (2 double)
• Engraved maps of Jerusalem, Palestine, and a military map of the children of Israel
• Contains the Apocrypha
•  Ink inscription in a fine German hand on the front paste-down and first front endpaper (traced to Stuttgart) as shown here:

This rare and beautiful book is available for sale on our website at the following link:
https://www.loomebooks.com/StoreWant.cfm?BookID=56628

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Misfits: At Years End

Dear Misfits

I now report the end of another year of reading the wonderful books of our Catholic Literary Tradition. We closed our year with a meeting on 12-12-12.

We discussed  Fabiola or The Church of the Catacombs by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman. The story is set in Rome in the early 4th century AD, during the time of the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. The novel was written in 1854 and remains topical today. Christians around the world are suffering greatly for their faith. In that regard, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently declared that Christianity is “the most persecuted religion” in the world today. It is so severe that a new word was recently added to our vocabulary: "Christianophobia". The word refers to two different, though related, phenomena:

    -The first "phobia" is the anxiety and antipathy that traditional Christianity creates in cultural and intellectual institutions in the West particularly in academia, journalism, publishing, and the entertainment industry. This is the “Christianophobia” to which the Holy Father often refers when he speaks of the growing “hostility and prejudice” against Christianity in Europe.

   -The second form of “Christianophobia” is a murderously different thing. In countries like Egypt, Mali, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria, Christians are being murdered and forced to leave their homes in record numbers. Churches are being destroyed and Christian villages emptied in violent attacks by Islamists and Muslim radicals. “Phobia” describes this phenomenon, however, “phobia” may be too mild a term: what we are seeing in these places is an anti-Christian genocide.

Yet, as described in Fabiola, these times of persecution strengthen the Church both by the example of those who persevere in their faith and most dramatically, by the blood of the martyrs. We can also contribute by keeping our fellow Catholics in our prayers and in our support of efforts to counter the growing persecution of Christians around the world.

Now to the future:

For January and February we will read The Confessions, the autobiographical work of St. Augustine of Hippo, written between AD 397 and AD 398. The work consists of 13 books which outline Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40's. St. Augustine lived long afterwards and went on to write another important work The City of God. However, The Confessions does provide an unbroken record of the development of his thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries.

    For January we will read and discuss the first 7 books of The Confessions.

    For February we will read and discuss the remaining 6 books for a total of 13 books for the complete The Confessions.

I  have been reading the Ignatius Critical Edition of The Confessions edited by Fr. David Meconi, SJ and translated by Sr. Maria Boulding, OSB. I think it is a very accessible, excellent translation.  It is available from Amazon in Soft cover.

For March, we will read Marilynne Robinson's highly acclaimed novel, Gilead. The novel won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was a 2004 National Book Critics Circle Winner. Gilead is the fictional autobiography of the Reverend John Ames, an elderly Congregationalist pastor in the small, secluded town of Gilead, Iowa who knows that he is dying of a heart condition. The novel begins in 1957 as the Reverend Ames explains that he is writing an account of his life for his seven-year-old son so his son will have memories of him after he is gone.

The story spans three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century. It is a profound examination of the relationship of fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. “Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows "even the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order" (Slate)”. The luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life. The novel is available at Amazon.com.

For April, we will read a novel by Dean Koontz, an author who may surprise some of you.  I've only recently learned that Koontz is a convert to the Faith and a wonderfully articulate one at that.  We will read the first book in the Odd Thomas series (now four novels) called, strangely enough, Odd Thomas. Odd Thomas, who narrates the story, is odd indeed: only 20, he works contentedly as a fry cook in a small fictional California town, The story line of this novel, "like most great stories, runs on character-and here Koontz has created a hero whose honest, humble voice will resonate with many. In some recent books, Koontz has tended to overwrite, but not here: the narrative is as simple and clear as a newborn's gaze. This is Koontz working at his pinnacle, providing terrific entertainment that deals seriously with some of the deepest themes of human existence: the nature of evil, the grip of fate and the power of love." The novel is available at Amazon.

For May, we will read an autobiography that will resonate with and enlarge upon a number of the fictional works we have read on the persecution of Priests and Catholics during Elizabethan England. We will read The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest written by Father John Gerard, SJ. Father Gerard was a remarkable Priest at a time when being a Catholic in England invited torture and imprisonment; to be a Priest was treason as declared by act of Parliament.

Finally, let me wish each of you a joyous Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year.  I look forward to another year of reading with you and encourage you to submit any recommendations you may have on books you want us to read.  (I have attached an updated list of books we have already read along with a consolidated list of authors.)

Misfit Buzz

****************************

“E-readers may bulk out millions of stockings this season.   Yet the works you read on them remain ghostly, intangible files, hard to transfer easily as gifts or loans between readers or (most) devices, thanks to the fences erected around them by "digital rights management". So, however much you adore your iPad or Kindle, why not renew your acquaintance with the joy of the printed volume as a source of festive delight this year….each book a valuable object to have – and to hold.”

