Father Sergius, by Leo Tolstoy

Very enjoyable and thought provoking story about a young Russian nobleman and military officer who is disillusioned by human weakness, vice, and sin in the world and decides to give up a brilliant military career to become a priest.  He discovers to his chagrin that sin and weakness have a long reach. They continue to bedevil him even as a priest in a big city, then even as a hermit in a remote monastery.  His search for spiritual improvement does not prove fruitless, however, because he realizes what his most insidious fault is when he abandons his hermitage in shame after a serious lapse and visits an old childhood friend in reduced circumstances.     

I suspect this story may have been inspired by Tsar Alexander I, who was rumored to have faked his death and entered a monastery, living the rest of his life under an assumed identity.

A World Undone, by G. J. Meyer

This is an excellent choice for those who are looking for a good overall history of World War I, who have not studied this war before, or the background history of the major players.  For the amount of material it covers, it is a short book.  G. J. Meyer intersperses "Background" sections at well chosen points in his narrative, that give information about persons, countries, or other entities that the reader is about to encounter, such as the Ottoman Empire, for example, or the Romanovs.

This is only the second book I've read about World War I, after Barbara Tuchman's <i>Guns of August</i>, and compared to that book, which focuses primarily on the Western front, this one gives a more comprehensive view.

A Treatise on Purgatory, by St. Catherine of Genoa

I wanted to read this book after hearing Fr. Benedict Groeschel recommend it during a talk (which I came across on YouTube) about "Death and Purgatory".  It is a very interesting account of the private revelations made to St. Catherine of Genoa (known to Protestants as "Madame Adorno") about what purgatory is and what it is like for the souls that are in it.  Purgatory is a subject that is not much covered in church sermons or religion classes that I have attended, so I found this book very informative.  Highly recommended!

A Room With A View, by E. M. Forster

This is my second time reading this since high school--prompted by a recent viewing of the 1980's film adaptation with Helena Bonham Carter.  I like Howards End even better, but A Room with a View is very fun read too.  It's a romantic comedy about Lucy Honeychurch, an upper middle class, rather sheltered young lady, who goes on a tour of Italy with her proper spinster Aunt Charlotte, and who has her horizons widened, and not just by the art and architecture.  She meets a variety of different people, not the least of which are two very different young men:  George Emerson, a passionate young railway clerk, beneath her in class, but to whom her thoughts keep reverting despite herself, and Cecil Vyse, a wealthy aesthete who would make a respectable husband for a girl of her station.  Which will she choose? 

E.M. Forster has a talent for showing the state of mind of his characters by subtle details in their behavior or reactions, with nothing overplayed or forced such that everything seems natural yet significant.

Howards End, by E. M. Forster

This is a re-read for me, prompted after watching the Emma Thompson/Anthony Hopkins movie based on it.  Howards End is the name of an old country house in England that is the childhood home of Ruth Wilcox, to whose family it has belonged for generations.  She has a deep love for her family home and land, and the traditions of the village where she was born.  It makes her something of the odd woman out in her family, since her husband, a wealthy industrialist, and adult children are all very modern and practical in their tastes and outlook on life.  They befriend the Schlegels, upper middle class intellectuals who value education and cultural pursuits, and who have formed a friendship with Leonard Bast, a lower class clerk who aspires to become more intellectually and culturally learned.  The book is about how these three groups of people interact with each other, and who will end up inheriting Howards End (which could be thought of as a symbol for England in general) after Ruth Wilcox's death. 

The book is enjoyable and can be read on several different levels.  The movie is very well done too, and quite close to the original storyline.

Fatima, In Lucia's Own Words

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the Fatima apparitions and the message they intended to convey.  Lucia is herself one of the visionaries, so it is a primary source.  She discusses the apparitions in a straightforward manner, and gives personal background information about herself and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, who saw the apparitions with her, and who died of illness not very long afterwards.

Les mouettes, par Sándor Márai

Les personnages de ce roman font des monologues tellement longs que je me suis endormie plusieurs fois pendant la lecture. Pas recommandé sauf comme somnifère.

Les erreurs de l'occident, par Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This is the French edition of Mortal Danger.

Three Questions, by Leo Tolstoy

This story is an excellent cure for two kinds of people: 1. procrastinators, and 2. those who have a tendency to overthink things or who believe there is some grand theory that will solve all problems if only they knew it. The king in this story is searching for knowledge that will help make him a better king when consistently applied. The hermit demonstrates how much more simple life is. There is no grand theory. You just have to take life as it comes in all its variety and do your best to figure out what is right for each situation.

Twilight and Moonbeam Alley, by Stefan Zweig

 I find that there is something almost cinematic about Stefan Zweig’s writings. He has a talent for creating scenes in the reader’s imagination that draws them in and makes them feel what the characters are feeling. Both stories in this collection deal with despair, loneliness, and the isolation of human beings from each other.

Twilight is about a high ranking lady who has fallen out of favor with the king. She is obliged to leave Versailles to stay at her estate in a sleepy rural town. Accustomed to being the center of attention because of her great influence at court, she never realized that she was just as dependent on the flattery and attention of other people as they were on her for the favors she could grant. After living a life that revolved around creating an outward image for the public to admire, she is not capable of cultivating an interior life, and the scant social life in the little town leaves her no scope for her talents. She begins to contemplate suicide, after throwing a lavish party at her estate to give her society friends the impression that her banishment did not affect her too much. A deceptive appearance, however, does not change the underlying reality. Zweig’s portrayal of this woman’s despair while walking alone by candlelight through the rooms of a dark empty chateau, with only the occasional appearance of a servant to do something for her, is very vivid.

Moonbeam Alley is about a man whose pride and avarice drove his own wife away. Despite his repentance and willingness to reconcile, she prefers to support herself as a prostitute, for independence, and also to humiliate him. The atmosphere of this story is reminiscent of a film noir movie—all dark alleys, seedy tenements, and moody, dimly lighted little bars that are all but impossible to recognize in the daytime, since they only come alive at night.