Well, Would You Look At That ...

... my little piece for the Future of Catholicism is up today. When I say little, I'm not kidding. But, you know, when you have just one thing to say you don't need to go on and on. And my one thing ... it's pretty big.

Plus, The Anchoress twisted my arm and got a photo out of me. So for anyone who is not satisfied with a purple-haired avatar, that is one more reason to check it out.

If you are dropping by from the Symposium, welcome!

can I interpret this past Sunday's Gospel reading as scriptural proof that Jesus doesn't want me to cook or clean?

The Crescat asks the question and then backs it up with visual proof. How is she always so funny?

Whatever Happened to Describing Something as Mouthwatering?

Or even as tantalizing? Or appealing?

No, it's all something-porn. Oh the unimaginative and vocabulary-poor times in which we live.

Regardless of that mini-rant, do pop though and take a look at these scrump-diddly-umptious book collections at Bookshelf Porn. It is enough to make one dream longingly of a large country house with a really proper library of one's own.

(Thanks to Tante Leonie for this treat!)

Reviewing Inception: Putting Together a Dream Team for the Perfect Crime

Something is locked away in an impregnable fortress, something the owner knows by heart. Can this band of thieves replace it with something so similar that he'll never notice the difference?

On one level, this is the ultimate crime caper with the enjoyment of watching the team be assembled, watching the multi-layered plan be put into effect, and the tension of wondering if it will work.

On a completely different level, this movie probes how we know what is true, whether we will settle for what we wish rather than what is real, and our ultimate deep need for facing guilt and true reconciliation.

Somehow Christopher Nolan has managed to combine James Bond style action, a stylish heist movie, the best elements of the Matrix (which this blew out of the water, hands-down), horror movie suspense, a sci-fi world setting, a logic puzzle requiring intense concentration, and the love of a man for his family into a cohesive and satisfying whole. It is a mark of Christopher Nolan's skill that he leads us deeper and deeper into the complex plot without huge chunks of exposition but in such a way that we can keep up while the story flows on.

You can enjoy this on many levels or simply for the top story-telling. The acting was superb from such well known actors as Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, and Cillian Murphy ... and a new actor to me, Tom Hardy.

I would say more about the plot, but having avoided every review so I could let the movie unfold and take it on the director's terms, I will let you do the same. Do not miss this elegantly told, layered story that succeeds on a personal level which I have not seen from Nolan's movies before.

SPOILERS below the white space:









Just a couple of points:

• Ariadne - in Greek mythology was the girl who helped Theseus get through the maze so he could overcome the minotaur ... think of the maze she created to get the job. Even at the time I was watching and trying to puzzle why that name was significant, I thought that maze was like the Minotaur's labyrinth.
• I loved how the different levels echoed the people whose subconscious we were in, such as the rain in the chemist's city, the elegant design of Arthur's hotel (just passing through), the snow-cold fortress of Fischer's heart (thank you, Dad).
• The parallel sons and fathers were interesting as well, as briefly as we saw them. Cobb's father (Michael Caine) was supportive and taught him everything he knew. Fischer's father was cold and heartless.
• Although we never saw them use their tokens, I liked how they echoed their makers: point man Arthur's loaded die and architect/maze maker Ariadne's chess piece.
• Rose told me that Christopher Nolan had to use a pyramid story-telling scheme to keep track of all the levels and the time lines. One reviewer called the story relentlessly true to it's internal logic and this seemed right to us. I can't image how they kept track of all this.
• I know this is a Nolan trademark but I liked all the repeating lines through the movie that always meant something different depending on the time, place, and character saying them. Just a clever thing that adds emphasis to the depth of the story.
• ADDED: I am not really a Leonardo DiCaprio fan at all but he is simply wonderful in this role. It made me think back to the first movie I ever saw him in, What's Eating Gilbert Grape. He and Johnny Depp were both very good. Now, flash forward and I am mentally comparing their acting. DiCaprio's work in this film especially makes it clear to me that he is progressing into an actor of depth and that Johnny Depp, as much as I like him, has simply stalled. I am not sure whether he needs to seek different roles and directors in order to further develop his talent or whether he has fewer notes to sound than DiCaprio. Either way, he is not the same caliber of actor and everyone in our family had to admit it (despite the fact that none of the females wanted to do so!).
  

