Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages: The Layman's Quick Guide to Thomism, by Dr. Taylor Marshall

If you are looking for a clear, concise introduction to the life and work of St. Thomas Aquinas, and you have little to no background in philosophy or theology, this book does the job well. Dr. Marshall sketches out St. Thomas's life story, and explains the fundamental ideas of Thomist philosophy and the intellectual climate of St. Thomas's time in a simple, straightforward way.

Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney

I found Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf to be quite easy to read.  The story was fast paced and his wording somehow had a terse, majestic style that really helped me to visualize the events in my head.  This edition has the original Old Anglo Saxon English text on the left page and the translation on the right, and I did think that since I know English and have some knowledge of German, I would be able to read some of the original, but picking out an occasional word or phrase here and there was all I could manage.

Beowulf is set in a time of small kingdoms that alternately carried out wars of conquest or raids, and formed alliances with one another. Christianity had been well established, but it was still new.  The atmosphere kind of reminded me of Sigrid Undset's [book:Gunnar's Daughter|6226] that I read some months ago.  Beowulf is a warrior of noble birth who lands with a small army to help the Danish king get rid of the monster Grendel who has been terrorizing the people by carrying out nighttime raids and killing people in gruesome, X-rated ways. Basically, it's the story of his achievements as the protector of the people and teaches the lesson of courage, self sacrifice, and resolve in the face of evil.  Let's just say this guy is no vacillating Hamlet, forever deliberating on what to do.

The Catholic Classics, by Dinesh D'Souza

This book makes a great introduction to 10 Catholic authors and the works for which they were best known:
1. St. Augustine (Confessions)
2. Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy)
3. St. Bede (Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
4. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica)
5. Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy)
6. Blaise Pascal (Pensées)
7. Thomas à Kempis (Imitation of Christ)
8. John Henry Newman (Apologia pro vita sua)
9. G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy)
10. Thomas Merton (Seven Story Mountain)

The introductions to each author are concise and include biographical information about each author, the main features of their thought, the circumstances in which they wrote their books, and how their books were received. This book is a great choice for anyone with an interest in learning about these 10 authors or who might be starting to read their works.

Kristin Lavransdatter: Book III, The Cross, by Sigrid Undset

I think his final book of the <I>Kristin Lavransdatter</I> series is the best of all, because it's where the threads of the many interwoven lives, not just Kristin's, are resolved.  The books in this trilogy are not as self-contained as the books in other multivolume novel series I've read, such as for example <I>Anne of Green Gables</I> or <I>The Chronicles of Narnia</I>.  In those you can read just some of the books, or mix up the order, and it doesn't really affect your enjoyment of the books.  Not so for <I>Kristin Lavransdatter</I>, which is really best treated as one long novel instead of three separate ones.  I know I will be reading this series again, as there was so much to take in!  My favorite novels are always the ones that seem to create a whole world that feels real in my imagination, and Sigrid Undset definitely excels in this.

Gunnar's Daughter, by Sigrid Undset

I first heard of Sigrid Undset a couple of years ago after coming across an article about a new English translation of her <i>Kristin Lavransdatter</i> trilogy.  Since it's such a huge book, I thought I would read one of her shorter works first and decided on this one.

<i>Gunnar's Daughter</i> is a dramatic story of a woman who was raped by the man she wanted to marry, and how this betrayal of trust changed the whole course of both their lives. That the story is set when Norway and Iceland were in a time of transition between paganism and Christianity, so that the characters sometimes act in a Christian manner, sometimes not, makes it even more interesting.  We get a sense of what it was like to live in a time when infanticide, Viking raids, and blood feuds were normal and people were only beginning to question the morality behind those practices.  These days one comes across quite a few people who like to dwell on the imperfections of  societies with long Christian histories, blame them on Christianity, and think things would be so much better if Christianity were done away with altogether. Beware of what you ask for.....

I knew Undset was trying to emulate the style of the Icelandic sagas when she wrote <i>Gunnar's Daughter</i>, but I thought a saga was a long epic poem, like the medieval lays or the <i>Iliad</i> and the <i>Odyssey</i>.  Turns out that the saga is a very pared down prose style that focuses on actions and events and does not dwell on descriptions or the thoughts of the characters. As a result, the story moved at a  fast pace and the style gave it a timeless quality. I could not put it down and finished it in one (late) night!  The spareness of the style actually  gives more scope to the reader's imagination since everything is not spelled out.

Looking forward to reading more by Sigrid Undset.

Kristin Lavransdatter: Book II, The Wife, by Sigrid Undset

I enjoyed this book just as much as <i>The Wreath</i>.  Its focus is Kristin's married life with Erlend on his ancestral estate of Husaby.  Kristin bears seven sons, and it is largely to her efforts and leadership that the badly managed farm and household are brought into shape, farming not being one of her husband's interests.  He is much more interested in politics, and this is where he gets involved in a group of partisans who prefer a different successor to the throne and falls out of favor with the king.  Kristin's younger sister Ramborg gets married...to Simon, who was Kristin's betrothed before she broke the engagement to marry Erlend.  She also loses her parents in this book, which is bad news to me because her father Lavrans is my favorite of all the characters in the story!  His gradual decline in health, and the account of Lavrans's taking leave of her on horseback after a visit to Husaby, which is when Kristin realizes that her father will not be around forever, is particularly moving and made me cry!

This book, just like <i>The Wreath</i>, is quite detailed on how the people of medieval Norway lived and did things, but Sigrid Undset presents their lifestyle as an integral part of the story, so it never feels as if one is just absorbing a bunch of boring facts. I'm actually surprised at how few footnotes are needed to clarify some custom or other to modern readers.

Already started on the third volume <i>The Cross</i>.

Kristin Lavransdatter: Book I, The Wreath, by Sigrid Undset

Sigrid Undset has a great talent for creating realistic characters and evoking the atmosphere and way of life in medieval Norway.  I very much enjoyed reading this first installment of the <i>Kristin Lavransdatter</i> trilogy, which covers Kristin's childhood up to age 17, when she gets married.  As with real people, Kristin is sometimes a sympathetic character and sometimes not.  She starts out as a gentle, obedient child to become a rebellious young woman who betrays her parents' trust by making an unwise decision to start an illicit affair with an older man of dubious reputation and lots of baggage (rather reminiscent at times of Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen's <i>Sense and Sensibility</i>).  Except that Kristin is not so lucky as Marianne because the affair does not stay platonic.  It leads to consequences that are all too forseeable (a pregnancy), and she succeeds in getting her parents to give their consent to the marriage--which includes breaking her betrothal to a more honorable man.

As with other Undset books I have read, the power to make decisions, the responsibility to shoulder the consequences, and the effects of one's decisions on other people are a major theme in <i>The Wreath</i>.

Have already started on the second book in the series, <i>The Wife</i>.