Here are 20 of my favorite books read in 2017. It was tough to pare it down to 20, and there are some books I loved that I left off of the list, but here they are, in no particular order.
My Top 20 Favorite Books of 2017! My Scribbler's Heart Blog Share on X
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CatholicMom.com
LoveEd Program Empowers Parents to Teach Their Children About Chastity (December 20, 2017)
“The beauty of LoveEd: Raising Kids That Are Strong, Smart and Pure by Coleen Kelly Mast is that it does not seek to minimize the parents’ role in educating their children about chastity but instead empowers them to excel at it. It does so by offering materials and a format that encourage the frank, meaningful dialogue necessary to teach our children fundamental, critical lessons about the truth and meaning of human sexuality in a manner that is engaging and appealing.”
Protecting Young Minds with Good Pictures Bad Pictures (October 17, 2017)
“Using analogies and terms children can understand, seven short chapters cover pornography, addiction, and various aspects of brain function. The book also offers a five-step “CAN DO” plan for children to implement should they be confronted with pornographic images.”
Meatless Friday: Shrimp, Corn, and Potato Foil Packets (September 1, 2017)
“By hitting the local farmers’ market in the afternoon, I had all of the fresh corn on the cob and potatoes I needed for this recipe, which, after some prep time, is quick and easy on the grill.”
Catholic365.com
Catholic Fiction and Where to Find It (September 23, 2017)
Catholic Christmas Book-Giving Guide: Ten Picks for Your Holiday Shopping (December 15, 2017)
Under the Catholic Child’s Christmas Tree: A Book-Giving Guide (December 16, 2017)
I enjoy reading Christmas books from the beginning of Advent straight through to the end of the Christmas season – long after most people have dragged their needle-dropping trees to the curb.
These are recommendations from the Christmas-themed novels I’ve read since my #5Faves: Christmas Romance Novellas (and More) post two years ago.
Melchior: Vengeance Is Mine is a sweeping saga that shows the generational effects of our choices. The tapestry of interwoven characters was rich and well done, in my opinion. I’ve seen written that during the development of the novel, your husband passed away. How was the novel’s development affected by your grief, and how did that grief affect the novel?
Writing has always been a bit if an escape from reality and yet an opportunity to look at life—my life as well as life in general—from a fresh angle. John suffered the effects of Leukemia for four years before he passed away, so my writing during those years shadowed that reality. Many questions arose while I watched the man I loved suffer and die. At the same time, God’s grace remained tangible and held me together far better than I realized during the ordeal. The dual reality of grief and comfort, testing and surrender, informed the complexities of the novel. I realized I could no longer simply tell a “story.” Rather, I reflected through character, plot, and setting something of life’s mystery, which pointed to something beyond me as a writer and humanity as a whole. That is the core of Melchior’s journey—to realize that he didn’t have to understand God or even himself; he simply needed to allow God to grow inside him no matter what was happening around him. Continue reading
Corinna Turner’s latest novel, Elfling, has been accepted for an Amazon Kindle Scout campaign. To help it go further, it needs lots of nominations! Anyone who nominates it will get a free Kindle copy if the campaign is successful.
I considered whether this post didn’t belong in November, the month in which Catholics traditionally remember the poor souls in Purgatory. Is a reflection on conversion, sacrifice, and the last things too melancholy for the pre-Christmas season?
But “pre-Christmas” isn’t really a season. A marketing device maybe, but not a true season and definitely not a liturgical season. The more I thought, the more I became convinced that Advent is a perfect time to meditate on sin and conversion. Continue reading
During Advent, the Christmas books are slipped off of the shelves for bedtime reading. Our hodgepodge collection includes Christian and secular Christmas stories, old and new. Some are cheap Scholastic books about characters who are little more than a cog in the marketing machine. (Those, I try to avoid.) Others are classics we relish every year.
We also give each child a book as part of their Christmas gift. As the kids grow older, the books grow longer, and I’m more frequently looking for selections from my fellow authors at Catholic Teen Books.
Here are some ideas that I hope will find a spot under the Christmas tree of a child you love. Continue reading
During our Thanksgiving travels across Pennsylvania, my husband began listening to The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America by Jim Marrs. I confess to only half listening in the car, but I know that the book traces the legacies of the high-ranking European Nazis who made their way to corporate America at the end of World War II.
I just finished reading Billie Jauss’s soon-to-be-released book Making Room: Doing Less So God Can Do More (available for pre-order). I first met Billie through 10 Minute Novelists and was blessed to meet her in person a couple of years ago at a Pittsburgh Pirates game. (Her husband, Dave, is a coach.) Making Room recounts her spiritual journey from a busy life filled with her own priorities to an intentional life with God at the center. The author’s pitfalls and suggestions for overcoming them will resonate with women who want more from their relationship with Christ, but can’t seem to order their lives to make that happen.
After seeing approximately 1,594 previews for The Christmas Train movie on the Hallmark Channel, I stumbled across the audiobook on Hoopla. The more audiobooks I listen to, the pickier I’ve become about narration. So far, actor Tim Matheson’s narration of The Christmas Train by David Baldacci has been excellent! I’m only a few chapters in and a few anachronistic details threw me off course, but so far, so good. I’m in Christmas reading mode and looking forward to the remainder of the book.
My son read the Book of Job and God’s Favorite by Neil Simon during our Thanksgiving travels. As you might guess, since the author is Neil Simon, God’s Favorite is a play, and it’s a modern look at Job. It’s short, and, my son said, very funny. Adding it to my to-read list.
My fourth-grade daughter is reading a book I originally bought for her brother and read aloud. Destination Bethlehem by Shannon R. Altman and Christine M. Winkelman makes perfect Advent reading. Two boys travel from Palestine to Bethlehem at the time of the Messiah’s birth. Its twenty-four chapters can be read one a day during the month of December in anticipation of Christmas.
Plain Girl by Virginia Sorensen became another Thanksgiving travel read. I guess the title should have tipped me off, but with only a desk on the cover of the library version my daughter borrowed, I didn’t realize the book was about plain folk. The premise is an Amish girl, Esther, attending a public school.
My kindergartener is going through easy reader books quicker than I can keep up with! While at the library this week, I introduced her to Poppleton in Winter by Cynthia Rylant. The simple, humorous stories feature a pig (Poppleton) and his friends Cherry Sue (a llama) and Hudson (a mouse). I highly recommend Poppleton for beginning readers.
My youngest child brought home The Promise Quilt by Candice F. Ransom from a blanket-themed story time. This sad, but ultimately hopeful, story centers around a Civil War era girl whose father dies in battle. The red shirt he left behind becomes the family’s means of achieving the dreams he had for them. Touching.
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