Category: Book Review

Book Review: My Badass Book of Saints: Courageous Women Who Showed Me How To Live

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My Badass Book of Saints #dailygraces #bookreview kktaliaferro.wordpress.comWith such a title, who wouldn’t want to pick up this book?! I have to say, it certainly grabbed my attention. Even the cover is great. Maria Morera Johnson, author of My Badass Book of Saints: Courageous Women Who Showed Me How to Live, is a college professor, blogger and radio host who has selected a beautiful and badass group of women that are sure to inspire you. Not only has she chosen named saints (that is, saints with a capital St.) but she has also chosen bold, courageous and devoted women from a variety of backgrounds. For Johnson, to be truly badass you are, in her native Spanish, tremenda. Tremenda means “tremendous, sometimes. It also means terrific, and terrible. It translates to bold. Daring. Fearless. Stalwars. Smart. Courageous…But mostly, it means badass” (xvi).

Johnson weaves the lives of these badass women with her own story, a first generation Cuban-American, military wife and mother. The women, 24 in total, each represent characteristics that Johnson considers “badass.” They are audacious, courageous, missionaries, advocates, selfless, passionate, compassionate, and virtuous, to name just a few. At the end of each chapter, Johnson offers reflection questions on the highlighted quality and how we as people of faith can integrate the lessons from these women into our life.

Some of the saints and women I knew about already. Consider how St. Joan of Arc would be a model of courage, St. Catherine of Siena a model of advocacy or St. Gianna Beretta Molla a model of human dignity. I also knew about Audrey Hepburn and her work with the UN and Immaculee Ilibagiza and how she not only survived but found forgiveness in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

I was blown away by the women I had never heard of. Did you know that Sr. Blandina Segale stood up to Billy the Kid not once but 3 times!? Or how about Nancy Wake, an Australian socialite turned super secret spy for the French Resistance and was so good at it the Nazi’s never figured out who she was?! Or Phyllis Bowman who founded the Right to Life movement in 1998, but started her work on behalf of the unborn in the mid-1960s by forming the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in the United Kingdom?

The women in this book are incredible. They are more than beautiful, they are more than strong, they are more than awesome. They really are badass.

Book Review: These Sacred Days

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I am part of a prayer group at church and we use the Magnificat daily prayers and readings. Every so often, something will strike me and I will earmark a page and eventually, I write it down. I was recently going through and recording these thoughts and prayers when I came across this from the December issue:

Long familiarity with the Passion narratives can dull our awareness of the acute suffering that Christ endured for our sake.

These Sacred Days #Lent #Daily Graces #BookReview #TriduumI know that I fall into this trap. Thank goodness there are authors out there like Br. Richard Contino, OSF, who have the courage to write a book like These Sacred Days: Walking with Jesus through the Sacred Triduum.

This short book is packed with meaning. Contino hones in on the drama that unfolds during the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Instead of simply narrating the story, the reader is submerged in it, witnessing the events through the eyes and ears of those who were actually there. I do not recommend reading it in one sitting. This is a book meant to be prayed over, to be read and re-read as you allow yourself to walk the Way of the Cross with Christ.

Christmas has only just ended but Lent is fast approaching. As you begin to consider how you are going to celebrate the Lenten season, I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. It can easily be read a few pages at a time throughout the whole season, or be used as the text for a book club or bible study. I believe that your Lent, or any season of the year, would be enhanced and your spiritual life edified.

Book Review: Thrift Store Saints

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Every so often the stars align and I have time not only to read a book, but I am able to finish it in a timely manner. Such an alignment happened while we were on our Christmas vacation, and I’m so happy that I was able to read Thrift Store Saints: Meeting Jesus 25¢ at at Time by Jane Knuth.

41HE5HRAAiL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_This is a quick read but packed with inspiration and wisdom. Jane chronicles her experiences working at a St. Vincent de Paul store in Michigan. Like so many of us, she walked into the store expecting to complete a simple transaction, only to find herself colliding (quite literally) with an unexpected face of Jesus – Jesus in the poor, the homeless, the needy, and the lonely.

Knuth’s stories of the store’s clients are down-to-earth, real, heart-warming and often heart-wrenching. This is an emotional book, written by a woman who has discovered how to surrender to God’s work and will for her life. On more than one occasion, Knuth recalls a time when the cashbox and the need didn’t balance. Instead of fretting or turning people away, Jane and the other volunteers trust in God’s providence. Things always seem to work out.

One of the main points of the book concerns the volunteers themselves. Knuth wisely recognizes that Jesus is not just found in the thrift store clients. He is in the faces of the volunteers as well. Toward the end of the book, Knuth talks about the importance of the invitation she received to be a volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul store. She wasn’t bullied or guilted into returning for the first meeting. Rather, she was personally, specifically invited to come and see what the store was all about. The volunteers truly form a community with one another.

Knuth speaks of how before starting to volunteer, she was a teetering tree when it came to matters of faith – her roots did not go very deep. She was lacking a foundation, a real and tangible connection with God.

By intertwining their [the other volunteers] roots with mine, by struggling together with the practical mechanics of how to best help the poor, they have become for me the good, firm soil I need to stay erect in the forest.

I believe Jane’s story is relatable and gently challenging for each of us. She asks each of us to consider how we view the poor and homeless. This question is powerful enough. But Knuth masterfully takes us a few steps further. She also calls us to task on how well we invite others to encounter Jesus.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. It was refreshing in it’s honesty and enlightening about the realities of poverty and the incredible work of the St. Vincent de Paul society.