In which Davies does the impossible.

He really does! A fresh episode of Forgotten Classics with more of The Riddle of the Sands is ready for your delectation.

Something I Really Like - Family

Rose comes home today.

For a whole month!

Woohoo!

More Books ...

Continuing the book talk with what I've read ... this catches us up for the moment.

The Window at the White Cat by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Picked this up from LibriVox and I recommend it highly for the narrration by Robert Keiper which is pure delight. His introduction reads:

When a clumsy, well-meaning lawyer gets involved with a pair of delightful old maids and a beautiful girl, he must acquire some of the skills of his friends the detective and the newspaperman to solve the puzzle of The White Cat. That’s the name of a back-street political club serving beers, political favors and, occasionally, murder.

There is a wickedly understated humor to the story telling that the narrator picks up perfectly and which adds to the enjoyment of this old mystery. #59.

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family
Picked this up at random at Half Price Books. I have a vague memory of having read it before but that may be inaccurate. You'd think from the name that this would be chock-full of life at a restaurant, whether from a childhood standpoint or adult looking back. Not so. Volk takes us into the lives of her quirky, fascinating relatives and gives us a look back at when individuality was to be expected of everyone. The restaurant was somewhat incidental and was presented as just another quirk of a few people's personalities but I didn't mind that at all.

Clearly Volk loves her family and there are many moments worth reading about here: funny, wistful, and sometimes cringe-worthy. What comes through more than anything is Volk's love and appreciation for all these people and I learned to like them very much indeed. My favorite was the aunt who spent 7 hours as a hostage at gunpoint and wound up being turned loose, having given the young man some very good advice about how to spend his time in prison and a decent meal. #60.

Vampire$ by John Steakley
(my review here) #61.

Armor by John Steakley
After reading Vampire$, there was no way I couldn't try this. How handy that I already had it in my bedside stack since I got them both from the library at the same time.

This book was written before Vampires and in some basic ways is very similar in character structure. I also am confused about why Steakley can only seem to name his main protagonists Felix and Jack Crow, especially when they are clearly supposed to be different people in a different reality. However, be that as it may, Armor is an intense story that holds up fairly well but didn't really grab my interest until about halfway through the book. Unfortunately, that is also the time that I realized a major plot twist revealed at the end of the book. I would say "figured out" but I felt my conclusion was practically thrust upon me. So that took the edge off of a lot of the story for me.

Not bad, and I may like it much better if I reread it. Not sure if that will happen though ... #62.

They Did It With Love
Yet another book thrust upon me by Hannah, however after reading Vampire$ and Armor I needed something light. This fills the bill as it is exceedingly lightweight and fluffy. A suburban murder mystery featuring a mystery book club that is determined to solve the murder of one of their own. Although that makes it sound as if this is a group of good friends making a concerted effort and that actually has just begun happening on around page 200. And I would never call these ladies pals. At best they seem to have joined the book club as refugees from the tedium of suburban life. Not riveting but it's a quick read thus far and I'm close enough to the end to want to stick around and see who dunnit. I slogged through the last hundred pages with unfaithful couples piling up like cordwood around me. It got more and more tedious until it got to a conclusion that I found distinctly unsatisfying. NOT recommended. #63.

You Are What You See: Watching Movies Through a Christian Lens
Y'all know by now that I like this book so I will direct you to this excellent review from Brandywine Books. #64.

Wife of the Chef
I seem to remember having read this long ago. Just began it but if nothing else you will appreciate how very un-busy your life seems in comparison to that of a restaurant owner-chef. A standard behind-the-scenes in the restaurant business book. However, the frantic pace of the text covering one mishap and frantic problem after another serves to make one wonder how they remain in business or even married. I blame the editor for this as if the author had slowed down occasionally for some thoughtful pondering and appreciation of the positive aspects of this restaurant life then the readers would have been able to see she had more than one note. I understand why some reviewers thought she was angry and complaining all the time. I believe much of it is an attempt at self-deprecating humor with the eye of sharing all with the reader. However, it does not come off well and an entire book full of it is wearying. #65.

