I would pair Rightfully Ours, which includes a few sweltering summer scenes, with a glass of ice-cold, fresh-squeezed lemonade. Paul and Rachel could use something to cool them down, in more ways than one!
Here’s a little excerpt. For context, Rachel’s little brother James has just shot her with his squirt gun.
A stream of ice-cold water smacked her upper arm.
She squealed and jumped from her seat, turning in time to see James push off the ground with his forearms and sprint around the side of the house. She let out a growl. “I’m going to kill him.”
Paul sat up, scanning the yard in either direction. “Man, I’ll pay him to hit me. I’m dying out here.” He unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves.
Rachel giggled. “You look ridiculous, you know.” Sleeves and pant legs rolled up. Shirt undone. Bare feet. He needed to put on some shorts. He could leave his shirt off, and she wouldn’t mind one bit. Not one bit. “Why don’t you go get changed?”
When Larkin Maybie buries her mother in the foothills of Appalachia, she is left all alone. Her only inheritance? A crazy aunt, a mountain of debt, and a run-down, secluded cabin left by a mysterious benefactor. While Larkin thinks an escape to a cabin miles from anything familiar might be exactly what she needs, the quick answer to her problems only leaves her with more questions … Questions concerning her true identity.
As Larkin searches for her link to the Lewandowski Estate, she begins to accept the kindness of strangers on Presque Isle and the affection of professional baseball player, Ketch Devine. Charged with caring for the cabin’s honey bees and haunted by past choices, Larkin struggles to move forward in a new direction and is running out of time. With summer and baseball season coming to an end, she must decide: what is the value of true love and an authentic life?
The rosary has saved the world in the past. It will save the world now, by saving the family.
Father Patrick Peyton
In Theaters October 9, 2020
PRAY: THE STORY OF PATRICK PEYTON is an inspiring documentary about a poor, uneducated Irish immigrant who sets sail for America in 1928 with nothing but his faith and dreams of becoming a millionaire. Arriving in Pennsylvania and unable to find work, he accepts the position as a janitor at the cathedral, which rekindles his long lost desire to become a priest and changes the course of his life. Nearing ordination, his life takes a radical turn when he is stricken with tuberculosis. Facing certain death, he sinks into despair. A visit from his mentor, who delivers a simple message to pray, lifts the darkness. Taking his advice to heart, Patrick prays fervently to Mary, the Mother of Christ, for her intercession and he experiences a miraculous recovery. Feeling deep gratitude, he dedicates his life to telling all the world about the power of prayer and encourages families everywhere to bring prayer into their homes. Never taking “No” for an answer, he convinces Hollywood’s biggest stars to help him spread the message, “The family that prays together stays together,” through the power of mass media including radio, television, and film. Father Peyton’s fame spreads around the world and audiences in the millions flock to his public prayer rallies. This is the story of a tireless missionary, an unlikely hero, and one of history’s greatest advocates for family prayer.
Welcome to the September 2020 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com!
In Spite of Ourselves by Jennifer Rodewald is what I call a marriage of inconvenience story. A drunken, quickie Vegas marriage of strangers can’t just be forgotten by either Jackson or Kenz. What follows is a sometimes funny, always heartfelt story of God writing straight with crooked lines. Jackson is an inspiring model of God’s faithfulness, and this book is one of my favorites this year.
I had to go back and read the first book in the Murphy Brothers series by Jennifer Rodewald: Always You. This novel is less dramatic that In Spite of Ourselves, a gentle friends-to-lovers novel with real and relatable problems being obstacles to a new romance. There are seven brothers in this family, so there is much more good stuff to come!
Crystal Walton has freshened up her first series, and I was happy to read Eyes Unveiled. It evokes all the confusion of burgeoning adulthood: discovering who I am, what I want to do, and my place in the world. It’s a story of self-discovery and sweet romance with the challenge of a bit of a love triangle.
Each book in Courtney Walsh’s Harbor Point series is better than the last. Just Like Home is an unlikely romance between professional ballerina Charlotte and high school football coach Cole. Gruff, rude, hurt, and angry Cole ends up being a perfect, endearingly sweet and romantic match for sheltered Charlotte, who is seeking love and acceptance in the wake of her long-distance friend’s (Cole’s sister) death.
