Recent Reads

I enjoyed three recent reads of a more religious nature

Yesterday, I finished Heretics by G. K. Chesterton. Actually, it's a reread - I originally read it years ago. Moreover, what I finished were the sections of the book that we did not read together at our local Chesterton Society gatherings over the past few month. Plus, I missed the March meeting, so I had to make up for those pages.

Typical Chesterton. Typically enjoyable - though I admit his style is very British and very early 20th Century, so it's not to everyone's taste. In addition to reading his amusing comments about the "heretics" of his time, I was reminded of a few works I'd thought in the past I'd like to read. With that in mind, I went to the local library and borrowed two plays he mentioned: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw. When I'm done with those, I'll go back for yet another work he mentioned that I'd always meant to read, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. I'd read excerpts before, but never the complete book.

Last week I read Heroes of the Catholic Reformation: Saints Who Renewed the Church by Joseph Pearce. It was one of the books on my shlef, and it had a section of St. Robert Southwell. At first, I just read that chapter in preparation for a little seminar I was leading about his poetry (for our local Edmund Campion Reading Series), but then decided to read the entire book.

It was well worth the read. Pearce has a clear writing style, and he's good at synthesizing material. 

And before I read Pearce's book I read Jesuit at Large: Essays and Reviews by Paul V. Mankowski, S.J. I've always enjoyed his essays, and this collection did not disappoint.

Onward. So much more literature awaits.

Pax et bonum