These are my personal picks for the best reads of 2025.
Not in any particular order.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
American Girl by Wendy Walker
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnson
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
James by Percival Everett
Listen to Him by David Rosage
Master Slave Husband and Wife by Ilon Woo
Percival Everett's book Erasure is a narrative about identity. Thelonious (Monk) Ellison is the protagonist. He is a college teacher in California. When he accepts an invitation to give a paper in Washington, DC, he also plans to visit his mother and sister, who live in the area.
His mother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. His sister is a doctor who has an abortion practice. He also has a brother who is also a doctor, out West. He's kind of out of the family circle because of his own personal issues.
When the sister is murdered, Monk moves back to DC, to take care of Mom. Monk has written a few books, which haven't been well received. It seems that everywhere he goes, he is confronted with a popular paperback success, written by someone whom he considers, doesn't know what she's talking about. This drives him to dash off a parody story about an ex-con. He sends it to his agent and signs it with a "take off" of Stagger Lee. Much to his surprise, Fuck, by Stagg R. Leigh, is a tremendous success.me ne ment pas.
He's ashamed to own up to being the author of what he considers, trash. But what can one do? L'รขme ne ment pas.
The Argonauta Book club met and chose the books we want to read.
Look how old this book is.
Nice looking, slim volume. I chose this translation because it was translated by Evelyn Underhill. I don't remember if I've ever read anything of hers, but I go to her lecture studies. She's well quoted. Looking at the prologue, she states:
This edition is intended, not for the student of Middle English, nor for the specialist in mediaeval literature; but for the general reader and lover of mysticism. My object has been to produce a readable text, free from learned and critical apparatus. The spelling has therefor been modernised throughout: and except in a few instances, where phrases of a special charm or quaintness, or the alliterative passages so characteristic of the author's style, demanded their retention, obsolete words have been replaced by their nearest modern equivalents.
It's the exact opposite. Underhill's edition is unreadable. So much, for nice, shiny volumes!
The unattractive volume, by William Johnston is written for anybody. Underhill's copyright is 1922. Johnston's is 1973. Compare the translations:
Underhill -- The First Chapter Ghostly friend in God, thou shalt well understand that I find, in my boisterous beholding, four degrees and forms of Christian men's living: and they be these, Common, Special, Singular, and Perfect.
Johnston -- Chapter 1 My dear friend in God, I would like to pass on to you what I have roughly observed about the Christian life. Generally, it seems to progress through four ascending phrases of growth, which I call the Common, the Special, Singular, and the Perfect.
See. Would you rather be a "ghostly friend in God," or a "dear friend in God."
Hence, I chose to read Johnston's translation. Once in awhile I compared it to
Underhill's, but Johnston's is much more understandable.
So don’t judge a book by its cover. How did I like the Cloud of Unknowing? I wasn't impressed. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, and Francis de Sales, An Introduction to the Devout Life, and even Catherine of Siena's the Dialogue were all about the same subject, "how to converse with God." I like Nike's advice, "Just Do It."
These are my own personal choices, read during the year.
Fiction Top Six
State of Terror by Hilary Rodman Clinton and Louise Penny
The Farming of Bones by Danticat
Garden of the Last Days by Andre Duman III
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
American Dirt by Jeannine Cummins
Non Fiction Top 8
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Spark of Faith by Fr. Wojciech Giertych
How to Pray by David Turkington
The Fisherman's Tomb by John O'Neill
Models of the Eucharist by Kevin O'Neill
Prison Journal, Vol. 1 by Cardinal George Pell
Prison Journal, Vol. 2 by Cardinal George Pell
Prison Journal, Vol. 3 by Cardinal George Pell
Announcements of New lay Dominican Books
Books from
Barnes & Noble Press www.bnpress.com
“The
Courage and Will to Preach: Lay Dominicans at the Edge of the World”
“Now is the acceptable time,” the General
Chapter of Quezon City, 1977 begins, “for the Dominican family to achieve true
equality and complementarity among its different branches.”
To achieve
true equality, the laity of the Order of Preachers must accept co-responsibility
for the doctrinal mission – preaching. Since 1971 the General Chapters of the Order
– the ruling body – have made calls such as this conjuring a vision of the
laity, which none of us have. The Acta of the Order since 1971 has added
step-by-step an understanding that the culture is becoming increasingly
secularized and relativistic and sliding wholly toward the abyss. With a
significant drop in friar vocations since 1975, the General Chapters are calling
for those members of the Order of Preachers who live and work in the secular
places where this is happening. The laity.
This book
draws together all of the Acta, presents a postmodern worldview model for us to
understand the problems, delivers us a brief view of theology that the General Chapters
have called upon us to study. In addition the book covers how lay Dominicans
prepare to face the secular world from a preaching standpoint, how to study the
Social Doctrine of the Church as a guidebook for preaching, how to discover and
engage the “signs of the times”, a practical program for learning social and
cultural issues, gives us a way forward, and introduces the Institute for lay
Dominican Preaching, a virtual Institute in its infancy.
This is a
revolutionary book for those who feel called to take their rightful place in
the Order.
Now, is the
acceptable time.
“Theological
Principles for lay Dominican’s Preaching”
The Acta of the General Chapters – the ruling body of the Order – and
letters from the Masters of the Order, make it clear that it is necessary for
lay Dominicans to study basic theology, or the science of God.
These
theological principles cover such things as Faith and Reason, the Objective the
Existence of God, Jesus, God as Trinity, the Nature of the Church, Mary, Sacramental
Life, and Eschatology, all in a specific learning format that can be delivered
as a year-long ongoing formation course for all lay Dominican chapters.
This book is
the first of its kind.
“Handbook
for Ongoing lay Dominican Formation”
For all these years, Ongoing Formation
has had no specific course or plan. Lay chapters decide if they want to study
devotional subjects such as Catherine’s Dialogues, writings by other
Dominicans, or more histories, never understanding that the Acta of the General
Chapters have outlined specific things for lay Dominican chapters to study for
the purpose of educating and developing lay Dominican preachers, destined to
step into the darkness and relativism of the secular world. Subjects include
basic theology for preaching, Social Doctrine of the Church, the study of
important and necessary documents of the Church teaching allowing lay
Dominicans to thoroughly understand, in a practical way, church teaching for
the purpose of delivering the Gospels, the Good News, and the Word of Hope to a
despairing world.
This book is
the first of its kind.
Note: Review
copies are available for LPC leadership, write:
Note: print and delivery times will vary; we
will send an email to confirm
ATTENTION
A new, exciting book is beginning, titled,
“Devotional to Preaching: Nudging Devotional Lay Dominicans into the 21st
Century”
In this book, we will discuss the history,
background, and methodologies for lay Dominican preaching in the many places in
the secular world where it is needed. We are hoping for unique preaching
stories. For example: “Preaching in Norfolk” is the story of a lay Chapter in Massachusetts
that holds its chapters meetings inside the Norfolk Prison. Master of the
Order, Timothy Radcliffe called this, his “favorite lay chapter.”
If you know of keenly unique preaching
missions – not the same as apostolates – that required use of theology, Social
Doctrine of the Church, Catechism (not catechesis or apologetics), and other
documents of the Church in an immersive way, forward them for consideration.
This could be a lasting testament to lay Dominicans taking up the mantle of
co-responsibility for the doctrinal Mission of the Order, as the General
Chapters – the ruling body of the Order – have established since 1971 in
Tallaght, Ireland.
Send all
stories to rbcurti@hotmail.com
Be part
of the new reality, the new understanding of lay Dominican vocation!
I'll give you my top five:
1. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
2. Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard
3. The Sabbatical by Michael D. O'Brien
4. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.
5 A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines
If you have the following traits or do the following, you are a soul-mate book lover.
1. Have stacks of books, here and there, everywhere, just in case you have a moment of free time:
Sept. 13-----Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
At a Christmas Yankee Swap, I received the book, My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante. What a brilliant gift that was! I loved the book. Oh, I have my complaints, i.e., I wish the author didn't have so many characters, I wish they weren't so mean, why did so and so do that, etc. That's what makes the story so real. It's so like life.
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| Lesley A. Diehl, author of A Sporting Murder |
It just dawned on me that God created me for Himself. In Genesis 1: 1-31, we see God made everything for mankind. I'm in awe to reali...
