“The Best Books I Read in 2024” (2025)

“The Best Books I Read in 2024” (1)

Dear Readers,

It seems fitting to introduce this 20th edition—yes, this has been a tradition for two decades now—of the “Best Books I Read…” with a quote from a book about books and reading:

Our society accepts the book as a given, but the act of reading—once considered useful and important, as well as potentially dangerous and subversive—is now condescendingly accepted as a pastime, a slow pastime that lacks efficiency and does not contribute to the common good.

That is from Alberto Manguel’s eclectic, entertaining, and sometimes eccentric The Library at Night.

Manguel’s comment captures something of what Josef Pieper criticized in his classic Leisure: The Basis of Culture when he described the “vast utilitarian process in which our needs are satisfied…” One paradox of real reading is that it removes us from ourselves without distracting us from what really is and should be. Reading well means that even “light reading” is heavy with truth, beauty, and goodness, whereas reading to simply “escape” is to avoid the depths and value of the act.

Not to dwell too much on the heavier side of things, but I spend enough—too much!—time on the internet to see how we are tempted to distraction and utilitarianism. But, to echo Manguel, reading does indeed contribute to the common good; it is even essential to it.

So, let us not take books or reading for granted, but give thanks for this joyful and powerful dynamic of words, thought, action, and contemplation.

Here, then, are over fifty lists of books read and appreciated during 2024. Happy reading!

Pax Christi,

Carl E. Olson
Editor,Catholic World Report

Mary Jo Anderson
Dawn Beutner
Bradley J. Birzer
Joanna Bogle
David Bonagura, Jr.
Mark Brumley
Anthony E. Clark
Rick Clements
Casey Chalk
David P. Deavel
Deacon David Delaney
Adam DeVille
Conor B. Dugan
Fr. Charles Fox
John M. Grondelski
Ronald L. Jelinek
Christopher Kaczor
James Kalb
Julian Kwasniewski
Timothy D. Lusch
Daniel J. Mahoney
Joseph Martin
Filip Mazurczak
Fr. R. McTeigue, S.J.
Sandra Miesel
J.C. Miller
Monica Miller
Ines A. Murzaku
Eleanor Nicholson
Carl E. Olson
Jared Ortiz
Rhonda Ortiz
William L. Patenaude
Joseph Pearce
Andrew Petiprin
S. Kirk Pierzchala
Matthew Ramage
Sean Salai
Kathy Schiffer
Kevin Schmiesing
Fr. George E. Schultze, SJ
Paul Seaton
Russell Shaw
Piers Shepherd
Edward Short
Richard Spinello
Carl R. Trueman
John Tuttle
Joseph Tuttle
Maria van den Bosch
Timothy Vail
Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.
Amy Welborn
Chilton Williamson
Tod Worner

Mary Jo Anderson:

Poet professor Marilyn McEntyre’sCaring for Words in a Culture of Lies(Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009) reminds readers that “complex relations between literature and religion as repositories of insight, symbol and ways of telling truth” and addresses fundamental questions for the reader. From theology to entertainment, this year I asked, “whatfundamental questionsare examined in this work?”

Audio books:

Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent, Judi Dench. Dench’s impish spirit shines in this interview style account of her performances. It is charming yet packed with insight into the human heart. I see Lady MacBeth differently now.

Dominion, Tom Holland. A popular podcaster and historian narrates his own analysis of the Christian transformation of the modern world.

The Hermit of Eyton Forest,Ellis Peters. The Brother Cadfael mystery—set in 12th century England—is a perennial favorite. I return to it often. A crusader retired to a Benedictine monastery, Brother Cadfael peers into the souls of saints and sinners to untangle each new mystery. Peters’ elegant prose delights me every time.

Poetry:

During a Church Ladies discussion of confession, we read Sally Thomas’ short poem, “Examination of Conscience.” Thomas’ poetry has taken me from Michaelmas to Ordinary Time and beyond. Thomas recently publishedThe Blackbird and Other Stories(Wiseblood Books,2024). Each story touches some bruise of our fallen world and call us to see others with empathy.

A granddaughter introduced me to Diane Thiel, whose “Listening in Deep Space” she recited for a class assignment. CWR readers may know Thiel fromFirst Things.Dana Gioia describes Thiel as “the real thing.” Her new collection,Questions from Outer Space(Red Hen Press, 2022) asks the Real Questions in lyric form.

Cosmology, Theology:

A constant question atheists toss at Christians is how modern man can believe a “sky god” created the universe. A short primer for those prone to debate is Pope Benedict XVI’sIn The Beginning…’ The Story of Creation and The Fall(Wm.B Eerdmans, 1995). Some years ago, I discovered Carlo Rovelli’s SevenBrief Lessons on Physics.The Wall Street Journalpronounced it “entrancing.” Its playful wonderment prepared me for,A Fortunate Universe, Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos(Cambridge University Press, 2020) Astrophysicists Geraint Lewis and Luke Barnes playfully deliver a set of serious questions about what this finely tuned cosmosmeansafter all? (What is it about physics and playfulness?) Expect awe. The math averse reader can profit instead from Fr. James Schall’sThe Universe We Think In(Catholic University of America Press, 2018).

If the cosmosmeanssomething, so must Catholicism. You might read a dozen titles and not arrive at the clarity offered inThe Faith Once for All Delivered(Emmaus,2023). Editor Kevin L. Flannery, S.J. gathered eminent contributors who sail across modernism’s choppy seas navigating by “the fixed stars of canon, creed, and crozier” to deliver doctrinal truth for the ages.

Advent and Art:

A Shepherd’s Life(Flatiron Books, 2015). James Rebanks takes readers through a year in shepherd’s life in England’s Lake District. It’s a much-needed mediation on finding one’s place in the world, respect for roots, and caring for the marvel of creation. Oddly right for Advent. William Kurelek grew up on a Canadian prairie, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After an illness, a religious experience informed his paintings. A Northern Nativity(Tundra Books, 1976). Children, as well as adults, are captivated by images of the Holy Family in difficult modern settings, taking shelter in a snowy lumberman’s camp, in a train boxcar, an Indian mission, a frozen forest campsite overlooking a glittering metropolis. It is a Christmas treasure.

Mary Jo Anderson is a Catholic journalist and public speaker. She is a board member of Women for Faith and Family and has served on the Legatus Board of Directors. With co-author Robin Bernhoft, she wroteMale and Female He Made Them: Questions and Answers about Marriage and Same-Sex Unions(Catholic Answers Press, 2005).

Dawn Beutner:

I loved readingThe Lady of Guadalupeby Tomie de Paola to my kids years ago when they were young. But I had not recognized the hidden depths of the Guadalupe story until I sat down with two very different books in 2024.Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecyshowed me that God was lovingly, carefully preparing the indigenous people of the New World to receive the Gospel message for centuries before the missionaries—and our Blessed Mother—arrived.Guadalupe Mysteriescovers the apparitions in a completely different but equally interesting way, through scientific evidence, historical background, spiritual lessons, and innumerable images.

Like every committed Catholic, I want to know why so many Catholics fall away from the faith. When I readFrom Christendom to Apostolic Missiona few years ago, it helped me understand why our traditional Catholic methods of sharing the faith are failing. The University of Mary’s sequel,The Religion of the Day, takes that analysis one step further and accurately (I think) identifies the new, irrational religion that our contemporaries have started practicing. Our family, friends, and neighbors might not realize what they are worshipping, but we should, if we want to lead them to the truth.

One of the gods Americans worship, of course, is science. Those of us who have scientific backgrounds often find it tedious (though sometimes also hilarious) when our culture passes off scientific theories as certain fact. (Take a class in statistics. Please.) That’s why I read and enjoyed the ever-brilliant Fr. Robert Spitzer’s Science at the Doorstep to God. He examines the latest evidence from several medical and scientific disciplines, all of which point toward an intelligent creator of the universe, i.e., God. The chapter on near-death experiences alone makes the book worth reading.

Reading the late Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty’sMemoirsmoved me deeply. People today may argue over whether or not the Hungarian archbishop’s approach was the most effective way of dealing with a communist government. But this highly intelligent, articulate bishop never lost his faith in Christ, even he looked evil in the face during torture, isolation, and dehumanizing treatment in prison. This, of course, raises the personal question: would I do the same?

Need a book to take to Adoration as we all detoxify from the unending noise of the recent election? That’s where I have readHoly Silenceby Fr. Basil Nortz, in my own attempt to cultivate interior silence.

I obviously have not yet read the newly releasedIgnatius Catholic Study Bible. But, for many years, I have been begging my Bible study group members to pray for the wellbeing of Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, specifically that they will live long enough to create a complete study Bible for Catholics—which they have now done. All I need now is a group of other Catholics who appreciate having everything we want in a Bible—orthodox commentary, Biblical cross-references, detailed footnotes, and citations to the Catechism—so that I can use it with other Catholic Bible lovers in 2025.

Dawn Beutneris the author ofThe Leaven of the Saints: Bringing Christ into a Fallen WorldandSaints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year, both from Ignatius Press.

Bradley J. Birzer:

Every year, I so very much look forward to Carl Olson asking me to write a synopsis of my favorite books of the year. Indeed, I start keeping a list of everything I’ve read since his invitation email arrives for the following year. Thank you, Carl.

This year, I have two favorite non-fiction books. The first isReligion and Republicby Miles Smith IV. Though a Protestant examination of the first half of American history, I love the book and the author. Smith realizes, quite clearly, that there is no such thing as “Christian nationalism,” at least when it comes to America. He does, however, convincingly tell the story of an America that is enamored with Protestant institutions. Yes, we poor Catholics get a little left behind, but that’s only because we don’t show up in force until the 1840s. Smith demonstrates, decisively, that America is fundamentally Christian, but through our institutions and not through our desires and mission statements. A brilliant book.

Second, though, I also loved another Protestant book, this one by Cara Rogers Stevens, entitled,Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery. Stevens, a brilliant young scholar, reveals that though Jefferson was profoundly (and embarrassingly to the modern reader and fan) and deeply racist, he was totally right when it came to the divisive issue of slavery, desiring its erasure as early as the 1760s. In every policy and proposal, he wanted to end the horrific practice. Though the University of Kansas Press wants too much money for this book, it’s well worth owning, even if you have to go through the used-book market to get a copy.

As to fiction books, there was nothing greater than the mighty Kevin J. Anderson’sNether Station, an extension of H.P. Lovecraft’sAt the Mountains of Madness, but set in the larger universe. In Anderson’s version, an American entrepreneur (yes, it’s none other than Elon Musk, though he’s never so named) funds a mission to a wormhole in our solar system, one that connects us to Alpha Centauri. The trouble is that the wormhole is a prison and guardian against an evil race of space beings who waged a cruel war against all that is good about 1 million years ago! Whatever the timeline, this is a brilliant book, and I was gripped from about page 7 of the novel to the very end. Seriously, every chapter just got crazier and better. I was totally hooked, and I’m already looking forward to the sequel, the conclusion to the series.

To be sure, I also went back and read Lovecraft’s genius,At the Mountains of Madnessas well. Truly horrifying.

Thanks to my awesome colleague, Dr. Dean Paul Moreno, though, I started the year by reading Tom Wolfe’sBonfire of the Vanities. It was, to be sure, deeply disturbing and equally captivating. While I’d read some of Wolfe’s fiction, I had only readI am Charlotte Simmons, perhaps even darker thanBonfire. Certainly, Wolfe knew how to write and how to write intelligently.

Because of my own research, I have also been reading everything I can about 1776 and the writing of the Declaration of Independence as we approach its 250th anniversary. As such, I’ve re-read some truly brilliant history books: Pauline Maier’s American Scripture; Donald Lutz’sThe Origins of American Constitutionalism; Bernard Bailyn’sIdeological Origins of the American Revolution; Larry Arnn’sThe Founder’s Key; Gilbert Chinard’sThomas Jefferson: The Apostle of Americanism; Algernon Sidney’sDiscourses Concerning Government; and Trevor Colbourn’sThe Lamp of Experience.

Bradley J. Birzer is Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and Professor of History, Hillsdale College. He is the author of the award-winning Russell Kirk: American Conservative.

Joanna Bogle:

This has been a rather Victorian-themed year.

I enjoyed Owen Chadwick’sThe Victorian Church, Part I (A and C Black, 1966). It’s a very Anglican view, but—to this Catholic reader— perhaps all the more fascinating for that. I am going to enjoy Part II in 2025. The books are among several that my (ex-Anglican) parish priest put out for us to take away and read, in an attempt to clear his overcrowded bookshelves.

Thus when I found Chadwick’sOxford History of Christianity(ed John Manners, Oxford Univ Press 1990) in the library of another friend I pounced on it with glee. It is a good read and of course I learned a lot. It is generous to the Medieval Church and useful in helping to explain customs and traditions belonging to our folklore—helpful to this enthusiast, leading History Walks around London. But its last section, looking at Christianity and the modern world, is unimpressive and very much of the 1960s.

Lead Kindly Light: Essays for Ian Ker (Gracewing 2022) is an excellent read, which I started in 2023 and finished this year. This festschrift of essays produced to honour Fr Ian Ker, Newman’s biographer, is truly a feast. Among the best contributions is that of Edward Short, exploring the work of Gibbon and of Newman to the latter’s advantage.

I also enjoyed a collection ofJohn Betjeman’s letters(Vol II, ed. Candida Lycett Green, Minerva,1995), so ending the year on a pleasingly whimsical note.

Joanna Bogle is a journalist in the United Kingdom. Her bookNewman’s Londonis published by Gracewing Books.

David Bonagura, Jr.:

How Do You Do It? The Selected Works of Gerald Russello

It was both an honor and a joy to edit this 460-page volume of my late friend Gerald Russello’s essays and reviews. Reading the 78 pieces from 23 publications (including two fromCWR), which I organized into nine thematic sections that include Russell Kirk, the conservative imagination, Catholicism, humanist heroes, the law, ancient Rome, the American founding, and more, I saw how consistent Gerald was in life and in print. He was energetic, spirited, generous, humble, and loving. These characteristics leap off the pages of his many essays and reviews. I hope that those who read this book can catch a glimpse of how magnanimous and how devoted to God Gerald was.

A Historian and His World, by Christina Scott

This has been a “bucket list read” for a very long time, and it did not disappoint. After reading a good amount of Dawson over the years, as well as Brad Birzer’s fine biography entitledSanctifying the World over a decade ago, it was great to read Scott’s account (she was Dawson’s daughter) to see how Dawson’s tremendous output flowed according to a set chronology due to his experiences and the drama of world affairs. Scott’s portrayal of an elderly Dawson living American life to the full while teaching at Harvard University from 1958 to 1962 is particularly endearing.

Introduction to Christianity, by Joseph Ratzinger

I read this book many years ago and have drawn on portions of it for my work on Ratzinger’s theology. Engaging in a cover-to-cover reread for a spring seminar I taught became a month of recapitulation—of the book, of Ratzinger’s theology, and of Benedict’s magisterium that incorporated not a few of the insights found in this seminal book. The 60 page “introduction” on the nature of belief is as relevant—and compelling—now as it was in 1968.

Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather

I hated this book when assigned it as a high school sophomore—and that was all I remembered about it. I decided to give it another go. I certainly understood why I hated it as a kid: extended scenery descriptions and obscure Catholic history and practice sadly meant nothing to me then. But they mean so much to me now. Imagining Father Latour interact with natives in the foreign, unsettled world of the American southwest, and hearing the glories and shortcomings of Catholics and Catholic practice have generated my renewed appreciation for the universality of our faith—and how that universality often comes into conflict with the particular.

In Silence Cries the Heart, by Catherine Hughes

Historical fiction can be predictable, but this novel was not. Set in seventeenth-century Scotland, the ill-fated Scottish romance between the laird’s daughter Mary McElroy and outlaw Donal Donn features superb development of major and minor characters along with multiple plot twists that kept me in suspense to the end. Hughes brings this lost land to life with exquisite detail and steady narration.

David G. Bonagura, Jr.is an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s SeminaryandCatholic International University. He is the author ofSteadfast in FaithandStaying with the Catholic Church. He is the translator ofJerome’s Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning.

Mark Brumley:

As usual, I don’t count Ignatius Press books or manuscripts read during the year.

All Things Are Full of Gods, David Bentley Hart. A fanciful dialogue on idealism and the philosophy of mind, arguing that consciousness, intentionality and reason are prior to cosmos and matter. Hart’s conversationalists: the divinities Psyche, Eros, Hephaestus, Hermes. An entertaining and insightful tour de force.

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. Re-read the book with my son. It amazes how much Huxley got and how much he didn’t, AF.

The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu.The Dark Forest,Cixin Liu.Death’s End, Cixon Liu. An engrossing trilogy on the Law of Unintended Consequences applied to China’s Cultural Revolution, and Fermi’s Paradox of why, if, as some suppose, the universe teems with intelligent life, haven’t they visited us. Well, the aliens are more than willing to come, once “invited”. A fine idea, if extinction of your race is the goal.

The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, Erik J. Larson. A computer scientist critiques the excessive claims for AI, providing an overview of the history of computer science, its aspirational goals, and its limitations as a result of the vast differences between what AI does and what humans do when we think.

The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer. My wife and I continue to binge read and re-read classical literature. We all read (or pretended to)The Iliadin high school. Then, as a history major, I really read it in college—a serious engagement. Several years ago, I re-read it. It was an all-but-totally different book, read by a different man from the twenty-something college reader. Likewise withThe Odyssey. Reading and discussing these works with my wife has been one of my best literary experiences.

The Oresteia, Aeschylus. Agamemnon gets bathed with a warm homecoming from his dear wife, Clytemnestra. Their son, Orestes, shows love for his Mommie Dearest. And the elemental spirits change jobs, working now for the newly established Athenian criminal justice system. Your classic short-run streaming family empire/procedural drama. See comments onThe IliadandThe Odyssey.

Jesus Christ, Scandal of Particularity, Eduardo J. Echeverria. How to understand the theology of religions, especially in light of Vatican II? How do “general revelation” and “common grace” fit with the exclusivist claims of Jesus Christ and the Church, on the one hand, and God’s universal salvific will, on the other?

The Best Argument for God, Patrick Flynn. Does it present thebestargument for God? Opinions, even among philosophical theists, differ. The difficulty is increased by the fact that the book doesn’t present a single argument for God as much as a main line of argumentation backed by adjacent and related arguments. But that’s a quibble.

The Universal Way of Salvation in the Thought of Augustine, Thomas F. Harmon. Not about Christian universalism in the sense of the view that everyone will be saved. It’s “universalism” in the sense of salvation is available toall kindsof people. This book explores Augustine’s case against Porphyry of Tyre, including Augustine’s argument that Christ’s power to heal each part of the soul—whole human being—and thus by implicationallsorts of people.

