Julie and Scott talk about The Social Network, a movie written by Aaron Sorkin, then decide to sue Mark Zuckerberg for wearing flip flops in the snow.

We discuss The Social Network at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Check it out!

Catholic Ministry Conference: Report, the Second

One of the joys of meeting in person is that the people we are friends with through blogging (or Google+ or other such means) are even more delightful in person.

Lisa Hendey
Foremost among those last weekend was Lisa Hendey of Catholic Mom. Of course, she and I met in San Antonio a couple of years ago at the Catholic New Media Conference. However, we didn't get to spend a lot of time together.

This time was different. We heard her talk about the saints on Friday and, after the conference was done, we all went to Mariano's for Tex Mex. We were able to talk and talk, fueled by the margaritas and brisket tacos.

The next day, we heard Lisa's excellent talk about new media and then chatted for a bit more before parting ways. Lisa is not only a wonderful speaker, with a relaxed and welcoming style, but extremely generous.

Both times she spoke, I was surprised because she found a way to mention my book and urge people to buy it while, having me stand and wave to the room. What a sweetheart!

Bernardo Aparicio
I didn't expect to meet Bernardo Aparicio, but on Friday at the book signing at St. Anthony Messenger Press's booth, a young man dashed up, "Are you Julie Davis?" When I assented, he thrust a copy of Dappled Things into my hands and said, "This is to thank you for supporting us over the years." I said, "Bernardo?" (Luckily I'd noticed that Dappled Things had a booth at the exhibit.)

What a pleasure it was to talk with him both that day and then on Saturday when I went over to check out the set up and subscribe to Dappled Things. I was thrilled to hear that he now lives in Arlington so we can get together in person (which I will be looking at my calendar for soon, Bernardo!).

Check out Dappled Things for things of beauty which will lift your hearts toward faith and heaven (a featured image can be seen here at Happy Catholic).

Paul Snatchko
Paul is a Google+ acquaintance. He's the manager of marketing and communications at Magnificat and we've chatted a bit on-line about the publication, which y'all know I'm a fan of. I'm also a fan of Paul who was great fun to chat with.

I am now reminded that I've been wanting to mention the Magnificat Missal Companion. Our church bought copies for everyone, which they made available last weekend. (Good thing they offer bulk discounts, I'm thinking, since several thousand attend our church each weekend.)

At any rate, this Missal Companion is a terrific guide to the changes in the liturgy that will be implemented when Advent begins. If your parish isn't as forthcoming, a copy is only $3.95 and I highly advise picking one up.

The HHS's War on the Church

Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the USCCB with a very informative and troubling post about HHS and the quiet little war it is declaring against the Church.

Markon’s story investigated how the grant process at HHS was manipulated to keep an office of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from receiving an award to serve victims of human trafficking. USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) had scored high enough to be awarded a federal grant to continue its very successful anti-trafficking program. But the decision was “overturned,” so to speak, when Sharon Parrott, a top adviser to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, stepped in to “have a dialogue” (her words) in the process because the award would go through a Catholic agency. Their problem?: the Catholic Church—though providing food, shelter, and legal and other medical services for trafficking victims more effectively than any other—is forbidden by conscience from referring those victims for abortion, sterilization or contraceptives. So much for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and other federal legislation that protects conscience—not to mention ordinary fair-play in picking grant recipients.

Thanks to The Anchoress for the heads up on this.

"Explain to me, and to my flamethrower, why you are not The Thing. Make your explanation rhyme. "

Writing prompts from John Scalzi. They only get better as they go.

Ready?

Set?

Start writing!

(Thanks to Scott Danielson for the heads up on this!)

Back to Basics: Gluttony

The fifth of the seven deadly sins is gluttony.

Like lust, gluttony focuses on pleasure and finds it in food and drink... Both enslave the soul to the body, even though the soul -- being superior to the body -- should be in charge. Gluttons don't eat out of necessity or for social reasons, but merely to consume and experience the pleasure of taste...

Legitimate eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, aren't gluttony. They're medical conditions that require treatment and care. The sin of gluttony is freely choosing to over-consume. Gluttony is voluntary and merely requires self-control and moderation...

Periodic fasting, restricting the amount of food you eat, and abstinence, avoiding meat for some favorite food, are the best defenses against gluttony. Unlike dieting where the goal is to lose weight, fasting and abstinence are to purify the soul by controlling the desires of the body...

