Calling all bookworms

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Lamb’s Tales of Shaespeare. And the Cliff Notes books on Shakespeare plays, which contain the plays themselves and lot of extremely interesting info about the plays 🙂 (I have just discovered this and may end up reading a bunch of Shakespeare!).

The Cliff note books on the plays are bigger than their little books on various things.
 
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I am currently reading Den of Wolves, by Juliet Marillier.
 
You didn’t ask for specifically Catholic books, so:

“The Last Goodnight,” by Howard Blum, tells the story of a WW-II spy–Betty Pack, a “Minneapolis-born wife of a British diplomatic functionary who fell into the world of espionage.” Nor was Betty averse to falling into bed with her espionage subjects in order to elicit information. It’s a true story of WW-II but not a candidate for the Catholic bookshelf of edifying historical reading.

If you like personal memoirs, there is always physicist Richard Feynman’s “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman.”
 
“Why Do Catholics Do That” by Kevin Orlin Johnson. I’ve read it twice. It helped me make my decision to join the Church. And “The Rosary Handbook” by Mitch Finley. I’ve read more, but these two are my favorites so far.
 
Not wanting to criticize in any way, the replies tend toward Anglo-Saxon authors outweighing the “doctors of the church” and the popes. [I recon this remark is pertinent given the context.]

The second remark would be that non-English-speaking natives are unlikely to read most of the English authors mentioned. Catholic writers are more universal (the word Catholic means universal.)

The third remark would be that given the vastness of any national-linguistic literary field I find the catholic authors bring unity and unite.

I would say catholic authors are in a way beyond the “literary field” (or even outside of it) and the literary field tends to have the effect of distancing readers from each other, dividing through diversity.

As in “Rules of Art - genesis and structure of the literary field”, by Pierre Bourdieu.
 
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Well, the OP is from the U.S. And was asking about reading suggestions across the board, not specifically Catholic books. (Just no sci-fi.) so that may be why the answers lean the way they do.
 
I know you said you wanted a break possibly from Catholic books, but I am currently
reading Mother Angelica by Raymond Arroyo. It is very good and I have a new appreciation for her. I am about halfway through.
 
It has sat on my shelf for 2 years. I finally decided to read it. Quite a story. Quite a life!
 
No Turning Back, and Under the Mantle, by Fr. Donald Calloway

No Turning Back is the story of Fr. Calloway’s life of sin and conversion. it’s quite a page turner. Under the Mantle is based on the talks he gives about devotion to Mary and Divine Mercy.
 
It is very clear that Raymond Arroyo was the perfect person to write her story. His love for Mother Angelica was clearly evident whenever I heard him speak about her. I look forward to reading the book now that you have brought it to mind again.
 
Yes, I am a big fan of Raymond Arroyo. I really wasn’t that big a fan of Mother Angelica,
although I admired her for starting EWTN, but reading her life story has given me a new
appreciation of her.
 
Something that I read recently and absolutely loved:

The Fool of New York by Michael O’Brien.
 
I recently read No Man’s Land by Simon Tolkien, and I really enjoyed it. The prologue is a little on the long side, but provides a great background for the lead protagonist.
 
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I’ve not read that one.

I loved most of the Apocalypse series. His “Voyage to Alpha Centuari” is one of my all time favorite novels (it is set in space, but, it is a book about people and faith and exploration.
 
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