Jesus and Divine Christology, Brant Pitre. Did Jesus claim to be God? The short answer: yes. But even a devoted reading of the gospels involves a longer answer. Pitre gives it, providing outstanding scholarship in a reasonably accessible format for even the non-scholar.

Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion, Nicholas Spencer. A revising of the so-called “conflict thesis” of religion and science. The story runs from antiquity to AI, ably demonstrating how, despite tensions and certain personalities, the relation of religion and science is more complex than conflict accounts allow. The subjects are intricately entangled.

Principles of Catholic Theology: Book 1, On the Nature of Theology, Thomas Joseph White, O.P. The first volume of the prolific Dominican’s series. A sketch of a Thomistic Ressourcement engaged with other perspectives. The chapters “Thomism After Vatican II” and “Ressourcement Thomism” I found especially insightful.

Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction. Shaun Blanchard and Stephen Bullivant. A helpful introduction, especially for Catholics under fifty. The authors present four major paradigms—Traditionalist (rejection or suspicion), Failure (progressive rejection/suspicion of a failed reform), Spirit-Event (“spirit of Vatican”, stress on innovation), and Text-Continuity (which privileges the texts, and sees them as continuity/reformist). There’s a lot packed into this “very short introduction”.

Mark Brumley, President and CEO of Ignatius Press, is author ofThe Seven Deadly Sins of Apologeticsand20 Answers: Catholic Social Teaching,among other things.

Anthony E. Clark:

The British essayist and scholar Isaac D’Israeli wrote that, “There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.” I am soon to return to Oxford, the city “of dreaming spires,” where I shall again teach my January course on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and in preparation I spend much of my year reading books on the arts of reading, thinking, and writing. This year’s “codex companions” on the tabletops around my home included works by, or about, Lewis, Tolkien, Belloc, and Chesterton. It was like Christmas reading all year!

Chesterton’s collection of essays The Well and the Shallowswas first to inaugurate my year. I read a pristine first-edition copy that I purchased at Oxford’s antiquarian bookdealers, St. Philip’s. I especially tip my hat to the essay, “Reflections on a Rotten Apple,” which begins with the truest of true assertions: “Our age is obviously the Nonsense Age,” except that his age was less nonsensical than ours. Two other anthologies kept my mind warm through our winter of nonsense.

I read the essays in Tolkien’sTrea and Leaf. Reading “On Fairy-Stories” and “Leaf by Niggle” for the first time – in my mid-fifties! – transformed how I think about fantasy writing and purgatory. Only Tolkien can provide equally brilliant insights into two such disparate topics. C. S. Lewis’The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, edited by Walter Hooper, contains essays that all persons of distinguished intellect should read and observe. Hilaire Belloc’sBelinda: A Tale of Affection in Youth and Age was an unexpected delight. Belloc’s style in this romantic novelette is an admixture of Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Read it and tell me if you agree!

The perennially prolific and perspicacious Joseph Pearce delivered at my university one of the best-attended lectures on record, and in anticipation of his visit I read his autobiography Race with the Devil, his biography Tolkien: Man and Myth, and his astute guide to the Narnia series Further Up & Further In. How nourishing it is to read a writer whose works match the elegance and insight of the writers about whom he writes. I see that this entry is already overly protracted, and I must sadly neglect to mention several worthy books that made it into my reading journal for 2024. Two brief mentions, however, need to appear. Holly Ordway’sTolkien’s Faithand Barbara Cooke’sEvelyn Waugh’s Oxfordbelong on the shelves of anyone who loves these two British Catholic masters.

As I write this reflection on good books I have read, surrounded by good books I have not yet read, I am mindful of the hope of Christmas, two weeks away, and another year, God willing, of glorious reading.

Anthony E. Clark, PhD, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society of London, a professor of Chinese history at Whitworth University, and the author and editor of several books on Catholicism in China.

Richard Clements:

Any of the books in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s extensiveoeuvreare well worth reading (and re-reading) for the rich treasure trove of theological and spiritual insights they offer, but my personal favorite isHeart of the World(Ignatius Press). Balthasar was presumably somewhat chagrined when the original publisher (not Ignatius) rather blandly described the book on its dust jacket as a “book about Christ”; Balthasar’s own preferred description of the book was as “a sequence of hymns to Christ in rhythmical prose.” I would characterize this book as Balthasar’s most deeply devotional work. Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis claimed thatHeart of the Worlddeserves a place next toThe Imitation of Christ, and I am inclined to agree.

I would also recommend a couple of autobiographies: Andrew Klavan’sThe Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ(Zondervan) and Roger Scruton’sGentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life(Continuum), both of which are written with intelligence and wit.

Richard Clements is the author ofThe Meaning of the World Is Love: Selected Texts from Hans Urs von Balthasar with Commentary(Ignatius, 2022) andThe Book of Love: Brief Meditations(En Route, 2023) and is a contributor to Evangelization & Culture Online at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

Casey Chalk:

Four months before I returned to the Catholicism of my youth, the completedNew Testament version of theIgnatius Catholic Study Biblewas published. As a former Protestant seminary student witha lotof questions about Catholic interpretation of Holy Scripture, that study Bible was an incredible resource, over which I spent many hours during my time as a catechumen preparing for Confirmation. How long, I wondered, would I have to wait for the Old Testament?

Almost fifteen years, it turns out. It was worth the wait. I’d confidently argue that the most important book published in 2024 is theIgnatius Catholic Study Bible, a decades-long project by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch that includes contributions from other top-notch Catholic scholars. Given how well the New Testament Study Bible has sold, I presume I won’t have to do much persuading for many thousands of English-speaking Catholics to purchase this excellent text.

There are a lot of things to admire with this Study Bible. Introductory articles on Catholic teaching regarding Scripture and the canon, as well as the introductions for every book of Scripture, will be useful both for first-time readers and seasoned scholars. Shorter articles interspersed throughout — such as on the sacrifice of Isaac, the conquest of Canaan, or the four kingdoms described in Daniel — discuss many of the controversial or debated topics across Christian interpretive history. Brief “word studies” will help make sense of what many Catholics often find confounding across 73 books spanning thousands of years of salvation history.

TheIgnatius Catholic Study Bibleshould also be praised for its remarkable blending of patristic, ecclesial, and modern scholarship. On practically every page, readers will encounter references to theCatechism of the Catholic Church, Church Fathers, and relevant historical sources. This book will be invaluable for personal and group Bible studies as well as scholarly research.

I’ve also been really impressed by Peter Kreeft’s series for Word on Fire on philosophy. This includesSocrates’ Children Volumes I-IV, which offers short, accessible chapters on one hundred of the most important thinkers in philosophy, from the ancients to modern times. Professor Kreeft applies his decades of teaching undergraduates to help us understand why thinkers from Buddha and Parmenides to Jean-Paul Sartre and Edmund Husserl matter today. Kreeft’sEthics for Beginnersin turn presents “big ideas” from many of the same thinkers, engaging such ideas as sophism, utilitarianism, and existentialism. Taken together, the five books are an excellent resource for anyone trying to make sense of the “big ideas”, or quickly grasp some of the most enigmatic ideas in the history of philosophy.

Finally and at the more popular-level, I very much enjoyed James Hilton’s 1939 international best-sellerLost Horizon, from which we get the term (and idea) Shangri-La. It’s a fast, very entertaining read, which presents someinteresting ideas for reflectingon the fractured, atomizing qualities of the modern era. Skip the old Hollywood adaptation of it, though. Despite having Hilton as an advisor, the film’s story and ending departs from the novel’s ambiguity so dramatically as to represent a different story altogether.

Casey J. Chalk is a freelance writer. He holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Teaching from the University of Virginia, and a masters in theology from the Notre Dame Graduate School of Theology at Christendom College. His writing discusses Catholicism in the public square, conservative politics, and cultural analysis. Casey, his wife, and fourkids live in his native Northern Virginia.

David P. Deavel:

My kids say I’m “always on Twitter,” but I actually readmorebooks this year than last. This makes selection harder. But I’ll start with volumes for them. It’s George MacDonald’s 200th birthday this year, so I rereadThe Princess and the Goblinwith Maggie (8). With Tommy (11), I read Roger Lancelyn Green’sKing Arthur and His Knights of the Round TableandThe Adventures of Robin Hood. Both use source material to create coherent full tales. Not read with the kids but likely enjoyable for Tommy is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ originalTarzan of the Apes. Tommy and I are nearly done with Donald Jacob Uitvlugt’s animal space sagaJiao Tu’s Endeavour: Episode 1: The Kidnapped Mousling. The eponymous hero is a Samurai warrior bunny in the mold of a Walker Percy protagonist.

In “grown-up” fiction, Trevor Cribben Merrill’sMinor Indignitiespresents a ‘90s bildungsroman set at an Ivy League campus with Catholic overtones. Andy Fowler’sThe Condemnedis a taut story of a priest confronting a Mexican cartel and his own past. I reread Solzhenitsyn’sOne Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich(Harry Willetts’s translation) and Frederick Rolfe’sHadrian the Seventhand found them both worthy volumes. Rolfe’s life was stranger than fiction, something evident in A.J.A. Symons’sThe Quest for Corvo, an engrossing account of his search to understand the bizarre author.

Many great authors, especially poets, have a strangeness to them. Regina Derieva’sImages in Black, Continuouscontains many poems about the darkness in the Catholic convert’s life. Margaret Ellsberg’sThe Gospel in Gerard Manley Hopkinsplaces his poems, letters, and spiritual writings alongside her own keen interpretations of his often-misunderstood life. G. K. Chesterton does the same for a poet-saint inSt. Francis of Assisi.

Of course, all spiritual writing must deal with darkness. Paul Murray’sI Loved Jesus in the Nightreveals how St. Teresa of Calcutta’s darkness was itself an excess of light. Richard John Neuhaus’sDeath on a Friday Afternoonwrestles with the ultimate darkness and light of Good Friday. And Kathryn Wehr’sThe Man Born to be King: Wade Annotated Editionputs together Dorothy Sayers’s famed BBC radio plays about the darkness and light in the life of Christ and adds plenty of history, notes, and understanding to them.

The Venerable Bede’sEcclesiastical History of the English People(Oxford World Classics) gives one a lively sense of the enlightenment of Britain by Catholic faith. Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s memoir,There and Back Again: A Somewhat Religious Odysseyshows how it has dimmed there but not died out. So, too, Kei Uno’sA Survey of Catholic History in Modern Japanshows the same pattern but in a shorter scope for another island nation.

That rise and fall of Christian faith has political ramifications, as Pierre Manent’sMetamorphoses of the Cityshows it did for Europe. War has been waged on the Christian aspects of American society. This war is shown in different but complementary ways in Chris Rufo’sAmerica’s Cultural Revolution, which takes on all aspects of the left’s long march, and J. Michael Waller’sBig Intel, which shows how our three-letter agencies both fought against that march and were somewhat defeated by it. In America, Christian decline accounts in part for our marriage dearth, a situation Brad Wilcox’sGet Marriedhopes to remedy. T. L. Hulsey’sThe Constitution of Non-State Government: Field Guide to Texas Secessionproposes a radical solution that may not convince even all Texans, but it will get the reader’s mind going about the nature of the good society.

David P. Deavel is Associate Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and a Senior Contributor atThe Imaginative Conservative.

Deacon David Delaney:

Diogenes Unveiled: A Paul Mankowski Collection, ed. Philip F. Lawler

I had heard about Father Mankowski some years ago from my sister-in-law who was then stationed in Jordan with the United Nations. “Fr. Paul” led a Bible study for a group of multi-national women of which she was a part, for the year he was in Jordan. The women were captivated by his intellect, wit, and gentleness. This past year I finally read Lawler’s anthology of Fr. Mankowski’s satirical works and again was taken by his insight and wit and instructed by his humble submission of obedience to unjust superiors who deprived the world of the gift of a great man’s wisdom.

Explorations in Metaphysics, W. Norris Clarke

This collection of essays from Fr. Clarke’s distinguished academic career charts a path for advancing Thomist metaphysics. His primary contribution lies in elucidating how the Trinitarian co-principles of substance and relation illuminate creation as a cascading series of co-principles—existence-essence, form-matter, substance-accident, act-potency—all underscoring the intrinsic unity of relation and substance in the created order. This framework deepens the integration of phenomenology into Thomist metaphysics, begun by Edith Stein, Karol Wojtyła and Robert Sokolowski equipping theologians to engage postmodern society more effectively.

John Senior and the Restoration of Realism, Fr. Francis Bethel, O.S.B.

My friend Fr. Francis Bethel was a student of John Senior’s during the heydays of the Integrated Humanities Program (IHP) at the University of Kansas in the 1970s. His book is at once a biography of John Senior and a tutorial of his thinking and his project to return education to an end, the cultivation of souls. It includes the development and eventual suppression of the IHP, demonstrating the illiberalism of contemporary liberal education. Senior’s legacy endures as a testament to the power of wonder, a life steeped in the great traditions, and a commitment to the Real.

The Silmarillion, JRR and Christopher Tolkien

Feeling nostalgic for the halcyon days of my doctoral studies, I finally pulled Tolkien prequel to hisHobbit/Lord of the Ringsoeuvre from my ever growing ‘to read’ pile, and it delivered as I had hoped. I’ve spent as much time in the index of names as I have reading the text itself, eerily reminiscent of trying to memorize vocabulary for my language requirements. I find myself reviewing the same entry dozens of times before it finally stakes a claim in my memory. In addition to the nostalgia, it has the added benefit of profiting from Tolkien’s tutelage, enriching my explorations in theological cosmology and angelology.

The Metamorphosis of Finitude,Emmanuel Falque

This Advent I revisited Falque’s essay, which exemplifies his project to integrate phenomenology with theology. He proposes phenomenologists engage with rather than reject traditional metaphysics, in a dialogue that can transform both methodology and Christians themselves. While neo-Thomists may find it unsettling, with proper discernment it can complement and enrich similar projects starting from the Thomist perspective (e.g., Norris Clarke). Catholic theology since Trent has emphasized objective understanding of revealed truth. Falque’s project can potentially deepen and enliven these gains from the perspective of receptive relationality.

The Apocalypse of Wisdom, Keith Lemna

This is a profound commentary on Louis Bouyer’s underappreciated masterpiece,Cosmos. Lemna illuminates the background of Boyer’s cosmological vision, while showing the careful reader a pathway to a contemporary presentation of the faith for a post-modern world starved for meaning and purpose. It is a must read for everyone who needs to understand and convey the amazing drama of creation and redemption.

Deacon Delaney is the founder of the Mother of the Americas Institute, where he serves as the Director and a Senior Fellow.

Adam DeVille:

Though her neoliberalism was repellent to me, I well remember standing in my high-school library in 1990 reading the strangely moving account in British newspapers of the fall of the Iron Lady. This summer, unable to sleep one night, I stumbled upon an interview with Charles Moore, the authorized biographer of Margaret Thatcher, and then devoured all three of his volumes. He judiciously sifted through unimaginable masses of papers and conducted scores of interviews to produce an elegant trilogy.

When I was doing my first MA in the late 1990s, a French priest taught a course that turned out to be a fascinating exercise in intellectual history. We read a book co-authored by Albert Jonsen and Stephen Toulmin,The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning. Fast forward to this year, and increasingly frustrated with the lack of attention to the philosophy of science in psychology, I picked up Toulmin’s last book,Return to Reason. It rightly takes a hard look at clinical psychology’s habit of wanting to base studies of the mind on Newtonian physics whence some wish to derive universal “laws.” Instead of such a profoundly limited and limiting method, Toulmin advocates for several things, including a recovery of the individual case study—which is what casuistry was usefully doing until that polemical pest Pascal came along to vent his fury at the Jesuits for using this method.

Advancing Psychotherapy for the Next Generation,eds., Linda L. Michaels, Tom Wooldridge, Nancy Burke, and Janice R. Muhr publishes one of the best and largest studies of what patients want in psychotherapy. They want: (i) to be listened to at a depth experienced nowhere else, and with a non-judgmental empathy that creates an environment for them to explore their minds with curiosity; and (ii) to find short-term symptom relief—but this is seen as a secondarybenefit. It is also clear that patients donotwant to be lectured (“psychoeducation” as many grandly call it) or given worksheets, “advice,” or breathing exercises easily discoverable on Google.

This summer, sitting on a cottage deck alongside a river in small-town West Virginia, I found a copy of Margaret Truman’sHarry S. Truman,a kind of family biography. This reminded me of how many outstanding virtues the late president had compared—arguably—to every one of his successors. Following this I re-read David McCullough’s very charming and more fulsome biography,Truman.

I read two books by the psychiatrist Mark Epstein:Going to Pieces without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholenessand thenThoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective.There is little here that differs in any significant degree from a Christian psychology: both traditions recognize the inescapability of suffering and the impermanence of life; and both advocate a detachment from disordered thoughts and desires.

I also enjoyedPlayingand Becoming in Psychoanalysisby Steven Cooper andCreative Engagement in Psychoanalytic Practiceby Henry Markman. I cannot in a brief comment do justice to either of these wonderfully rich books, but simply encourage all practicing psychotherapists to read them regularly.

From Breakdown to Breakthrough: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosisby Danielle Knafo and Michael Selzer is very timely. It’s been more than a quarter-century since the American Psychiatric Association called for a return to intensive psychotherapy for psychotic conditions, including schizophrenia, but few clinicians today treat such difficult cases, which in my private practice have been steadily increasingly thanks to the increasingly widespread and idiotic decision to legalize weed, the heavy smoking of which has long been demonstrated in the clinical literature to make some people floridly psychotic.

Dr. Adam A. J. DeVilleis associate professor at the University of Saint Francis in Ft. Wayne, IN., where he also maintains a part-time private practice in psychotherapy. He is the author and editor of several books, includingOrthodoxy and the Roman Papacy(University of Notre Dame, 2011).

Conor B. Dugan:

Edwin O’Connor must be one of the 20th century’s most underappreciated novelists. This year I read his most famous, The Last Hurrah, which tells the story of an Irish-American politician making his last run for mayor in a city with shades of Boston and Providence. O’Connor has an eye for the little details andThe Last Hurrah, likeThe Edge of SadnessandAll in the Family, is a time-capsule into pre-conciliar American Catholicism.

After years of hearing people extol Amor Towles’A Gentleman in Moscow, I finally picked it up. I am sorry I waited this long. Towles’ novel, about a Russian nobleman sentenced to house arrest in a Moscow hotel, is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I’ve read in years.

I reread two of Graham Greene’s novels to great profit,The Power and the GloryandThe End of the Affair. Has there ever been a writer who could say so much with so little? Greene’s efficiency with the English language is a constant revelation. Greene also knew sin from the inside, and both these novels grapple with the allure of evil and the superabundance of God’s mercy.

Thirty years after my boyhood priest recommended it, I finally picked up A.J. Cronin’sThe Keys of theKingdom. It is a beautiful story of a missionary priest dedicated to his people.