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Downward and onward ... Greed will be up next.

Back to Basics: Anger

The fourth of the seven deadly sins is anger. This is one that I think our society has let get out of control in the name of healthy self-expression.

You have no control over what angers you, but you do have control over what you do after you become angry. The deadly sin of anger is the sudden outburst of emotion -- namely hostility -- and sustaining thoughts about the desire for revenge...

Patience, the virtue that allows you to adapt and endure evil without harboring any destructive feelings, is the best countermeasure for anger. When you give yourself the time and opportunity to cool off, anger dissipates and more practical concerns come to the front line.

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

And on we will go next to Gluttony.

Same Kind of Happy As Me: Reviewing "A People of Hope: Archbishop Timothy Dolan in Conversation with John L. Allen, Jr."

Probably my chief professional frustration is that the Catholic Church I have come to know from the inside—the warmth and laughter one finds in most Catholic circles, the rich intellectual tradition, the vast body of lore, the incredible range of characters, the deep desire to do good, the abiding faith against all odds that thrives even in a secular world, the ability to go anywhere and feel instantly at home, even the love of good food, good drink, and good company—rarely finds an echo in my reporting. I wanted to tell the Tim Dolan story in part because it wouldn't leave me with a sense of dissonance between the inner experience of being Catholic, and the public perception of what the Church is all about.

Who knew that being a happy Catholic was something that has an actual name? John L. Allen calls it "affirmative orthodoxy." In brief, this means holding onto the core elements of classic Catholicism but with the emphasis of what Catholicism embraces and says "yes" to instead of what it opposes.

To show there is more to the Catholic Church than the contentious side that that mainstream media presents, Allen had a series of informal question and answer sessions with Timothy Dolan who is the Archbishop of New York City.

What emerges is the profile of a determined "bridge builder"—so much so that Allen often uses the word pontiff meaning "bridge" in Latin to describe Dolan.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing about Dolan is that his continual optimism is not founded in Pollyanna-style cheeriness but anchored in a tough, clear-eyed reality. He understands why critics are angry, how dreams have been dashed, where the people in the Church have fallen short. Therefore he is able to sturdily defend Catholicism while holding out an understanding hand to opponents so that all have the chance to find common ground from which to work.

What about this case? Two men are in a same-sex union who have adopted a child and want that child to attend a Catholic school. We just had a case like that, and I replied, sure, that child is very welcome, as long as there is a certain understanding. ... we need to be up-front from the beginning. We need to say, "You want your child in a Catholic school, and your child is welcome. But you do realize there might be some discomfort insofar as that at a certain point in their catechesis, the child might learn that the kind of life you are leading might be contrary to the teaching of the Church. You may also want to know that if it becomes public you're leading this kind of life, there may be some discomfort for your child and for you." We have to be pretty blunt from the beginning about some of these things. We also need to say, "When it comes time for your child's First Communion, you may be unable to receive Holy Communion with your child. If you're accepting of all that, then I would be open to accepting the child."

Aren't there analogous situations with parents who are married outside the Church? Or, to take another example, when you have a teacher in a Catholic school who's talking about the sinfulness of the abuse of alcohol, there may be a fair number of kids sitting there thinking, "Wow, she's talking about my dad." In other words, I think it's a mistake to treat homosexuals as a special case. There are all kinds of situations in which people may fall short of what the Church would see as the ideal, and I would hope that in all those cases we can find ways to balance the need to be clear about our teaching with being pastoral and loving in the way we relate to people. If we only took the children of saints in our schools, our classrooms would be empty!

Again and again, we see Dolan acknowledge core differences but then reach out across them to relate to people on a human level. It is refreshing to see him continually begin an answer by mentioning a good quality or friendship with someone who holds views that outsiders see as diametrically opposed.

What we also see is a sense of self-awareness that I initially learned about Dolan when I read his book To Whom Shall We Go? Lessons from the Apostle Peter. It was a terrific book about examining our lives in Christ by using St. Peter as our guide. It was a review copy and I didn't know Dolan from Adam. However, it was full of reminders focusing readers on St. Peter's strengths and weaknesses and showing the many ancient and current examples that reflect our own tendencies. The person that wrote that honest book was someone I could relate to and trust because he understood people from the inside out. In my experience, that happens only when the person begins with himself.

This honesty extends inside the Church as well as outside. Dolan gives us food for thought about how Catholics themselves stand tall or fall short.