Laughter in the Alehouse by Henry Kane
I discovered Henry Kane in Lawrence Block's article about him featured in the current Mystery Scene magazine. This was a nice combination of mystery and spy novel featuring a police lieutenant who has retired early enough to still enjoy life and earn extra money by taking on detection cases. Written in 1968 when a person could enjoy a cigarette without condemnation, handsome men slept with beautiful women without needing a blow-by-blow description, and main characters were sophisticated about food, quotations, and motivations. Quite enjoyable indeed. #66.

Something I Really LIke - A Chance to Be Creative

This is one of the few books that I have done all the creative design and layout for, including the cover.

It was a pleasure to work on also because it is the sort of book that I wish I'd had around when our own girls were young. I used to give the girls coupons for their birthdays and Christmas. They were good for their choice of activity with either Tom or me or for the entire family. Then I insisted that they use them ... and we had lots of fun with those.

This is a similar concept, but for an older girl who is getting ready to make those great strides toward womanhood. Michaelann Martin takes that same concept of mothers and daughters spending one-on-one time and puts it to good use in helping prepare a girl for her future as a woman of God. She gets creative but allows just the right amount of leeway for you to be creative also. It is a great book (oh, and so well designed!).

Girls' Night Out is divided into ten lessons, accompanied by a date activity that journeys to a tea house, salon, shrine, book store, café, jewelry shop, department store, nail spa, community recreation center, a walk in your neighborhood, park, or simple hike, scenic drive, ice cream parlor, restaurant, and other inexpensive places to invest in your relationship with your daughter. This book is perfect for mothers who want to build close bonds with their daughters and are willing to invest special time in their daughter’s preadolescent years not only as a mom but as a special friend, examining their lives in light of God’s Word and the virtues.

Here are a few looks at some inside pages ... click on them to enlarge. You can order the book at Emmaus Road Publishing.

Books ...

It's been a while since I ran down the reading list, as we can see from the length of this list. I'll have some more for you tomorrow.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Major Pettigrew is living a quiet life in the village of Edgecombe St. Mary when the news that his brother has suddenly died comes and sends him into a (very quiet) tailspin. It sparks a sudden friendship with Mrs. Ali who has also lost her husband. Both are struggling quietly with relatives who selfishly want to force them to behave differently.

A brilliantly told tale in which no character is perfect but also no character is without a nuanced personality, which means no one is all bad either. A gentle tale of love, second chances, and self realization. #50.

Assam and Darjeeling
If there is any justice in this world, then this book will become a classic. I was enchanted by it when listening to T.M. Camp's audio version on iTunes (want a sample? go listen.)

Picking up the published version, I was afraid that the story wouldn't hold up to what I remembered. I need not have feared. The printed version is superior, in fact, because the eye can linger over the beautifully written phrases, which add a depth that the ear doesn't convey in quite the same way.

A masterful and nuanced book, Assam & Darjeeling is the story of a quest straight into legendary, mythological landscape. Two children’s efforts to save their mother serves as a lens through which we see pure love, redemption, and sacrifice. (For my complete review, go to SFFaudio. Highest recommendation. #51.

The Help
This is a brilliantly written book. Honestly, if I’d really known what it was about I’d never have been interested but once I was engrossed in it I was glad to have read this excellent book. Told by two different servants and one young woman who doesn’t fit into the Jackson, Mississippi society because she didn’t immediately get married and begin a family, this is a story of their unexpected collaboration on a secret project that results in all of them crossing lines that are not acknowledged aloud but which must be crossed in order to truly know themselves. I raced through the last fourth of it. Highly recommended. HIGHLY! #52.

The Guernsey Island Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
This book of letters back and forth between a London author and members of a literary society on Guernsey is a light and easy read. It takes the reader into what it was like on Guernsey during German occupation of the island, while simultaneously communicating just how much books can change a person's life. Very good. #53.

Trouble is My Business
Having suffered through City of Dragons, I realized I'd never really read any of the prototypical genre she was attempting to emulate. My random selections of Raymond Chandler from the library yielded a book of short stories and a novel. Beginning with this book of short stories, I discovered that Chandler is an author I am enjoying. These pithy stories are exactly what you would expect from the creator of Philip Marlowe, except that they show the quintessential hard-boiled detective from a developmental stage through many different stories. The last four stories have Philip Marlowe in them. Great fun. #54.