Alexandra Andrews’ thriller-mystery-suspense novel,Who is Maud Dixon?, tells the story of Florence Darrow, a young woman making her way in the literary world. She ends up the assistant to a famous but secretive novelist known only by her pseudonym, Maud Dixon, to the larger world. When the author goes missing, Darrow sees an opportunity to step into her life. Will she take it? To say more would be to spoil a wonderful debut novel.

I loved Dana Gioia’s latest,Meet Me at the Lighthouse: Poems. Gioia is a national treasure. Gioia’s combination of playfulness and depth, longing and fun shines through. His hymn to the City of Our Lady of the Angels, better known as Los Angeles, is profound.

Let me put a plug in for a few in the broad overarching category of philosophy-theology. D.C. Schindler continues his fruitful engagement with politics and political theory inGod and the City, a development of a lecture he gave at the University of Dallas. Along the same lines, Kenneth Craycraft’sCitizens Yet Strangers: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America, isthebook you can give to Catholic family and friends who think that orthodox Catholicism is synonymous with Fox News. Craycraft shows how a Catholic’s posture to the world today must be one of prophetic pilgrim.

I read Balthasar’s bracingWho is a Christian?in which Balthasar returns us to the key criterion for all reform—the scandal of the Cross. He writes, “the sole valid motive for all our various movements can only be to rid the world of false, unchristian scandals so that the true scandal, which lies at the heart of the Church’s mission, can emerge with unambiguous clarity.”

David W. Fagerberg’sThe Size of Chesterton’s Catholicism(capacious!) must be one of the best introductions to Chesterton’s thought and work ever written. One senses the joy and wonder that drew Fagerberg to Chesterton and Catholicism.

Margaret Turek’sAtonement: Soundings in Biblical, Trinitarian, and Spiritual Theologyis a profound book that helps rescue a subject—Christ’s atoning work—from the embarrassed shadows in which we too often keep it.

Finally, I read Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis’The Way of the Disciple, a spiritual classic that packs a punch in its slim, 150 pages.

Conor B. Dugan is a husband, father of four, and attorney who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Fr. Charles Fox:

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis.This fifteenth-century masterwork is one of the most widely read and loved texts, after the Bible. It is also one of the most challenging texts on the Christian life, shying away not one bit from the intense effort and self-sacrifice required of anyone who would take up his cross and follow our crucified Lord. The Ronald Knox translation, completed by the late-Jesuit priest Michael Oakley and published by Ignatius Press, renders the timeless truths of the original Latin text in English prose that is highly readable today. Knox, who for years made a daily habit of reading a chapter of the Imitation, testifies to its salubrious rigor, writing, “(The Imitation) offers consolation here and there, but always at the price of fresh exertion, of keeping your head pointing upstream. Heaven help us if we find easy reading inThe Imitation of Christ.”

My Antoniaby Willa Cather. Cather’sDeath Comes for the Archbishopis perhaps my favorite novel–I am, in fact, re-reading it now–andMy Antoniais thought to be Cather’s first masterpiece. In her characteristically economical yet luminous prose, Cather tells the story of a generation of Nebraska pioneers towards the end of the nineteenth century. Her narrative centers on two characters, Jim and Antonia, who grow up together on the still-wild but increasingly domesticated frontier. The novel famously contains no single, driving plot. Instead, Cather offers a series of tales about Jim, Antonia, and their families, friends, and fellow farmers and townspeople. The result is a mosaic picture of pioneer life, human nature, friendship, and the way in which memory binds us to other people and makes them present to us, even when time and space have conspired to separate us.

Dead Man’s Walkby Larry McMurtry. This prequel to the Pulitzer Prize winningLonesome Dovetells the story of the first days of Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae as Texas Rangers. Neither the two prequels nor the sequel toLonesome Dovecaptured the depth or operatic power of the original novel, but there is much inDead Man’s Walkto appreciate. It is a pleasure to see the characters of Call and McCrae take shape and to experience with them the wilder Texas of their younger years, only alluded to inLonesome Dove. The Comanche chief Buffalo Hump and the horse thief Kicking Wolf are formidable foes and epic characters in their own right. As with all the novels in this series, there are problematic references to prostitution and excessive violence. The character study of Call and McCrae, the depiction of their friendship, and their courage and resourcefulness in the face of unthinkably challenging circumstances, combine to make for a rousing and sometimes inspiring story of heroism in the Old West.

Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens.G.K. Chesterton describedGreat Expectationsas Dickens’s one novel without a hero. He also called the story an expression of cynicism by Dickens, but the mellow cynicism of later life, as opposed to the brutal cynicism that often characterizes young adulthood. Chesterton argues that all of Dickens’s novels could be entitledGreat Expectations, but the novel actually bearing this title is the only one in which great expectations fail to come to fruition. The story of Pip and Estella, Miss Havisham and Magwitch, Joe Gargery and Uncle Pumblechook is one of social class, thwarted love, pride, loss, and the futility of vengeance. Pip’s pride is overthrown once and for all in a scene that contrasts eloquently with the scene of Sydney Carton’s death inA Tale of Two Cities. Before being executed by guillotine, Carton foresees the gratitude of those who will benefit from his heroic act of self-sacrifice. He finds hope in calling to mind Our Lord’s words, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). At a moment towards the end of Great Expectations, when Pip believes he is soon to be murdered, he fears that no one will know of his contrition at having treated his loved ones badly. Yet he finds solace in the notion of making his own the prayer of the publican in Luke 18:13, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Fr. Charles Fox is an assistant professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit.

John Grondelski:

Three books caught my attention for what they had to say about marriage, parenthood, and the retreat from both. W. Bradford Wilcox, whose years of research on marriage trends in the Western world are worth pastoral attention, synthesizes a lot of those insights into a popular book whose advice is in its title:Get Married! Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.And after getting people to marry, getting them to have children is the next mountain to conquer. Timothy Carney’sFamily Unfriendly:How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be lists the many ways we put obstacles in the way.

As much as those two books are compatible with a Catholic worldview, reading them alongside Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman’sWhat Are Children For?was educational. Berg and Wiseman sympathize with today’s ethic of choice and “acceptance parenting,” giving insight into mindsets that discourage marriage and parenthood and insist women cannot risk motherhood without the guarantee of abortion-on-demand.

On social issues, Teresa Ghilarducci’sWork, Retire, Repeatposes a worthwhile central question: Is an economically secure retirement something worthwhile that people should have a right to? Much of that discussion focuses on questions of Social Security’s solvency, but underlying Ghilarducci’s argument is a Catholic insight: what’s more important, the fiscal security of Social Security/pension plans or people’s rights to an economically secure end-of-life at retirement?

To Die Well is a wonderfully balanced book about death and dying today from a Catholic perspective. Stephen Doran is a neurosurgeon and a Catholic deacon, so the book is equal parts clinical insight, legal and civil aspects of dying in America today, and the Catholic perspective on those subjects, including the proper pastoral care that should accompany them.

I am a vigorous advocate of parental rights and school choice in education. I’m happy to see more books like Corey De Angelis’sThe Parent Revolutionon the market. But my favorite this year was James Farney and Clark Banack’sFaith, Rights, and Choice, an academic book examining the legal status of schools in each of Canada’s provinces. Unlike the post-1947McCollum v. Board of EducationUnited States, where the federal judiciary erected a Berlin Wall of separation between schools and religion, Canada – without forfeiting its democratic credentials – never succumbed to such rigidity about religion in schools. Over the almost 160 years of Confederation, the focus of parental rights has moved from religious identity to multicultural rights to school choice, lessons Americans can learn from.

I always like to mention an old, often forgotten book that deserves revival. Renê Ludmann’s 1956Cinêma, foi, et morale(Éditions du Cerf) examined the influence of the then-emerging popularity of movies in France for their impact on moral values and religious faith. Ludmann does not blame the film industry but probes the very genre of moving visualization for its impact on religion, a topic worth considering mutatis mutandisregarding the phenomenon of online post-pandemic Mass streaming.

Finally, there are three new books that just arrived which I haven’t finished but generate favorable first impressions. Kudos to University of Notre Dame Press for the translation of Fr. Józef Tischner’sThe Philosophy of Drama, volume one of that important thinker’s trilogy about his dialogue, drama-centered philosophical anthropology. Liturgical Press just released the prolific Paul Turner’sSacred Times,a useful introduction to the 1969 reform of the Roman Calendar that is buttressed with insights into the history driving those changes. Where the author and I might disagree is my impression that his default seems to favor most of the liturgical astringencies that Calendar produced. Daniel Fitzpatrick’sRestoring the Lord’s Day treats the demise of Sunday (and its subsumption into the “weekend”) within broader cultural currents, while arguing we need to recover its centrality.

John M. Grondelski (Ph.D., Fordham) is former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.

Ronald L. Jelinek:

As 2024 began, the media circus joined leading feminists dismissing the complementarity of the sexes to insist that men could be women. In response, my Catholic men’s book club joyfully covered the theme of masculinity. Josh Hawley’sManhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needswas an obvious first choice. A clarion call for men to stand up and embrace their God-given responsibility as husbands, fathers and citizens, it’s a great read for men and women alike. We followed that up with Jordan Peterson’s12 Rules for Life. Though I had previously read this one, I enjoyed re-visiting it before seeing Peterson on tour last February. Amidst the chaos, he is a steady sage.

Next, at my father-in-law’s suggestion, I enjoyed Daniel James Brown’sBoys in the Boat. Forgotten but not forlorn, beaten up but not broken, Joe Rantz is a teenager without family or fortune who – against all odds – summons the grit to lead his crew team to Olympic victory over Hitler’s Germany. Around that same time, my wife gave me Jimmy Mitchell’sLet Beauty Speak: The Art of Being Human in a Culture of Noise. Mitchell’s personal story is compelling and his book is well-written and relatable, encouraging us to transform ourselves and our culture by following the examples of the saints. On that note,A Grand Slam for Godis a great read for Catholic baseball fans. Author and former college baseball star Burke Masters’ story is a heartwarming spin on the old adage, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.”

Those looking for great characters and surprising plot twists will find fun in Evelyn Waugh’sDecline and Fall. Oxford divinity student Paul Pennyfeather loses his trousers and leads us on a comical journey marked by a series of unfortunate events.

If you’re in the market for something business-related, check out Billy Busch’sFamily Reins. Readers follow the extraordinary rise and fall of the Anheuser-Busch dynasty in a book which reads like a paperback novel. Another is Richard Snow’sI Invented the Modern Age, which captures the genius of Henry Ford as an inventor and brand builder as well as his complexities as a father, husband and friend. Both books do an excellent job relaying the trials, tribulations, fortunes and misfortunes of two iconic American business families.

With one eye on our nation’s birthday and another on the upcoming election, my July 4th pick this year was Chris Buskirk’sAmerica and the Art of the Possible: Restoring National Vitality in an Age of Decay. A well-sourced recollection of America’s great innovations during the first half of the 20th century, it’s inspiring and hopeful.

My book club finished the second half of the year covering several Catholic classics. Myles Connelly’sDan England and the Noonday Devilfollows an unmarried, childless protagonist who ably reminds us that a healthy culture produces boys who want to grow up to be husbands and fathers.

It’s no surprise why Edwin O’Connor’sThe Edge of Sadnesswon the Pulitzer prize for literature in 1962; a portrayal of Catholic life in New England during the middle of the last century, it is a haunting story about the demands of the priesthood, the complexities of family life and God’s saving grace.Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishopis an episodic salute to the American southwest and an homage to the Church’s pioneering effort to spread the gospel.

We concluded our year reading Pope Benedict XVI’sSeeking God’s Face: Meditations for the Church Year. With special sections devoted to Advent and Christmas, it’s a beautiful gift for the season.

Happy Advent. Merry Christmas.

Ronald L. Jelinek, Ph.D. is a Professor of Marketing at Providence College. The opinions expressed here are his own.

Christopher Kaczor:

The older I get, the more I enjoy C.S. Lewis. I had occasion to revisit theScrewtape Letters,Miracles,Mere Christianityand theProblem of Pain. I also rereadThe Great Divorce, which reawakened awareness of the reality that not just Hitler but regular people like myself can choose Hell over Heaven.

In the spirit of Lewis is Thomas Ward’s new bookAfter Stoicism: The Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher. Ward’s work casts fresh light on Boethius’s classic workTheConsolation of Philosophy. Whoever suffers can benefit from Boethius’s experience and from Ward’s winsome and insightful reflections on The Consolation of Philosophy.

As I mentionedelsewhere, Edward Feser’s fantastic new bookImmortal Souls: A Treatise on Human Natureis essential reading for anyone interested in a non-reductive realist understanding of the human person. Feser pushes back on Hume, Descartes, Locke and more recent philosophers with panache and precision.

If you readonly one novel this year, make itBrideshead Revisited. I also read other classics includingLord of the World,The Great Gatsby,Death Comes to an Archbishop, andThe Power and the Glory.All these fall into the “should have been read years ago” category.

What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethicsby Carter Snead applies Alasdair MacIntyre’s critiques of enlightenment ethics and individualism to key topics in bioethics. Snead grounds discussion of vital issues in the reality of embodiment and human vulnerability eschewing the abstractions of autonomy and expressive individualism.

The recentRatzinger Prize winner Cyril O’Regankindly allowed me to audit his course at Notre Dame this semester on St. John Henry Newman. We discussed theApologia pro vita sua, theGrammar of Assent, and theEssay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Newman’sParochial and Plain Sermonschallenge my complacency.

In 1965,RalphMcInerny’sThomism in an Age of Renewalappeared. Ralph wrote, “If, in some small way, I can convince the well disposed but wary that their philosophizing has everything to gain but nothing to lose by going to Thomas, I will be more than content.” McInerny would be more than content at the renaissance of interest in Aquinas800 yearsafter his birth.

Made into a movie directed by Ron Howard, J.D. Vance’sHillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family in Culture in Crisisis the incredible true story of his childhood with a heroin addicted mother, revolving father figures, and poverty driven chaos. Given this background, you might expect Vance to be in prison rather than being elected Vice President of the United States.

Finally, although I haven’t finished reading it, Jordan Peterson’sWe Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divineis fantastic so far.

Dr. Christopher Kaczor (rhymes with razor) is the Honorary Professor for the Renewal of Catholic Intellectual Life at Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire Institute, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, and visiting fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame. His latest book isPraying Like St. Augustine: A Guided Prayer Journal.

James Kalb:

A scattering of things I read for various reasons:

Middlemarch, by George Eliot. A great and multi-leveled work, and one of the greatest English novels. She had an acute and undeceived but sympathetic eye for characters: their relationships, complexities, and choices good and bad. Her people are of all social classes and varieties of opinion, and their stories (there are multiple plots) are set in an English country town just before the Reform Act, and present a humane and persuasive account of the times.

Independent People, by Halldor Laxness. A novel about a complex and very difficult man, a poet in traditional Icelandic forms, who grew up near the bottom of Icelandic society and was fanatically determined to achieve independence as a farmer. His grudgingly admitted love for his putative daughter was both his undoing and his salvation.

Hillbilly Elegy, by J. D. Vance. A compelling account of growing up among hill people transplanted to an industrial Ohio town, with their humanity, idiosyncrasies, intense conflicts and loyalties, and frequent imprudent choices.

Works of Joseph de Maistre, notably the St. Petersburg Dialogues and the collection of major works recently published by Imperium Press. I’ve been reading these for a project, and the more I read the deeper and more complex and wide-ranging his thought seems, and the greater the difficulty of summarizing it or defining in advance where it might lead. Each piece was written in a setting and for a purpose, so you have to read more than one—and sometimes between the lines—to get a full sense of him as a thinker.

Intelligence in Danger of Death, by Marcel De Corte. A more straightforward figure, also classified as a Catholic reactionary. His attachment to Greek thought and a land-based pre-industrial, Catholic society can seem quixotic, but it allows him to mount a clear, powerful, and illuminating critique of our current world—notably its unreality, its scientism, and the role of utopian ideologies and the media in constructing reality itself.

James Kalb is an author lawyer, independent scholar, and Catholic convert who lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Julian Kwasniewski:

A onetime student of John Senior, Eric Brende recounts living with the Amish for 18 months in his fabulous bookBetter Off. Questioning whether labor-saving devices are really labor saving, he discovers that subsistence farming is hardly a backbreaking exercise. Instead, Eric determines that what is really backbreaking and labor creating is tending our machines. His conclusion might come as a surprise, however. One of the best books I’ve read on how to live (or not) in the modern world.

InThe Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs,British adventurer and explorer Tristan Gooley explains how to be a detective on every walk: from clouds and the smell of air to tire tracks and butterflies, Gooley teaches the reader how to navigate without a map or compass, predict the weather, locate favorable campsites, and discover copious amounts from one’s surroundings.

Braiding Sweetgrassis perhaps my favorite book of the year. Coming from a refreshingly intelligent non-Catholic perspective, scientist and Native American Robin Wall Kimmerer seeks to combine insights from indigenous wisdom with the modern scientific method. Deeply aware of the latter’s shortcomings, and its ties to materialistic consumerism, Kimmerer lyrically writes of indigenous gift economies, and the reverence it brought to relating to the natural world.

Julian Kwasniewskiis a musician specializing in renaissance Lute and vocal music, an artist and graphic designer, as well as marketing consultant for several Catholic companies.

Timothy D. Lusch:

Carl Olson has ever been a generous editor. He gets me a Christmas gift every year. You are reading it. The annual CWR list only deepens my ardent desire that Heaven is just a big library with no late fees. Heaven—whatever it consists of—didn’t seem to be the chief concern of the members ofThe St. Gallen Mafia: Exposing the Secret Reformist Group Within the Church, Julia Meloni’s terrific exposé of the cardinals and bishops who worked surreptitiously to elect one of their own to the Throne of St. Peter. It is expertly sourced, succinct, and well written. Skip the movie Conclave and read this book. The truth is more interesting than the fiction.

On the other hand, some fiction possesses truth of the mythic order and exceeds any realistic analogue. Ernst Jünger’sOn the Marble Cliffswas written on the dark eve of WWII, in the shadows of Hitler’s rise. But it is a book beyond time, concerning not merelyaculture, butculturein twilight before the rise of a newer, darker, and irreversible order. It is both deeply unsettling and captivating on nearly every page. It has resonated with me for months.

Regarding darkness of a different kind, David Grann’sThe White Darknessis the riveting story of Harry Worsley, the descendant of a member of Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, who attempted an unaided solo crossing of Antarctica. Whatever one thinks of the sanity of such an endeavor, one admires the man.

One also admires the men of Michael Korda’s searingMuse of Fire: World War I as Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets. Tracing the lives of Wilfred Owen, Alan Seeger, and Robert Graves—among others—through their experience of war and the poems it inspired, Korda captures something of the best of men at their worst. A pair of gorgeous companions—if such a word can be used to describe photographs of carnage—to Korda includes Fiona Waters’sA Corner of a Foreign Field: The Illustrated Poetry of the First World WarandThe First World War: Unseen Glass Plate Photographs of the Western Front, edited by Carl De Keyzer and David Van Reybrouck with a thought-provoking preface by Geoff Dyer. The images are arresting, haunting, and sobering reminders of the costs of war.

