An Online Catholic Book Club

A New Idea

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions with the new blog. We are still working through a few items, and your ideas are very helpful. Keep them coming!

Today I want to announce the inauguration of one of the blog’s new regular features: An online book/reading club. The idea is fairly simple: Each month we’ll choose a new book–for now we’ll start with Angelus Press titles, but we will probably move out from there afterwards–and if it’s a title Angelus Press offers, you will be able to purchase it at a discount (just during the month of that book.)

I’ll break the book into different sections and for each week, on Friday, we will have a post about that section, some interesting background information, etc. The main goal is that we want your participation. We want your insights into points you thought were interesting, thoughts or ideas you disagreed with, and so on. The goal should be for all of us to really chew on a work and its ideas to come to a better understanding of a given subject. So, without further ado, here is our first title:

Pope Pius IX by Yves Chiron

The first title I chose is Pope Pius IX: The Man and The Myth by Yves Chiron. Chiron is a traditional Catholic historian and author in France whose numerous works include biographies on both Pope Pius IX and St. Pius X, as well as books concerning Padre Pio, Charles Maurras, Edmund Burke, and more.

The title is interesting because, though we admire him for his beautifully Catholic works as a pope, specifically in dealing with the assault of Modernism and Liberalism, most of us don’t know the real story of who he really was as a man dedicated to Christ and His Church

Housekeeping Details

So, let’s jump in. Starting today, you can save 15% on the book at Angelus Press (and anytime during the month of March). The price is now changed on our site. Our first “book club” post will be on Friday of next week, and I’ll try to stay up on comment moderation through the day.

Since there are five Fridays in March, we will study three chapters per week. So, your homework assignment is the Introduction, and Chapters 1 -3. See you next week!

Oh, and one final word. This will be more fun with more participants, so don’t forget to invite your family and friends to join as well!