Books for Christmas – 2024

A friend told me recently that bookstores were making something of a comeback. I hope that’s true, because browsing bookstores is one of life’s great pleasures. (For the ultimate such experience, visit Hatchards at 187 Piccadilly in London). In the spirit of happy browsing, here are some suggestions for Christmas book-giving (not “gifting”!) at a historical moment that needs equal doses of realism and hope.

Forming Families, Forming Saints by Father Carter Griffin (Emmaus Road Publishing): A guide to raising children for lives of sanctity by one of America’s finest priests, combining theological and spiritual insights, practical suggestions, and lives-of-the-saints in a reader-friendly style. Give it to young parents learning to navigate the rocks, shoals, and joys of child-rearing in an authentically Catholic key.

A Short History of the Roman Mass by Uwe Michael Lang (Ignatius Press): One knowledgeable reviewer, Father Cassian Folsom, OSB, described Father Lang’s walk through the development of Holy Mass from the Last Supper to today’s reform-of-the-reform as “wonderfully refreshing” and “free of the cliches” that mar standard tellings of story from both progressives and traditionalists. Give it to your pastor, parish worship director, and any seminarians you know—it might tempt them to then move on to the author’s larger work, The Roman Mass: From Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform(Cambridge University Press).

The Mary Pages: An Atheist’s Journey to the Mother of God by Sally Read (Word on Fire): A strikingly novel conversion memoir, the literary elegance of which is displayed in this description of Marian apparitions in recent centuries: “It seemed that Mary acted like a kind of triage nurse in the hinterland between heaven and hell, speeding some closer to God, dispensing mercy, appearing and disappearing at apposite moments in history.” Give it to a Protestant friend skeptical of Catholic Marian piety and to members of your parish Sodality.

For the theologically inclined, especially those concerned about the intellectual shallowness of the Synods of 2023 and 2024, two suggestions:

The Center is Jesus Christ Himself: Essays on Revelation, Salvation, and Evangelization in Honor of Robert P. Imbelli, edited by Andrew Meszaros (CUA Press). Father Imbelli is one of the jewels in the crown of U.S. Catholic theology. His insistence that Jesus Christ, not institutions or “issues,” must always be at the center of the Church’s self-reflection—for we are Christ’s Mystical Body in the world—is honored in this Festschrift, which celebrates the scholarship and priestly service of one who, as Cardinal Timothy Dolan writes in the foreword, has “courageously challenged Catholic universities and publications to reject the lure of secular acclaim and instead to embrace their Catholic identity with fresh brio.”

Jesus Christ: Scandal of Particularity: Vatican II, a Catholic Theology of Religions, Justification, and Truth by Eduardo Echeverria (En Route Books and Media): A brace of stimulating essays from another distinguished American exponent of dynamic Catholic orthodoxy, whose immersion in the high-octane Protestant theological tradition in which he was raised makes him an exceptionally valuable contributor to today’s debates over whether the Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, or just another avatar of a generic divine will-to-save.

And now two books, in a more popular vein, to clarify some recent and contemporary history:

Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him by David Reynolds (Basic Books): A fresh look at the emblematic figure of the first half of the twentieth century, through the lens of his interactions with his father, his political friends and foes (a cast of characters including Lloyd George, Chamberlain, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, FDR, de Gaulle, and Attlee), and his remarkable wife, Clementine. Give it to anyone tempted by the recent, perverse nonsense about Churchill being the primary villain of World War II. (Yes, there are bears of little brain who believe that.)

Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia’s War Against the West by John J. Sullivan (Little, Brown): The title and subtitle aptly describe this gripping tale of the author’s service as U.S. Ambassador to Russia under the (first) Trump and (early) Biden administrations—a book that should be required reading for American diplomats and State Department officials, intelligence operatives and analysts, and the scribes and talking heads of the world affairs commentariat. Give it to Tucker Carlson and other admirers of Vladimir Putin.

And last, for fun, Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher (Vintage Books): The best university send-up novel in years, so delicious that I had to limit myself to one chapter per day to extend the pleasure. Especially recommended for anyone on your gift list who wrestles with bureaucracies: academic, ecclesiastical, governmental, or corporate.