I’ve been reading fiction - mostly mysteries - for years and recently feel it’s just a waste of time. I’d like to read about the lives of saints (etc.), and would appreciate some recommendations for good titles for worthwhile nonfiction reading… thanks!
If you’re looking for good books on the saints, here’s a good place to start:
Butler’s Lives of the Saints on CD-Rom, Harmony Media. This is the definitive, comprehensive guide to the lives of the saints. On CD-Rom, it’s less than $30, too (and fully searchable).
Lives of the Saints series, Ignatius Press. Their are 2 dozen titles in this series. They are geared towards children and not academic in the least, but I find them quite good. This is how Ignatius Press does children’s materials, which is probably comparable to how most other publishing companies do adult materials
In other words, they’re easy to read, but they don’t seem to be exculsively for children.
Actually, anything on the saints from Ignatius Press should be good. You can look under the various headings under “Saints” on their
Subject Index for their books.
I’ve heard very good things about G.K. Chesterton’s books on
Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assissi (also Ignatius Press).
Pope Benedict’s recent book
Jesus of Nazareth (Doubleday) is quite excellent.
The Apostles, Our Sunday Visitor. This is a collection of Pope Benedict’s audiences on the lives of the Apostles and the first disciples available. Also an excellent snapshot of the first saints. Little is known about many of the Apostles, so this serves as a go-to source for all we know about many of them.
Presently, Pope Benedict is continuing his Wednesday audiences with a look at the Early Church Fathers. Though not available in book form yet (because he’s not done with it!), you can read them on the Vatican website. I posted links to those particular audiences in
this other thread (Post # 3).
Also,
TAN Books almost exclusively publishes books by or about the saints. They have lots of good stuff. Although
Catholic Culture extends a word of caution about TAN based on some of their books on the liturgy, their books on the saints are all solid (at least from what I’ve seen).
Even better than books
about the saints are books
by the saints. If you’re looking for good autobiographies of the saints, here are my top faves:
Hopefully this is enough to get you started