The outsider's perception of the Catholic Church is whatever the latest thing the bishops have said or done happens to be.

You got it. But that's not just a problem out there, it's in here. I went up a couple of months ago to Poughkeepsie, where we had a parish that in its heyday had a school, rectory, gym, the whole deal. Now it's decimated. Over the last year, Catholic Charities took over the old gym and now we've got a day care center on the ground floor and a food bank on the second floor. On the third floor we've got an immigration center that does English language instruction, immigration services, all that stuff, because there's a large itinerant Hispanic population out there. That's been humming for a good year. I went up to bless it and I was just blown away by what I saw. I was talking to the staff, who are dedicated Catholic people, and who are proud of what they've done, but who were also a little critical. Of course they thanked me for being there, but the edge of their remarks was, "Where has the Church been? You're here now after a year, but where has the Church been? Why hasn't the Church been more supportive of this?" I'm getting more and more frustrated, and finally I blurted out, "What the are you talking about? The Church has been here already. You are the Church. This is the Church at its best. This is what we're all about." Of course what they meant was, why hasn't the purple been here for a year? Even our own people are thinking like that. ... My point instead is that we need to flip the perception around—to see the kind of thing that's happening in Poughkeepsie as the real expression of "the Church," not so much wherever the bishop happens to be.

This example in particular spoke to me because I have come across it a lot lately and it never fails to baffle me. Perhaps that speaks more to my experience as a convert than anything, but the Church through the ages has operated that way, up to and including the development of the rosary.

This review is excerpt-heavy but that is because letting Dolan speak for himself is the best way to help you understand these views. Author John L. Allen, Jr., is a veteran journalist and Vatican expert and it shows. Each section begins with three or four pages of expert summary and explanation of the overview of a particular issue. This is followed by the questions and answers. The questions aren't designed to pin Dolan to the wall but rather to allow him to air his views.

It is interesting that Allen chose Archbishop Dolan for the purpose of displaying the affirmative orthodoxy ... or, as I call it, happy Catholics ... in the Church. He has a vantage point and knowledge that few other authors share. I, myself, was forever changed by reading Allen's examples in  All the Pope's Men of how liberals and conservatives want the same good for all but simply have very different ideas of how to achieve it. That, coupled with an introduction where Allen confessed that he once thought he was an even-handed writer but was shown how wrong he was ... and how he had worked to change ... come to mind to this day when I am faced with situations where bridge-building must be undertaken simply to have a civil conversation. His books since then have been models of lucid, comprehensive, and even-handed looks at aspects of the Catholic faith. In other words, I trust him.

Allen also tells us that one of the reasons he profiled Dolan is because he is and will be important to the American Catholic Church. I suppose that is important but personally I don't care. What this book shows me is a model to follow in extending a generous hand before condemning, in standing firm but in charity when it involves core Catholic values, and in always, always turning back to Christ who founded Mother Church to help us get to heaven. A People of Hope gives me the examples I need and, hopefully, will show curious outsiders that there is more to the Church than the media tells us.

Highly recommended.

Catholic Ministry Conference: Report, the First

I spent too much time on Halloween (is that possible?) and now have no time to tell of all the wonders that two days wandering around a giant Catholic conference meeting people and hearing interesting talks and just generally having a great time.

So I will stagger it.

First - HI JEFF! (Is there anything so ego-swelling as having someone come up and tell you that Happy Catholic is his home page? Of course there isn't... no wonder I loved the conference)

Second - possibly the most astounding experience was seeing Bishop Kevin Farrell wandering around completely alone, simply dressed in his priestly garb, making himself utterly available to anyone who wanted to come up and talk.

FOR TWO DAYS.

Now that's how you bishop, people.

What a breath of fresh air! Even if I did get so nervous and focused on giving him a copy of Happy Catholic that I totally forgot Tom was there ... which led the good bishop to throw an arm around him and ask "what did you did to deserve that" in his Irish accent, while laughing good naturedly at me. Ah yes, a bishop of the people.

More later ...

Back to Basics: Lust

The third of the seven deadly sins is lust.

The Catholic Church believes that it's normal and healthy to be attracted to and appreciate the opposite sex. That's not lust, and it's not considered a sin.

Lust is looking at, imagining, and even treating others as mere sex objects to serve your own physical pleasures, rather than as individuals made in the image and likeness of God. Lust is having someone become something merely to please you, in fantasy or reality.

