Welcome to our Catholic Summer Reading book selections for 2008.

This year's program officially launches the first week of June. Our popular program returns with an all new selection of outstanding Catholic books for this year! Please visit www.catholicsummerreading.com for more details and to find book discussion guides for selected program titles - we will have these posted shortly. You may also want to visit www.catholicbookdiscussion.com to join in some lively online discussions of the books. Happy reading!

Remember, when you go off on vacation this summer, to the beach, to that proverbial cabin in the woods, or to visit family in another state, don't leave your faith behind!

Young Simon, recently and tragically orphaned, becomes a scribe in the following of the exiled Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket.  The uncertainty of the tumultuous years leading to the infamous cathedral slaying is heightened by Simon's separation from his twin Edmund, who is in the service of King Henry II. With an expert pen Barbara Willard deftly recounts events leading to the …

How Christendom defeated the Ottoman Turks Historian Diane Moczar pulls back the curtain on one of the most important acts in the drama of Muslim aggression against the West: the 500-year-long siege of Europe by the Ottoman Turks. Tracing the rise of the Turkish people from wandering Asian tribe to mighty pan-continental empire, Islam at the Gates chronicles the heroes and villains, the …

"This book is . . . my personal search for 'the face of the Lord." - Pope Benedict XVI.     This is Pope Benedict XVI's first book since his pontificate began. Who is Jesus? According to the wildly popular book and film, The Da Vinci Code, Jesus was merely a human figure whose original message was distorted by his followers. Not so, argues Pope Benedict XVI in this …

The Nobel Laureate's Medieval Masterpiece - in the award-winning translation. This is a complete collection of all three novels - The Wreath, The Wide, and The Cross - in the Kristin Lavransdatter cycle. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. In her great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter , set in fourteenth-century Catholic Norway, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset tells the life …

Another amazing  novel from one of the great Catholic fiction writers of the 20th century. Will Barrett is a 25-year-old wanderer from the South living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future, until the purchase of a telescope sets off a romance and changes his life forever. About the author: Walker Percy is the author of nine books of fiction and …

A gripping novel of the Antichrist . . . Described by Fulton Sheen as one of the three greatest depictions of the advent of the demonic in world literature, Lord of the World is science fiction with a difference. The West has succumbed to a sort of international socialism. The forces of secular materialism, relativism and state control are everywhere triumphant. Protestantism is no more, and …

Bestselling Catholic author Mike Aquilina shares wonderful stories of family life - full of love and laughter. "God stoops down to lift up our homes, to make them outposts of his paradise…no matter how cold the winds may blow on a winter day." —From the Introduction Paradise? Family life? Really? Yes—and one filled with laughter. If that doesn't sound like your …

A landmark novel from one of the great Catholic novelists of the 20th century. Dr. Tom More has created a stethoscope of the human spirit. With it, he embarks on an unforgettable odyssey to cure mankind's spiritual flu. This novel confronts both the value of life and its susceptibility to chance and ruin. About the author: Walker Percy is the author of over ten books, many of which were …

The highly regarded spiritual writer and theologian, Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, presents an overview of the Old Testament, what it is, its relationship to the New Testament, and how it is crucial for being familiar with the Old Testament to really understand in a deeper way the richness and message of the New. In particular, he shows that it is crucial to grasp that connection in order to …

The remarkable life of Blessed Pier Frassati for young adults. A beguiling and moving biography of Pier Giorgio Frassati, a handsome, athletic and fun-loving young man from a rich, aristocratic Italian family in the 1920's who was recently beatified by Pope John Paul II. Pier Giorgio turned from a life of privilege to one devoted to working with the poor, and was a courageous witness of …

A thought-provoking novel about convent life at the turn of the century. Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy is a gripping, even life-changing book. For the Sisters of the Crucifixion, each day is a ceaseless round of work, study, and prayer--one hardly separate from the other. Their daily life is itself an act of devotion, caught here in a series of illuminated tableaux: hundreds of yellow …

Fr. Von Balthasar provides us with a wonderful and concise spiritual guide for all who desire to know and love the Mother of the Lord. The acclaimed theologian von Balthasar gathers from the Sacred Scriptures and the richest tradition of the Church the elements of a portrait which shows Mary's place and her relevance for today.

The Do's and Don't's in Catholic liturgy today . . . this book will help you navigate through the confusion! No Catholic can be unaware of the crisis in Catholic liturgy.  Even priests are often bewildered by the contradictory information put out by liturgical "experts."  This one-of-a-kind book cuts through the confusion: Empowers priests and laity to deal with the …

Fr. Congar masterfully explains why Tradition is an inescapable aspect of a fully biblical Christian faith. Some Christians claim to reject Tradition in preference to a supposedly "Bible only" Christianity. Catholics, on the other hand, venerate Tradition, yet often without adequately understanding it. In this masterful book, the great theologian Yves Congar explains why Tradition is …

Return to the basics, the "meat and potatoes" of our faith, with Fr. Joe Classen! What is so special about Sacraments? How did the rituals and traditions of the Mass get started? Why do we have a pope? What's the point of going to confession? Father Joe Classen has heard all these questions and more from parishioners, fishing buddies, neighbors, and acquaintances. They seem to …

Celebrate the Pauline Year with this new book to be published in August 2008. The teachings of the letters of St. Paul permeate just about everything Christians believe and practice, but many of us know very little about this great apostle of the Church. In Meeting St. Paul Today , one of the most respected scholars in the Catholic faith, Fr. Daniel Harrington, SJ, brings the letters of Paul …

Winner of The 1963 National Book Award for Fiction.  One of the greatest Catholic novels of the 20th century! The hero of J.F. Powers's comic masterpiece is Father Urban, a man of the cloth who is also a man of the world. Charming, with an expansive vision of the spiritual life and a high tolerance for moral ambiguity, Urban enjoys a national reputation as a speaker on the religious …

At her death in 1964, O'Connor left behind a body of unpublished essays and lectures as well as a number of critical articles that had appeared in scattered publications during her too-short lifetime. The keen writings comprising Mystery and Manners , selected and edited by O'Connor's lifelong friends Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, are characterized by the directness and simplicity of the …

"Here's another one of those 'They could make it into a movie!' books that keeps you always wanting to read just one more chapter.  Red Hugh was a true champion for Irish liberty from Queen Elizabeth's constricting reign in the late 1580's and beyond.  Hugh's capture, imprisonment, and escape from the Dublin Castle; his triumph over a blizzard and frostbite; his dramatic rescue of his …