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Nerd alert: When I was a child and I got in trouble, my punishment would be for my parents to take away my books. Yeah. I would get grounding from reading.
Anyway, in the last say 6-8 years I haven't done much reading for fun. I've done tons of reading for school, and in fact enjoyed (some of) it. It made me realize that there were interesting books out there besides my young adult historical fiction novels. But after awhile, you get tired of reading nothing but journal articles.
So I've been delighted during the last year or so, as my love of reading has been rekindled! Most of my "fun" reading has been religious-oriented (trying to figure out this whole Catholicism thing). The rest of this post shows the books on my current reading list. If you've already been geeked-out, feel free to stop :)
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Currently reading: The Catholic Priesthood and Women by Sister Sara Butler.
This is a detailed explanation of why women can't be priests. It's fairly interesting, and I'll save the details for a whole post on it once I've finished. Only 20 pages to go!
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I'm quite excited about this next one: The Authentic Catholic Woman by Genevieve Kineke.
I had a hard time choosing to order it or this or this. I'm so fascinated by this "New Feminism" concept! If this reading kick continues (and I think it will), I'll probably order the others next. I decided to start with this one because of one of the reviews, which included the following:
"Having been bombarded with feminist literature in college, I have since made a point of avoiding books dealing with "women's issues," other than those that deal with pregnancy and childbirth. I often thought that someday I would write a book about Catholic womanhood, based on Scripture, church teachings and the writings of the saints. Genevieve Kineke's "The Authentic Catholic Woman" (Servant Books, 2006) is the book I would have wanted to have written myself. It is inspiring and current, but timeless, bringing the reader to the place where Heaven meets earth. A practical approach mingles with eschatology, making the church teaching applicable to the everyday lives of women."
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I keep hearing about "vocation" over and over again, and not just in reference to the religious life, but for us: our vocation to marriage, vocation to motherhood, and so on. I have a vague idea, but I'm not sure if I really know what they're talking about.
Kacie at The Well Thought-Out Life had a couple posts on vocation a while back, and recommended this book. It's from a Christian (more Protestant) viewpoint. I'm still planning on buying it, especially since I'm hoping it can help my little brother in his struggle to figure out what he wants to do after he graduates this spring.
But in the meantime, I discovered this tiny thing for only $2.99, and liked the idea of starting straight at the horse's mouth: The Meaning of Vocation. (Note: John Paul II didn't actually write this himself - it's a compilation of what he said about the subject.) (Another note: Is it bad that I just referred to the former pope as a horse?)
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Can you say answer to prayer? An ENDOW group has been formed in my area!! (Well, actually on the other side of Philadelphia, so like an hour away, but close enough!) We'll be starting with John Paul II's Letter to Women.
Words cannot express how excited I am. I could do a whole post on this!
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Oh yeah, one more book that's exciting for a different reason. SPSS 16 Made Simple. I have my fingers crossed that this book will rock my research world. Or at least help me run the right statistical tests.
I know, not exciting to anyone else. Sorry.
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That's it for now! I must say I'm loving Amazon's Wish List feature - every time I see or hear of a book that looks interesting, it gets added! Very dangerous for my wallet, but fun for my mind! Do you have any recommendations for other good reads?
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