The Church says that lust depersonalizes the other person and the one having the lustful thoughts. It makes both parties nothing more than instruments of enjoyment instead of enabling them to focus on the unique gift of personhood. And it seeks to separate, divide, and isolate what God intended to be united -- love and life, the unitive and procreative dimensions of marriage...

Chastity, the virtue that moderates sexual desire, is the best remedy for lust. Chastity falls under temperance and can help to keep physical pleasure in moderation.

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Next up ... Anger.

Gone Until Monday

It is the time of year when that big school catalog is being worked on around here and my time is at a minimum for a month or so.

Also, I'm going to the Dallas Catholic Ministry Conference on Friday and Saturday so will be out of touch then.

I'll drop in when I can to touch base, but until then all I can say is ... I'll see everyone Monday!

Back to Basics: Envy

The second of the seven deadly sins is envy.

Envy, another deadly sin, is the resentment of another person's good fortune or joy. Catholicism distinguishes between two kinds of envy.

• Material envy is when you resent others who have more money, talent, strength, beauty, friends, and so on, than you do.
• Spiritual envy is resenting others who progress in holiness, preferring that they stay at or below your level instead of being joyful and happy that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Spiritual envy is far worse and more evil than material envy.

Note that some spiritual writers and moralists make a distinction between envy and jealousy. They maintain that envy is the resentment of what others have, such as possessions, talent, fame, and so one, whereas jealousy is the fear of losing what you already have... Jealousy is considered to be as much a sin as envy, because it resembles that deadly sin a whole bunch...

The Church maintains that meekness or kindness can counter envy.

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Next up ... Lust.

Johnny Depp Gets His Own Back at Ricky Gervais for Golden Globe "Jokes"

We all remember Ricky Gervais's angry "jokes" from his Golden Globe emcee stint, right? Or at least we remember they happened (if you happen to be like me and not bother watching most awards programs.) One target was Johnny Depp

What happens when Ricky and Johnny meet up unexpectedly later?



This is from from Gervais’s new BBC show, Life’s Too Short, The show centers on little person Warwick Davis in his day-to-day life, complete with the frustrations he faces. Looks as if it is along the lines of Extras, which I enjoyed a lot.

This bit is cleverly done, almost uncomfortably so ... until the last words, which are a big payoff. Take the time to watch this.

Via Strange Herring.

Back to Basics: Pride

The first of the seven deadly sins is pride. It also is the mother, the author, of all other sins. This was a new concept for me when I first came across it but so very obvious upon reflection. In the end it all comes down to a distortion of truth, does it not? How important am I? How much better am I than others? Easy to see and understand, yet this is so very hard to keep in check ... because it can manifest itself in any and every aspect of one's life.

The sin of pride is an inordinate love of self -- a super-confidence and high esteem in your own abilities. It's also known as vanity. It exaggerates your abilities, gifts, and talents, and ignores your weaknesses, frailties, and imperfections.

In Catholicism, sinful pride is the deviation or distortion of the legitimate need of self-affirmation. Liking yourself isn't sinful. In fact, it's healthy and necessary, but when the self-perception no longer conforms to reality, and you begin to think that you're more important than you actually are, the sin of pride is rearing its ugly head...

Pride is the key to all other sins, because after you believe that you're more important than you actually are, you compensate for it when others don't agree with your judgment. You rationalize your behavior and make excuses for lying, cheating, stealing, insulting, ignoring, and such, because no one understands you like you do. In your mind, you're underestimated by the world.

That's the extreme expression of pride. A subtler example is when you refuse to accept the authority of someone else over you, be it a parent, teacher, employer, pastor, bishop or pope. Most resentment toward those in authority has nothing to do with the occasional instances of abuse of power in the course of human history. Rather anti-authoritarianism is rooted in pride: "No one is going to tell me what to do." ...

Pride also prevents you from seeking, listening to, or applying advice from others. It fools the mind into thinking that it alone has or can discover all the answers without help from anyone...

The Catholic Church teaches that humility is the best remedy for pride. It's not a false self-deprecation ... It's not denying the truth ...

In other words, although acknowledging your talents is good, humility should remind you that your talents come from God. Pride fools you into thinking that you're the source of your own greatness.

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Next up: Envy.