The Rookie

THE ROOKIE is set amongst a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future. Aliens play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that -- literally -- want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.

Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he'll wind up just another stat in the column marked "killed on the field."

I was listening to Luke Burrage's excellent review of this audiobook when I realized I had set it aside about halfway through in order to listen to something else (can't remember why) and forgotten to go back to it. I'm finishing up the last few chapters now. but as always Sigler writes completely entertainingly. Not a deep story but more of a coming of age story in space. The alien races created are very creative, as are the adaptations of the football rules to accommodate their participation.

Warning: when the author says with glee "lots and LOTS of violence" he means it. #55.

Katish: Our Russian Cook
Picked up this Modern Library edition using a Half Price Books gift certificate I received for my birthday. Just began it as I hadn't read anything food related in so long and after a while I've gotta have a fix. A charming, gentle memoir of a time when you could afford a cook and it might just give a Russian immigrant a home in America. In the process you will be fed many Russian delicacies and jot down the recipes so that others may enjoy them also. #56.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
I read this for the SFFaudio read-along and found it very difficult to get into, although having found a definition of a pyrotechnic book in the introduction (which I read after finishing the book) helped a lot. Essentially the book is one firecracker after another, each bigger than the next so that the reader is rocketed (ha!) through the plot.

At the most basic level, this is the story of Gulliver Foyle who becomes obsessed with finding the ship that refused to stop and aid him when he was stranded aboard a wrecked spaceship. There are many other levels or themes to this story, most prominent of which is transformation. I will not expound upon this further as I want to discuss it on the podcast in July. However, I found it thought provoking, especially Foyle's statement about faith.

Definitely recommended, but be prepared to be patient as you adjust to the clipping pace. You may find yourself bewildered. It is intentional and you'll catch up as you read along. #57.

This Tremendous Lover
A bestseller over 60 years ago, written to act as an introduction to the spiritual life for every day Catholics, this book still speaks to us over the years on a highly practical level. Although sometimes the points Boylan is making have an emphasis that does not strictly apply to our modern lives, it is never a point wasted. As my husband has pointed out when I've read examples to him, quite often those points are still true for people today but they are just not spoken of as much. Really a wonderful book but time is needed to read in segments that allow for thought afterward. (Provided for review by Tiber River.)

Completely brilliant, both on a theological level and a personal level. I will be reviewing this in further depth later. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! #58.

Something I Really LIke - Toy Story 3

Critics are divided on this movie. They either love it or they criticize it as being the same old thing all over again.

I went with trepidation and was relieved to find it was a worthy end to the trilogy.

Don't listen to the naysayers (yes, Scott, I'm talkin' to you). It is funny, clever, and tells a worthwhile story. Even if there were nothing new, a good sequel that could stand on its own is worth the money.

I was especially intrigued by our glimpses of Andy as he is college-bound and facing transition to an adult. What do we regret? What do we hope for? There are hints of that in Andy's behavior.

I found that others had covered a lot of what I would have said about the movie on a deeper level, so I will excerpt them below. I will put subheads that won't spoil anything because the copy WILL contain spoilers (I saved these reviews to read until after I had seen the movie):

The Wonder of Storytelling

And wonder, actually, is what brings me to the second thing. Because at bottom, "Toy Story 3" is really about wonder -- specifically, the wonder of storytelling.

Near the end of the film, Andy finds a shy little girl who inherits his beloved toys -and the scene where he introduces her to them is enough to make strong men weep. (Pardon me, while I blow my nose. Sniff.) In that moment, Andy has discovered a kindred spirit: another kid without a dad, but one, like him, with a crazy and extravagant imagination -- the kind of imagination that will find new adventures for the toys, with new stories to tell. The movie that begins with an elaborate sequence inside Andy's imagination ends on a note of sweet expectation. You can't escape the hopeful feeling that there are many more Toy Stories waiting to be told, as long as there are children to love the toys, and keep them going. (An aside: There's also a hint that the greatest story, and greatest adventure of all, is life itself. I loved that the last shot of "TS3 "is the first shot of the original film: a blue sky dotted by clouds. But in the first film, it's a sky painted on Andy's bedroom wall. Here, it's the real sky of the real world - or, at least, Pixar's real world -- suggesting limitless adventures out there that are awaiting the little boy who grew up, and moved on.) — The Deacon's Bench