The costs of war were magnified in the Pacific Theater during WWII as brilliantly told by Ian Toll inPacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, the first volume of a trilogy. What Rick Atkinson did for the European Theater in hisLiberation Trilogy, Toll does for the war in the Pacific. It is narrative storytelling at its best.

Storytelling is not a word one sees much in architectural history, but Tom Wolfe simply couldn’t help himself in his thunderous and amusing takedown of the scions of modern architecture inFrom Bauhaus to Our House. Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe—among others—come in for a whooping from the twentieth-century’s greatest observer.

Lastly, as I approach fifty years of age, I’ve made a habit of reading more about death. That is, more specifically, books that help me prepare for my own. Thomas Á Kempis’sMeditations on Death: Preparing for Eternityis a hard-hitting little volume that sucks the arrogance and puffed-uppery right out of a man. It was the perfect book to get right-sized heading into the new year.

Timothy D. Lusch is an attorney and writer.

Daniel J. Mahoney

From Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century to Charles Péguy at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Pope Paul VI closer to home, the best Catholic wisdom has affirmed that the unique expertise of the Church lies in its ability to discern and articulate the “truth about man.” Today, progressives inside and outside of the Church wish to occlude that truth in the name of relevance, or a subjectivist understanding of conscience, or mercy divorced from justice and repentance (in most cases, all the above). Pope St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical The Splendor of Truth, recently republished in a lovely new edition by Word on Fire Publishing, provides an authoritative antidote to “certain tendencies in present-day moral theology,” and in moral philosophy more broadly, that distort the true meaning of human freedom. With lucidity and grace, John Paul II brilliantly demonstrates the intrinsic connection between truth and liberty and the directness of authentic freedom to excellence in all its forms. Against fashionable relativism and “proportionalism,” John Paul II does not hesitate to speak about “intrinsic evil” or an “objective moral order.” Most importantly, this landmark encyclical highlights the essential connection between the enduring moral law and faith in Jesus Christ, “the living, personal summation of perfect freedom in total obedience to the will of God.”The Splendor of the Truthis a gift to be cherished in this age of confusion.

Three recently published books by friends of mine contribute significantly to the task of restoring sanity in the moral, intellectual, and civic realms. The Catholic University of America political theorist David Walsh’s 2023 Aquinas Lecture at the University of Dallas, published asPerson Means Relationby the estimable St. Augustine’s Press, explores intimations of personalism, the recognition of the human person as “a whole of wholes” (in Jacques Maritain’s formulation) and all the implications that flow from that recognition, in the Trinitarian theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.

In another book published this year by St. Augustine’s,Public Philosophy and Patriotism: Essays on the Declaration and Us, Paul Seaton finds rich moral and civic resources for the sustenance of ordered liberty in the Declaration of Independence, a document too often reduced to an unremitting egalitarianism shorn of moral elevation or its undeniable theistic underpinnings. Seaton’s book is a rich and welcome illustration of what the late Harry V. Jaffa called “a scholarship of the politics of freedom.”

InThe Light of the Mind, Light of the World: Illuminating Science Through Faith(Regnery, 2024), Spencer A. Klavan deftly shows that the “quantum revolution” has helped explode the conceits underlying a still-regnant scientific materialism or reductive scientism. It is time, Klavan argues, to recognize and affirm the liberating truth that “the light of the mind” gives us access to a purposive order, a true cosmos that is neither pure necessity nor a mechanistic chain of causes with no place for the human mind or the God who is the Creator of a world we are made to know.

For a rare and enjoyable combination of lucid prose, discerning historical insight, and firm and measured moral and political judgment, see the articles, essays, and reviews collected in John O’Sullivan’sSleepwalking Into Wokeness: How We Got Here(Academica Press, 2024). Whether writing on the “cultural revolution” that is wokeness, the transformation of liberal democracy into an ideology that is neither liberal nor democratic, “the heroic age of conservatism,” or anti-totalitarian titans such as Cardinal Mindszenty, Robert Conquest, or Jeane Kirkpatrick, O’Sullivan instructs in an artful and humane way.

Lastly, let me recommend Sean McMeekin’s devastating dissection of the communist effort To Overthrow the World(Basic Books, 2024). As McMeekin shows with great learning and in lively prose in his account of “The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism” (in the words of the subtitle of the book, there is nothing remotely noble or humane in the effort to create an alternative reality at odds with the order of things that has been bequeathed to us. Tyranny, terror, coercion, and mendacity are the “effectual truth” of Communism in theory as well as practice. This is a lesson that must be passed on to new generations if civilized liberty is to endure.

Daniel J. Mahoney, Professor Emeritus at Assumption University and Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute

Joseph Martin:

Count me a fan of the impossibly prolix, compulsively readable Rod Dreher. HisLiving in Wonderdid it again. Also wonder-full was theIgnatius Catholic Study Bible. Twenty years in the making, the thing’s a beast. With a beauty of an intro essay by Jeffrey Morrow.

Although Rome “gave” the world the Bible, contemporary Catholic editions have for years stubbornly languished in a ghetto of second-rate production values. The arrival of Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Bible changes all that, instantly raising the bar on aesthetics.Volume IV: The Promised Landcontinues this project’s eye-popping excellence in typography and design. Hailed as a “cathedral in print,” it boasts gorgeous plates featuring Notre Dame’sRose du Midiand the likes of Laurits Tuxen and Washington Allston. And commentary marked by measured judgments, deference to tradition, and a discernibly devotional tone. With three more volumes promised, shall we call this series a godsend? Let’s.

In September, I was tasked at last minute with teaching an art history class. I thankfully found unexpected some allies: a nun I’d forgotten I even knew (Sister Wendy’sHistory of Painting), John Hendrix (Drawing is Magic),and Nicholas Day (The Mona Lisa Vanishes).

On media matters, two noteworthy Allens landed on my radar: Roland (The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper) and John (Catholics and Contempt). One compelled me to unplug; the other, to play nice.

I dusted off John Paul II’sCrossing the Threshold of Hope on its 30th anniversary and found a new appreciation for it with the passage of time. JPII called Latin ‘the splendid language,’ and I thought it paulum splendidummyself after perusing Maia Lee-Chin and Marta Bertello’sEt Cetera.

More:

Piers Paul Read’sHistory of the Catholic Church
G.K. Chesterton’sThe Paradoxes of Mr. Pond
Avi Steinberg’sLost World of the Book of Mormon
Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert
Coleman Hughes’The End of Race Politics
Musa al-Gharbi’sWe Have Never Been Woke
Edith Schaeffer’sCommon Sense Christian Living
Hilaire Belloc’sThe Modern Traveler
C.H. Spurgeon’sLetters and Travels

Also the vaults ofTouchstoneMagazine, were I found unlikely odes to an Okie pastor (Preston Jones’ “Pastor Prime,”) and a tuba (S. M. Hutchens’Out of the Depth“).

In the listening room, I finally got to hear previously unreleased tracks from some favorite artists: producer Michael Omartian’s rendition of Amy Grant’s “House of Love,and Jeff Buckley’s“Forget Her.”The highlight, though, was Sylvia’s“Knockin’ Around”(the mononymous singer from the 80s once sent me a handwritten Christmas card):“Words hang in the air as you wander about / But they’ll all burn away when the sun comes out.”I’d forgotten Nashville was ever that poetic.

Speaking of heydays, I got a kick out of Jonathan Jackson’s portrayal of Eddie DeGarmo inUnsung Hero. That film sent me back to revisit the artists on my shelf of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). Among these was another one-name wonder: Mandisa, the exuberant vocalist we lost this year: “I think of Mary and the virgin birth / And I’m amazed at how much God thinks we are worth / That He would send His only Son to die / And sometimes Christmas makes me cry.”Merry Christmas.

Joseph Martin is Associate Professor of Communication and Graphic Design at Montreat College.

Filip Mazurczak:

Two history books I read in 2024 deserve special mention. The first is Victor Sebestyen’sLenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror. This biography is eminently engrossing; rather than merely presenting Lenin as a monster, Sebestyen tries to understandwhatexactly made him. The author argues that the famous revolutionary was a reaction against the autocratic Tsarist regime. Paradoxically, however, many of the unsavory features of life under the hammer and sickle, such as censorship, the assassinations of political opponents (Lenin’s own brother Sasha himself was hanged for plotting to kill the tsar), and the exile of dissidents to Siberia, were merely extreme forms of practices endemic to Tsarist rule. As Russia’s criminal war of aggression against Ukraine approaches the three-year mark, reading Sebestyen’sLenincan lead to the depressing conclusion that perhaps only a miracle in the literal sense can eliminate Putinism, as authoritarianism and the wanton disrespect for human life have been constant features of Russian political culture throughout the centuries.

I also appreciated Alex J. Kay’sEmpire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killings. Nazi Germany’s intended genocide of every single Jewish man, woman, and child was a singular tragedy among Hitler’s many killing sprees. While we must remember this distinction, we cannot overlook the fact that the victims of the Holocaust accounted for slightly less than half of the 13 million non-combatants murdered by the Third Reich. By putting the Holocaust into a broader context of Nazi Germany’s genocidal misanthropy, however, Kay reminds us of many of the overlooked groups also targeted by Hitler, such as the Roma, Polish intelligentsia, Soviet POWs, or people with disabilities.

The Italian journalist Riccardo Orizio’sTalk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictatorswas fascinating. Orizio tracked down former autocrats of various ideological hues who were enjoying (because they experienced no consequences for their bloody rule and often lived comfortably, this seems an appropriate verb) their lives in retirement. They consented to be interviewed and were astoundingly frank. We learn, for example, that Ugandan dictator Idi Amin probably didn’t feast on human flesh, as popular rumor had it, but his paranoid cruelty makes the existence of such legends comprehensible. Orizio probed Polish communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski to explain the strange paradox why he, born into an aristocratic family, educated by Catholic priests, and deported to Siberia by the NKVD during World War II, would become, in the words of Caspar Weinberger, “a Soviet general in a Polish uniform.” While Haiti is famously the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, its ousted dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier came to his interview with Orizio in a BMW, his wife having just gone shopping in Paris’ poshest shops.

I loved Thomas Merton’sThe Seven Storey Mountain. Like St. Augustine, this Ivy-educated wordsmith, raised with little religious background (his father, in fact, was virulently anti-Catholic), was restless until his soul rested in God; he eventually became Catholic and entered a strict Trappist monastery in Kentucky. Filled with erudite references to literature and philosophy, Merton’s memoir traces his spiritual journey in an unputdownable way. I appreciated Merton’s convincing responses to timeless difficult questions of faith, such as those of hell (Merton writes that no one is forced to go to hell; God simply “ratif[ies] the decision” of those who have rejected Him) or theodicy (he notes that it is only thanks to the “merciful love of God, pouring out His grace upon us” that despite centuries of war and hatred humanity continually produces “men and women who overcome evil with good, hatred with love, greed with charity, lust and cruelty with sanctity”).

Filip Mazurczakis a journalist, translator, and historian.

Fr. R. McTeigue, S.J.:

It was very difficult to make even a modest selection of books I read in 2024 that could qualify for a list of “Best of…” In my experience, at least when it comes to books, “Best” can mean so many things. I settled on two criteria for inclusion on this list. First, books I wanted to remember because of their uplifting beauty. Second, books I wanted to remember because of their disturbing information, such that I needed to adjust my worldview, my conscience, my priorities and my behavior.

In the first category:

On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology(Saint Bonaventure) I had never read much of Saint Bonaventure, even when I was in school, but this little work helped me to understand why he is called “the Seraphic Doctor.” It is sublime in its beauty, its order, its depth, its simplicity. It may be hard nowadays to imagine a book of philosophy that one would want to read in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, but this is such a book. I could teach a course and preach a retreat based on this little gem.

The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien) Among some Tolkien fans, this massive work sometimes elicits quips such as, “This is Tolkien working out Elven theology, if the Elves were Neo-Platonists.” That may be true, but it’s also not fair. This collection of stories is a grand display of a master storyteller and world builder practicing his craft. Even if one has no interest inThe HobbitorLord of the Rings(Heaven forefend!), one would do well to sit down and let Tolkien cast his spell upon you.

In the second category:

The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry(Wendell Berry, edited by Paul Kingsnorth) I came to Berry through Kingsnorth. I’ve not read much of Kingsnorth’s written work, but his many interviews and lectures are fascinating. Kingsnorth is Berry’s heir apparent. As someone who spent most of his life in cities, I read Berry’s essays, alternating between longing and grimacing. I longed for his reverence and appreciation for nature and the cycle of life and death. I grimaced as he helped me to see how unhealthy and destructive thoughtless urbanization can be.

Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way (Derrick Jensen, et al.) This book was recommended by Kingsnorth in one of his lectures. It is a most disturbing book. Even if one puts parentheses around the controverted issues of “climate change/carbon emissions/methane” (as I do), the books evidence for just about everything else regarding the “Green Energy” movement is beyond dispute. The authors document what is done to mine lithium and then process the results into batteries. They document what is necessary to build wind turbines, dams and the like. Even if these forms of energy generation were as efficient as we would need them to be (and they’re not and they can’t be), it is beyond dispute that the manufacture and maintenance of these devices constitute environmental horrors of their own. The “Bright Green Lie” is that if we just repudiate fossil fuels and “go Green”, then we can maintain our present way of life without significant changes. This book shows that such a claim is demonstrably false.

Honorable mentions:The Trial of Julian Assange(Melzer, Richards, et al.);One Nation, Under Blackmail, Vol. 1(Whitney Alyse Webb);No God Next Door: Red Rule in Mexico and Our Responsibility(Michael Kenney, S.J.);The Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism(Denis Fahey);Good Music, Sacred Music and Silence(Peter Kwasniewski);Just Stab Me Now(Jill Bearup)

Fr Robert McTeigue, SJ,is a member of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus and professor of philosophy and theology.

Sandra Miesel:

Non-fiction:

Lost Mirrors: Jews and Conversos in Medieval Spain. (2024). Watch Jew-hatred coalesce in a once more tolerant society in this unusual exhibition catalog co- sponsored by the Prado and the National Museum of Catalonia. I reviewed it here.

Red Dreher, Living in Wonder: Finding Enchantment and Meaning in a Secular Age. A thoughtful observer of social trends’ spiritual aspects, Dreher examines our world’s sad disenchantment and suggests remedies. I reviewed it here.

Thomas P. Hillman, Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many. (2023). This deep and sensitive analysis is one of the finest works of Tolkien criticism I’ve ever read.

Jenny Uglow, A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration. (2009). The Merry Monarch plays the mixed hand dealt him in this lively and sympathetic biography, packed with contemporary quotes and Illustrations.

Fiction:

Lois Lowry, the Giver Quartet: The Giver (1993), Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004), Son (2012). Despite the absence of sex and bad language, Lowry’s Newbery Award winning The Giver was one of the most challenged books of its time. It presents a dystopia of enforced Niceness more horrifying than overt cruelty. What initially seems a work of post-apocalyptic science fiction turns more fantastic as the series unfolds. The quartet demonstrates that humans cannot flourish without interconnection, but sacrifice is inescapable when people love. Adult as well as young readers can appreciate the beauty and subtlety of Lowry’s writing. These are books for families to discuss together.

Manly Wade Wellman, John the Balladeer. (2023). David Drake, Old Nathan. 2nd ed. (2013). This collection is the latest packaging of beloved stories originally published 1951-87. Wellman’s gracious wandering hero totes his silver-stringed guitar around the mountains of North Carolina where old time mystery and magic linger. After Wellman’s death in 1986, his friend and executor David Drake created a darker mirror image of John. Although his crotchety Old Nathan, Revolutionary War veteran and Tennessee “cunning man,” calls himself the Devil’s Master, his adventures trace an arc of personal redemption.

Sandra Miesel is an American medievalist and writer.

J.C. Miller:

I read some truly outstanding books in 2024. Harrison Scott Key’sHow to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Toldinfuriated me; you should definitely read it. You’ll see glowingreviewsof this book from serious literary critics. While I certainly laughed at the humor, many parts of the book just made me angry. This is the only book that prompted me to both pray for and send a note to the author. It’s a brutal, intriguing, and important story about marriage, adultery, and restoration. Even if you have my hostile reaction to it, you’ll find that it’s a book you must talk about.

John J. Bursch’sLoving God’s Children: The Church and Gender Ideologyexceeded my expectations. Mr. Bursch is one of the top attorneys in the country and has litigated the most important contemporary gender ideology issues. The topic is not of particular interest to me; I understand that it’s important, but I wish it were not even necessary to write books on this. Bursch’s book goes beyond his acute legal understanding and addresses issues more broadly, including biological development.

If you’re a fan of the RSV translation of the Bible, or otherwise a book nerd, I recommendBible: The Story of the King James Versionby Gordon Campbell. I’ve always appreciated the King James Version (that’s thestandard versionthat the RSV isrevisedfrom) and as a Catholic convert, I favor the RSV. Campbell’s Bibleprovides the history of the book, including noting with irony that the anti-Catholic KJV would evolve into a popular RSV-Catholic Edition Bible. I particularly enjoyed learning about the process used for the translation, which helps me to understand why I appreciate the rhythm and beauty of it so much. I’ll always prefer “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” over the NAB’s “when I walk through a dark valley.” Now I know why.

In general, I don’t read politicians’ books. I understood that JD Vance became a politician because he wrote a book as opposed to the typical vapid, ghost written, self-promotingbookfor a would-be national politician. A friend recommended Vance’sHillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, and I’m thankful he did. This is a thought-provoking, well written, and interesting book—not typical for a politician.

I re-read a number of short, good books from my youth to finish a local library challenge. Corrie Ten Boom’sThe Hiding Placewas interesting as a teen but amazing as an adult. Ten Boom hid Jews and ended up in a Nazi concentration camp. The bare facts are interesting, but the real story is about her (Dutch Calvinist) faith and her saintly sister, who experienced a gradual thinning of the veil between Heaven and Earth and embraced suffering and love in ways that defy explanation. The Protestant author lacks the proper vocabulary to even describe some of the transformation she witnessed, but I think Catholic readers will have a richer understanding. I first read this in public school; I doubt they do that anymore. I also re-read Ray Bradbury’sFahrenheit 451. I remembered the main plot: in the dystopian future, firemen burn books since homes are fireproof. I forgot the other social commentary (abortion, divorce, youth violence) that was actually more interesting to me now than when I first read it as a teenager. I also noticed that Bradbury seemed to completely fail to guess the massive inflation of the last seven decades.

