Diane Scharper

Joseph Pearce argues that Catholicism shaped education, civilization, culture, literature and the arts; and that its rituals inspired England's many poets and writers to produce classics of Western literature.

Book Review: In Kirstin Valdez Quade's debut novel, 'The Five Wounds,' the 33-year-old protagonist believes that Jesus is a living witness to his sins — of which there have been many.

Book review: In a new poetry collection, Heather McHugh recalls old friends and nods at death as well as worries about its approach. She writes fun, punch-drunk poems laced with Catholic insights.

Book review: Catholic activist Grace Holmes Carlson is relatively unknown today. But she made headlines in the 1930s, '40s and early '50s for her social activism, as well as her pro-union, anti-capitalist and anarchist views.

Book review: In her fourth novel, The Book of Longings, Sue Monk Kidd embellishes the Gospel story of Christ by giving Jesus a wife named Ana. But her book, just out in paperback, should not scandalize most readers. Nor has it been banned by the Catholic Church.

Book review: Crystal Downing skillfully traces Sayers' views on the subversive nature of Christianity and the revolutionary life of Jesus Christ through her life and her books, plays and many other writings.

Review: Diana Oestreich's memoir of her tour in Iraq as a medic with the U.S. National Guard details how the experience — and hearing God's voice — changed her as a Christian.

Review: The Linn family's encounter with active nonviolence, poems by Lawrence Joseph about struggling with God and self, and a collection of stories from those who seek peaceful solutions to violence make up this fall's books roundup.

Review: National Book Award-winning author Charles Johnson shares how to have a happy life in Grand. Also in this review are Maria Giura's memoir and Invisible Americans by Jeff Madrick about child poverty in the U.S.

This review roundup includes an examination of the question of physician-assisted suicide; a biography about Thomas Gumbleton; and a memoir about leaving a notorious fundamentalist church.

Fall Books, review roundup: Inconvenient Memories hinges on Anna Wang's experience with Tiananmen Square and her grandmother; John Connell writes about cows and his father; and Claudia D. Hernández can't get over her mother.

Book Reviews: A chock-full of wisdom memoir that encourages women as they age, a heartwrenching read about a woman and her absent mother and an inspiring story of a mother's will to survive.

Book reviews: Mary Gordon probes Merton's dual identities; Barbara Brown Taylor finds God in the faith of others; Jean McNeil uncovers the meaning of winter for the Earth and herself.

Book Review: Pope Francis responds to 31 of the book's contributors and writes the book's preface. Believing that older people are reservoirs of wisdom, he offers his own wise words as well as relatable biblical nuggets. 

Book reviews: Daisy Khan, activist for Muslim women, pens her spiritual journey; journalist Jean Guerrero searches for her father; Clemantine Wamariya tells a story of Rwandan survival.

Book Review: Part memoir, part scientific observation, part discussion of religious and metaphysical beliefs, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine contains 20 chapters focusing on topics like origins, atoms, ants, motion and truth.

Book Reviews: In her debut memoir, Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad, Krystal Sital tells a tale of racial injustice as it cuts through the fabric of her family. Dunyah Mikhail shares the stories of approximately 20 female survivors of the Yazidi genocide in her disturbing memoir, The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq. Relative Vita is the unlikely hero of Helene Stapinski's third book, Murder in Matera: A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy. ​

Book Reviews: Jesuit Fr. Gregory Boyle spreads the Gospel notion of Jesus Christ's radical kinship; Clare of Assisi believed to be the first woman in the history of the Catholic Church to write the constitution for her order; Amy Tan says her father loved God more than he loved his family

Book Review: One of the world's most controversial structures, this basilica was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 because of Gaudí's innovative and artistic ability.

Book Review: Inara Verzemnieks' story is similar to Nina Willner's: Both present history through the eyes of those tyrannized by it. Both center on World War II and feature two sisters — one who stays with her parents enduring extreme deprivation and the other who leaves the homeland for a better life in the U.S.