Attachment to People, Attachment to Things

As I was watching the scene in which Andy is giving away his toys, I was getting all choked up, getting a little teary eyed (I pretty sure I wasn't the only one who got all teary eyed as you can see here.) What the heck was I freaking out about. These are toys! This is an animated movie! I rationalized with myself that even though these were both true statements we, as movie goers, had assigned human personalities to them. After all, through three movies now, we had seen their adventures. We have seen them talk and walk and show fear, happiness and sorrow. In our minds, they weren't toys, or a cartoon---they were just as human as a human actor in a live-action movie.

Or was that all there was to it? Maybe we could associate with Andy and how he felt in giving away his toys. After all, we have all had to get rid of personal belongings before. We've all had belongings that have sentimental value to us. The question is--how much sentimental value to we put on these things. — Roman Catholic Cop

Right Relationship

there is enough here to explore the movie’s interesting logic of toy happiness. Such happiness depends upon a relationship between the owner and his toys. But the owner is not an owner in the same way that a slave-owner is an owner, and the toys are not “owned” as slaves are “owned.” The toys always remain free, but they cannot act freely for their happiness without an owner who plays with them and loves them. Their owner is something of a cross between a father (or mother) and a friend, and he loves and is loved in return. The relationship is necessary for the fulfillment of the toys. — Catholic Key Blog

Some podcast lagniappe: You Are What You See

A little something extra about movies and how to watch them. From Forgotten Classics.

Something I Really Like - Thirst Quenching

Pomegranate Italian Soda from Tom Thumb. It is the best substitute for the now gone Central Market Pomegranate Soda. Deliciously tart, it is better than lemonade. Mmmm ...

In which Fraulein Dollman is shocked ...

... and the story begins to really pick up the pace. Yes, more of The Riddle of the Sands awaits you at Forgotten Classics. Enjoy!

Spontaneous prayer for an injured fan during a ballgame

A fan tried to snag a ball during the Rangers-Indians game and wound up falling 30 feet instead.

The TV screen showed Indians outfielder Trevor Crowe kneeling face down with his head in his hands.

“What’s he doing?” my 13-year-old son asked, unsure if he was seeing what he thought he was.

“He’s praying,” I confirmed. As emergency personnel at Rangers Ballpark rushed to the fan’s aid, Cleveland shortstop Jason Donald also appeared to be praying.

I have watched a few thousand — OK, a few million — major-league baseball games in my lifetime. Never before that I recall have I seen major-league ballplayers bow on the field in spontaneous prayer. ...

GetReligion

Luckily, it seems that the man ... and the people he landed on (that didn't occur to me when hearing the story on the radio this morning ... that he could land on people) ... are not seriously injured.

I was very moved by the fact that the first instinct from some players was to sink down in prayer.

How was it covered in the news? As always, GetReligion's got that story.

Something I Really Like - Around the House

The FlexGrip pen from Papermate.

I can't tell you how often Tom and I have griped because there weren't any inexpensive pens that actually worked well or felt right in our hands. The last time Rose was home she was looking for these so she could resupply. When it came up in conversation, others of Hannah's and Rose's acquaintance confirmed the FlexGrip as a treasure.

Once I found a supply at Target, I was really happy with them. They are all I ever wanted: lightweight, write without skipping (a problem for us lefties), slim, medium point, retractable, with a clip ... and cheap!

Something I Really Like: Boxers and TV

Specifically, a young male Boxer, Wash, who has just turned one year old. He is suddenly realizing that he's the "man dog" around the place and over the weekend took over guarding duties. It has been very interesting watching Zoe let him do it as she's always been the alpha-guard around here.

As to TV, Wash has always been more aware of the television than other dogs we've had. He particularly responds to dogs barking. Now that we have the 40" monster and dogs barking look life size, Wash will bound over to the television and brace himself on the console so he can bark back "in person." When the dog disappears mysteriously, he will then go looking for the interloper around the house.

It is all quite amusing watching this young 'un find his feet as a soon-to-be alpha dog.

Vampire$, Dallas and Catholics. Oh my!

