The New Republic has just put out one of their best issues in years It s hard to know which article to recommend first Included in an issue that focuses on the death or dearth of book reviewing on the face of it a topic that would make only authors upset though the mag prove otherwise ar

Kudos to my friend and colleague Bill McGarvey over at BustedHalo for snagging an interview with author Richard Russo I m a big fan of Russo who is one of the funniest writers around Straight Man made me laugh as much as Lucky Jim Well almost as much Perceptive readers of Russo s fic

Just in time for his feast day Xavier Missionary and Saint an hourlong documentary written directed and produced by Jesuit scholastics Jeff Johnson S J and Jeremy Zipple S J will show around the country on PBS starting this week and continuing throughout December You can check the Web

Our live in grandchild teamed up with my husband and pressured us into acquiring an adorable Cavalier King Charles spaniel puppy Yesterday a Cavalier was pictured in a N Y Times Business section story reporting that there are 44 8 million pet dogs in America Their owners help to support a 38 bi

The full text of Pope Benedict XVI s new encyclical on hope Spe Salvi has just been released by the Vatican The link is below Like Benedict s first encyclical Deus Caritas Est it is primarily in the form of a meditation See what you think Spe Salvi

My students at Fordham University and I have been reading Mary Gordon s Final Payments as one of the texts in our class on American Catholic novels and the following scene from Gordon s first novel caught my eye To give a bit of context this scene depicts a daughter who cared for her recen