MembrePrincessBattleJoy

I am an avid reader of Catholic classics by the Saints, and classic fiction by such authors as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Bronte. I also enjoy children's literature a great deal and believe that I am greatly blessed for having waited until reaching my 30's and 40's to have read a number of children's lit books for the first time (rather than reading them at what my teachers, bless their hearts, had deemed the appropriate time.) Always the late bloomer! Maybe one of these days I will actually read Tolstoy's War and Peace for sheer enjoyment (is this possible? Well, mayhaps Audible will help!)Why can't War and Peace be as enjoyable as his short stories? Sigh).

One of my favorite authors is George MacDonald, who was a contemporary of Charles Dickens. He was a prolific Scottish, Christian author whom many of my email friends would appreciate as a "ragamuffin" or a "tatterdemalion" (he wrote about God's GRACE!). Many of his novels and fairy tales are available online as free e-texts, free Kindle books, and free audiobooks (from LibriVox.org) (scroll down the page to see titles of his fiction works). You won't regret checking him out! While not a technically good writer, he still weaves a very good and readable story with good points.

I do not pretend to have a giant intellect :) but I do like to read G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis in small portions when my concentration level is equal to it. The year of 2014 finds me resolving to read and to enjoy some of Chesterton's fiction works, the first of which I aspire to read is Manalive.Am currently enjoying GKC's All Things Considered on both my Kindle reader and on my MP3 player as read by wonderful LibriVox.org volunteer reader Ray Clare.

I read everything from A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh, to Bert Ghezzi's Mystics and Miracles, to St. Louis de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary, with many things in between. I love reading Roman Catholic theology, so long as it is written in plain English and not in theo-babble! Last year I tried to read more biographies and autobiographies of canonized saints (again, the operative word here is "incrementally", as I have an illness which makes it extremely difficult to concentrate and retain things I've read in my memory). When "extra" ill with CFIDS and fibromyalgia, I read a good deal of "fluff". This past year has found me reading a number of Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who... mysteries, especially revisiting my old favorite Agatha Christie mysteries which I enjoy greatly. The classic mystery genre is a great favorite of mine.

I am a 49 year old cradle Catholic who loves Jesus and His Church. My life has been (and continues to be) profoundly influenced by the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux and her doctrine of "The Little Way" and by St. Louis de Montfort and his Marian spirituality (which was a profound influence on Blessed Pope John Paul II). I was raised in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, to which I owe a great deal of gratitude, but am really more of a "traditional" Catholic. I am committed to true ecumenism. I have had CFIDS (chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome) and fibromyalgia for now 33 years. I remain hopeful for a cure and/or a miracle from God, but I also find peace and joy in responding to God's grace to live the vocation of redemptive suffering. My life has also been profoundly influenced by the life, words, music, and ministry of the late Rich Mullins. My life's ministry is being a "Barnabas Lady" (a daughter of encouragement) and in general trying to be a cricket on the hearth.