My girls finished classes mid-June for the summer break. I’ve been enjoying just hanging out with them, and I'm fully on board the pack-no-more-lunches train. They are currently devouring books for the library’s summer reading program. I also started Clare on reading Harry Potter aloud to me. It has been magical and fun to share together.
I’ve discovered something that isn’t really all that remarkable, but it has been habit changing for me. The Kindle app on my phone. I have a Kindle, but it isn’t as though I carry the thing around with me everywhere I go. But you know what I do carry? Yeah, you get the idea.
With this discovery, I have been spending loads more time with my nose between the pages. I’ve already surpassed my year-set ambitions to read 25 books and it is July. July!
Here are my favorite titles that I’ve really enjoyed thus far:
 | Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler My sister recommended this and I am now smitten with Fulwiler. The story winds along the path of Fulwiler’s conversion, but it never once feels like she is cramming her ideology down my throat. She is simply explaining how she arrived both intellectually, and rather unintentionally, at Catholicism. This book is witty, charming, intriguing, and lovely with every page. |
| I picked this up immediately after reading her other book. It did not disappoint. This narrative follows Fulwiler’s attempts at chasing her personal dream, namely of writing a book. She pairs the joy of motherhood with the seeking of her own goals, and illustrates how they need not conflict...but it more than likely will involve a bit more ingenuity to accomplish. I loved this book. I found it encouraging, both professionally and spiritually. I loved her concept of looking at her family life with a fullness of vision: seeing not just the diapers and screaming and baths, but also recognizing what it will be in twenty years—the bursting Thanksgiving table, the adult friendship between siblings, the immense love of a large family. |  |
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These are my favorite fiction of the year.
Nix’s world is split in 2, half being similar to ours with technology and regular living, the other half subject to magic and fantasy. In the magical portion, the dead can be raised for bidding by evil necromancers, but it is the job of the Abhorsen to prevent it. The series has beautiful writing, fascinating characters, and an intriguing story line. I found I simply jumped from one to the next, hardly taking a breath between novels. They were so, so fun.
Nix’s world is split in 2, half being similar to ours with technology and regular living, the other half subject to magic and fantasy. In the magical portion, the dead can be raised for bidding by evil necromancers, but it is the job of the Abhorsen to prevent it. The series has beautiful writing, fascinating characters, and an intriguing story line. I found I simply jumped from one to the next, hardly taking a breath between novels. They were so, so fun.
 | 33 Days to Merciful Love by Michael Gaitley What a lovely book. A friend gave this to me and I read it in lead up to Divine Mercy Sunday. It is laid out like a retreat, with an excerpt a day in preparation for consecrating oneself to Christ’s mercy. I found this book consoling, human, genuine, down-to-earth, refreshing. Gaitley's basic premise is of Therese's Little Way: that trusting the Lord in all things is the quickest and most efficacious path to heaven. I haven’t really approached the spiritual life like this before, and Gatley’s insights resonated strongly with me. |
 | Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Fr. Jacques Philippe What a book. I recommend this without hesitation. It was simple, lovely, insightful. I read this slowly, a small section every day, and I plan to return to this one in a few years. It is a remarkable thing when a book can bring insight and hope into the daily human experience. |
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