What I Read
Going over my Goodreads history is a yearly reckoning: did I read *enough* (whatever that means)? Did I get out of my comfort zone? Did I learn anything? For 2024, the answers to those are yes, no, yes.
Memoir
As is often the case, my pleasure reading was heavy on memoir. Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin featured Andre Dubus III’s exquisite writing in essay format. RuPaul’s The House of Hidden Meanings included some really insightful prose. Doppelgänger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein’s reflection on being mistaken for Naomi Wolf (who has gone off the deep end), plumbed some of the controversies on which they disagree, and broke the heart of this reader whose adolescent mind was blown by Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. Kaya Oakes’ Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church was clever and thoughtful and reminded me of the old days, of the style of reflective non-fiction that was popular 15 years ago, which doubtless formed my writing style. Also read: The Interior Silence: My Encounters with Calm, Joy and Compassion at 10 Monasteries Around the World by Sarah Sands; Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster.
Non-Fiction
I read a lot of non-fiction, hence the verdict of ‘not having left my comfort zone’ this year. I tell myself that I am reading to get a break from academic reading, but I end up reading books squarely in my research areas, just with snappier covers and more conversational writing styles. Since I’ve gotten more heavily into ethics, I’ve learned that pretty much everything has to do with ethics, including the following: Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux; The Good Eater: A Vegan’s Search for the Future of Food by Nina Guilbeault; The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America by Saket Soni; Not So Sorry: Abusers, False Apologies, and the Limits of Forgiveness by Kaya Oakes. About the cultural imagination: Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life by Jason Blakely; The Authenticity Industries: Keeping it “Real” in Media, Culture and Politics by Michael Serazio, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby; Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson; Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin. On education: The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice and How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement, both by Fredrik deBoer; After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging by Willie James Jennings. Church history: American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism and Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, both by John T. McGreevy.
Fiction
When I am really burned out I turn to old favorites by Louise Penny and Madeleine L’Engle to clear my head, which I don’t bother to document as I’m reading them for the second or third or thirtieth time. I read one piece of historical fiction about Isabella Stewart Gardner, The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin, and made time for Gabriel García Márquez’s posthumous novella Until August.
Academic Research
As I learn anew every holiday, I have not yet learned how to talk about my research in a way that people find remotely interesting. Mindful of time, I won’t share every book I read this year, but will list some of the one’s that really made an impact. If any of these interest you, you might be interested in my dissertation research, if I could find a way to be interesting about it. Academic favs this year are:
Christian Ethics and Imagination: A Theological Inquiry by Phillip S. Keane; Interrupting Tradition by Lieven Boeve; Awakening Vocation: A Theology of Christian Call by Edward Hahnenberg; Virtuous Passions: The Formation of Christian Character by G. Simon Harak; Powers of Imagining: A Hermeneutic of Imagining Through the Collected Works of Ignatius De Loyola by Antonio T. De Nicolas; Christian Conversion: A Developmental Interpretation of Autonomy and Surrender by Walter Conn; In Over our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life by Robert Kegan; Navigating toward Adulthood: A Theology of Ministry with Adolescents by Theresa O’Keefe
What I Wrote
This fall Twenty-Third Publications released my An Attitude of the Heart: Practical Tips and Service Ideas for Teens on Caring for Creation, sharing some of the wisdom of Laudato Si with an adolescent audience and, as the title suggests, offering practical tips along the way.
(In 2025 I expect to be writing for a similar audience about the lives of some young canonized saints, so if you have any favorites you want to lobby for, let me know!)
I wrote pages and pages of scholarly work that I’m preparing to submit for publication, hopefully when we check in a year from now there will be more to share from journals.
With few New Year’s resolutions other than to try to keep the good habits I already have, I am adding one this year: I hope to post here at least once a month. I miss the habit of this style of creating (even if blogging has fallen out of fashion, and I’ve decided to skip the Substack trend) and think that would be a good creative discipline for 2025. And maybe if I write a little bit each month, they won’t all be as long as this! If you want to keep up with these, please subscribe.
Of course, I also wrote lots of copy for this new website, designed by Little Leaf Design – if you’re visiting for the first time in a while, click around and check it out!
(I also got some sweet new photos from Gillian Gordon Photography for the new site.)
What I Sang
I learned two new operatic roles this year; thanks to Opera 51 for giving me the chance to cover the roles of Nedda in I Pagliacci and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Here’s a video of Nedda’s big aria.
I also sang this year with New England Film Orchestra and as part of a new musical premiere as part of my friends Stephanie Hollenberg’s thesis at Harvard Divinity School.
Where I Spoke
Since I am never not speaking, I should clarify that what follow are the places where I gave formal presentations this year. I spoke on “Formation and Voice” at BC’s Ever to Excel program for teens; gave a cantor workshop at St. Matthew’s in Southborough, MA; shared “Practical Tips for Musical and Spiritual Preparedness” to the Boston chapter of National Association of Pastoral Musicians as well as guidance on “Forming for Full, Conscious, and Active Participation at School Masses” at Notre Dame’s virtual conference on The Eucharist and Catholic Schools; and presented a paper on “The Examen Prayer as a locus of Ignatian Imagination” at the Boston College Philosophy Department’s Graduate Student Conference. Being part of the AMDG podcast was a blessing, too!
Suggestions to share?
You know the deal, let me know what books I should be reading! Of if any of these interest you and you want to chat more, please reach out. 2025 will see the end of doctoral coursework and the beginning of prep for comprehensive exams, so it promises to be an eventful year. I hope it brings blessings to all!
Most of the links here are Amazon Affiliate links, which send a little change to my piggy bank if you make purchases through them. But go to a local bookstore instead. Or a public library. Happy reading!
