A Catholic Reader

This morning I discovered a website called CatholicFiction.net , which offers, "news, views, and reviews" on fiction by Catholic writers. The site is sponsored and maintained by Idylls Press , a Catholic publishing concern with an interest in promoting a "new Catholic literary renaissance." The Catholic Fiction site looks like a good place for anyone interested in finding books written from a Catholic perspective (they cover "fiction in every genre, both classic and contemporary .. [as well as] literary biography and criticism) or reading reviews that give a Catholic "take" on fictional works that may or may not have been written by Catholic authors. They also have a Catholic Fiction Reading List , where you may find authors you may not have read before, or may not have realized were Catholic. One of my all-time favorite writers, Flannery O'Connor What makes a "Catholic writer" is a more complicated question than you might think.

Martha Grimes I have recently gone through a spate of what, for me, constitutes the equivalent of "beach reads" -- books that you read just for the fun of it, knowing that they provide more amusement than edification or cause for reflection. Such books are the mental equivalent of buttered popcorn or snow cones, tasty but probably not good for you if taken in quantity. I find that, as with such junk food, after a couple of servings I lose my taste for such stuff and the thought of going back for another helping any time soon makes me feel a bit nauseous. Clive Cussler My recent "junk reads" of choice have been novels by Martha Grimes and Clive Cussler. Grimes writes British-style murder mysteries (although an American herself) that have come to occupy a prominent place in the subgenre of "cozies" (i.e., atmosphere and quirky characters predominate over plot and characterization), while Cussler 's brand of story-telling almost defies descrip