Help from Heaven: True Stories of Rescues, Miracles, and Answered Prayers from a First Responder by Andrea Jo Rodgers is a collection of some of the author’s experiences as an EMT over the past several decades. Interspersed with Bible verses and short reflections, these are the kind of short tales that become addictive. What kind of predicament is it? Will they get to the hospital in time? Will they make it?
Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America by Loren Coleman provides a good overview of the popular and cryptozoological history of Bigfoot for the casual observer. I read this as research for a novel I’m writing and found it a solid and enjoyable examination of the phenomena heavily concentrated on the 1960s.
For his summer reading assignment, my high school senior chose Nation by Terry Pratchett, an author new to him. He seems reluctant to part with this book, even though it has to go back to the library. This multi-award-winning Young Adult novel concerns Mau, the last surviving member of his nation, alone on a desert island. Then he meets Daphne, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Themes include death and nationhood.
Curious about H.P Lovecraft, he downloaded and quickly read The Call of Cthulhu. The description calls it a “harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.” My son said it was okay but that he didn’t find it scary, except in a Dracula sense, which I take to mean suspenseful, where what’s unseen is scarier than what is presented.
My daughter has mostly been finishing series she’d begun this summer, first Percy Jacskson and the Olympians, then the follow-up to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The New Chronicles of Rebecca by Kate Douglass Wiggin, which she found a bit disappointing, and then Theresa Linden’s West Brothers series. She’s currently reading Fire Starters, which is great preparation for Confirmation, still more than a year away for her. The West Brothers—Jarret, Keefe, and Roland—were away from the Church and have missed being confirmed, and their friends are on hand both to help them prepare and solve a mystery involving their parish church.
She also read the classic Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. We seem to have a family of pirate-lovers, and she enjoyed this as much as the rest of us have. It didn’t hurt that we found a fancy hardbound version with a ribbon bookmark and gold-trimmed pages at the library. It’s the little things.
I’ve been slacking off a bit with the little kids this past month, but my youngest read his reward book from the library’s summer reading program, Super Rabbit Boy vs. Super Rabbit Boss by Thomas Flintham. It’s the fourth book in the series, but that didn’t seem to bother my second-grader. He loves all things video games, and this book, heavy on illustrations, suited him just fine. He’d like to read the other books in the series.
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You won’t find “Theology of the Body Fiction” as an Amazon category. It’s a niche of contemporary Catholic fiction (also, unfortunately, not an Amazon category) that I describe as stories viewed through the lens of Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. It doesn’t spout passages from his addresses, but it recognizes the truths contained therein.
The go-to source for such fiction is Full Quiver Publishing. You’ll find several of my books there, some of those listed below, and books by Ellen Gable. (Full Quiver Publishing was founded in 2004 by Ellen and her husband, James Hrkach.)
Set within the expanses of the American frontier, The Woman in the Trees follows Slainie, an inquisitive pioneer girl, whose life is forever transformed when a mysterious seer shows up at her door. Amidst the backdrop of the Civil War, family tragedy, and the nation’s most destructive wildfire, Slainie must navigate her rugged pioneer life as she encounters love and loss, and comes face to face with the story of America’s first approved Marian apparition.
Excitement greeted the Wanderlight: A Pilgrim’s Adventure promotional pack the second I held it in my hands, from the 17-year-old, curious about a Catholic video game, to the younger kids, eager to give the demo a shot (especially mid-week, when they are ordinarily not allowed to indulge in video games).
They’d already seen the trailer for Loyola Press’s innovative game and were intrigued. Now, with a plushie version of the main character, Pilgrim; stickers; and a poster, they were eager to dive in.
Since earlier this summer, my kids have been enjoying Animal Crossing, a gentle sort of game that they equally enjoy – both the boys and the girls, from the high school senior down to the middle school tween and the lower and upper elementary kids. Waderlight holds a lot of the same appeal.
Book 1 in The Harwood Mysteries from Loyola Press.
About the book:
An attack by bandits in the middle of the night leaves a young boy with no memory of who he is or where he is from. Nursed back to health by the devoted monks in a Benedictine abbey, he takes the name Alexander, or Xan for short. Aided by the kindly Brother Andrew, Xan commits himself to finding out who he really is.
Does he have a family? Are they still alive? And who—or what—is the shadowy figure creeping around the abbey in the dead of night?
Embark on an adventure while reading Shadow in the Dark as young Alexander tries to recover his memory and, with his new friends, uncover the mystery of the shadowy figure in the dark.
