What book are you reading? #3

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I’m reading this apocalyptic young-adult novel called “Wither” by Lauren Destephano.

I just don’t seem to be motivated to read any book at the moment. I started reading it 2 weeks ago and I’m only like 20 pages in or something, haha.
 
Updated List.

Series I’m currently reading:
*Divergent (Allegient comes out this year)
*Wheel of Time (Started the first book yesterday. Still have 10000+ pages to go)
*A Song of Fire and Ice (Partway through Storm of Swords)
 
‘Bhagavad Gita as it is’ by A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ by John Bunyan

‘The God Who Justifies’ by Dr. James White
 
Recently I finished Centurion’s Daughter, by Justin Swanton. Usually I don’t care for historical novels, but I liked this one. It even has some maps and illustrations.

The action takes place mostly in Gaul beginning in 486 A.D. At the beginning of the story, the daughter of the title is trying to find and reunite with her father, a Roman centurion, who longs for the return of the old empire and despises the barbarians.

The daughter is a Christian, which is to say, at that time, a Catholic. The father is not. When the Franks battle to take over his town, he tries to rally the citizenry to the cause of the Roman Empire, thinking that if his town can prevail, the tide can be turned back and the empire restored.

The book seems to be well researched, with interesting characters, and it presents a story on a human level of a civilization in transition—a path upon which our own civilization may be embarked.
 
D-Day by Stephen E. Ambrose. I read about D-Day from some source every year about this time. Ambrose’s is a good one.
 
Finished Dan Brown’s latest: “Inferno” it was ok.

I’m reading A Travel Guide to Heaven by Anthony DeStefano
 
Working through several right now

On The Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis by Louis Markso

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Thirsting For God by Gary Thomas
 
“God’s Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion” by Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J. Br. Guy is the Vatican Astronomer, but this book is a relaxed, well-written apologetics book from the standpoint of a self-admitted techie. He was surprised to find how many, if not most, scientists and engineers at M.I.T. and other high-tech research sites were quietly religious (the one trait they all seemed to share, he notes, was disagreement about the choice of liturgical music in their houses of worship.) Very enjoyable book.
 
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel : The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
 
JimG said:
Recently I finished Centurion’s Daughter, by Justin Swanton. Usually I don’t care for historical novels, but I liked this one. It even has some maps and illustrations.

The action takes place mostly in Gaul beginning in 486 A.D. At the beginning of the story, the daughter of the title is trying to find and reunite with her father, a Roman centurion, who longs for the return of the old empire and despises the barbarians.

The daughter is a Christian, which is to say, at that time, a Catholic. The father is not. When the Franks battle to take over his town, he tries to rally the citizenry to the cause of the Roman Empire, thinking that if his town can prevail, the tide can be turned back and the empire restored.

The book seems to be well researched, with interesting characters, and it presents a story on a human level of a civilization in transition—a path upon which our own civilization may be embarked.
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I love historical novels and enjoyed ‘The Centurion’s Daughter’ especially as I knew almost nothing of that period.

I have finished (in the last week) two by Alexander McNabb, ‘Olives’ (set in Jordan) and ‘Beirut - An Explosive Thriller’ (set mainly in Lebanon, obviously). Thoroughly enjoyed both, in ‘Olives’ I was captivated by descriptions of places I had been to on a previous holiday and found that Alexander McNabb described very well the emotions I felt on first seeing the Golan Heights. Both books I would probably have enjoyed anyway, but being set in at least one place I know, and knowing the author lives in the same city as I do gave an extra edge to both.

Also read two Wyatt North books: ‘The Life and Prayers of Mother Teresa’ and ‘The Life and Prayers of Saint Patrick’. I enjoy the books in this series a being quick and easy reads of the life of the featured Saint (or Blessed) - and have gotten many of them free for my Kindle.

Last night read ‘Stolen Miracles’ by Mary Manners - short but interesting, if predictable story.

Now I’ve just started ‘Lanced: The Shaming of Lance Armstrong’ by David Walsh and the sports staff of The Sunday Times (London).
 
StudentMI said:
The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth by Scott Hahn
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
The Cantos of Ezra Pound
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Finished the Hahn book. Now reading, in addition to the other two, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Blyth.
 
I am reading Texasville again. It is part two of The Last Picture Show trilogy by Larry McMurtry (sp).
 
andrewstx said:
I am reading Texasville again. It is part two of The Last Picture Show trilogy by Larry McMurtry (sp).
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BTW, I ALSO read Catholic books too. Recently I got my 2nd copy of the Incoruptables and Pope Francis. Incorruptales needs updating though, I didn’t know St Pio was incoruptable until I saw a photo of him at the Ave Maria store.
 
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel : The Magician by Michael Scott
 
The first volume of “The Last Lion”, the biography of Winston Churchill; “Trois papes au tournant de l’histoire” (in French), written in the 60s by Jean d’Hospital, a French journalist, an analysis of the papacies of Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul VI (who was still alive when it was written), as relevant to Vatican II.
 
I finished reading “When Hitler Took Austria,” by Kurt von Schuschnigg Jr. It was a little difficult getting into the book at first, although the historical events surrounding the author’s boyhood are certainly compelling. His father had become chancellor of Austria at a time when the Nazi’s were seeking power. The Austrian chancellor did not give in to Hitler’s demands but lacked the military power and the allies to resist. Hitler massed troops on the Austrian border, and then simply marched in with overwhelming military force.

Kurt Jr was only a boy at the time. His father was shipped off to a concentration camp, but was given better treatment than most prisoners for fear of provoking Austrian backlash. The boy was sent off to various schools, and then sent into the Navy, from which he ultimately deserted.

Books about WW-II can be depressing, but there are also hopeful moments. The guards at the concentration camp let Kurt in to visit his father without harassment. His father had better conditions than other prisoners because he had been chancellor, but most prisoners were essentially slave labor. When Kurt later tried to tell a friend’s father about conditions at the camp, he was not believed; in fact the friend’s dad became angry, asserting that that the Fuhrer would never allow such a thing. Such is the effect of constant propaganda.

The story becomes more interesting as the son is drafted into the Navy, and later deserts, being targeted and hunted by the Gestapo. He is helped to escape by a German doctor in a Munich hospital. As the war winds down, a huge number of refugees crowd onto a plainly marked hospital ship, but it is sunk by the attacking Russian navy despite its hospital markings.

Remarkably by the end of the war he is able to be reunited with his father and his family. It’s a boyhood which is hardly a boyhood by today’s standards. It reminded me of how bad things can get, and how fortunate we are to live in a time when they have not yet got that bad again.
 
The Philosophy of Tolkien, by Peter Kreeft. 2nd time I’ve started it, but it’s very good.
 
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