J.C. Milleris a husband, father of six, and attorney who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Monica Migliorino Miller:

The Town that Started the Civil War, Nat Brandt, Syracuse University Press, 1990

This is a fast-paced historical narrative regarding how the residents of the small town of Oberlin, Ohio hid John Price, a runaway slave from Kentucky, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850. This is a fascinating story of human beings following their consciences, consciences formed by Christian principles of love of neighbor and in obedience to a Higher Law—and of those who sacrificed themselves for the sake of justice. While this drama begins in the year 1858, the defiance of an unjust law, the arrests of the “rescuers”, their court trials and their jail terms have a contemporary parallel. Brandt notes this in the book’s preface: “This is a story about courage—about physical courage, and moral courage. About citizens of a small town … living and working side by side in unusual harmony. … Some experienced slavery firsthand, some could only imagine what it was like. Yet, when a relative newcomer, an escaped slave was trapped and spirited away, they left their shops, their homes, their classrooms without hesitation, without regard for consequences, to rescue a man whom most of them did not even know.”

This is a story with contemporary parallels. The clash between the law of the land and an individual’s conscience, between what a government decrees and what those in Oberlin believed to be ‘Higher Law,’ the law of God, which continues into our own time.”

As an example, Brandt refers to the Sanctuary movement in which “Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen and lay workers shield Central American victims of oppression from deportation.”

Well, perhaps an even more fitting parallel are the pro-lifers who are willing to defy laws that protect the abortion practice—those pro-life rescuers, some of whom are in federal prison right now for defending the unborn from being put to death in our nation’s abortion centers. Those who hid James Price are even called “rescuers.” It is indeed uncanny how the experience of those who participate in pro-life rescues so closely matches the rescuers of Oberlin. As the Oberlin rescuers were “unabashed” at their breaking unjust laws—so are pro-life rescuers who, like their Oberlin forebears “carry themselves as if they felt that their case was well made with conscience, and the Higher Law, however it might stand with human enactments and human tribunals.” As the 1858 rescuers did not expect a fair trial—neither do pro-lifers. As the 1858 rescuers defied court rules and openly called for justice, and even asked for a kind of “defense of others”—citing the injustices slaves must endure—pro-life defendants also follow the same course. And, as many of the Oberlin rescuers did not even know John Price, pro-life rescuers certainly do not know the unborn for whom they perform an act of defense. And as one Oberlin rescuer stated for the sake of their cause: “To do it, we must make sacrifices—go to prison.”

Ironically, this book was given to me by pro-lifer Heather Idoni, currently imprisoned for a 2020 rescue in which she participated at the Washington D.C. Surgi-Center where the unborn are killed even into the third trimester. The parallels of Oberlin are certainly not lost on her.

Brandt’s book is well-written, meticulously researched, loaded with detail, replete with many photos. A story about people taking a stand to do what is right.

Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D. is the director of Citizens for a pro-Life Society, has participated in several pro-life rescues dating back to 1978, is the author ofAbandoned—The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars, St. Benedict Press/Tan books, 2012 and is Adjunct Professor of Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit.

Ines A. Murzaku:

Congratulations toCatholic World Reportfor two decades of publishing the always-much-anticipated “Best Book I Read” series—and for consistently guiding readers toward the best of Catholic publishing. It is an inspiring exercise, particularly as we light the candles of the Advent wreath and start the journey through this joyful season.

This year, alongside my ongoing research on the “revolutions” of St. Mother Teresa, I researched the rich and evolving world of Catholic education. I explored its challenges, celebrated its achievements, and pondered its future trajectory. Among the standout reads in this field were:

  • Heft, J. L. (2021):The Future of Catholic Higher Education(Kindle ed.). Oxford University Press
  • Gleason, P. (1995):Contending with Modernity: Catholic Higher Education in the Twentieth Century. Oxford
  • Lukianoff, G., & Haidt, J. (2019):The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. Penguin
  • Morey, M., & Pederit, J. (2010):Catholic Higher Education: A Culture in Crisis. Oxford

For those with a soft spot for immigration memoirs—particularly nonfiction hailing from the former Yugoslavia—Dreaming from the Trunk of an American Car(Manhattan Book Group 2024) by Dr. Pashko R. Camaj is a treasure. Dr. Camaj’s deeply personal narrative spans his childhood to his present-day life, intricately woven with stories passed down by his late parents and encounters with fascinating individuals along the way. It’s heartfelt, poignant, and engaging.

Now, for an early treat from the publishing pipeline! Coming in 2025, the Catholic University of America will unveil a new series sure to delight every Greek, Byzantine, and Eastern Catholic enthusiast—Eastern Catholic Studies and Texts. The inaugural volume,Eastern Catholic Theology in Action: Essays in Liturgy, Ecclesiology, and Ecumenism, edited by Andrew J. Summerson and Cyril Kennedy, is a masterpiece in the making. I had the privilege of being one of the presenters of this work at the AAR/SBL annual meeting in San Diego in November, an event crowned by vespers celebrated by the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle.

Dedicated to the Very Rev. Dr. Peter Galadza—celebrated as “a catalyst for the cause of Eastern Catholic Theology: Priest, Father, Mentor, Friend”—this series promises to be a game-changer. It provides a long-overdue platform for Eastern Catholic theologians in the US to share their perspectives, shining a spotlight on the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches and amplifying voices often overlooked in academic and ecclesiastical circles. If this first volume is any indication, we are on the verge of an extraordinary era for Eastern Catholic scholarship.

In sum, what a year for rich literary discoveries and exciting glimpses into what lies ahead! Keep your bookshelves ready, your hearts open, and your Advent candles lit!

Ines A. Murzaku is professor of Church history and director of the Catholic Studies Program at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Eleanor Nicholson:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.I’d valued this book, without considering it one of my favorite Dickens novels. I also have long held concerns about the teachability of this book in a course geared to high school students. As I prepared to teach it this past year, however, I found it even more moving and profound than I had remembered. The contrast between cruel historical Fate and the incarnational operation of Grace struck me in a new way. I (and my high school students, who went away professed Lovers of Boz) wept together over many passages.

To Crown With Liberty by Karen Ullo.I had the honor of reading this in manuscript form. Ullo, whom I consider one of the greatest of our living Catholic novelists (and one of our most insightful editors too), has achieved something remarkable here in her integration of personal narrative with a gripping historical setting. In addition to providing me with a thrilling read, this novel helped me in my preparation for teachingA Tale of Two Cities.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.I re-read this book for about the hundredth time in the process of editing it for an upcoming Ignatius Critical Edition. I have a deep affection for it as the second Dickens novel I read in my life and the first one I loved (paceGreat Expectations, which infuriated my eleven-year-old soul).Young David may not be sure that he is the hero of his own story, but he has spoken to me heroically at every stage of my life.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.Introducing my favorite novels to our children is one of the golden experiences of homeschooling. This year, after readingPride and PrejudiceandSense and Sensibilitywith our eldest two, we readNorthangertogether. This represented a special opportunity to repair a difficult reading experience of my youth: Because I had little knowledge of the Gothic tradition when I first read this novel, I felt as if I were in the company of people much cleverer than I, making hilarious jokes that I could not appreciate because I lacked sufficient knowledge. Thus, I felt honor-bound to subject my daughters to many lengthy lectures on early Gothic novels, in addition to the lectures on Aristotelian moral theology, which inevitably arise when reading Austen. (The girls did enjoy the novel in spite of me, and now know how properly to judge John Thorpe’s “review” of Matthew Gregory Lewis’ The Monk.)

Between teaching, homeschooling, and months of all-day “morning sickness”, I once again sought consolation in murder mysteries. This year, two series deserve special mention:

TheCharlie Channovels by Earl Derr Biggers(strongly recommended by novelist T. M. Doran). I was startled to realize that, despite careful study of the Sidney Toler adaptations thirty-plus years ago, I had not actuallyread the novels. As I worked to remedy this sin of omission, I was delighted to find how entertaining and well-written they are. The cultural nuances are truly splendid.

The Albert Campion novels by Margery Allingham.I attempted a stroll through Ellery Queen but found my brain was too fizzled to follow the clues. One of the Queens of Mystery Fiction, Allingham is very much in the “marvel at the beauty of the prose, but don’t worry too much about solving the mystery” tradition—just what the doctor ordered for 2024.

Eleanor Bourg Nicholson is a novelist, scholar, literature instructor for Homeschool Connections, and a homeschooling mother of many.

Carl E. Olson:

As always, I will forego mentioning any Ignatius Press books, while noting that there were many, and all were excellent.

Two of my favorite books of the past year featured winning and impressive combinations of theological insight, patristics, and spiritual depth. Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses, by Norwegian bishop and Trappist monk Erik Varden, is (to borrow from my review), “Rich with wisdom and deeply challenging … a book for everyone, a relatively short but robust reflection on essential truths, rendered with serenity and hope.” The Nicene Creed, by Jared Ortiz and Daniel A. Keating, is an excellent book that (again, borrowing from my review) “shed[s] light on the great symbol of faith … in a way that is both intellectually rewarding and spiritually edifying.”

T.S. Eliot: Culture and Anarchy by James Matthew Wilson is a short but powerful monograph filled with many keen insights. And Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds, Wilson’s fourth collection of poetry, demonstrates anew why he is rightly praised as the leading poet of his generation. Speaking of poetry, don’t miss Dana Gioia’s new collection, Poetry As Enchantment and Other Essays, which covers much ground with clarity, charm, and warmth.

The Queering of the American Child: How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids by Logan Lancing is not easy reading, but it is necessary reading for anyone seeking unvarnished and relentlessly documented facts about queer has been conquering public education for some thirty years. While that book comes at the current chaos from a secular perspective, R.J. Snell’s Lost in the Chaos: Immanence, Despair, Hope is a razor-sharp tour de force that draws deeply on Chesterton, Benedict XVI, Charles Taylor, and others in addressing the metaphysical, spiritual, and cultural crises of the current age. Meanwhile, Tracey Rowland’s Unconformed to the Age: Essays in Catholic Ecclesiology is a beautifully written, Ratzinger-ian contemplation of ecclesiology that does not shy away from pointed observations about numerous problems within the Church today.

On an artistic note, the 1998 volume Wondrous Strange: The Wyeth Tradition traces the (very real and sometimes strange) visual lineage of Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth, with many wonderful, full-colored reproductions. The 1969 study The Brandywine Tradition, by Henry C. Pitz, offers much more history, context, and detail while expanding the circles of artists connected to the eastern Pennsylvania region.

Finally, three books that I have not yet finished but deserve to be mentioned. First, Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s Commentary on the Book of Isaiah, which balances scholarly mastery with inviting accessibility. I am using it in teaching a Bible study in my parish, and it can only be topped by classes with Fr. Pacwa himself—which I had the pleasure of enjoying during my MTS studies with him in the late 1990s. Secondly, Brante Pitre’s Jesus and the Divine Christology is another notable achievement from an exceptional New Testament scholar, the graduate level version of sorts of his popular The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ. Thirdly, The Oxford Handbook of Deification, edited by Paul L. Gavrilyuk, Andrew Hofer, O.P., and Matthew Levering, is a staggering and exciting achievement: a 740-page volume featuring 44 essays by an impressive array of Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant scholars.

Jared Ortiz:

It took me seven months, but I finishedJohn Fosse’sSeptology. A mystical series of novels about the “shining darkness” of God who is both near and far, outside and inside everything, above us and closer to us than we are to ourselves. Not a page turner and, in fact, all 667 pages are one long uninterrupted sentence (well, perhaps they break at the end of each novel when the character seems to fall asleep), but it is beautiful and when I finished it late one night, I couldn’t sleep for several hours.Also, the book is a rather striking meditation on time and themeaning of our ‘younger selves’ and how they live on and within and alongside us. Anyway, for the right reader, this book by a Catholic convert and Nobel Prize winner is a must.

Like her other novels, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson’sWake of Malicewas just a delight to read and taught me about little-known bits of Catholic history, like the Pope in the 19th century giving the Dominicans authority to deal with vampires, the Franciscans with werewolves, and the Jesuits with leprechauns, especially zombie leprechauns (though the Jesuits have generally fallen down on the job). Within a rolicking good story, we also get many fine Thomistic discourses on the monsters of horror and a very sweet romance plot!

Perhaps the most moving book of the year wasHarrison Scott Key’s How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told.After fifteen years of marriage, Key discovers his wife is having an affair with their neighbor. Instead of killing him and divorcing her, Key decides to fight for his wife. He learns to die to himself and pursue her even while forgiving her ongoing infidelity until God reconciles them in the most remarkable manner. The book is gut-wrenching as well as laugh-out-loud funny. I sobbed more than once. It is a truly remarkable story of God’s grace in the key of Flannery O’Connor. It made me want and try to be a better husband.

My spiritual reading has been very beautiful this year and included two books byBishop Erik Varden(who has my vote for next pope),The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian RemembranceandChastity: Reconciliation of the Senses, both of which are profound and compelling meditations on the Christian life. Both weave together reflection on Scripture, literature, music, culture, language, and tradition in a learned and beautiful way. Bishop Varden makes Christianity credible. I am currently reading Louis Bouyer’sThe Meaning of Monastic Life, a book which has led me deeper inside the inner logic of the Christian life in really surprising ways.

Dr. Jared Ortizis Professor of Religion at Hope College and author ofYou Made Us for Yourself: Creation in St Augustine’s Confessions(Fortress Press, 2016).

Rhonda Ortiz:

I began the year in the late Georgian era withBelindaby Maria Edgeworth. This lesser-known classic earns a mention in Jane Austen’s famous defense of the novel: “‘Oh! it is only a novel!’… ‘It is onlyCecilia, orCamilla, orBelinda;’ or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed.” Very true. While I found the title character too proper for likeability—Belinda’s rationalistic morality would have been more interesting had she been an actual saint—the cast was colorful, and the plot was not at all what I expected.

AfterBelinda, rereading the Austen corpus seemed fitting. I managed three this year:Persuasion(Austen’s love letter to the Royal Navy; pairs well with Patrick O’Brian),Pride and Prejudice(Mr. Darcy is tolerable, I suppose, but still not handsome enough to tempt me), andSense and Sensibility(you needed a developmental editor for this one, Jane). And Julia Yost’sJane Austen’s Darknessmade for good supplemental reading.

Not yet tired of the Regency period, I read Patrick O’Brian’sDesolation Island(“My God, oh my God … six hundred men”) and Elizabeth Grant’s finely drawn romantic psychological drama,An Independent Heart. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Karen Ullo’sTo Crown with Liberty,set between revolutionary France and Spanish Louisiana (CWR review here). From there, I jumped to 1897 Philadelphia with Erica Colahan’s moving debut,The Oystercatcher of Southwark, then onward to Russia with Amor Towles’sA Gentleman in Moscow(how can a purgatorial tale be so charming?) and Eugene Vodolazkin’sLaurus(a modern classic, and very Russian—epic, paradoxical, deeply religious, and, yes, the protagonist dies in the end). Another highlight worth mentioning: J.R.R. Tolkien’sLeaf by Nigglemade for a great book club conversation.

2024 was also ripe for fictional murder, beginning with theFather Gabrielseriesby Fiorella de Maria. (I interviewed Fiorella in June behalfof CWR.) Then murder took a preternatural and Irish turn with Eleanor Bourg Nicholson’sWake of Malice.As summer wore on and my husband and I grew desperate for school to begin, we took refuge in Agatha Christie:The A.B.C. Murders, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, Appointment with Death, Crooked House, Remembered Death,andMurder in Retrospect. The last time I binge read Christie, I was nine months pregnant. At that precarious juncture, I craved novels that were analytical (because I was emotional) and made no demands (because I was heavy laden). That my imagination turns to murder in times of stressful anticipation is disconcerting but consistent.

On to nonfiction: I read Fr. Paul Murray, OP’s insightfulPreachers at Prayerwith my lay Dominican fraternity. Abigail Favale’sThe Genesis of Genderwas both helpful and engaging. Cassandra Nelson’sA Theology of Fictionis worth consideration. And fellow history buffs will appreciate Mark Peterson’sThe City-State of Boston.

Finally:Meet Me at the Lighthouse, a collection of poems by Dana Gioia, former poet laureate of California. I had the pleasure of hearing Dana speak at the recent Catholic Imagination Conference, and when he read “Psalm for Our Lady Queen of the Angels,” about Los Angeles’s lost identity, I wept. Now, I’m a native Oregonian who grew up at a time when the wordCaliforniancouldn’t be uttered without spewing venom. That I felt nostalgic for old Los Angeles, of all places—it says something about the poem and the poet. AddMeet Me at the Lighthouseto your library. You won’t regret it.

Rhonda Ortiz is a novelist, a founding editor of Chrism Press, and editor-in-chief of Dappled Things. Find her online at rhondaortiz.com.

William L. Patenaude:

Much of 2024 was sufficiently unsettling that my reading fell generally into two groups: books that helped me better understand history and books that helped me frame or escape from current events.

In the former, two titles made the greatest impression. One wasUlysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversityby Brooks D. Simpson (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000). Simpson succeeds where many biographers don’t. He allows the truth to speak for itself without the subject’s aggrandizement or demonization.

In the Church history department, I enjoyedThe Lord as Their Portion: The Story of the Religious Orders and How They Shaped Our Worldby Elizabeth Rapley (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011). Here again, Rapley offers facts without signaling any particular narrative, other than the bare truth of what we owe generations of religious men and women.

Two fictional works also make my 2024 list because they achieve a goal dear to my heart: presenting the Gospel through the art of storytelling.

Having watched and enjoyed Amazon Prime Video’s seriesThe Rings of Power, I wanted to go back and reread J. R. R. Tolkien’sThe Silmarillion,which serves as Tolkien’s Book of Genesis as well as a primer on the early history of Middle Earth. I first read this text as a young man who had divorced himself from the Church. Reading it again this summer, having returned to the faith many years ago now, I was delighted to find what everyone else seemed to know: that the Catholic flame burns brightly in this fictional work. Amazing stuff, especially the book’s creation account.

A more recent work by journalist Michael Gryboski,The Enigma of Father Vera Daniel(Ambassador International, 2022) was really quite enjoyable. Set within a fictional version of revolutionary France, Gryboski’s tale presents the priesthood—and the Catholic faith in general—as, you guessed it, an enigma to those who insist on this or that political placement of Catholicism.

Last, I can never stray too far from my hero, Pope Benedict XVI. One book in particular is a go-to for me when the world has my head spinning. Written decades before his pontificate,Faith and the Future(Ignatius Press, 1971) is a tremendously comforting, challenging, and prescient work.

I’ll end with some of Ratzinger’s final words in this highly recommended little work: “But in all of the changes at which one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world.” (pg. 117).

William L. Patenaude MA, KHS has a master’s degree in theology, is a mechanical engineer, and is the author of the novelA Printer’s Choice.

Joseph Pearce:

I read books vocationally and recreationally. The former I read while following my vocation as a writer, teacher and editor; the latter are books that I read for the pure pleasure of the exercise. Since, however, there is also much pleasure to be gained in vocational reading, I’m going to include and begin with those books that I’ve read or reread vocationally.

