Good Catholic Novels?

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Last summer I read the entire Sister Joan mystery series by Veronica Black. They’re no longer in print, but they are widely available in libraries. They’re good, light summertime reading. They’re suitable from young teen onward, mostly appealing to females (being that they’re from the point of view of a nun). The mysteries were pretty well crafted, and they nearly always had something to do with Catholicism, which is portrayed in an orthodox way.

Each title starts, “A Vow of…”. There are 10 St. Joan mysteries. I think this is the order they were written – a couple might be out of order. It’s good to read them in order because they refer to earlier incidents and people in later books.

A Vow of Silence
A Vow of Chastity
A Vow of Sanctity
A Vow of Obedience
A Vow of Penance
A Vow of Devotion
A Vow of Fidelity
A Vow of Poverty
A Vow of Compassion
A Vow of Adoration

'thann
 
The Life and Times of Anne Catherine Emmerick is a very good, scary, horrific, don’t read it after dinner autobiography. She tells about many things, the Passion of our Christ as one of them, but it also takes you through her world. She only lived on the Eucharist and Blood of Christ, she suffered the stigmatas, etc. It’s a hard read, but once your finished, you feel a whole lot better about your life.
 
My daughter got interested in reading chapter books after we checked them out from the library as books on CD and book form. She listened first and now she reads chapter books faster than we can check them out. I really like the magic tree house series by Mary Pope Osborne. I know that both boys and girls enjoy them. I would recommend Viking Ships at Sunrise about two kids who travel back in time to save a book that is being transcribed by a monk. They have to return the book to today so it will not be destroyed by Vikings. 71 pages, not too intense (my daughter gets frightened easily and she enjoyed it), and it has some historical info in it. Don’t think it’s Catholic series but it’s a good intro to historical fiction and time travel books.
Because of Winn Dixie is good also.

Sherri
 
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Maverick:
Hello. I converted to the Catholic Church about five years ago. My wife and daughter are also Catholic.

I was in the bookstore last week and I saw a whole section of “religious novels”. I picked up a couple of them but they seemed to be Protestant written.

I was wondering if there are any good Catholic novels, faith affirming.
I read The DaVinci Code and that was the very opposite.

Thanks.
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The Da Vinci Hoax by (can’t remember their names) will put your heart at ease 🙂
There are a lot of books refuting the idiocacy of the Da Vinci Code
 
I remember reading some novels by Bud… " Something-or-Other" when I was younger… Kinda fun and and interesting… feel good novels… I remember not having having to think too hard to read them… but VERY Catholic

Does anyone recall his last name? Any feedback? I was young when I read them.
 
oh ya! graham greene is one of the all time best authors in the world. ‘the power and the glory’ is his best, and most famous, work. and very thought provoking and well done.

bud macfarlane, however, is not. his books are very catholic, in that they are about catholics, and involve catholicism in every plotline and every character ‘development’.

but his books ‘pierced by a sword’, ‘house of gold’ and ‘conceived without sin’ are some fo the worst writing i’ve ever read as far as plot development, dialog, and sheer creative writing.

from a catholic viewpoint, you will probably learn some things by reading them.

from a literary viewpoint - they’re worth every penny you pay for them (you can get them completely free from bud’s website ‘catholicity.com’. 😉
 
Rumor Godden “This house of Brede” about a successful career women who joins a convent, excellent and up lifting. In fact all her books are good.

Taylor Caldwell, she has also written a book, collection of short stories about priests, mostly irish, wonderfull and humorous as well as inspiring, I think it’s called “grandma and the priests.”

AJ Cronin was not catholic I think, but his books are good too.
Radhika
 
I actually just bought “The Moviegoer” and “Crime and Punishment.” They are not Catholic per se, but they are supposed to be classic expositions of the necessity of Christian faith, though written in novel form. I would also suggest “Death Comes for the Archbishop” by Willa Cather.
 
One novel that never seems to get put on anyone’s list and that (IMHO) should be at the top of any list of historical novels about Jesus’s ministry and crucifixion is Leonard Wibberley’s The Centurion. Another of Wibberley’s historical novels is a first person account by the Theophilus that Luke addressed the Acts of the Apostles to (and yeh that participle I just dumped is hanging). My copy is titled The Seven Hills, but it was originally titled The Testament of Theophilus. C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, the Ransom trilogy (my own label for *Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, *and That Hideous Strength - the “space trilogy”), Till We Have Faces (Lewis’s retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche), and The Screwtape Letters (which probably should have been the first book listed). J.R.R. Tolkien is a Catholic Christian author (don’t let those big hairy feet on the hobbits fool you) and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are both Christian (after all, Gandalf is an angel of light and Sauron is a Fallen Angel) fantasies.
As for The Da Vinci Code, it promotes a position that is Gnostic and heretical and is flatly anti-Christian (not just anti-Catholic). If you want to read it, fine, but do so with your brain in gear and remember the advice Luke reported about the new disciples at Beroea in Acts 17:11 ("[they] examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so").
:amen:
 
mary higgins clark is Catholic!!! and was interviwed on EWTN!!!
 
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