What are you currently reading?

[Kaesekopf]

The Reform of the Roman Liturgy by Msgr. Klaus Gamber.

Such a wonderful book.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[moneil]

I don't remember if I mentioned it but I am finishing up St. Augustine's Confessions.  It is excellent (and interestingly relevant to some personal circumstances).  It defiently will be read again, and again.

The new "lighter" read is The Undertaking: Life Studes From the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/undertaking-thomas-lynch/1100871708?ean=9780393334876

Mr. Lynch is a second generation Irish Catholic funeral director who grew up in a family of 9.  Today he and several of his siblings, children, neices and nephews operate seven funeral homes in Michigan. http://www.lynchfuneraldirectors.com/Default.aspx

[MilesChristi]

Life of Christ-by Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen

[Bernadette]

Life of Christ-by Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen

This is SO good! I read it practically every year. 

[MilesChristi]

Second attempt has been very succesful, I love it.

Enviado desde mi SCH-I545 mediante Tapatalk

[zork]

Skeleton Crew (1985) by Stephen King

[Revixit]

I don't like her work; we read some of her short stories when I was in High School (40+ years ago); but the supposed Catholic message is so well hidden as to be imperceptible to the average dumb reader like myself.  In other words I don't see what "the big whoop" on F.O'C is all about.

Correction: you did not like Flannery O'Connor's short stories when given them as a reading assignment in high school, more than forty years ago.  Surely you have changed somewhat over more than four decades so the possibility that you could like O'Connor today certainly exists.  The world has gone through a lengthy period of rapid and mind-boggling change during our lifetimes and we've all changed along with it, to some degree.  Certainly, we have learned things as we matured.

As a high school sophomore, I found my Latin II homework incredibly boring when, night after night, I had to translate long passages from the Latin original of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. I love Latin and aced my Latin classes, but I didn't enjoy what I read of Caesar's words.  Scholars, though, still consider the work, comprised of several books, a classic, and I assume they know better than I do.  I also know that if I were to read Caesar again, in English, I might enjoy it.

We read books and articles explaining our Catholic Faith, the works of Early Church Fathers, the Bible, Thomism, anything we find difficult to understand.  I'm sure you could find articles online explaining the symbolism in Flannery O'Connor's work, if you wanted to.  Or you might just try reading one of her short stories now, which I'm sure you can also find online.  You'll never know if you understand and/or enjoy her work now that you're older unless you try reading her again.  I'm considering giving Julius Caesar another try.  Aut Caesar aut nihil is still a catchy motto.

[Older Salt]

Just finished Flannery O'Connors's, "A good Man is Hard to find"

They were all killed except.....

[Michael Wilson]

Revixit,
I recently re-read: "The Misfit" and I have the same opinion of it as I did when I was in High School; the story is shocking and pointless.  Then I read Miss O'Connor's explanation of the story; where she states that the moment that the grandmother touched the misfit, it was like his moment of grace, and that maybe down the road he might have even converted.
At that very "moment of grace", the misfit recoils back and lets granny "have it".  There is no way to see this "moment of grace"; all you see is a pathological killer cold-bloodedly killing an innocent person.  Miss O'Connor's message is lost to the average reader (like myself).
There was another O'Connor story I also found repulsive and meaningless: a traveling salesman arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl with a prosthetic leg lives; she is an unpleasant character.  The salesman pretends to be romantically interested in her; tricks her into climbing into the hayloft and then tricks her again into taking off her prosthesis.  Then he takes the leg and leaves her.
The moral of the story?  Again,  unless Miss O'Connor tells us, the only one I can think of is that there are some unpleasant people in this world, and they deserve to be taken advantage of by con-men. 

[Bernadette]

There was another O'Connor story I also found repulsive and meaningless: a traveling salesman arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl with a prosthetic leg lives; she is an unpleasant character.  The salesman pretends to be romantically interested in her; tricks her into climbing into the hayloft and then tricks her again into taking off her prosthesis.  Then he takes the leg and leaves her.
The moral of the story?  Again,  unless Miss O'Connor tells us, the only one I can think of is that there are some unpleasant people in this world, and they deserve to be taken advantage of by con-men.