I’ve co-taught two courses this year at Ave Maria University with Father Fessio. For the course on Chesterton, we readOrthodoxyandThe Man Who was Thursday, and for our course on Lewis and Tolkien we readMiraclesby the former andTree and Leafby the latter. It’s always good to have a reason or an excuse to return to these classic works by three of my favourite writers.

I’m currently teaching three online courses, each of which offers the opportunity to return to classic literature. In a course on “Poems Every Catholic Should Know” for Homeschool Connections, we’re reading the anthology of Christian verse of that title, which I had the honour of compiling. In the online course for the newly-founded Rosary College on “Classical Epic and Tragedy”, we’re readingThe Iliad,The Odyssey, Sophocles’Three Theban PlaysandThe Aeneid. Finally, for the graduate course on Shakespeare for Memoria College, we’ve read no fewer than twelve of the Bard’s plays, including all seven of the plays published in the Ignatius Critical Editions:Romeo and Juliet,The Merchant of Venice,Julius Caesar,Hamlet,Othello,King LearandMacbeth.

The weekly FORMED Book Club that I record with Father Fessio and Vivian Dudro of Ignatius Press offers the opportunity to read and discuss some truly wonderful books. The best of all the books we’ve read this year, me judice, isThe Drama of Atheist Humanismby Henri de Lubac.

In the “Poem of the Week” podcast which I record for the Inner Sanctum of my personal website, I’m reading selections fromThe Oxford Anthology of English Poetry, the two volumes of which cover the four centuries from Edmund Spenser to Seamus Heaney.

This brings us to this year’s recreational reading which has largely been devoted to the reading of contemporary Catholic fiction. I’ve read far more than I can mention but the highlights includeDying for Revengeby Barbara Golder,If You Can Get Itby Brendan Hodge,Wake of Maliceby Eleanor Bourg Nicolson,We’ll Never Tell Themby Fiorella de Maria andThe Beast of Bethulia Parkby S. P. Caldwell. I’ve also discovered some little-known Catholic fiction from the mid-twentieth century, recently resurrected and republished:The Mass of Brother Michelby Michael Kent andThe Strangerby Malachy Carroll.

Lighter reading by better known writers has includedArtists in Crimeby Ngaio Marsh andForsake the Skyby Tim Powers. Heavier fare of note includedShakespeare: The Magician and the Healerby Annie-Paule de Prinsac andFlannery O’Connor’sWhy Do the Heathens Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progressby Jessica Hooten Wilson.

Finally, succumbing to a serious bout of bibliophilia, I must mentionRasselasby Samuel Johnson, which I’m presently reading in an edition published in 1819. It’s like reading in the company of the ghosts who had previously turned its pages. Printed in the year in which Sir Walter Scott’sIvanhoeand Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” were first published, to say nothing of new volumes of verse by Byron, Shelley and Keats, this antique tome is as much a joy to handle as it is to read.

Joseph Pearceis the author of numerous literary studies, includingLiterary Converts,The Quest for Shakespeare, andShakespeare on Love, as well as biographies on Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He is the general editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions series.

Andrew Petiprin:

One of the highlights of 2024 for me has been getting to know the novelist and critic Joshua Hren, whospoke to me on camerain October about his new bookBlue Walls Falling Down. Our strange times need more and better novels to help us discern reality, and to that end, what Hren calls “contemplative realism” is on full display in this book, his second novel. It is a rich story about childbirth, race relations, and the forgotten people and places of America, where Hren helps us find solid metaphysical ground from which to espy our perilous surroundings. The book’s protagonist, Stella Tesknota, is in the same place where a lot of us find ourselves after pandemics and politics – that is, in a terrible state of longing.Blue Walls Falling Downdelivers moments of consolation along with several major shocks, as the best novels do.

A great novel I read too casually as a teenager and have re-read with rapt attention in 2024 isBilliards at Half-Past Nineby the 1972 Nobel Prize-winner, Heinrich Böll. Looking through the eyes of several narrators, we see the devastation of one twentieth-century German family, represented by three generations of architects. One man built something great, the next man destroyed it, and the last is paralyzed by the past. Amid the ruins, does one attempt to rebuild the old or start completely from scratch?

Instead of the sprawling, cinematic epic it could have been,Billiardsis set during one day in the city of Köln in 1958, when the acrid smell of Nazism had not come close to dissipating. In what may be his best of many great works, Böll draws us deep into the absurdity of life amid the banality of evil, conveying a warranted cynicism about authority and the future of the West. And although Böll was a man of the Left, this book imparts the traditional view that the dead are alive in us; but also, they are dead in us. In this world, an arbitrary daily routine may be one’s best hope of carrying on.

As host of theIgnatius Press podcast,it continues to be a privilege to read a wide array of excellent new non-fiction books, written by interesting people I get to interview in depth. Among my favorites this year are two works by women. Abigail Favale’s spiritual memoirInto the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversionis a riveting read. As a former Protestant like Favale,I related to her journeyfrom Evangelical purity culture to secular intellectualism to a reluctant surrender to the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church. She writes, “this is not a sudden exclamation, as from brushing against a hot stove. This is the drawn-out utterance of someone facing an awful, hitherto hidden truth.”

I was also deeply grateful for my first encounter with Ida Friederike Görres, whose illuminating twentieth-century study of John Henry Newman calledA Life Sacrificedhas recently appeared in an English translation by Jennifer S. Bryson.In an episode of the podcast, Bryson told me to expect much more from the largely unknown (to me) German-speaking Newman appreciators, including more translations of Görres’ work.

Finally, I have enjoyed a close read of a book I have until now merely dipped into. Marek Haltof’sPolish Cinema: A History, updated in a new edition in 2019, is an excellent overview of the artists and output from one of the world’s most important film nations.

Andrew Petiprin is a columnist atCatholic World Reportand host of the Ignatius Press Podcast, as well as Founder and Editor at the Spe Salvi Institute.

S.Kirk Pierzchala:

I read many wonderful books this year, butthese titles resonated with me in rather deep ways:

A Prayer Journal, by Flannery O’Connor.Short and often painful in its glimpses into a soul struggling to explore her talents while maintaining humility and developing her craft. This one lives on my bedside table.

The Jerusalem Passage, by Andrew Gillsmith.In a post-apocalyptic Holy Land, an aged priest undertakes a pilgrimage to atone for his past sins. A stark yet beautifully crafted work inspired by the lines of the prophet Ezekiel, where God promises to remove the sinner’s stony heart and replace it with one of natural flesh.

The Book of New SunandThe Urth of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe.Part “Hero’s Journey”, part “Chosen One” trope, this remarkable quintet set over a million years in the future subverts many common adventure expectations as it delivers an experience unlike any other. At times terrifying, humorous and dazzling, at others frustrating and mystifying, the tale often digresses into deep philosophical and theological observations that can take the reader’s breath away, or even produce tears at the beauty of the language and insight.

S .Kirk Pierzchala is a lay Dominican and novelist living in the Pacific Northwest.

Matthew Ramage:

I aim to balance my reading with a mix of classics, new texts, books related to my research, and works that challenge me to step out of my comfort zone. In that spirit, this year I especially enjoyed revisiting C.S. Lewis’sOut of the Silent Planetwith seniors in my seminar “Reading God’s Two Books with the Inklings.” By taking readers outside our world, this imaginative sci-fi work offers profound insights into the created world that are hard to express in more didactic ways.

My standout read from a non-Catholic believer wasCurveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Comingby Peter Enns. It’s a thought-provoking exploration of the complexities of navigating biblical faith in the modern world.

On the more unconventional side, I got intoUnidentified Flying Hyperobjectby James Madden. This is a significant read for those intrigued by the UFO/UAP phenomenon but dissatisfied with conventional takes. Madden’s interdisciplinary approach crosses traditional academic boundaries, blending classical and modern philosophy, mythology, and cognitive science. In a similar way that I’ve come to approach miracles across religious traditions, Madden’s work encouraged me to cultivate greater awe in the presence of our mysterious universe, to take people’s purported UFO experiences more seriously, and to open myself to the possibility that something real might lie behind them—even if it doesn’t involve the little green men commonly associated with such phenomena.

Further still outside my comfort zone, I finally gave Sigmund Freud’sCivilization and Its Discontentsthe attention it deserves nearly two decades after first skimming it in grad school. This book may challenge those with insecure faith, but wrestling with Freud’s ideas about belief and the interplay of human rationality and primal instincts can become an opportunity to refine one’s faith. This read reminds us that our rational nature remains rooted in a primal infrastructure that did not vanish when we became human. I believe that this recognition is crucial for understanding how sin operates in creatures who aremore—but not therebyother—than animals.

As a Ratzinger scholar, I can’t help but point to some titles in this realm. Richard DeClue’s recent monographThe Mind of Benedict XVIstands out as an eminently comprehensive and accessible overview of this beloved pope’s theology, offering readers a renewed appreciation of Benedict’s unparalleled brilliance and enduring relevance.

Ratzinger on Religious Pluralismby Fr. Sameer Advani is hands-down the most impressive study of Benedict XVI’s theology of religions to date. Advani synthesizes Ratzinger’s early, lesser-known writings with key later texts to showcase the pontiff’s balanced middle ground between exclusivism and pluralism while offering a concrete alternative that better reflects the uniquely biblical shape of authentically Catholic theology. Readers will be refreshed by how vigorously Benedict defended both Christian mission and interreligious dialogue, considering both to be mutually transformative processes. This result is a must-read for Ratzinger enthusiasts and indeed for anyone interested in understanding the place of other religions in God’s plan.

In cammino alla ricerca della veritàby Piergiorgio Odifreddi is a remarkable book showcasing what authentic dialogue with non-Christians ought to look like. Its subject is a series of frank conversations between Pope Benedict XVI and atheist mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi. Between 2013 and 2021, the two met face-to-face four times and exchanged numerous letters on a wide range of issues. This pontiff considered fraternal dialogue with non-Christians essential, not only for propagating the gospel but also for “the perpetual self-purification of Christianity.” Although this book is in Italian, I’ve summarized many of its highlights in two entries of my“God’s Two Books” columnhere at CWR.

Matthew Ramage is a professor of theology and co-director of the Center for Integral Ecology at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

Tracey Rowland:

My Top 10 Books for 2024

  1. John O’Sullivan,Sleepwalking into Wokeness: How We Got There(Academia Press: Washington-London, 2024). This is a very engaging account of the politics of the last half century with a foreword by Rod Dreher. Dreher describes the book as a cultural history tour led by a witty and learned companion. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are the heroes of the journey.
  2. Gil Bailie,The Apocalypse of the Sovereign Self: Recovering the Christian of Personhood(Angelico Press, 2023). This is one of those books that can only be read slowly because almost every paragraph contains some original thought for reflection. For example, Bailie suggests that there are two prominent forms of nihilism: the epistemological one exhibited by Pilate when he shruggingly asked Jesus, “What is Truth”? and the socially contagious one exhibited by the mob when it shouted in unison, “crucify him”.
  3. Sarah Irving-Stonebraker,Priests of History(Zondervan Reflective: 2024). This is a book by an Australian Anglican scholar; it’s a plea for the importance of historical literacy. It will appeal to those who love history and want to defend its relevance.
  4. Joseph Carola,Engaging the Church Fathers in Nineteenth-Century Catholicism(Emmaus Academic, 2023) offers readers the 19th century “back-story” to twentieth century Catholic theology.
  5. Pidel, Aaron, Levering, Matthew and Anderson, Justin, M (eds),The Roman School(Brill, 2024) covers the same period as Carola’s book but contains chapters from different authors. The book is worth buying for chapter 10 alone – Nicolas Steeves’ ‘Vice and Grace: Did Kleutgen Mar Dogma?’
  6. Anderson, Justin M, Levering, Matthew, and Pidel, Aaron (eds),Ignatius of Loyola and Thomas Aquinas: A Jesuit Ressourcement(Catholic University of America, 2024). Another JesuitRessourcementpublication – particularly valuable for its section on ways of experiencing the divine in Aquinas and Loyola.
  7. D.C. Schindler,God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics(St. Augustine’s Press, South Bend, 2023). This is an important work for those interested in post-liberal political theory.
  8. Robert Cardinal Sarah,He Gave Us So Much: A Tribute to Benedict XVI(Ignatius: San Francisco, 2023). For those who miss Benedict, Sarah is a great source of consolation.
  9. Balázs M. Mezei,Radical Revelation(London: T& T Clark, 2017). This is a very dense academic book, so not for general reading, but it is an excellent work for those interested in the theology of revelation.
  10. Darabos, Adam and Jancsó, András,Theologians on Modern Politics(Budapest: The Danube Institute, 2023). This is written at a popular level and is divided into three sections: European Catholicism, Western Protestantism and Hungarian Catholicism. It is thus interesting in that it contains material on scholars generally unknown in the Anglophone world.

Tracey Rowlandholds the St. John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame (Australia).

Sean Salai:

In a year that witnessed a widespread political backlash against the elites, the best book I read came from a Catholic sociologist pushing back against the creeping transformation of marriage into something reserved only for the wealthy and powerful.

University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox outlines inGet Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization(HarperCollins, 2024) how the wealthy elites recognize that tying the knot protects people from loneliness with human connection, gives them the meaning of living for someone else, and provides more financial stability than staying single. Yet many celebrities and millionaires publicly promote the single life for poorer adults, while quietly living conventional lives as spouses and parents themselves.

Wilcox’s book presents research showing that religious believers, conservatives, Asian Americans, and the upwardly mobile have the strongest marriages. He also points to research showing that children of two-parent families end up better adjusted and more likely to contribute to society. In short, families are the backbone of society.

To be fair, much of this material is not new and in fact has been covered many times by Catholic researchers. It also does not negate the fact that some people won’t, can’t, and/or shouldn’t have children — after all, the Catholic Church offers vowed religious life and consecrated virginity as noble vocations for those called to them. Nor should anyone get married and have children based on an impersonal analysis of sociological data, as opposed to careful discernment and prayer.

What Wilcox adds to the mix here is a provocative suggestion that American elites somehow benefit from persuading large swaths of people they are too poor to afford the simple pleasures of home ownership, family, and commitment. The fear of not being able to afford marriage and children is valid, but that’s very different from telling the working class (hypocritically) through popular culture to give up on reproducing. Wilcox does the best job I’ve seen in years of presenting such debates in a way that forces the reader to self-reflect and wrestle with them. It all seems highly relevant to the current national reckoning over inflation and the recent election results that resist the idea that more working and middle class Americans should embrace the label of “childless cat ladies” — or, as Wilcox might suggest, to embrace their lower-class fates as non-religious, single renters who rely on public transportation and the government for moral guidance.

Dr. Sean Salai, D.Min is the culture reporter atThe Washington Times, a former Jesuit,and a pastoral theologian. He is the author or editor of several books on Pope Francis and Ignatian spirituality.

Kathy Schiffer:

So many books, so little time! My sincere apologies to the other great writers whose books have cluttered my bedside table and whose ideas have stuck in my mind. Here are just a few of my favorites from the last year:

Liberty’s Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America’s Foundersby Joshua Charles. I first discovered Joshua Charles through his wisdom as expressed in short commentaries on Facebook. I’ve come to love his published writings, as well! My favorite chapter in this book is on Religion, Virtue and Morality; in it, he shows how religion is essential to the preservation of virtue, and thus liberty itself, for it made man accountable to God.

Christ, Science, and Wisdom: What We Can Know About Jesus, Mary, and Miraclesby Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. There are those in the secular scientific community who believe that science and faith are opposites which cannot peacefully coexist. Father Spitzer is the proof that those guys are wrong! His book offers scientific proof for the existence of God – drawn from the Shroud of Turin and recent scientifically-investigated Eucharistic miracles. He shows how Marian interventions such as the Tilma of Guadalupe, the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, and many physical and spiritual healings at Lourdes, together point to the truth of the spiritual world.

Return:How to Draw Your Child Back to the Churchby Brandon Vogt. Fifty percent of young people who were raised in the Church, Vogt reports, are no longer Catholic today. And for every person who enters the Catholic Church, an average of 6.5 people leave. Brandon offers a plan for encouraging our grown children (and others) to reconsider, learn, and come back to Christ’s Church.

There and Back Again:A Somewhat Religious Odysseyby Fr. Dwight Longenecker. Father Longenecker is a prolific author with more than 20 books and booklets on his resume. I keep a couple copies of hisMore Christianityon my bookshelf, ready to be passed along to interested Protestant friends who might wonder what makes our faith stand out. This latest book is his personal conversion story, told with wit and self-deprecating humor. Marcus Grodi called it “one of the most comedic conversion stories.” Joseph Pearce agreed: “It is full of the good humor,” Pearce said, “that is the fruit of true humility … ”

The Best Argument for Godby Patrick Flynn. Well, who wouldn’t want to have the best answer to that question! Logically and methodologically, listing Objections and Responses, Flynn defends classical theism against the straw man fallacies of atheistic naturalism. Best of all, he slings no arrows – never criticizing, but preferring to attract nonbelievers with the honey of truth.

Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity:The Search for a Meaningful Lifeby Christopher Kaczor and Matthew R. Petrusek. Author and psychologist Jordan Peterson has said that the Bible is “the first book,” a book he regards highly and takes into account as he makes life decisions. He has called Catholicism “profoundly sane.” While we sit on the sidelines and watch as Peterson approaches the decision that could change his life – that is, the decision to become Catholic – this book, published by the Word On Fire Institute and co-authored by Kaczor and Petrusek, can help us to fill our time.

Kathy Schiffer has written for theNational Catholic Register, Aleteia, Zenit,theMichigan Catholic, Legatus Magazine, and other Catholic publications.

Kevin Schmiesing:

New Books

If you’re like me, you know less about the history of our neighbors to the south than you should. To remedy that, check out David Gilbert’sThe End of Catholic Mexico: Causes and Consequences of the Mexican Reforma (1855–1861). A book of serious scholarship, but accessibly written and certainly of interest to any thoughtful Catholic.

Another scholarly yet accessible piece of history is John F. Quinn’sThe Rise of Newport’s Catholics: From Colonial Outcasts to Gilded Age Leaders. With skillful storytelling and a cast of colorful characters, Quinn recounts the story of Catholicism in Rhode Island.

Mike Aquilina has established himself as the foremost contemporary author of popular histories of the early Church. Treat yourself to his latest romp through Christianity’s early days inRabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized.

For insightful, honest commentary on poverty, race, welfare, and more, from one of the most innovative thinkers and practitioners in the field today, see Ismael Hernandez’sRethinking Charity: Restoring Dignity to Poverty Relief.

Older Books, Newly Discovered

Jean-Pierre Charbonnier,Christians in China: A.D. 600 to 2000. An exceptionally thorough and fascinating account of the history of the faith in the Middle Kingdom.

