People of the Book
A Blog about Book Publishing from a Catholic Perspective

Have you wished you could be part of a group that reads and discusses good Catholic books? Why not start one if there’s no local group available? This article in America magazine tells you how to do it. It’s written by Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, who has been running two book discussion groups in New York City for eight years. Why do this? Says Fr. Martin: “The book club is a great deal of fun, very little work for the organizer (just publicizing it, getting a room, ordering the pizza and selecting the books) but a great way to build community, do a little catechesis, and encourage faith sharing in the parish in a non-threatening way.”

I’ve been facilitating a literature discussion group for more than a year, and I’ve found it to be great fun and a powerful source of spiritual insight. Fr. Martin’s groups read both fiction and non-fiction. He provides a fascintaing list of the books they’ve read since 1998. Here are the books my group has read and will read through the end of this year:

Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller
Black Robe by Brian Moore
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Mr. Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
Lancelot by Walker Percy
The Place of the Lion by Charles Williams
Vipers’ Tangle by Francois Mauriac
Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis
Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton
Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos
In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot
Silence by Shusako Endo
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark

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