            -The Independent, Nov 25, 2012

   

Author List

Peter Ackroyd

            The Life of St. Thomas More (November, 2007)

Saint Augustine of Hippo

            The Confessions (January-February 2013)

Anonymous   

            The Way of A Pilgrim (April, 2009)

Lucy Beckett

            A Postcard from the Volcano (February-March 2012)

            The Time Before You Die  (September, 2012)

Hilaire Belloc

            The Four Men: A Farrago (October, 2008)

Fr. Robert Hugh Benson

            Lord of the World (December, 2004)

Georges Bernanos

            The Diary of a Country Priest (July, 2003)

William Blatty

            Dimiter (November, 2010)

Willa Cather

            Death Comes for the Archbishop   (September, 2002)

            My Antonia (December, 2011)

G. K. Chesterton

            The Ball and the Cross (January, 2003)

            The Innocence of Father Brown (April, 2003)

            The Ballad of the White Horse and Lepanto (February, 2004)

            The Man Who Was Thursday (March, 2005)

            Saint Thomas Aquinas  (May, 2007)

            Saint Francis of Assisi (June/July, 2007)

            Orthodoxy  (May, 2008)

            Manalive (October, 2009)

Fr. Walter J. Cizsek, S.J.

            He Leadeth Me (April, 2012)

Myles Connolly

            Mr. Blue (October, 2005)

           

Thomas B. Costain

            The Silver Chalice (September-October, 2006)

A. J. Cronin

            The Keys of the Kingdom (February, 2005)

            The Citadel (December, 2006)

Louis de Wohl

            The Spear (November, 2006)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

            The Brother’s Karamazov (September –December, 2003)

            The Great Short Works of Fyodor Dostoevsky (July, 2010)

Eamon Duffy

            The Stripping of the Altars (November-December 2009)

Paul Elie

            The Life You Save May Be Your Own (August,/September, 2007)

T. S. Eliot

            Murder in the Cathedral (February, 2010)

Shusako Endo

Silence  (October, 2002)

            The Samurai  (March, 2009)

Father John Gerard, SJ

            The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest (May,2013)

Jose Maria Gironella

            The Cypresses Believe in God (February-May, 2006)

William Golding

            Lord of the Flies (July, 2008)

Rumor Godden

            In This House of Brede (December, 2005)

Roger Lancelyn Green

            The Adventures of Robin Hood (August, 2009)

Graham Greene

            The Power and the Glory (November, 2002)

            A Burnt-out Case (March, 2007)

            The Heart of the Matter (February, 2009)

            Brighton Rock (June, 2009)

Ron Hanson

            Mariette in Ecstasy  (October, 2007)

            Exiles (September, 2008)

Jon Hassler

            Dear James (April, 2010)

Nathaniel Hawthorne

            The Scarlet Letter (May, 2012)

John W. Kiser

The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria (October, 2012

Fr. Ronald A. Knox

            The Viaduct Murders (January, 2009)

Dean Koontz

            Odd Thomas (April 2013)

 

C. S. Lewis

            The Screwtape Letters (September, 2004)

            The Great Divorce (July, 2009)

            Til We Have Faces (February, 2010)

Francois Mauriac

            The Woman of the Pharisees (June, 2003)

            Viper’s Tangle (January, 2006)

Walter M. Miller, Jr.

            A Canticle for Leibowitz (January, 2012)

Czeslaw Milosz

            The Issa Valley (November, 2008)

Father Peter Milward, S.J.

            A Commentary on the Sonnets of G. M. Hopkins (December, 2008)

Brian Moore

            Catholics (August, 2008)

            Black Robe (October, 2010)

Sir Thomas More

            Utopia (August, 2006)

Blessed John Henry Newman

            Loss and Gain (January, 2011)

Michael D. O’Brien

            Father Elijah (January, 2004)

            Island of the World (February, 2010)

Flannery O’Connor

            A Good Man is Hard to Find (December, 2002)

            Everything That Rises Must Converge (December, 2007)

Walker Percy

            The Moviegoer (May, 2003)

            The Thanatose Syndrome (February, 2007)

J.F. Powers

            Morte D’Urban (March, 2003)

Piers Paul Read

            The Death of a Pope  (September, 2009)

Marilynne  Robinson

            Gilead (March 2013

Sir Walter Scott

            Ivanhoe (April, 2005)

Dorothy Sayers

            Unnatural Death (February, 2011)

William Shakespeare

            The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (June, 2012)

Mary Shelley

            Frankenstein (October, 2010)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

            One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (July, 2006)

Murial Spark

            Memento Mori (January, 2007)

J.R.R. Tolkien

            The Hobbit (May, 2010)

Leo Tolstoy

            The Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy (June, 2010)

Mark Twain

            Joan of Arc (October, 2004)

Sigrid Undset

            Kristin Lavransdatter I:  The Wreath (May, 2005)

            Kristin Lavransdatter II:  The Wife (August, 2005)

            Kristin Lavransdatter III:  The Cross (September, 2005)

            The Master of Hestviken:  The Axe  (January, 2008)

            The Master of Hestviken:  The Snake Pit (February, 2008)

            The Master of Hestviken:  In the Wilderness (March, 2008)

            The Master of Hestviken:  The Son Avenger (April, 2008)

Evelyn Waugh

            Brideshead Revisited (February, 2003)

            Officers and Gentlemen (April, 2004)

            Unconditional Surrender (May, 2004)

            The Loved One  (November, 2004)

            Helena (November, 2005)

            Edmund Campion (April, 2007)

Morris West

            The Devil’s Advocate (May, 2009)

Oscar Wilde

            The Picture of Dorian Gray (June, 2006)

Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman

            Fabiola or The Church of the Catacombs (November-December, 2012

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