Father Kevin Spinale, S.J. offers his thoughts on the two latest selections of the Catholic Book Club: ‘Miracles on the Hardwood’ and ‘I Came as a Shadow’.

The author of “The Moviegoer” and other distinguished novels was also an occasional book reviewer and commentator for America, and his prose in our pages shone as well.

Not every word or phrase that pops into your head while you are praying is coming from God. But occasionally, we are free enough that God enters our consciousness with words or phrases that startle in their immediacy.

Patrick Collins gives a close read of Thomas Merton’s correspondence in “A Focus on Truth: Thomas Merton's Uncensored Mind.”

In “The Deep Places,” Ross Douthat relates how an experience of illness and suffering can lead to a search for answers to more transcendent questions, including the meaning of suffering and the gift of perseverance.

The news that Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, had been removed from school curricula was a reminder of one of our nation’s favorite pastimes: book bans.