The Queue

I failed in my primary goal to read Perfectly Yourself in Lent, but I achieved my secondary goal to read Perfectly Yourself in Easter, finishing up a good fortnight before this most glorious of seasons concludes with Pentecost. The nine lessons of Perfectly Yourself:

1. Celebrate your progress.
2. Just do the next right thing.
3. Put character first.
4. Find what you love & do it.
5. Live what you believe.
6. Be disciplined.
7. Simplify.
8. Focus on what you are here to give.
9. Patiently seek the good in everyone & everything.

The latest module of the Fortify training requires one to devise a plan to read a book of fiction in a week. They underestimate how slow a reader I am, but I will comply with the spirit of the exercise, if not the letter. I've been reading mostly non-fiction for the last several years, almost exclusively spiritual reading; so, I'm taking the opportunity not to shorten the queue (which had two novels & a collections of stories already queued up), but to read some good Catholic fiction, the stories of Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964). I principally wish to read the seminal "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" & so cannot say if I will read the whole collection, but I hope to before the book is due back to the local lending library. Some kind soul had already left a Pope Francis prayer card in The Complete Stories as a bookmark, so the book is off to a truly delightful start.

Recently
Father John Riccardo, Heaven Starts Now: Becoming a Saint Day by Day
Thomas F. Madden, The Crusades Controversy: Setting the Record Straight
Matthew Kelly, Perfectly Yourself: Discovering God's Dream for You

Currently
Pope Francis, Guadete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad)
Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories

Presently
Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations ***oft delayed***
Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus
William E. Simon Jr., Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive
Bishop Robert Barron, Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture
Mike Aquilina, Understanding the Mass: 100 Questions, 100 Answers
Xavier Rynne, Vatican Council II
John W. O'Malley, What Happened at Vatican II
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love)
Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity)
Scott Hahn, A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God's Covenant Love in Scripture
Rosario Carello, Pope Francis Takes the Bus and Other Unexpected Stories
Father Mathias D. Thelen, Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization
Richard Price, Clockers
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
William F. Buckley Jr., The Unmaking of a Mayor
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies