Noli Simul Flare Sorbereque

At the bottom of by the page of a magazine I was reading was an ad for a book, The Devil Hates Latin by Katharine Galgano.  It sounded interesting so I bought it.  I was immediately hooked because the hero was a Dominican and although the setting was in Italy, there were many references to Boston.  Add to that, one of the main characters is an ex-con.

What more could I want?  How about action?  Thrills?  Romance?  Catholicism?

The Devil Hates Latin has them all.  It's a very good story.  I'd qualify it as an adventure story.  Two families are strangely united by a common interest.  They go through some scary stuff together.  A rogue religious community tries to eliminate the entire families.  That's the story.  But you find yourself rooting for the ordinary people.  The priests, you have to sort out the good ones from the bad ones.  The bad ones have the money and are trying to protect their power.  An exorcist does the trick.
Another interesting observation was the description of modern Italy.  We in the USA are becoming like that. We're a consumer society, good careers are impossible to find, people aren't getting married, people aren't having children.

The exorcist saves the day.

Product details Paperback: 308 pages Publisher: REGINA Magazine LLC; 1 edition (December 29, 2016) Language: English ISBN-10: 0996647902 ISBN-13: 978-0996647908 Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Buy it here.

Kristin Lavransdatter

Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross
by
Sigrid Undset
Translated
by
Tiina Nunnally
Reviewed
by
Faith Flaherty

Kristin Lavransdatter is a trilogy of historical novels written by Sigrid Undset. This edition is a translation by Tiina Nunnally, which I found very understandable.  Notes are included for further explanation, in the back of the novel. 

The Cross is about the life of a Norwegian woman living in the fourteenth century.  The culture was completely foreign to me.  I found the customs fascinating. 

I was particularly interested in the fact that there seemed to be no capital punishment.  Two men were killed and the perpetrators weren’t arrested, thrown in prison and subjected to inhumane deaths.  Instead, they had to make restitution.  The details weren’t given, just that they had to give property and money to the victim’s family.  The perpetrators were worried that banishment may sometimes be required, as part of restitution.

Another cultural and historical fact that surprised me was that priests were married.  The priests’ wives, and children, and even their bastard children, were casually referred to as frequently as other villagers’ families.  It was as common as the hay in the fields.

I was also impressed by the people’s devout allegiance to their church.  They unquestionably believed their religion.  They would complain about this priest being lazy or stupid, but they had no doubt about the priest’s charisms when it came to celebrating the Mass, or other sacraments.  They prayed all day at prescribed times and used prayerful ejaculations.  They breathed faith.

The Norwegian medieval theology was curious.  Most people couldn’t read.  Only a couple of Kristen’s seven boys were interested in learning.  Otherwise, it wasn’t really necessary.  So the people couldn’t do research in St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, but they knew their faith and its practices.  Their prayer life, piety, work, and family life were all interwoven together.  Even when a group of ignorant men wanted to offer the human sacrifice of a child to satisfy an angry god, the people knew better.  This was a time of sickness.  The black plagued devastated the area, and people were desperate. 

The novel itself started with too many characters.  I had to write them down to keep them straight.  I wrote about two pages worth before I became too interested in the story to bother to stop and write down who was who.  From then on, Kristen and her family’s life took hold of me.  My life stopped and Kristen’s ruled.

Needless to say, I enjoyed the novel.  Kristen’s life was hard, yet so identifiable that one can easily relate.  Sigrid Undset tells a spell binding story with memorable characters.  I am still thinking about the book, even though I finished it weeks ago.  It definitely is a classic.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/simcha-fisher/i-cant-believe-you-havent-read-kristin-lavransdatter#ixzz3K2o9tbUQ

Book Reviewing

Finally, Catholic Fiction has their act together.  Or maybe it's me.  I've sent in a few reviews and I've never seen them posted.  They're up now.

I highly recommend their site.  I'm getting tired of reading and reviewing books by authors who obviously are sticking in sex and violence to sell their book.  Worse, are authors who have gay characters, only to appeal to a larger audience.  The story line has nothing whatsoever to do with the characters being gay, so there you are reading and waiting for that theme or some sort of prejudice to come into the story, but nothing comes of it.  Come on, develop the character's story or leave it out.  

That's why I enjoy the books at Catholic Fiction.  You can read the review, then go buy the book. There are classics that you've forgotten about, but should read, always have wanted to read, and now you're reminded of them.  Plus, plenty of new authors, you will want to try out. It's a reader's heaven.