Category: book review

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Review: When Life Gives You Pears

casually reading with a side of espresso pretending to be anything but a tourist

I should have staged this picture of me reading When Life Gives You Pears: The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People with St. Peter’s Basilica in the background or the amazing blue water of the Aegean Sea as we cruised through the Greek Islands. Instead, you get a real moment of downtime when I was in fact reading Jeannie Gaffigan’s harrowing and inspiring memoir about her medical and spiritual journey after discovering a pear-sized tumor in her brain stem.

Who takes this book on a mediterranean vacation? It’s not exactly lite reading for a cruise. And yet, it was just the right thing to bring along. First of all, I was looking forward to reading it, and that’s good enough for any time. I’m a fan of her work, and last year when Catholic Twitter blew up with the news of her tumor, I added my prayers to the mix.

What a blessing to be able to read about the happy ending of those prayers. Jeannie not only survived the surgery and the subsequent life-threatening illness that followed, but her family survived the experience with grace.

More than anything, it seems to me the story Jeannie tells is a story about grace. How circumstances and situations lined up just right to set into motion events and people who would save her life, and along the way, I think, strengthen her family in ways that faith often does. Sure, we get the details about that pear squeezing her brains, but we also get a vulnerable and intimate look into what happens when we give our suffering and fears to the Lord and trust in him.

Jeannie’s story is inspiring. It’s laugh out loud funny at times. But make no mistake, it’s a profound lesson in taking the lemons pears that life throws at us, and turn them into something beautiful. It was just the right thing to bring with me on my pilgrimage — and an opportunity to round out those first prayers for the Gaffigans by once again bringing them up in prayer, this time of thanksgiving, at some of the holy sites we visited.

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Review: Live Big, Love Bigger

Y’all, I finished reading this book on a plane. Live Big, Love Bigger by Kathryn Whitaker.

Not recommended. The location that is; I highly recommend the book.

no mini horses on the flight

I snort-laughed a couple of times and another time became so blinded by tears that I weirdly erupted into a coughing fit, which made the tears crash down on the pages. I would have welcomed a mini-horse for a distraction away from the scene I was causing. I could feel the judgy lady next to me peeking to see what I was reading. I should have handed it to her on my way out.

All this to say, what a wonderful book. What a wonderful message. And what a delightful read.

Kathryn Whitaker shares an intimate slice (slices) of her life and her faith journey in a compilation of anecdotes and memoir as sweet as that glass of sweet tea I picture next to a BBQ brisket sandwich from Buc-cees. Actually, it goes better with a cold Dr. Pepper in a bottle. But you get my drift — I love the book. And I want to meet Kathryn.

I love that she pulls away the carefully curated photo-essay of the perfect life to show us what a real family looks like today. Not in an instagram story…not on the pages of a parenting magazine. In a real home — hers.

Whitaker shows us Jesus present in her life and in her family instead of positing to-do lists. The result is not just an authentic sharing of a messy, but faith-filled life, but an encouragement to abandon ourselves to Jesus, and follow what works for us. It might not look like the Whitaker home (my kids are grown) but Jesus present in my home brings peace and order…in my case, perhaps accepting that I can’t beat back the kudzu along the fence line, and that’s ok.

Whatever road life has paved for you, consider this: Forget about the destination and focus on the journey. Wherever you go, do it with intention and purpose. Travel with a heart anxious for accompaniment. And remember that drive is always sweeter when Jesus is riding shotgun with you.

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Book Review: Literature

living dangerously with a book in the pool

I’ve been reading this book, Literature: What Every Catholic Should Know by Joseph Pearce, for three months. I know that sounds like a terrible endorsement, but you see, I’d read a chapter and then immediately go to the books discussed in the chapter and reread those selections!

Full disclosure: I was an English major — and a literature professor. A few years ago I retired from teaching composition and literature at a technical college. I’ve missed discussions of esoteric themes and deep thoughts. Mostly, I think I’ve just wanted to read good books and just enjoy them. No assignments. No grading. Just reading.

In the great works of literature we discover a deep understanding of man’s being and purpose. We discover that the human person is homo viator, a pilgrim or wayfarer who journeys through mortal life with eternal life always in mind. Literature 1

I think this view of literature was an implicit part of my teaching, but it has been a refreshing source of insight to approach these familiar texts with this philosophy explored explicitly. Alliteration aside, It’s been a nerdy delight.

Literature has been like taking a reading retreat, and refocusing my Catholic sensibilities in the great literature referenced in the sections. I even pulled out a complementary text given to me by a dear friend, and reread Poems Every Catholic Should Know compiled by Joseph Pearce. Yep. The very same.

If we wish to have minds open to the presence of God we need to take time and not waste it. We need to take time in the silence of prayer or the silence of poetry. We need more time with trees and less time with trash and trivia. Poems xxi

That’s how I spent my summer. Immersed in good books and excellent reflections on them. I didn’t know how much I needed to reconnect with these stories and poems until I started, and then I couldn’t stop.

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