Robert Royal,The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West. A whirlwind tour of the history of Western thought, and a marvelous model offides et ratio.

Thomas Tweed,America’s Church: The National Shrine and Catholic Presence in the Nation’s Capital. A well-researched account of the construction and significance of the monumental Basilica and National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Classic Fiction, Newly Discovered

Elizabeth Gaskell,North and South; Charlotte Brönte,Shirley; Ivan Turgenev,Fathers and SonsandSmoke; St. John Henry Newman,Callista: A Sketch of the Third Century

Kevin Schmiesingis director of research at the Freedom & Virtue Institute, co-host of theCatholic History Trek podcast, and the author of many books and articles in the field of Church history.

Fr. George E. Schultze, SJ:

I read theAl-Muntada Al-Islami English translation of the Qur’an, a text of verses. Not knowing Arabic, I could not capture the text’s poetic nature or literary fame. Some of the text parallels a Judeo-Christian understanding of the moral life, often referring to Biblical accounts. An earnest reader would need commentary support to appreciate it. There are obvious rejections of Christian anthropology and theology, most evidently the denial of Jesus Christ as God and the rejection of the Holy Trinity. One might read as an accompanying text William Kilpatrick’sChristianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West.

I recommend Luis Pojman’sPhilosophy of Religionas an excellent overview of philosophers’ views on God’s existence or non-existence. Pojman briefly explains earlier proofs of St. Anselm of Canterbury and St. Thomas Aquinas, Kant’s criticisms, and Alvin Plantinga’s modal response of possibility, possible worlds, and necessity—with criticism. The book includes, among other topics, philosophical discussions of miracles, evil, and ethics. It is short and accessible.

Michael Murray and Michael Rea’sIntroduction to the Philosophy of Religionis a primary text for the philosophy students at the Latin Patriarchate Seminary in Beit Jala, Palestine. The Jordanian students, in particular, are taught English as a second language starting in grade school. The authors provide clearly outlined proofs with follow-through explanations.

Karen Hall wroteThe Sound of Silence: The Life and Canceling of a Heroic Jesuit Priest. I did not know Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ, personally, but like others, I knew of his ministry and presence in the Society of Jesus. Hall, a successful scriptwriter and author, describes a priest, academic, and friend who faithfully practiced what he taught. The Bishop’s words at diaconate ordinations ring out: “Receive the Gospel of Christ whose heart you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” Given the challenges within the Jesuits, this framed Fr. Paul’s way of proceeding.

Father George E. Schultze, SJ is a spiritual director at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and the Latin Patriarchal Seminary in Beit Jala.

Paul Seaton:

Ah, reading! The nourishment of mind and soul, a deepening of the world and a respite from its travails. 2024’s reading provided a varied diet. Sometimes we want to understand what’s going on before us, sometimes we want to see things in the light of deeper truths, sometimes we want to enter into contact with Eternity. This year’s reading fed all three needs.

To understand Oct 7th, and especially the shocking gleeful response to it on the part of progressive academics, activists, and students, I read Adam Kirsch’s compact bookOn Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice. Kirsch did for its underlying ideology, “settler colonialism,” what John Fonte did for “transnational progressivism,” what Phil Magness and Peter Wood did forThe 1619 Project, and what James Lindsay, Josh Mitchell, and Chris Rufo did for Critical Race Theory and DEI. Progressivism is one of the banes of our intellectual and civic existence, always growing new monstrous heads. Kirsch provides the necessaryIdeologiekritikof its newest monster in his fine study. He does the detective work of retracing its genealogy and articulating its worldview, provides the necessary historical and moral critique, and then sketches an alternative way of looking at history’s colonial tragedies that is at once more truthful and hopeful than the Manichean binaries of settler colonialism’s advocates. This is a book to read, then share with concerned fellow citizens and impressionable young people.

One thing that ideology always does is distort the precious human faculty of conscience. Given our age of soft (and not-so-soft) totalitarianisms, we need to constantly shore up this capacity to discern moral truth and hear the divine voice. Sacramental confession is the divinely established way, but reading authorized guides to conscience is another. Benedict XVI was one such. His little volumeOn Conscienceis a fine antidote to the contemporary assaults on conscience. Composed of two lectures, one given just before the end of the Soviet Union and one just after, the lectures take place in the shadow of Communist ideology and its demoralization of entire populations, while also providing a penetrating assessment of liberal societies’ misguided subjectivistic understanding of conscience. In these two (Communist ideology and 1980’s liberal subjectivism), one encounters forerunners of today’s hard and soft assaults on conscience. Ratzinger then turns to the phenomenon itself and lays out conscience’s essential nature. It is a capacity, a developed ability, to perceive moral truth and to hear a transcendent Voice that commands and indicts, but also invites and forgives. In the final analysis, it is Christ, the incarnate Logos, who provides the full meaning of conscience.

Thanks to my bibliophile friend, Dan Mahoney, I finally got around to reading a book I’d heard about for several years, Richard Bauckham’sJesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.What a feast! Here is biblical scholarship of the highest order, making a faith-sharpening case for the proximity of the written Gospels to the Figure they recount. He does so through the categories of “eyewitness” and “testimony,” essential categories of ancient historiography also attested to by early Christian authors in connection with the Gospels. This allows him not only to escape from dubious presuppositions of earlier biblical criticism, but to situate the investigation in its fullest context.

“Testimony offers us, I wish to suggest, both a reputable historiographic category for reading the Gospels as history, and also a theological model for understanding the Gospels as the entirely appropriate means of access to the historical reality of Jesus.”

“Theologically speaking, the category of testimony enables us to read the Gospels as precisely the kind of text we need in order to recognize the disclosure of God in the history of Jesus.” “[E]ntirely appropriate means”; “precisely the kind of text we need”: In this impressive work of New Testament scholarship, Bauckham begins and ends his study by crediting God with utmost fittingness in producing the Testaments to his mercy and presence by employing human persons and human means. If theology means giving reasons for God’s doings, this is an exquisite work of theology.

Paul Seatonteaches philosophy at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, MD. He works mainly in political philosophy and has translated a number of works by French philosophers.

Russell Shaw:

My best books of the year are theConfessionsof St. Augustine, theApologia pro Vita Suaof St. John Henry Newman, andThe Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Augustine’s book is often said to be the first autobiography. Whether that is strictly true or not I couldn’t say, but I have no difficulty believing that it is the first autobiography to be part of the Western canon. And it certainly presents a living portrait of the author.

Newman’s autobiography leaves out a lot (which, to be fair, Newman doesn’t promise) but it presents an interesting picture of the Oxford Movement in 19th century Anglicanism as well as a compact compendium of Christian faith. As for the author, the picture that emerges is that of a highly intelligent, extremely sensitive, easily annoyed controversialist.

Gatsbyobviously is a very different story. What is it about? An innocent soul swimming among sharks, I suppose. Whether you are prepared to believe Gatsby—who made a fortune as a bootlegger, after all—is as innocent as Fitzgerald wants you to believe is a question readers must answer for themselves.

Russell Shaw is the author of more than 20 books.

Piers Shepherd:

I have been doing a lot of research and reading on church history this year in preparation for potentially teaching a course on the subject. There were three works I particularly enjoyed:

History of the Catholic Church from the Apostolic Age to the Third Millenniumby James Hitchcock. This is a large but easy to read work with each chapter very helpfully divided into sections and subheadings that make the book very easy to navigate.

The Reformation: A Historyby Diarmaid MacCulloch is a very thorough history of its subject covering the period from 1490 to around 1700 and spanning most of the countries of Europe. The effect of the Reformation on theology, philosophy and social life, including marriage and the family, is discussed in great detail.

The Story of Civilization Part VI: The Reformationby Will Durant. The sixth part in this famous 11 volume series is less a history of the Reformation than a general history of Europe from 1300 to 1564. In addition to the religious controversies of the 16th century, this book also covers topics such as the Hundred Years War, the discovery of the New World, the wars of Europe against the Ottoman Empire and the development of art and science.

This year I also re-read two books for the first time in around 20 years.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Corrêa de Oliveira was a Brazilian philosopher and intellectual, and this was his most important book. Writing in 1959, he diagnosed the crisis of the modern age as having its roots in three great revolutions: the Reformation, the French Revolution and Communism. At the core of what Corrêa de Oliveira called the ‘the Revolution’ was a belief in radical egalitarianism and radical sensuality. In opposition to this he proposed a counter-revolution that was embodied in the principals of the organization he founded, the Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

The Abolition of Britain
by Peter Hitchens. First published in 1999, this book brilliantly surveys the decline of Britain since the 1960s covering a variety of areas including religion, morality, popular culture, education and the decimation of Britain’s towns and cities among others. The problems Hitchens describes are now much more advanced than they were in 1999 but the book provides a useful background to the current malaise.

Piers Shepherd is a freelance writer currently based in Colombia.

Richard Spinello:

The Crisis of Modernityby Augusto Del Noce

The Italian philosopher, Augosto Del Noce (1910-1989) was known for his prophetic vision and his disdain for the imperialistic claims of scientism and technology. His work is especially relevant as we wallow in this era of secular triumphalism. Del Noce had a genius for anticipating cultural trends such as the emergence of same-sex marriage. He also predicted the transition from “ascetic Christianity” to a more “secularized” Christianity that wipes away from the horizon the “passive and mortifying virtues” such as chastity and purity. Del Noce calls for a retrieval of the “primacy of contemplation” and the “primacy of the immutable” as a remedy for what ails our ambient modern culture.

The Universe as Journeyby Fr. W. Norris Clarke, S.J.

There was a time when the intellectual giants who roamed the campuses of Jesuit universities were the Jesuits themselves. Such was the case at Fordham University when I was a graduate philosophy student there many decades ago. One of those giants was Fr. Clarke, who taught Thomistic philosophy and metaphysics for over 30 years. This past year I re-read his magnificent book which recounts his own pilgrimage towards the comprehension of all being in one sweeping synoptic vision that captures the inner harmony of the universe. Like all good metaphysicians, Fr. Clarke had a passion for unity, for seeing how all things in the universe fit together as an intelligible whole. In St. Thomas, he found the key for unlocking that unity through a “conversion to existence,” that is, a recognition of each being’s own inner act of existence as the underlying bond of all reality.

Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla (trans. G. Ignatik)

Each year I make a point of re-reading this treatise on sexual morality written by St. John Paul II well before he became pope. In his “Letter to Families” the Pope wrote that we are living in a crisis of truth where the word “love” no longer “conveys its essential meaning.” We witness that confusion every day in the use of facile epithets such as “love is love” or “love wins.” But anyone who wants to understand what love really is should read and ponder this book. Love is complex and multifaceted, and Wojtyla’s treatise can help dissipate the confusion that has become so pervasive in the Church. This book is a true classic that enriches primarily through its deep wisdom and principled reasoning rather than moral prescription.

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960sby Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lest anyone think that I spend all my time reading philosophy books, I also read many history books and enjoy the works of great American historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin. This book chronicles her husband’s (Richard Goodwin) career as speech writer for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Unlike their contemporary counterparts, classically trained speech writers like Goodwin and his mentor Ted Sorensen knew how to compose brilliant speeches that had both style and substance. Kennedy and Johnson could not have been more different in background, temperament, or leadership traits, but Goodwin was able to satisfy both of them. The drama of this work is provided by compelling accounts of Kennedy’s assassination and Johnson’s collision with the shoals of Vietnam. Good history books like this one are very important since we must always live in the light of the past.

Richard A. Spinello is Professor at Boston College and the author ofFour Catholic Philosophers: Rejoicing in the Truth(Jacques Maritain, Edith Stein, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Karol Wojtyla).

Edward Short:

Over the years, we have all encountered books calling for a renewal of Catholic education but what sets R. Jared Staudt’sWords Made Flesh: The Sacramental Mission of Catholic Education(2024) apart is its coherence, learning and practicality. Here is a book not only for Catholic school educators but every parent keen on seeing their children’s formation in the Faith govern and enrich all their learning. “If we are unsatisfied with the state of society and the Church, then prioritizing the education of our children is the best way to make an impact for the future,” Staudt writes. Why? “Catholic education aims at the complete formation of the person – body, mind and soul – and no education could be complete that forms only a part of the person.” Like Christopher Dawson, whoseTheCrisis of Western Education(1961) is very much worth reading, Staudt recognizes that in order for Catholic education to thrive, Catholic culture must thrive, and on nearly every page of this admirable book we see an eloquent call for a revival of this culture, so distinct from the philistinism that mars too many of our schools. If such practical wisdom were adopted by our Catholic schools, we would see an altogether vital transformation of them.

Another book I would commend is J.K. Huysmans’The Crowds of Lourdes(1925). At this incomparable place of pilgrimage, the convert writes towards the end of the book, “you see a renewal of the Gospels; you are in a lazaretto for souls in which you are disinfected with the antiseptic of charity… Here is the Virgin both compassionate and sweet, and here she seems… more loving and nearer… than she does anywhere else.”

Readers interested in learning more about this extraordinary convert should read Robert Baldick’s superbLife of J.K. Huysmans(1956). Still another book worth recommending is John McManners’ two-volumeChurch and Society in Eighteenth-Century France(1998), which is brilliant on the Jesuits, Jansenists and Dominicans, as well as bishops and curés of that tempestuous age. Not all Catholic readers will agree with the Anglican McManners, who dismisses the dogmatic principle so dear to Newman by arguing that: ‘Doctrines should look forward to the time nearer than we think for each of us, when they will have no further meaning,” reasoning that would lead to our neglecting, not attending to our destined end – an end necessarily replete with doctrine. Nevertheless, McManners is an engaging historian, not only because of his redoubtable scholarship but his humility.

In his preface to his excellentOxford Illustrated History of Christianity(1991), he was careful to say vis-à-vis the different contributors to the volume something that our deluded historicists should take to heart. “Each of us could have written an epilogue,” McManners confessed, “but it would not have been as an historian.” Of course, history commands a useful place in our study of the Faith but never as any rival to Revelation. As Dom Adrian Morey wrote of the great church historian David Knowles: “He… believed that for the man who would penetrate and understand the truths of faith and the ways of God, a knowledge of history is, after the study of the scriptures and theology, the most valuable of all mental possessions.” Here,afteris the indispensable word.

Lastly, these other books caught my fancy: John Witheridge’s elegant, revelatoryAlice’s Father: The Life of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford(2024); Richard Symonds’ wittyOxford and Empire: The Last Lost Cause?(1986); James A. Harris’ fascinatingHume: An Intellectual Biography(2015); and Anne Somerset’sQueen Victoria and her Prime Ministers(2024), a welcome revisiting of a theme memorably essayed in 1953 by Lord Salisbury’s third son, Algernon Cecil.

Edward Shortis the author, most recently, ofNewman and his Critics, the final volume of his trilogy on Newman

Carl R. Trueman:

Only one of my Books of the Year was published in 2024. That wasCalming the Storm of Images, Philip Jenkins’s fine and illuminating study of the iconoclastic controversies in the early church, up to and beyond the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Jenkins does an excellent job of putting to death many common myths and simplistic pieties regarding the role of images in Christianity and also Judaism and Islam. What emerges is a much more subtle and politically complicated picture than later partisan approaches would suggest.

On the fiction front, the best book I read this year was Edith Wharton’sThe House of Mirth. In this work Wharton offers both a fine portrait of social and class tensions in late nineteenth-century America and a compelling analysis of the tragic psychology of an ambitious young woman, Lily Bart. Lily is simultaneously superficial and entitled while at the same time psychologically complex. Her decline, downfall and the ambiguous circumstances of her death make the book a deeply sad read, although along the way the reader is challenged to think about what really matters in life. Given that America today is perhaps even more driven by money and social ambition than it was when Wharton wrote, even if now in the context of a world where celebrity rather than social class provides the framework, this is a work with a remarkably contemporary feel.

On the non-fiction front, I finally settled down in the summer to readMary Dearborn’s biography of Ernest Hemingway. I love Hemingway’s writing, or at least the short stories and the early novels –FiestaandA Farewell to Arms– and so I read Dearborn eager to find reasons to love Hemingway the man, too. I came away feeling nothing but sadness for a tragic figure who produced his best work early and then squandered his talents through excessive drinking and an unfailing ability to treat with vituperative contempt those who loved him, especially women. Particularly sad was Dearborn’s account of his relationship with that other precocious but ultimately disappointing talent, F. Scott Fitzgerald. By the time he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, the writing was as flabby as the man, and the mental decline that led to his suicide in 1961 already evident. Pity, not admiration, was all that I felt by the end of the book.

Finally, on the devotional front, I benefited greatly from reading Khaled Anatolios’s lively collection of homilies,Feasts for the Kingdom: Sermons for the Liturgical Year. Of course, as a Protestant, I do not agree with everything he says, but these brief chapters both demonstrate how a rich Nicene theology connects to everyday life in the twenty-first century and how a common commitment to the Trinitarian God offers ecumenical edification for those who care to reflect upon it. Definitely a book to give to that special Nicene Trinitarian in your life this Christmas.

Carl Trueman teaches humanities at Grove City College in Pennsylvania and is the author of several books, includingThe Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.

John Tuttle:

My reading achievements are somewhat diminished of late. The reason: My blessings have greatly increased recently. My wife Ellen and I were married August 31st! The months leading up to the wedding required my time and energy be given to more pressing matters than the press. This is not to say that reading is bad – if carried out in moderation.

InThe Way, St. Josemaría Escrivá reminds us, “Don’t neglect your spiritual reading. Reading has made many saints.” Very early in the book, Escrivá lauds matrimony as a vocation, says your spiritual director can recommend a good book to prepare you for it, and also says, “Commend yourself to St. Raphael that he may keep you pure, as he did Tobias, until the end of the way.” Thus, Ellen and I found ourselves reading through theBook of Tobitin the weeks leading up to marriage.

Books likeThe Way– ones that give me bite-sized snippets – have been more of my bread and butter this past year given my limited time (and limited attention span). For a few years now, I’ve enjoyed Dawn Marie Beutner’sSaints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Yearfor both personal use and research purposes.Butler’s Lives of the Saintsis considered the classic standard collection of saints’ biographies in miniature, but Beutner’s book covers more saints and blesseds, sometimes relying onButler’s Livesas a source. I dislike how the revised edition ofButler’s Lives(HarperOne, 1991) offers an index of saints and their feast days much wider in scope than the actual compendium’s biographies. The result is lengthy index, most of the entries of which have no details provided for them in the book. In contrast, Beutner’sSaintsis helpful and delightful.

At night, I often read a few passages fromJoan of Arc: In Her Own Words, compiled and translated by Willard Trask. Most mornings see me reading a snippet from the author ofCharlotte’s Webtaken fromE.B. White: Writings from the New Yorker 1927-1976,edited by Rebecca M. Dale. White is brimming with wit and panache. His memoirs, observations, commentaries, and reflections are as enjoyable as his fiction – if not more so.

Adding to my literary diet throughout the year has beenA Year with C.S. Lewis(a gift from my brother years ago) andAnne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex, translated by Michel Mok and Ralph Manheim. Unlike many, I was never introduced to Anne Frank in middle school. This served as my introduction. TheSecret Annexshowcases how phenomenal of a storyteller Frank was – even as a young teenager. In stories like “The Wise Old Dwarf” and “The Fairy,” Frank has no qualms about blending faith in God and mythical worlds together. In her imagination, fairies tell of God’s presence and children regularly attend chapel in an elven village, presided over by a dwarf-preacher. What could be more beautiful? These are the kinds of stories I want to tell my children at bedtime.

One book I was able to begin and complete this year wasPrayers from the Ark and The Creatures’ Choirpenned by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, translated by Rumer Godden. All the poems are from the perspective of different species of animals and serve as their individual prayers to God. In many of these, de Gasztold evokes the attitude of the animal and illustrates its relation to the Creator. Her “Prayer of the Donkey” serves as a good Christmas reflection. “Give me great courage and gentleness./One day let somebody understand me…,” prays the donkey. And in the end: “… Lord, one day, let me find again/my little brother of the Christmas crib.” Of course, both parts of that prayer are answered in Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. “The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road” (Matthew 21:6-8).

John Tuttle has a BA in journalism & mass communications and theology from Benedictine College.

Joseph Tuttle:

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend Holy Week this year in Seville, Spain. While there, I made a day trip to Granada, specifically, the Alhambra – the last Muslim fortress taken by Queen Isabella in 1492. It was here that she met with Christopher Columbus and agreed to fund his voyage to the Indies – and we all know how that ended. I discovered that an American author, Washington Irving, had spent a good deal of time there and wrote a book calledTales of the Alhambra, which I purchased and read. It is a wonderful mix of history and the mysterious legends and myths that surround the old fortress. On the topic of Spain, I read Warren Carroll’sOur Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness,a historical account of Hernan Cortes and his journeys in Central America. He paints Cortes in a rather positive light. He doesn’t shy away from pointing out Cortes’ mistakes and imperfections. He does, however, note his primary goal: to bring the Catholic Faith to the new world and end both human sacrificing and cannibalism – both of which were practiced by the Aztecs, and both of which go against the natural law. He attributes Cortes’ success to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared not too long after his mission.

During Holy Week, aside from taking part in the amazing processions that take place in Seville, I also read St. Robert Bellarmine’sThe Seven Last Words Spoken from the Cross. They are excellent theological reflections on the Seven Last Words of Christ. Bellarmine pulls largely from the Church Fathers and St. Thomas Aquinas to expound upon his meditations.

From Fulton J. Sheen, I readThe Mystical Body of Christ– and excellent text and one of the few academic works of Sheen, written early in his career. His great book on marriage,Three to Get Married, was also completed. It is an excellent book for married couples and one that I gave to my newly wed brother and sister-in-law. I also read Bonnie Engstrom’s book, 61 Minutes to a Miracle, about the miracle that was approved for Sheen’s beatification. It is a short read but one that truly shows the intercessory power of one of the greatest Churchmen of the twentieth century. Another Sheen piece came in the form of Fr. Dave Tomaszycki’s bookOn the Demonic– a new book of Sheen’s own writings and words regarding the demonic in our world and how to fight against it.

This year I was able to get a good amount of fiction in. Louis de Wohl’s fantastic tale of Constantine and St. Helena,The Living Wood, also made it on to my reading list. As usual, De Wohl delivers a novel that has all the notes of a secular production: romance, suspense, action, etc., but with one difference. His story centers around a saint: Helena, who made it her life’s mission to find the Cross of Jesus Christ. As always, De Wohl weaves a story around the historical accounts and traditions surrounding Constantine and Helena. Another book wasGodzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, a recent translation of the original Godzilla stories that the original Toho Studios produced in 1954 and 1955. Admittedly, there were a number of typos and sometimes the translation seemed rather choppy – but, it is a must read for true fans of the original Godzilla movies.

Joseph Tuttleis the author ofAn Hour with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen(Ligouri, 2021). He has a B.A. in theology from Benedictine College.

Timothy Vail:

Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy: How God Prepared the Americas for Conversion Before the Lady Appeared
by Joseph Gonzalez & Monique González

Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Fatherby Father Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC

From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Ageby the University of Mary

The Conferences of John Cassianby John Cassian

Controversies of the Christian Faithby St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, S.J.

Dialectics: A Class Manual in Formal Logicby Right Rev. Msgr. Paul J. Glenn, Ph.D., S.T.D.

Leisure, the Basis of Cultureby Josef Pieper (I have read this a few times)

Akita: The Tears and Message of MarybyFatherTeiji Yasuda

The Libellusby Blessed Jordan of Saxony

Maria van den Bosch:

Till We Have Facesby C.S. Lewis
On first reading Lewis’ retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche twenty years ago, I narrowly (and self-centeredly) overidentified with the protagonist’s complaint against the gods. Re-reading the novel this year, I realized I had completely misunderstood it.Till We Have Faceswrestles with the mystery of suffering and the darkness that enshrouds divinity. Lewis himself regarded it as his best book.

Summa Theologica: Prima Parsby St Thomas Aquinas
This year, I began a project to read theSummafrom beginning to end and discuss it with friends. It has been a slog. I am not always sure if I truly grasp Aquinas’ arguments or only think I do. Our pace has slowed to the point where it may take a decade to complete. Despite all this, it has been more than worth the effort. The goal was to build an understanding (even a limited one) of the metaphysics that are foundational for St Thomas’ anthropology and virtue ethics. The end is not in sight, but the journey is richly rewarding.

The Love that Keeps Us Sane: Living the Little Way of St. Therese of Lisieuxby Marc Foley, O.C.D.
Fr. Foley writes that his book is not about growing in holiness as much as it is about achieving psychological wholeness. Through examples from St Therese’s life and writings, Foley illustrates how we can imitate Therese in loving others selflessly without making their approval of us into an idol. Ultimately, the book helps us to be rooted in our identity in Christ, and love others from that place, rather than making our human relationships the core of our identity. It is challenging, engaging, and comes in at less than a hundred pages.

Light Over the Scaffold and Cell 18: The Prison Lettersof Jacques Fesch
In 1957, twenty-seven-year-old Jacques Fesch was executed for the crime of murdering a police officer. His collected letters document the process of deep conversion Fesch underwent during his years of incarceration: the anguish of his dark night of the soul, his mystical understanding of Christ’s love, his radical detachment and surrender, the consolation he offers to those who ostensibly are writing to console him.

In 1993, the Church declared Jacques Fesch a Servant of God. Not to anticipate the Church’s beatification process, but Fesch would be a powerful intercessor for many today. For those with father wounds, abuse victims, sufferers from addiction in their personal or family lives, perpetrators of violent crimes, the incarcerated, all who bear the anguish of psychological trauma: Fesch is a relatable example of one who carried all these crosses, threw himself on the mercy of God, and became holy in his brokenness. He is, God willing, a saint for our times.

The Sunset Limitedby Cormac McCarthy
A debate on suicide between a character with a brilliantly articulate defense of nihilism and one who loves humanity but has no education, tightly crafted arguments, or fancy vocabulary to assist him.

How does one combat evil’s apparent triumph? What do you do when you know God’s given you a task but doesn’t appear to have equipped you for it? Why does the voice of goodness and truth seem to fail in the face of profound suffering?

McCarthy’s play grapples with these questions and provides no simple or overt answers. Ultimately, the cry of suffering inThe Sunset Limitedis one directed to, (in the words of St John of the Cross), a God whose first language is silence. There is terrifying beauty in this play, but it’s only reached by wandering through darkness.

Maria van den Boschwrites and works as a tutor in Alberta, Canada. She holds degrees in history and philosophy from Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.:

Since the death of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), there have been a number of edited books of essays that have treated various aspects of his theological corpus. However, Mauro Gagliardi’sRevelation, Hermeneutic, and Doctrinal Development in Joseph Ratzingeris the first book, to my knowledge, to assess almost the entirety of Ratzinger’s work. Gagliardi has mastered Ratzinger’s theology, and presents it in a manner that is clear and yet scholarly. He creatively and insightfully allows the reader to appreciate the thought of one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant theologians. This is an excellent introductory book both for the academic and for the lay reader.

Mike Aquilina is a prodigious writer, and he is ingenious at choosing topics that the average person would never consider. In hisRabbles, Riots and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelizedhas added another interesting and informative book to his list. Some of the twelve cities he examines are: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Constantinople, Ravenna, and Carthage. If one is looking for a book that is simply entertaining and even fun to read, this book would fit the bill.

My fascination with the Habsburg’s continues. The last Habsburg emperor is singular in that he is a Blessed and his cause for canonization continues – Emperor Charles of Austria and Hungary. Charles Coulombe has authored an excellent biography:Blessed Charles of Austria: A Holy Emperor and His Legacy. He provides the historical and political background the Charles’s brief reign. He also examines Charles’s childhood and education. What I found most fascinating and inspiring was his marriage to Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. When Charles married her, he said that together they must now strive to make each other holy. Not a common sentiment for a young groom to express to his newly wedded bride. Charles suffered much during World War I as he worked for peace. With the end of the war, he hoped to establish a political arrangement similar to that in Great Britain – a parliamentary government along with a monarchy. This was not to be. Thus, he was exiled both in Switzerland and on the island of Maderia. He died of pneumonia at the age of 34. Ironically, Charles’ cause for canonization finds its greatest supporters among Catholics in the United States.

Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.is a noted American theologian and the author of several books.

Amy Welborn:

I had three contemporary novels that were standouts, as well as one classic that I belatedly, finally, got around to reading.

Since academic satire is just about my favorite genre, I couldn’t resistThe English Experienceby Julie Schumacher. It’s a short, hilarious novel about a professor who unenthusiastically chaperones his college’s winter term study abroad in London.

His students are, of course, a varied crew, a couple of whom have actual academic capabilities. The clever aspect of the novel is how much of the tale is told through the students’ daily assignments. The revelations are not direct, though. As would be the case, the students’ writings expose the young people sometimes indirectly – even stylistically and even through their mistakes – and sometimes in the unexpected, blunt way a young person expresses himself.

It’s sharp, cutting and in the end accepting of the mystery of human life – where we came from and where we’re going – and how the weird experiences we have in the present between that past and future have the power to shift our vision and sense of ourselves – for the better, if we’re paying attention.

Early Sobrietiesby Michael Deagler is about just that: the first year of young man’s sobriety. He’s been kicked out of his parents’ home and spends most of the year couch-surfing through Philadelphia, encountering friends and acquaintances, old and new.

The writing was sharp, knowing, and funny. And – guess what – as we approach the end, there’s a Catholic element. A couple, in fact. I won’t say what they are, but one of them isrelated to a big Catholic event that occurred in Philadelphia over the past decade.

Early Sobrietieswas a novel about addiction and recovery, yes, but even if that’s not your issue, directly or indirectly, Monk’s journey is applicable. For even if our past actions and our memories of those actions were not warped and wiped out by substances, who doesn’t look back at the past and wonder,why in the world did I do that? Who was that person anyway? Because that sure doesn’t feel as if it’s me.Andcan I fix it? Can I atone?

Those were good, but it’sThe Wedding Peopleby Alison Espach that wins the year for me.

Phoebe is in her early 40’s. Her husband has left her for a colleague, a colleague who has a baby, and Phoebe has, after years of trying and fertility treatments, not been able to have that: a baby. She’s also an adjunct professor of English literature whose specialty is the Victorian marriage novel, but who has, after ten years of work, not managed to finish writing a book.

So Phoebe arrives at an inn in Newport, RI, having never seen the ocean (she’s from St. Louis), with a goal: in this most beautiful place, a “happy place” of her imagination, she’s going to commit suicide.

In her way: the wedding people.

For this inn has been completely booked for a week-long wedding celebration. Completely booked, that is, but for the one room – a penthouse suite, no less – that is open, at $800/night, for Phoebe’s intended one-night stay.

It’s not spoiling much to tell you that no, Phoebe does not succeed in her goal, and ends up staying the entire week, her stay paid for by Lila, the bride-to-be, who immediately and almost inexplicably befriends Phoebe after an elevator mishap. Perhaps she senses a connection, perhaps she’s relieved to have someone to talk (and talk and talk) to who’s not in the wedding party, and perhaps she’s also determined that this Phoebe person Will. Not. Ruin. Her. Wedding.

And so it goes, a sly reworking of the Marriage Plot, surprises, accidental (or not) encounters, repressed feelings, unexpected connections, feeling trapped and finding release from that trap and all. The writing is just so sharp and knowing and it’s very, very funny.

At its heart, it’s an unexpectedly moving novel about discovering that your lifedoesmatter a great deal in ways you might not even know. Whether you live or die? Whether you continue to live in the story or not? What part you play in it? Yeah, it matters. And how do you discover that? Through opening up and moving beyond your own bubble and even your own very real pain to listen and connect with the pain of others, and, most importantly extending compassion towards those others – and perhaps asking on the way –why can’t I extend this compassion and grace to myself, as well?

Once in a while, you see articles or social media posts in which people admit what classic novels they haven’t read. I’d have … a few on that list, but I knocked one off this year:Moby Dick.

Perhaps it’s unfortunate that I hadn’t read it before now, but as I immersed myself in Melville’s philosophical, brutal, absorbing layers of prose that seemed almost postmodern, I found myself thinking perhaps not. Perhaps this was exactly the right time, after all.

Amy Welborn is a writer living in Birmingham, Alabama. She is the author of many books, includingLoyola Kids Book of Feasts, Seasons and Celebrations.

Chilton Williamson:

A long-time admirer of Romano Guardini, I had already read hisLetters from Lake Como,The End of the Modern World, andPower and Responsibilitybefore taking up his 629-page (in Regnery’s Gateway edition)magnum opus,The Lord, best described as a meditative biography of Jesus Christ. As the author himself states, the component meditations “make no claim to completeness. They do not attempt to recount Jesus’ life in any chronological order or logical sequence; rather, they select from it this or that teaching, event, trait, miracle for thought, as it happens to warm to life. This book is no scientific documentation of history or theology. Its chapters are the spiritual commentaries of some four years of Sunday services undertaken with the sole purpose of obeying as well as possible the Lord’s command to proclaim him, his message and works.” The chapters are richly compact without being dense and written with a remarkably light touch despite Msgr. Guardini’s enormous erudition and breathtaking recall of texts. They pair superbly with Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazarethvolumes, so that it is entirely fitting that the late Pope should have supplied the introduction to Guardini’s book.

I am reading several chapters nightly. The reason is not the sustained effort and attention they demand, but the fact that they deserve patient reflection on the part of the reader after he has read them.The Lordis a book by a man whose piety equals his truly astounding Biblical learning and qualities of poetical imagination.

Chilton Williamson, Jr.is the author of several works of fiction, narrative nonfiction, and “pure” nonfiction, includingAfter Tocqueville: The Promise and Failure of Democracy,Jerusalem, Jerusalem! A NovelandThe End of Liberalism (St. Augustine’s Press, 2023). He has also written hundreds of essays, critical reviews, and short stories.

Tod Worner:

Before I begin listing the books I consumed this year, I want to draw attention to two habits of reading that have warred with each other since the beginning of the written word. The first is the insistent habit of reading one book — an only one book – at a time. The second is the defiant habit of reading multiple books at a time. Adherents of the first habit exult in their disciplined singularity of mind and their proud claim to finish books rather quickly. Subscribers to the second habit, offer a healthy “Bronx cheer” to the “one-book-at-a-timers” gleefully jumping from a biography on Churchill to a coffee table book on Monty Python, and shamelessly springing from the nineteenth century’sPride & Prejudiceto the twentieth century’sA Gentleman in Moscow.

With that throat-clearing concluded, I can openly admit: I am an unapologetic “many-books-at-oncer.”

So what did I read simultaneously this year? A pretty good mix!

William F. Buckley’sInveighing We Will Gois a wonderful older collection of essays and interviews with the suave, yet cheeky founder ofNational Reviewand host ofFiring Line. Buckley is so generous in hisFiring Lineinterviews that you seldom get to hear him exposit on any topics at length. Reading Buckley’s essays (especially his opening Playboy interview) allows you to enjoy Buckley’s rapier-like wit and canny insights, all while enjoying, in your mind’s ear, his charming mid-Atlantic accent.

Behind Closed Doors: In the Room with Reagan and Nixonwas Ken Khachigian’s gripping memoir of speech-writing and maneuvering in the highest corridors of power. I had the privilege of interviewing Ken on The Evangelization & Culture Podcastand found his insights and anecdotes captivating.

Carl Trueman’s recently releasedTo Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse is an indispensable explication of the origins of Critical Theory and its philosophical godfathers including Marx, Lukacs, Korsch, and the Frankfurt School. Trueman demystifies Marxist ideas like “alienation,” “reification,” and “false consciousness” and shines a light on this ideology’s scorched earth plan, which offers no positive program.

Poetry caught my eye this year with James Matthew Wilson’sSt. Thomas and the Forbidden Birds, Sally Read’s100 Great Catholic Poems, and Ryan Wilson and April Lindner’sContemporary CatholicPoetry. These works offer samples of outstanding poetry that also happen to have a Catholic sensibility — something the modern world is sorely in need of. Seamus Heaney’sStation Islandwas also a delight.

Fr. Damian Ference dazzled withUnderstanding the Hillbilly Thomist, a philosophical engagement with the ingenious Flannery O’Connor. How this young woman could arrive at such profound truths and unfold them in such searing literature is still staggering to me.

My spiritual director has recommended I re-approach St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s spiritual memoir,Story of a Soul. Just when I get too big for my britches, the Little Flower gently, lovingly thwacks me on the noggin.

As I am running out of room, let me offer the classics I have read this year, including: Shakespeare’s Richard II, &Henry IV (part I & II).Henry Vis underway. I have read the entire Henriad previously, but the dictum is true: “The first time you read something, you discover what happens. The next time you read it, you know what it means.” The spiritual classic I read again was G.K. Chesterton’sOrthodoxy. I have readOrthodoxyclose to twenty times. I was clueless the first time and stunned (yet again) on my latest read.

There are several books I cannot remember, but I am currently finishing Gary Saul Morson’s magnificentWonder Confronts Certainty, Harold Bloom’sShakespeare: The Invention of the Human, and Hans Urs von Balthasar’s first volume ofTheo-Drama.

Lastly, could I give a plug? If, like me, you are a touch hypomanic and can’t get enough of the infinite offerings out there, then add in essays. Joseph Epstein, Gary Saul Morson, Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling are good places to start. And don’t forget those offered by CWR!

Tod Worner is a practicing internal medicine physician, Managing Editor of Bishop Robert Barron’s journal,Evangelization & Culture, and Host of Word on Fire’sThe Evangelization & Culture Podcast.

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