In Dallas? Going to the UDMC? Me Too! I'll Be Signing Books on Friday from 2:30-3:00 pm

Tom and I were already planning on attending the big Catholic Conference that the Dallas and Fort Worth dioceses are sponsoring next weekend.

Then I found out that St. Anthony Messenger Press is going to have a booth there and was happy to think that I could meet some of the nice folks who I've exchanged emails with over the last year. St. Anthony owns my publisher, Servant Books.

They went it one better and offered a time when we could do a book signing.

If you are there, either with your own book or wanting to buy one, I'll be signing them on Friday from 2:30 - 3:00.

And, I'll add a quote that isn't in the book. As a little bonus.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker on Happy Catholic: "... I will probably be stealing a lot of ideas from her."

... Julie stands things on their head and helps you to see the world in a new way in the new method of communicating in the new media: bite sized chunks.

I plan to use this book as a daily reader. I'll keep it by my side when I'm doing the office of readings and after the Divine Office and prayer, I'll dip into Happy Catholic.

It is quite surreal to have an author whose books you admired for a long time, to whom you dared to write one of your first fan letters long ago, and whose current writing continues to provide new insights ... praise your own efforts. A wonderful, but nevertheless surreal, experience!

Thank you Father Dwight Longenecker!

You can read the entire review at his outstanding blog, Standing on My Head.

Back to Basics: The Seven Deadly Sins

The opposite of the cardinal virtues are the seven deadly sins. We'll be going through these one by one, as well as the virtues that remedy each, in future posts.

As you may have guessed, along with cultivating good habits, some bad habits need to be avoided. The Church maintains that seven vices in particular lead to breaking one or more of the Ten Commandments. These particular bad habits are called the seven deadly sins because, according to Catholicism, they're mortal sins -- sins that kill the life of sanctifying grace. The Church believe that if you commit a mortal sin, you forfeit heaven and opt for hell by your own free will and actions.

A mortal sin is any act or thought of a human being that turns away from God and which turns toward a created thing instead. In other words, mortal sin is the complete turning away from God and embracing something else in place... Three conditions are necessary for moral sin to exist.

• Grave Matter: the act itself is intrinsically evil and immoral. For example, murder, rape, incest, perjury, adultery, and so on are grave matter.
• Full Knowledge: The person must know that what they're doing or planning to do is evil and immoral...
• Deliberate Consent: The person must freely choose to commit the act or plan to do it. Someone forced against his will doesn't commit a mortal sin...

Venial sins are any sins that only meet one or two of the conditions needed for a mortal sin but do not fulfill all three at the same time, or they're minor violations of the moral law, such as giving an obscene gesture to another driver while in traffic. Venial sin is less serious than mortal sin...[they] aren't deadly to the life of grace, but like minor infections in the body, if casually ignored and left untended, may deteriorate into a more serious condition...

The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, lust, anger, gluttony, greed, and sloth and Pope Gregory the Great made up the list in the 6th century.

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Next up: Deadly Sin #1.

Going to the Heart of the Matter: Reviewing "Catholic Mass for Dummies"

For the Ordinary form, the Roman Rite uses the following colors:
[...]

• Red: Used for Pentecost; Palm Sunday; Passion of the Lord; feasts of the holy cross, martyrs, Apostles, and evangelists (except for John the Beloved Disciple); and Confirmation. Red is a symbol of the burning charity of the martyrs and their generous sacrifice, tongues of fire of the HOly Spirit, and the blood shed by our Divine Lord.
• Green: Used in Ordinary Time. It is a symbol of hope in eternal life.
• Violet or purple: Used for seasons of Advent and Lent, Sacrament of Reconciliation, and Mass of Christian burial. Purple is a symbol of penance and mortification.
• ...

I originally became interested in Catholic Mass for Dummies because it might help with answers for our RCIA small group. I learned to trust authors John Trigilio and James Cafone when reading Catholicism for Dummies which was wonderfully informative and also carried the Nihil Obstat* and Imprimatur*.

Joined by Kenneth Brighenti, the same authors have joined forces again to provide this practical, step-by-step guide to the Catholic Mass. This book also has the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur and is fascinatingly informative. The authors not only take us through the standard Roman Catholic Sunday Mass, but also variations for such needs as weddings, funerals, and the like. At pains to explain the history, symbolism and meaning, they also explain the changes to Mass responses which will be instituted when the new liturgical translation begins being used in Advent.

