Novel Thoughts blog
  1. Ignatius Press Novels

    First Chapter: Do No Harm

    May 7, 2015 10:59 am Leave a Comment

    Read the first chapter of the novel Do No Harm by Fiorella de Maria. If you like what you’re reading, visit the novel’s page to learn more or order! Prologue Maria sat hunched over her computer, blinking sleepily at the gaudy colours of the news website. She had been checking… Read more »

    Tags: Do No Harm Fiorella de Maria First Chapter

  2. John Herreid

    Wolfe, Innocence, Literature, and Rock Monsters

    April 30, 2015 11:37 am Leave a Comment

    In the past week I’ve ended up saving a number of links to read and re-read, and in the hopes that others may also get some enjoyment and interest from them I’m sharing them with you. First up, there’s a short piece in the New Yorker about science-fiction writer Gene… Read more »

    Tags: Catholic literature Ceremony of Innocence gene wolfe Noah Tim Powers

  3. First Chapter: Toward the Gleam

    April 23, 2015 1:59 pm Leave a Comment

    Read the first chapter of the novel Toward the Gleam by T.M. Doran. If you like what you’re reading, visit the novel’s page to learn more or order! November 8, 1972 Saint Hugh’s Charterhouse, Sussex Porter broke silence. That was no little thing, but the breaking of his silence was… Read more »

    Tags: fantasy First Chapter J.R.R. Tolkien mystery novels T.M. Doran Toward the Gleam

  4. A Message from Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.

    April 22, 2015 12:44 pm 2 Comments

    Do You Ever Read Novels? That’s a Yes or No question. Here are some thoughts on each possible answer: No? Well, you should. Or if that sounds too moralistic: reading good novels can make you a better, happier person, a “new self and nobler me” (Hopkins). Really? Why? The reasons… Read more »

    Tags: Fr. Joseph Fessio novels writing

  5. Introducing Children to Art

    April 21, 2015 11:16 am 1 Comment

    My daughter and oldest son have very different takes on this portrait by Raphael. A while back I was asked for some thoughts on art, beauty, and God. A few of those comments made their way into this nice article on beauty by Anamaria Scaperlanda Biddick in Our Sunday Visitor…. Read more »

    Tags: art children education

  6. Ignatius Press Novels

    First Chapter: The Rising

    April 13, 2015 1:47 pm 2 Comments

    Read the first chapter of the thrilling novel The Rising by Robert Ovies. If you like what you’re reading, visit the novel’s page to learn more or order! One It was, as wake services go, unremarkable. Marion Klein had been a faithful wife for twenty-one years, a gracious mother for… Read more »

    Tags: First Chapter preview The Rising

  7. Meryl Kaleida

    I Am Divergent

    April 9, 2015 2:07 pm 4 Comments

      I have made it a habit to read certain kinds of popular literature for one main reason: to be able to have intelligent dialogue with other readers for evangelization purposes. This has proven helpful in quite a few instances when arguing against such literary trash as Dan Brown’s The… Read more »

    Tags: Allegiant books to film Divergent Insurgent novel reviews Veronica Roth

  8. Michael J. Lichens

    Chesterton the Poet

    April 9, 2015 12:52 pm 2 Comments

    “A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found its words.” — Robert Frost In his otherwise disparaging review of Dr. Ian Ker’s G. K. Chesterton: A Biography, the late atheist critic Christopher Hitchens noted that he and Ker were in agreement… Read more »

    Tags: Ballad of the White Horse G.K. Chesterton lepanto literary criticism poetry

  9. James Casper

    Chesterton around the Corner

    April 7, 2015 11:08 am Leave a Comment

    By the time I graduated from Loyola High School in Minnesota, I had read almost everything G.K. Chesterton had written. Not long after, at St. Louis University, I found myself in the office of Dr. Edward Sarmiento as he shared the story of publishing a poem in G.K.’s Weekly years… Read more »

    Tags: Everywhere in Chains G.K. Chesterton Stratford Caldecott writing

  10. John Herreid

    Entertainments

    March 26, 2015 5:35 pm 1 Comment

    The great novelist Graham Greene used to divide his work into “novels” and “entertainments”, with books such as The Power and the Glory falling into the former category and ones such as The Human Factor into the latter. To my mind, some of his “entertainments” are every bit as good… Read more »

    Tags: genre fiction reading lists

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