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!

A new edition of a spiritual classic! Through beautiful prose and meditations, Caryll Houselander depicts the intimately human side of Mary, Mother of God, as an empty reed waiting for God's music to be played through her. Lovingly bringing Our Lady down off her time-honored, ancient pedestal, Houselander shares her insightful and beautiful vision of Mary on earth, Mary among us, Mary as a …

What place does Christ have in our modern society? Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher to the papal household, posed that question in a series of Advent and Lent  meditations presented to Pope Benedict XVI. In Remember Jesus Christ , which is based on these meditations, he explains that in order to bring people to Christ today, the Church needs to proclaim, as simply and succintly as …

The conclusion to the greatest fantasy epic of our time. While the evil might of the Dark Lord Sauron swarmed out to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggled deep into Mordor, seat of Sauron’s power. To defeat the Dark Lord, the accursed Ring of Power had to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. But the way was impossibly hard, and Frodo was weakening. Weighed down by the …

Anne Eileen Heffernan, FSP Mary Elizabeth Tebo, FSP Learn the story of St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes in this young adult biography in the Encounter the Saints Series . Experience the adventures and challenges, heroism and holiness of some of the greatest friends of God! Offers intermediate readers a down-to-earth portrayal of the saints. Each distinct story vividly recreates for the …

About this Book Francis of Assisi is, after Mary of Nazareth, the greatest saint in the Christian calendar, and one of the most influential men in the whole of human history. By universal acclaim, this biography by G. K. Chesterton is considered the best appreciation of Francis's life--the one that gets to the heart of the matter. For Chesterton, Francis is a great paradoxical figure, a man …

Three scientists revisit the compelling question of the origin of our universe, in an engaging and accessible style.   As progress in science continues to reveal unimagined complexities, three scientists revisit the difficult and compelling question of the origin of our universe. As mathematician, biochemist, and philosopher of science, they explore the possibility of developing a …

C. S. Lewis One of C.S. Lewis's most imaginative creations, this world-famous book is a humorous correspondence between the devil Screwtape and his apprentice Wormwood, whose job is to produce a human's soul for eternity in hell. Filled with astute insights into temptation, repentance, and grace, this wonderful tale intelligently explores what it means to live a good, honest life and is a …

A touching and thought-provoking novel from one of the greatest Catholic novelists of the 20th century. Will Barrett (also the hero of Percy's The Last Gentleman ) is a lonely widower suffering from a depression so severe that he decides he doesn't want to continue living. But then he meets Allison, a mental hospital escapee making a new life for herself in a greenhouse. The Second Coming is …

Reviews - "Shadow in the Dark has a wholesomeness that makes it stand out like a mountain among the suggestive emotionally confused sludge that has become the accepted fare to dish up for our youth.  This could be the future standard for sound adolescent literature!"  ~ Leo Madigan, The Weka-Feather Cloak   "With Shadow in the Dark, Barone has produced a real page …

The last 50 years have been confusing, tumultuous ones for Catholicism. Seminaries emptied, priests and nuns left their vocations, people dissented from basic teachings, and children received poor catecheses. What happened? This book answers that question. Part history, part Bible study, part apologetics manual, part Marian devotional, part catechism, The Signs of the Times is all profound …

"Majestic!...readers of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS...will find THE SILMARILLION a cosmology to call their own...medieval romances, fierce fairy tales and fiercer wars that ring with heraldic fury...it overwhelms the reader." - TIME magazine Those interested in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth should not be without this grand volume that tells the tragic tale of the struggle …

This wonderful book for young readers presents the remarkable life of the great English martyr, St. Thomas More, in an engaging and easy-to-read style. St. Thomas More, the light-hearted but heroic Chancellor of England, comes to life in this biography by Elizabeth M. Ince. Raised in the London of the late 1400's, Thomas was a bright student eager for knowledge. When serving as a page for …

Hailed by Frank O'Connor as one of "the greatest living storytellers," J. F. Powers, who died in 1999, stands with Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver among the authors who have given the short story an unmistakably American cast. In three slim collections of perfectly crafted stories, published over a period of some thirty years and brought together here in a single …

Familiarize yourself with some of the most amazing turning points in the fascinating history of Christ's Church. There are the saints and sinners, popes and kings that God used to shape his Church and change the world. You ' ll meet Clovis and Charlemagne, Luther and Pope Leo, Suleiman and St. Francis, the Arians, the Franks, the Huguenots, and others whose sins or sacrifices altered the …

A remarkable little gem of a book that will help you make more time for God in your busy life. Are you too busy to pray? What if you could actually gain time and be more productive by praying? Would you pray more? We often forget the real secret to gaining time and being productive is to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well (Mt 6:33). If we …

This book is a wonderful invitation to Tolkien's world. This rich treasury includes Tolkien's most beloved short fiction plus his essay on fantasy. FARMER GILES OF HAM. An imaginative history of the distant and marvelous past that introduces the rather unheroic Farmer Giles, whose efforts to capture a somewhat untrustworthy dragon will delight readers everywhere. THE ADVENTURES OF TOM …

They are coming! Sixteen-year-old Gilbert Chesterton is orphaned and friendless, stuck working a menial job in grimy turn-of-the-century London. Then one night strange lights fill the sky, and a hail of giant meteors crashes into a field outside the city. The next day Gilbert is amazed to find himself hired by a newspaper and rushed out to investigate the scene. Is it a harmless natural …

The continuing story in the greatest fantasy epic of our time. The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take the accursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor–the dark Kingdom where Sauron was supreme. Their guide was Gollum, …

A beautiful reissue of the greatest spiritual classic to come out of Russia.