1. God is real AND vampires are too.
2. A team of mercenaries, with pure hearts, are taking cash for cleaning up vampire infested towns.
3. The anti-vamp mercs are in league with the Pope and the Vatican, who know and support their efforts.

This was the section of Jesse's SFFaudio Essential review of Vampire$ that made me sit up and take notice. That, and the fact that Jesse rarely is as all-out enthusiastic as he was in this review, made me pick up a copy from the library.

Vampire$
Jack Crow leads a group of hardened mercenaries in hunting the evilest of all prey: vampires. Crow's only ally and employer, is the Vatican, specifically the pope. Most people do not know vampires are more than creatures of fiction so this makes "Team Crow's" job even more difficult, especially when it comes to getting cooperation from law enforcement. They don't let that stop them, however, and just do what a warrior's gotta do, which is to stop Evil in its tracks. That this is a military-style epic tale becomes clear as we see that the vampire hunters' violent, cursing exteriors can't hide their hearts of gold, especially for the other members of the team who are their true family. It is when Felix, a former drug smuggler, is added as an integral member of the team that the book takes off as he struggles with the concept that this may be the destiny he was born for.

The story is told in a clean, spare style which makes it no less riveting. There are plot turns and twists right up to the end of the book and many of them really surprised me because the style lured me into thinking this would be straight forward story telling. I also appreciated Steakley's sense of humor. For instance his use of rock and roll versus opera was a throwaway bit on the surface but reflected much about the people involved. As well, once I learned that Cat was a joker, I would anticipate his comments as soon as I saw he was going to speak. His puns were corny but used in original ways and that is a rare talent.

My only complaint is that there is one section where we hear an "inside story" about how a vampire takes over prey and establishes a base to work from. This seemed overly long and the concept and pattern were repeated with far too many examples. As this was a highly sexualized part of the tale, it seemed simply like an excuse to include lascivious details which quickly bored me. However, I must also add that this section was far less explicit than one would find in a comparable work today, or so it seems to me, and I appreciated that.

Highly recommended for those who like vampire tales, mercenaries with hearts of gold, Texas, and old-school use of the Catholic Church in fighting Evil. Not necessarily in that order.

For more about this author and Texas and the Church, just keep reading.

(Warning: this book contains sex, vampires, and rock and roll ... and all the bad language and violence which those things imply. Yes, I loved much of it because it felt very appropriate to the situations, but if you will not: avoid this book.)

Dallas.
I found myself surprised and intrigued by even more than the plot twists and turns that add pleasing dimension to the story. Steakley doesn't name names but his descriptions are enough to let you know that he has rooted the story in fact whenever possible. Jack Crow's favorite hotel is the Adolphus in Dallas. The pope's description leaves no one in doubt that we are reading about John Paul II.

For one thing, it looked as if author John Steakley knew Dallas. My first clue was reading his description of the Dallas bishop, when "Team Crow" goes by the bishop's residence to pick up their package of silver crosses sent straight from Rome.

The silver had arrived from Rome through the local see. The bishop was a new man who knew nothing about Team Crow or, for that matter, his parishioners. Persuaded by his aide that anyone with enough clout to receive a package from the Vatican through diplomatic channels was worth knowing, he grudgingly consented to share his sumptuous evening feast with Crow & Co.

It took less than fifteen minutes in his presence for Team Crow to know all the important facts about this man. He was cold. He was haughty. He was better than his flock, more cultured, more intelligently pious, more .. how shall one put it? More aristocratic.

The bishop was an idiot.

I felt a jolt of recognition. I told Tom briefly about the book, said it was set in Dallas, and copyrighted in 1990. Then I read him the description, and waited. It took only a second and then we both burst out laughing. It was a spot-on description of Bishop Grahmann who was installed in the Dallas diocese early in 1990.

However, that is also a common sort of character to encounter so I chalked it up to coincidence. It was when I saw that a wealthy character was introduced who lived in a secluded part of Inwood Road then I knew no coincidence was involved. John Steakly knew Dallas well because anyone from outside the area would have most probably placed the residence in Highland Park.

I asked Tom if he thought this author might be from Dallas and when I spelled his name, Tom said, "You mean as in Steakley Chevrolet?" (Now defunct but a Dallas staple car dealership for many, many years).

Oh. Right. I knew I had heard that name before.

