Books I'm Currently Reading

A # indicates a book read for the first time

A * indicates a book started today
Books are listed by author (or series creator)

"My Daily Spiritual Companion"

by Marci Alborghetti

daily devotional reading for 2017

I liked the book I used last year better

"Smart Women: The Search for America's
Historic All-Woman Study Clubs" # 
by Ann Dodds Costello
[nonfiction]
(Google book)

"Ministering Angels  
A Study of Nineteenth-Century
Evangelical Writing  for Children"
by Margaret Nancy Cutt

[nonfiction]

"Of Irish Ways" # 

by Mary Murray Delaney

[nonfiction]


"Mildred At Roselands" *
by Martha Finley
[children's fiction, Christian, (Protestant), historical, 1830s]
(free online book)

"The Gospel According To John" 
current Bible book

"The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ" #

by St. Alphonsus Liguori

[Catholic spirituality]

(Kindle book]

"The Book of Catholic Jokes" 

by Fr. Gregory Sakowicz and Deacon Tom Sheridan
[nonfiction, humor (obviously!)]
one or two pages a night

Also:

Daily readings in the Liturgy of the Hours
Nightly bedtime Gospel reading

I choose a favorite passage every night

Finished today:

"Mildred Keith" 
by Martha Finley

The "Elsie" Books: Mixed Feelings

I'm about to start re-reading Martha Finley's "Elsie Dinsmore"

series, and I must admit that I have mixed feelings about

the books.

Many of the incidents are really interesting; some would even

fit into a non-religious book, if the religious elements were omitted.
I like the fact that Elsie loves her Bible.  Of course, in those days many books written for a Protestant audience depicted
characters reading the Bible, a hymn book, and Pilgrim's Progress.
 Now for the things I find annoying about the books.
Of course, I have to mention the anti-Catholic element.
"Poor darling!" murmured Adelaide,
 clasping the little form more closely,
and pressing her lips to the fair brow;
"I wish I could save you from it. He
 says that if you continue obdurate, he
 has quite determined to send you to a convent to be educated."

"As Adelaide made this announcement,
she pitied the child from the bottom of
her heart; for she knew that much of
Elsie's reading had been on the subject
of Popery and Papal institutions; that she
had pored overhistories of the terrible
tortures of the Inquisition and stories of martyrs and captive nuns, until she had imbibed an intense horror and dread of everything connected with that form of
error and superstition."

I wonder if one of the books Elsie read was 

Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, or, The Hidden Secrets of a Nun’s Life in a Convent Exposed
I'm almost sure that Martha Finley, the author of the "Elsie" books, read it!
I thought for a long time that "Maria Monk" was a pseudonym, chosen to
mock Catholic beliefs; it certainly sounds like one! However, I've recently 
found out that it was her real name.

In "Elsie's Children," one of Elsie's young cousins becomes a Catholic.  Her conversion is referred to as her perversion.

[In the revised, modernized version of the "Elsie" series, "Elsie Dinsmore: A Life of Faith," the anti-Catholicism is removed.  The revision, however, is a bit anachronistic, because although it is set at the same time as the original series,
the Bible Elsie uses is the "New International Version", which was first published in the 1970s!  I had the updated books, but I lost them when I moved.] 

There are other things in the "Elsie" books that I find annoying, but they'll have to wait for another post.

So, how do I feel about the books, all in all?  Well, as I said when I started this post, I must admit that I have mixed feelings about

the books.  There are some things I really dislike, and some
things I really enjoy.

A Bible That Is Falling Apart

There is a saying: "A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't."
I think that whoever came up with that saying was wise to include the word usually.
There are some people who, although they possess a well-worn
Bible, are still falling apart.  (Please do not think that I am judging them; I myself came very close to falling apart years
ago during a time I will not blog about.)
Someone might have an old, worn, falling-apart, inherited Bible that stays on a shelf, unread.  In fact, all the Bibles he or she owns go unread.  Perhaps that person isn't actually falling apart,
but he or she is, in my opinion, missing out on a great deal of consolation and strengthening.
On the other hand, some people who constantly read the Bible are still falling apart; they see only the admonitions and the passages about sin, and Hell, and so they despair.
But much more often, thank God, a Bible that is falling apart does belong to someone who isn't.

I'll end this post by saying,"A Bible that is falling apart should be rebound."