STM Music Ministry 

Musici ac Lectores Felices

(a space to exchange Book recommendations!) 

Dear Choir Members, hereinafter to be addressed as Musici ac Lectores Felices,
 
We are readers.  We often share recommendations and mini  book reviews with each other.  Ren has introduced me to The Shadow of The Wind, The Thirteenth Tale, and other wondrous books. I have introduced him to Schweitzer’s Liturgical Mysteries, with marvelous titles  such as The Soprano Wore Falsettos, and to Jacques Barzun’s Dawn to Decadence.  Ren has suggested that we formalize this to reach more people and include more books.
 
First, our title, Musici ac Lectores Felices.  Musici and lectores need no explanation.  The ac is short for atque and means ‘as well as’.  Felices means not only ‘happy, joyful’ but also ‘fruitful’ and ‘productive’. I hope that you like the name I am suggesting.
 
To start off this blog:  Have you heard of Fredrik Backman, a Swedish author?  I have read two of his books:  A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry. Both feature an older person and a charming little girl but differ in tone and content.  Ove is a curmudgeon who will steal your heart.  Backman takes a horrific premise and makes it funny.  Ove is rescued from despair by a neighborhood.  This is a book full of life and hope and humor. There is a Swedish movie out already, but Tom Hanks is making another version.  Cannot wait to see it.  The Grandmother story turns out to be a mystery with an odd cast of characters.  Both are beautifully written, full of surprises.  Try Ove first and then move on to Grandmother.
 
After you read the blog:  add your own recommendations, comments both negative and positive about books suggested, paeans of praise for particular authors…whatever you like.  I am looking forward to book recommendations from my learned, well-read colleagues..
 
Blessings,
Dorothy

Bill and I are big fans of Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Robert Penn Warren, Mark Twain.
Right now I’m “reading” A year with the Mystics by Katherine Jean Lopez.  It’s a one a day book for contemplation.  Waiting in the wings (but not for long) is The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction.
Bill is reading Einstein by Walter Isaacson.  All his biographies are worth reading, I believe.
I’m sure there’s more but that’s it for now.
Laurey Boyd

I loved Walter Isaacson's biography of Leonardo Da Vinci  - Ren.

Al Perez wrote: I cannot recommend enough, a book titled "The Tribune" by Patrick Larkin.
Partick Larkin is a parishioner at our own Saint Thomas More! 
My daughter and I read his book, and wow did we both enjoy his work, and we sure do wish it would be picked up and turned into a movie!
Here's an Amazon and Good Reads link to Patrick's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Tribune-Patrick-Larkin/dp/1587245469

I've really enjoyed some Science Fiction lately. One of the more mind-bending books out there is Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140.  In it he tries to imagine what New York would be like if the doomsday scenario of a sudden 50 foot rise in the sea level occurs. Fascinating. - Ren.

Cathy Fontaine wrote: I also read "A Man Called Ove" and found myself comparing him to people I Know!!! (Not in the Choir of course!)  Another Bachman book I enjoyed is "Britt-marie Was Here" about a woman who is "hard to like but easy to love." Dorothy Stewart added: Britt-Marie is a character in the My Grandmother… story; Britt_Marie Was Here follows Grandmother in sequence.  I have not yet read it.  There is a movie, in Swedish with sub-titles.  Just watched the trailer. I think it is on Netflix – which I do not have.