"That is a good book it seems to me, which is opened with expectation and closed with profit."

Louisa May Alcott

Pascal's Pensees. Read it. Now.

This was one of the many books we were assigned to read in my Honors class last semester. I began reading it begrudgingly, expecting it to be just another philosophy book (which 9 times out of 10 confuse me). Boy, was I wrong!

Pascal isn't just another philosopher with his head in the clouds, he deals with man as he is. He admits that man is fallen (unlike the humanists before him) and yet he does not despair (like many philosophers who seem to throw up their hands in defeat at the thought of man being a fallen creature). Pascal believes that it is Christ whom fallen man can humble himself before without despair.

There is so much more to Pascal's Pensees than simply his famous "Wager."

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
-Emily Dickinson

“No man can be called friendless when he has God and the companionship of good books.”
-Elizabeth Barret Browning


I thought it would be fun to talk about children’s books. After all, we all had to start out reading kids books and I’m sure we all have our personal favorites that we will always remember.

Go, Dog, Go, and Are you my Mother? By P.D. Eastman

The Little Engine That Could, By Watty Piper

The Giving Tree, By Shel Silverstein

I’ll Love You for Forever, By Robert Munsch

The Runaway Bunny, By Margaret Wise Brown

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Papa Please Get the Moon for Me and other books by Eric Carle

The Polar Express, By Chris Van Allsburg

Good Dog, Carl, By Alexandra Day

Strega Nona and all of Tomie De Paola’s books (If you haven’t read any of Tomie De Paola’s books you really should go out and find one...or all of them really and read them!)

“My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter”
-Thomas Helm

Ok so I’ll admit, as much as I love the classics and books that really make you think, I also really like "Chick Lit". I love to just be able to sit back, relax and read something fun for hours. But here’s the thing girls, unfortunately the majority of the chick lit put out there for us to read is crap. Apparently many young adult authors think that all we want to read about is high school drama: drugs, sex, hott guys and mean girls. I personally think this kind of writing has gotten really old. We deal with enough of that junk in our everyday lives. Now I’m not saying I don’t like books that are realistic, but do you really want to have to read about all of that nastiness when you are trying to enjoy yourself? I know I don’t. So here are some of my favorite examples of good "Chick Lit", written by authors who definitely think more of us than those who write trash for us to read.

The Truth About Forever, Just Listen, This Lullaby, Lock and Key, all by Sarah Dessen

Waking Rose and the other fairytales retold books by Regina Doman

Amazing Grace, by Megan Shull

Enthusiasm, by Polly Shulman

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1, 2 & 3, by Ann Brashares*

All American Girl and Avalon High, by Meg Cabot*

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer*




*I’m not suggesting these authors and everything they write, only those particular books I listed written by them.

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all."
-Abraham Lincoln

Here is the continuation of my list of top 10 Classics:

1. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
2. Little Women, by Louisa M. Alcott
3. My Antonia, by Willa Cather
4. The Odyssey, by Homer
5. The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy
6. The Divine Comedy, by Dante
7. Any work of Shakespeare’s, especially Julius Caesar and Hamlet
8. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as translated by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
10. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

6) I think this book is an important read, especially for Catholics. The Divine Comedy is known as a monumental piece of Catholic Literature. Technically The Divine Comedy is a poem, which I think makes it even more enjoyable to read. Dante has some really interesting and enlightening takes on Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.

7) Shakespeare is one of my favorite authors of all time. I love his sonnets and plays. For this list of Classics though I think the ideal 2 plays are Hamlet and Julius Caesar. I thought Julius Caesar was a really interesting account of an important historical event. Before I read it I had assumed that all of the History plays were boring, but I actually ended up really liking Julius Caesar. I think getting to see into the characters minds and thought processes, like you get to do when you read/see a play, makes history more interesting. I actually don’t have really concrete reasons for why I like Hamlet so much.

8) I love stories of King Arthur and his knights, so naturally I was really excited to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But it proved to be more than just an enjoyable read about knights in shining armor and damsels in distress. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight contained lessons in charity, chastity, loyalty and, of course, chivalry. After reading this book I went online and looked up the Code of Chivalry. What I found was really interesting and I think applies, in some ways, to us today as the Church militant. A lot of it especially applies to guys and I would really encourage you to take a look at it, It is, if nothing else, interesting.
Here’s a link to site that lists the Code of chivalry:
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/chivalry.html

9) Ok so I cheated by 2 years with this one, To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. Regardless, it is an amazing and important read. Atticus, Scout and Boo Radley are timeless characters who everyone should recognize. To Kill a Mockingbird is written in first person, narrated by Scout, a young girl growing up in Maycomb, Alabama with her brother, Jem, and Father, Atticus, a lawyer. Atticus has been used as a moral example for lawyers through the years.

10) The Chronicles of Narnia are relatively new to be considered classics, but they did make the 50 year minimum and they are too fabulous to not be included in this list. C.S. Lewis is an incredible writer! The Chronicles of Narnia is just one example of his excellent writing; others include The Four Loves, Mere Christianity and Surprised by Joy (just to name a few). Lewis beautifully interwove Christian analogies into The Chronicles of Narnia which make it an even better read. I’ll admit I have yet to finish the series but it’s definitely at the top of my list.

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.” –William Styron

So I thought one of the best genres to start off with is Classics. The definition of Classics that I know is kind of hazy, so I’m going to define Classics as books that have stood the test of time (at least 50 years) and that give you something to think about, like a great idea of some sort. Here’s a list of my top 10 favorite Classics, in no particular order:

1. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
2. Little Women, by Louisa M. Alcott
3. My Antonia, by Willa Cather
4. The Odyssey, by Homer
5. The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy
6. The Divine Comedy, by Dante
7. Any work of Shakespeare’s, especially Julius Caesar and Hamlet
8. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as translated by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee


1) and 2) Pride and Prejudice and Little Women, I’ll admit, have reputations of being a little “girlie” but I think both have points in them that apply to both girls and guys. Mr. Darcy and Laurie are both male characters who treat women with the respect they deserve, a quality lacking in many male characters in modern literature.

3) I really enjoyed reading My Antonia. Willa Cather’s characters are very human and easy to relate to. My Antonia looks at the friendship between an immigrant girl, Antonia, and a young boy, Jim. The book is written in Jim’s point of view, which I really liked, it made the story more personal sounding than if it had been in the point of view of a narrator. The story follows Jim and Antonia’s friendship as they grow up.

4) I consider The Odyssey to be the Classic of Classics. First of all it is the oldest work on my top 10 list. Plus, it stood the test of time for hundreds of years before even being written down, it had been recited and passed down orally, which I think is pretty impressive. The Odyssey contains many great ideas to ponder and discuss. For example, what is justice? Did the Greeks’ idea of justice differ from our Christian idea of justice? What is the relationship between justice and mercy?

5) When I first began reading The Death of Ivan Ilych last year I really didn’t like it. I found it thoroughly depressing and dry. I had never read any Russian authors before, so I think my unfamiliarity with their writing style was a factor. I think I thought it was depressing because, well, it is. It is a review of a dying man’s life. In this review the reader discovers that Ivan Ilych’s life was not good. He had spent many years of his life trying to climb the social ladder and putting on an act to do so, he had a terrible relationship with his wife and wasn’t the ideal father either. The people around him can’t wait to see him dead. Depressed yet? So you’re probably wondering why on earth I put this totally depressing book on my top 10, right? I think this book contains important questions for every reader, it also is very hopeful in the end.

To be continued...