Shopping List

Books on Catholic life and Culture [Non-Fiction, fiction below]
 
About 95% of these titles I reviewed on Amazon. Remember that you can catch some excellent sales under the “used book” links in Amazon’s dashboard.
 
Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone [2021] by James Martin, SJ
[currently Amazon top 1%]
 
New Seeds of Contemplation [1949] by Thomas Merton
 
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus [1991] by John P. Meier
 
Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church [2014 edition] by Joseph Martos
 
Sin in the Sixties: Catholics and Confession 1955-1975 [2022] by Maria C. Morrow
 
A History of Catholic Theological Ethics [2022] by James F. Keenan
 
The Story of Christianity Volume One: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation [2010] by Justo L. Gonzalez
 
John XXIII: Pope of the Century [2005] by Peter Hebblethwaite
 
Why Catholics Can’t Sing [2013 revised edition] by Thomas Day
 
Keys to the Council: Unlocking the Teaching of Vatican II [2012] by Richard R. Gaillardetz and Catharine Clifford
 
A Family of His Own: A Life of Edwin O’Connor [2003] by Charles F. Duffy
 
Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors [2006] by James Reston, Jr.
 
The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene [2021] by Richard Greene
 
Being the Body of Christ in an Age of Management [2016] by Lyndon Shakespeare [currently Amazon top 3%]
 
Light of Assisi: The Story of Saint Clare [2021] by Sister Margaret Carney, OSF
 
 
The Truth at the Heart of the Lie: How the Catholic Church Lost Its Soul [2021] by James Carroll [currently Amazon top 2%]
 
Longing for an Absent God: Faith and Doubt in Great American Fiction [2020] by Nick Ripatrazone
 
Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church [2018] by John W. O’Malley
 
Seminary: A Search [2014] by Paul Hendrickson
 
The Age of Reform, 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe [1981] by Steven Ozment
 
What Happened at Vatican II [2008] by John W. O’Malley
 
Free and Faithful: My Life in the Catholic Church [1998] by Father Bernard Haring
 
The Church and the Age of Reason [1648-1789] by Gerald R. Cragg
 
Vatican Council II [1968] by Xavier Rynne [pseudo name]
 
Medieval History: A New History [2015] by Kevin Madigan
 
Francis of Assisi: A New Biography [2012] by Augustine Thompson
 
The Inner Life of Priests [2012] by Gerald J. McGlone and Len Sperry
 
The Early Church [1993] by Henry Chadwick
 
The Resurrection of the Messiah: A Narrative Commentary on the Resurrection Accounts in the Four Gospels [2013] by Francis J. Moloney
 
Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages [1990 edition] by R.W. Southern]
 
Confirmation: How a Sacrament of God’s Grace Became All About Us [2013] by Timothy R. Gabrielli
 
Trent: What Happened at the Council [2013] by John W. O’Malley
 
Theology: The Basics 3rd Edition [2011] by Alister McGrath
 
Vows; The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and their Son [2005] by Peter Manseau
 
When the Sisters Said Farewell: The Transition of Leadership in Catholic Elementary Schools [2012] by S.J. Michael Caruso
 
The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah [1983] by Charles Fensham
 
Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics [2008] by Margaret Farley
 
Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations [2017] by Kenneth R. Himes, Editor
 
Robert Bellarmine: Saint and Scholar [1961] by James Brodrick
 
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics [2012] by Ross Douthat
 
1,2 Chronicles [1994] J.A. Thompson
 
A History of the Jews [1988] by Paul Johnson [currently Amazon top 1%]
 
Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina [1996] by Michael Casey
 
The College Student’s Introduction to Christology [1996] by William P. Loewe
 
Calvin [2009] by F. Bruce Gordon
 
How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower [2009] by Adrian Goldsworthy
 
Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII [2008] by Charles R. Gallagher
 
2 Kings Commentary [1986] T.R. Hobbs
 
1 Kings Commentary [2004] by Simon John Devries
 
The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel [2000] by Robert Alter [currently Amazon top 2%]
 
An Introduction to Catholic Ethics [2003] by Lucien Longtin
 
The Reformation: A History [2004] by Diarmaid MacCulloch
 
Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture [since 1700] [1991] by Jaroslav Pelikan
 
The Gospel of Matthew: Sacra Pagina Series [1991] by Daniel J. Harrington
 
Jean Gerson and the Last Medieval Reformation [2005] by Brian Patrick McGuire
 
Cure D’Ars Today: St. John Vianney [1988] by Father George Rutler
 
 
 
 
Fiction by Catholic Authors about Catholic Life, Values, and Conversion
[adult content]
 
I have not reviewed every novel here but was captivated by them all. My favorite: Morte D’Urban. This colorful tale of an inept religious order in the Midwest going under for the count just before Vatican II was the best-selling novel in the U.S. in the early 1960’s.
 
The End of the Affair [1954] by Graham Greene [currently Amazon top 1%]
 
The Quiet American [1954] by Graham Greene [currently Amazon top 1%]
 
After This [2007] by Alice McDermott
 
The Cloister: A Novel [2018] by James Carroll
 
A History of Loneliness: A Novel [2015] by John Boyne
 
The Edge of Sadness [1961] by Edwin O’Connor
 
The Leisure Seeker [2009] by Michael Zadoorian
 
The Malefactors [1956] by Caroline Gordon
 
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse [2016] by Louise Edrich
 
Morte D’Urban [1962] by J.F. Powers
 
Wheat that Springeth Green [1989] by J.F. Powers
 
Souls and Bodies [1980] by David Lodge