Further research showed Steakley was from nearby Cleburn, Texas, which anyone who reads the book will recognize as a major setting and one where the police force is highly praised. For any Dallasites reading I will add that John Steakley lives in McKinney now. So he knows whereof he writes about Dallas.

Catholics.
(slight spoilers in this section)
It is not only Dallas that you get the feeling John Steakly understands. There is a dependence on the Catholic Church in the way that vampire tales of old used to convey. Good versus Evil. God versus the Unholy. Love, suffering, sacrifice, and redemption.

In the flicks that church forgot podcast review of 'Salem's Lot, Peter Laws pointed out that this was one of the first horror movies to devalue the nature of the sacraments into a reflection of personal faith. Actually, to put it as St. Augustine did, a sacrament is "a visible sign of an invisible reality." They have intrinsic value in and of themselves because they are blessed. (This might make them sound as if they are "magic" but that would be another misunderstanding and is not true ...)

The movie reflects Stephen King's book on this point of personal faith and sacraments. I was not Christian until long afterward but I still remember being vividly impressed by this speech from the book made by the master vampire after he has overpowered the priest, a man of shaky faith further undermined by alcoholism:

The cross--the bread and wine--the confessional--only symbols. Without faith the cross is only wood, the bread baked wheat, the wine sour grapes. If you had cast the cross away, you should have beaten me another night. In a way, I had hoped it might be so. It has been long since I had met a opponent of any real worth. The boy makes ten of you, false priest.

I took this as a statement of fact and it took several years of Catholicism to overcome a tendency to revert to this wrong concept.

There is no such shakiness in this book. The requirement for bullets made from the silver rendered by melting crosses which had to have been blessed by a bishop or higher does not also include that the gunman be a believer. The sacramental value is contained within the ammunition itself.

Furthermore, Steakley had no way of knowing in 1990 that Bishop Grahmann would never work well with his flock and that other major grievances would arise from his tenure. I, myself, had to struggle mightily with forgiveness on several fronts for this man. I will not spoil the moment by telling about the occasion in the story, but Steakley redeems the bishop in a spectacular way that out and out forgives the bishop for his lack of character. Well before that, he gives the bishop humanity which shows after the truth of the situation is understood.

Within the context of the story, this works well in moving the plot along. However, taken from the standpoint of one who was aware of the bishop both as non-Catholic and as a convert, it is a very generous stance. It is a stance of forgiveness and understanding that is far beyond that extended even today by some people toward the bishop. It was a humbling moment, actually, to realize that I am not sure if I'd have had that character show that Father Adam is right when he says, "There is a reason why people become priests, Kirk." It is a thoroughly Catholic understanding of the priesthood.

Those examples are just a few of the ways that Steakley unwaveringly sets the Church as the driving force behind this epic battle between good and evil. Just as those who enjoy horror read Dean Koontz's books with a Catholic focus, so can they enjoy this particular book. He knows whereof he writes about the Church.

Something I Really Like: Two Women Talking

In other words, coffee with a friend.

I don't usually have time to go to lunch during the day and my evenings tend to be rather full. I am, however, able to squeeze in an hour before the work day begins for coffee with a friend.

I must thank a good friend for being so persistent about getting together that I was forced to reevaluate my schedule. I now find this time once a week (or every other week) to be just what I needed in connecting one-on-one with people I don't usually get to talk with.

It is simply wonderful.

Elements of Faith: A Catholic Women's Book Club

Having evidently turned into a Goodreads junkie, I have just created a group for our local Catholic women's book club.

Not only will this make it easier to have between meeting book talk, but it allows us to open the club up to those who can't make it in person, such as most of the readers of this blog.

Even guys may find themselves interested in our book selections.

Feel free to check out the group's bookshelves and join up if you are interested.

AudiobookSync.com: 18 FREE Audiobooks (2 per week over the summer)

Wow!

Everything from Shirley Jackson to Robert Louis Stevenson and including The Hunger Games, which I've been interested in since both Scott Danielson and Steven Riddle posted rave reviews about it.

Jesse says that you have to jump through a few hoops to get the books but I can do that thing. He's got the steps outlined and it doesn't look too bad, especially if the result is 18 free audiobooks. Check it out at SFFaudio.