Posted October 22, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Earthbound by
Aprilynne Pike Series: Earthbound #1 Publisher: RazorBill (2013)
Paperback (366 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: Earthquake Also in this series: Earthquake Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Tavia Michaels is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her parents. When she starts to see strange visions of a boy she’s never spoken with in real life, she begins to suspect that there’s much about her past that she isn’t being told.
Tavia immediately searches for answers, desperate to determine why she feels so drawn to a boy she hardly knows. But when Tavia discovers that the aunt and uncle who took her in after her parents’ death may have actually been responsible for the plane crash that killed them—and that she may have been the true intended victim—she flees for the safety of Camden, Maine, where the boy she sees in her visions instructs her to go.
Now, Tavia is on the run with no one to trust. No one, that is, except for her best friend and longtime crush, Benson.
Tavia feels torn between the boy who mysteriously comes to her at night and the boy who has been by her side every step of the way. But what Tavia doesn’t know is that the world is literally falling apart and that to save it she will have to unite with the boy in her visions. Only problem? To do so would mean rejecting Benson’s love. And that’s the one thing Tavia Michaels swore she’d never do.
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted October 8, 2015 in Reading, Review / 6 Comments
The Kiss of Deception by
Mary E Pearson Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1 Publisher: Square Fish (2014)
Paperback (486 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Also by this author: The Heart of Betrayal Also in this series: The Heart of Betrayal Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
A princess must find her place in a reborn world.
She flees on her wedding day.
She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor’s secret collection.
She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.
She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.
The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can’t abide. Like having to marry someone she’s never met to secure a political alliance.
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.
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Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Library, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 14, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Happy Feast of the Triumph of the Cross!
Walking with Jesus by
Pope Francis Publisher: Loyola Press (2015)
Paperback (135 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: The Joy of the Gospel,
Encountering Truth,
The Name of God is Mercy Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, “Follow me.” What if the 21st-century Church actually heeded that call? What would the world look like if the Church were truly on the move? Simply put, very different. But these ponderings beg one more critical question: What exactly should the Church be moving toward?
In Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church, Pope Francis’s own words lead us to the answer. Francis urges us to make Jesus central in our individual lives and in the collective life of the Church—to walk toward him, and ultimately to walk with him at all times and in all places.
Each chapter of this book helps us put one foot in front of the other as we move ever closer to God and to our neighbors through the sacraments, prayer, evangelization, the gifts of the Spirit, and service to others.
With a foreword by Archbishop of Chicago Blase J. Cupich, Pope Francis’s first major appointment in the United States,Walking with Jesus offers the Church a much-needed way forward, past its inner and outer walls, as it fearlessly follows Christ toward the future.
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Book, Pope Francis, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 2, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 2 Comments
And You Are Christ's by
Thomas Dubay Publisher: Ignatius Press (1987)
Paperback (148 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Re-Reading,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Father Thomas Dubay, one of the foremost authorities on the religious life, discusses one of the most important but not fully appreciated or understood charisms of the consecrated life, the charism of virginity. Although the idea of virginity is unpopular and even despised in modern society, Dubay emphasizes that the importance of evangelical virginity is rooted in its Biblical foundation, both in the Old and New Testaments.
Examining in detail what the call to virginity is and how it is integrated into the whole of consecrated life, Dubay presents his study in such a way as to be of importance to men as well. Noting that a woman, because of her feminine nature and traits, can image and live the Church’s wedded relationship to Christ more realistically, Dubay points out that men with the celibate charism are also members of the virgin Church that is wedded to Christ, just as in the Old Testament the People of God was a virgin bride wedded to Yahweh. The common and distinct elements of male and female consecrated love are fully captured in these pages.
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Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Catholic, Catholic Book, Consecrated Virginity, Read 2015, Rereading Challenge, Vocation, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted August 27, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 3 Comments
An Introduction to the Vocation of Consecrated Virginity Lived in the World by
United States Association of Consecrated VIrgins Series: ORDO VIRGINUM #1 Publisher: USACV (2012)
Paperback (145 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Re-Reading,
Read 2015 Synopsis
An Ancient Rite Restored, for women living in the world.
Those who choose chastity have looked upon the face of Christ, its origin and inspiration.
They give themselves wholly to Christ, the Son of the ever-virgin Mary, and the heavenly Bridegroom of those who in his honor dedicate themselves to lasting virginity.
-Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity (24)
Consecrated by the diocesan Bishop, these women acquire a particular link with the Church, which they are committed to serve while remaining the world. Either alone or in association with others, they constitute a special eschatological image of the Heavenly Bride and of the life to come, when the Church will at last fully live her love for Christ the Bridegroom.
-Pope Saint John Paul II in Vita Consecrata
The Order of Virgins is a special expression of consecrated life that blossomed anew in the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Its roots, however, are ancient; they date back to the dawn of the apostolic times. With unheard of daring, certain women began to open their hearts to the desire of consecrated virginity … the desire to give the whole of their being to God. (This desire) had its first extraordinary fulfillment in the Virgin of Nazareth and her “yes.”
-Pope Benedict XVI to the 2008 Rome International Congress/Pilgrimage of Consecrated Virgins
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Book, Consecrated Virginity, Read 2015, Rereading Challenge, Vocation, You Read How Many Books Challenge
