I used to read a lot more than I do now. Some of that has to do with the amount of time I am spending helping out my parents and some of it is because when I'm home I don't allow myself the luxury of just sitting and enjoying a good read. But this summer I am taking time to read some of the many books I have purchased over the past year, before they catch any more dust on my bookshelves.
I just finished reading Father Joe, by Tony Hendra. It was a book I couldn't put down. I would recommend it to anyone who has grown disgusted with the Catholic Church, or with religion in general. It is so refreshing to read about a truly godly man, a man who dedicated his life to God but never moralized or passed judgment on anyone, who accepted each of the many people who ran to him for spiritual comfort and peace.
Hendra talks about how he first met Father Joe, after he had gotten in some trouble, and how he maintained his friendship with the monk, long after he had ceased attending Mass, until Joe died. It was only then that he found out that this cloistered monk had been friends with hundreds of people, each believing their friendship with Joe was unique. Hendra found it amazing that so many became so close to Joe, none of them knowing of the others, none of them hearing of the others from Joe as he focused so much on the friend who was with him that there was never a mention of anyone else. "Listening," he realized was the key. Father Joe was the world's best and most interested listener.
A second recommendation is Rick Perlstein's Nixonland, which I confess I have not yet finished. It's a long and detailed account of Richard Nixon's political life, told within the context of the culture wars that began just before and during Nixon's presidency. It is a way of explaining how it is that we are still a divided country, and how Nixon's calculated and crass political maneuvers helped divide us. It's a great book for anyone who is interested in the nature of our political and cultural conflicts, how we maintain them all these years after Nixon, and how they continue to harm us.