As well as explaining the structure of the Mass, they also discuss the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Latin Mass), the Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharistic Devotions, and the Byzantine rite Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy. I admit I was fairly stunned to realize that I could take this book to a Latin Mass or Byzantine Mass and follow along. They include all the actions and words of the priests and people for both. The other Catholic rites from East to West are described with the history for everything from Armenian to Dominican to Anglican covered.

In the Tools of the Trade section, we learn about the books, vestments, vessels, architecture, art, and music used in worship. This was one of the most interesting sections to me since much of the symbolism inherent in these items is that which I only knew dimly or guessed at. This section would have been much enhanced with simple sketches or photos of the items being discussed. We may know what a tunic is but an amice is something that I just can't call to mind, no matter how detailed the description. Again in this section as in the rest of the book, the authors take care to call out differences practiced in the different rites of the Church.

I especially liked that the authors were reporting the information and not giving any personal opinions. This makes the book especially useful to the wide variety of people who might be drawn to it, whether the merely curious, Catholics, potential converts, or those with specific questions about a particular practice. This is intended as a reference book and deeper theological reflections, therefore, are not found here. However, just knowing the symbolism that stretches back to the beginning of the Church is often enough to prompt the reader to their own reflections, which I found happening as I read.

There are times when we all just need to know what's going on before we dig deeper. I can think of no better place to find one's footing with the ins-and-outs of the Catholic mass than in this book.

The unalterable importance of the altar

The altar is not only the place where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered, it also represents and symbolizes Christ himself. At the beginning of Mass, the altar is always reverenced by the clergy who are concelebrating by bowing before it and kitting it before going to their respective places. Before the introductory rites start, the main celebrant, escorted by one or two deacons, may incense the altar in a very dignified and elegant movement around it. The altar is also reverenced with a kiss at the end of Mass.

All immovable altars must have altar stones, slabs of stone about the size of a netbook computer. The altar stone is placed on a full size altar (made of marble or wood). Under the stone are relics of one or more of the ancient martyrs. Even though the altar is covered with linens during Mass, the bread and wine are placed on top of the linens over the altar stone. The idea is that Mass will be celebrated over the remains of the martyrs, just as was done for three centuries when the early Christians had to worship in the catacombs to escape Roman persecution.

* Official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free from doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who granted the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville ... progress report

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

I was looking around for a China Mieville book to try and discovered for every enthusiastic review I'd see another saying the exact opposite. This was the only exception, which is his only book for younger readers. I dipped into it this weekend and found it almost impossible to put down.

UPDATE
Thus far I am really enjoying this book. Although any modern book with "another London" inevitably calls Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman to mind (whom Mieville tips his hat to at the beginning), this feels original and is definitely inventive. For example, Curdle is an adorable character and I wouldn't have credited the concept alone with making for a loving relationship as is obviously developing in the book.

2nd UPDATE
About halfway through and am finding it still interesting but strangely slow at the same time. Not sure if this is an editing problem or just how the author writes but he seems to go on and on when we've gotten the point and are ready to move on. Also, major plot points are telegraphed ahead of time so the "twists" aren't really "twisty" at all.

I would say that last problem is possibly because I'm an older reader than the intended audience but, upon reflection, this isn't a problem I have had with the Harry Potter books, The Graveyard Game by Neil Gaiman, or Assam & Darjeeling by T.M. Camp ... all of which feature children in fantastical settings, to greater or lesser degrees of simplicity.

I will continue reading but feel this could have used another time or two through a big trimming machine.

Cherie ...

The newest cocktail to receive our approval ... and there's a movie connection for you too! At Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

And Reamde Looked So Good ...

But this is why book bloggers you can trust are so important.

I had planned to abandon the book around page 160 or so. Other members of the Sword and Laser said "It gets better at page 300 when new characters are introduced." In a shocked sense of disbelief, I decided to press on to that point. And, okay, it really does get better at around page 300. In what universe is it okay for an author to not get to the good stuff until 300 pages in? My favorite parts of the book were from about page 300-700. The ending was not satisfying although all the ends are tied up.

Here's the thing. I am in awe of Jenny because when the Booker nominees list comes out, she goes out and gets those books ... and actually reads them! And that's just one of the book awards lists she does that for.

I simply do not have that sort of stamina (or maybe it is simply dissimilar reading interests).

Whatever it is, when the lady who does that gives that indictment to Reamde, I am crossing it off my list.

One down. 300 to go.