I remember that one. *shudder* I'm with you: I don't enjoy Flannery O'Connor's short stories either (last reading approx. 8 years ago). Thankfully for me, I get to make my own reading choices now, and can't think of a single circumstance in which I will have to read a work of fiction that I don't enjoy. 

[Revixit]

Revixit,
I recently re-read: "The Misfit" and I have the same opinion of it as I did when I was in High School; the story is shocking and pointless.  Then I read Miss O'Connor's explanation of the story; where she states that the moment that the grandmother touched the misfit, it was like his moment of grace, and that maybe down the road he might have even converted.
At that very "moment of grace", the misfit recoils back and lets granny "have it".  There is no way to see this "moment of grace"; all you see is a pathological killer cold-bloodedly killing an innocent person.  Miss O'Connor's message is lost to the average reader (like myself).
There was another O'Connor story I also found repulsive and meaningless: a traveling salesman arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl with a prosthetic leg lives; she is an unpleasant character.  The salesman pretends to be romantically interested in her; tricks her into climbing into the hayloft and then tricks her again into taking off her prosthesis.  Then he takes the leg and leaves her.
The moral of the story?  Again,  unless Miss O'Connor tells us, the only one I can think of is that there are some unpleasant people in this world, and they deserve to be taken advantage of by con-men.

I'm very glad to know that you have tried reading Flannery O'Connor again.  Of course we don't have to read what our English teachers or professors of literature told us was good or what critics say is good but I think we should challenge some of our old dislikes, just in case we're missing out on something we'd like now that we've had more experience with life.  Short stories often tend toward the bizarre and Flannery's work is definitely no exception.  Do you read short stories often?

[Maximilian]

Do you read short stories often?

I'm afraid I must agree with the negative judgment of the other readers here re Flannery O'Connor. I tried to like her, but I just couldn't do it.

However, there is another O'Connor, the true master of the short story -- Frank O'Connor. Every one of his stories is a delight. And they are all infused with a true Catholic sensibility, not a gothic horror version.

I highly recommend his works to everyone.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1981/oct/08/oconnors-crab-apple-jelly/?pagination=false

"The stories of Frank O'Connor refresh and delight long after they are first read. They pass into our experience like incidents we have ourselves known or almost known. Generous in spirit, acute in perception, they sum up a provincial culture in terms that are less provincial, but never cosmopolitan. Detachment from his own country was not one of Frank O'Connor's aims. Nobody was more aware than he of the mules, crows, foxes, who with dogs, horses, gazelles, and doves populated in human form his island home, and nobody was more unwilling to give up the local fauna. His stories preserve in ink like amber his perceptive, amused, and sometimes tender observations of the fabric of Irish customs, pieties, superstitions, loves, and hates. He wrote at the moment when that fabric was being slowly torn by modern conditions. "Crab-apple jelly" was his own description of the sweet and tart mixture thus compounded. His best stories stir those facial muscles which, we are told, are the same for both laughing and weeping."

Recently I posted here his story, "First Confession."

http://www.ireland-information.com/firstconfession.htm

"My Oedipus Complex" by Frank O'Connor

http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0201-oconnor.html

[Michael Wilson]

Revixit,
thanks for your thoughts on F.O'C. I also know people who absolutely love her writings, including my 10th grade English teacher (Mrs. Gautier); its great that we do have a variety to chose from.
I don't read short stories anymore, except when I'm working in School and I read those that are included in the English readers.  I like them, but I don't know where to fit them in to the short time I have for reading.  But if you want to suggest something, I will certainly give it a try.

[Michael Wilson]

Thanks Max for the information on Frank O'Connor, I might have to give him a try one of these days.

[Older Salt]

I think F O'connor is brilliant.

She very blatantly mocks fallen nature primarily in the person or persons of Prots.

I know a very old priest from Georgia that knew her in the late 50's, and he has told me this about her.

They could find the truth through actual grace and natural law, but O'Connor makes it perfectly plain that many southern prots refuse to act like civil humans and in fact live like sub animals.

She was laughing all the while she wrote.

I see this same mindset [or lack of] living in the rural American south.

FOC is simply brilliant.