Happy Feasting and Happy Reading!

Alleluia, He is risen!
He is risen indeed!!!

A very happy Easter to you and yours! Are you still feasting? I sure hope so!

It seems almost too true to bother to mention, but have you noticed that in some ways it's easier to live Lent with our attempts at fasting for six weeks than to earnestly enjoy Easter with feasting for seven weeks? And yet this only inspires us here at Miss Marcel's Musings to suggest more varied and ingenious ways of feasting so that we can help you live the Church's liturgical year and Our Lord's glorious resurrection with all the gusto you can muster . . . 

We recently had the joy of seeing this question and answer on our local Catholic email list:

Q: What lists are available for Catholic parents to use for their children?  Seems books are getting worse out there.  If anyone has a series or title they recommend, please add it on.

​A: I would recommend the book lists on our own Suzie Andres’s website!

You could've knocked me over with a feather! What a delight to have someone second the motion on my favorite books for all ages! And so, I've decided to provide easy links right here for feast day perusing. We are still in the octave of Easter, and on this verge of Divine Mercy Sunday, I can't think of a greater mercy in my life than good books. They have saved my life, and if you think I'm being a bit over-the-top with that statement, I'm only following in the footsteps of the Big Teresa (of Avila), who said in The Book of Her Life (her autobiography): 

"My fondness for good books was my salvation." -St. Teresa of Jesus
 
Feel free to steal this idea, but I'm thinking a fun memoir could be titled, "Me Too!" and composed simply of favorite quotes one felt expressed perfectly the gist of life!

Anyhow, on to the book lists. These links will connect you to the pages listed in the drop down menu above under "Book Lists," and once you've read them all (the books, not the lists :), you can go to my homeschooling books (listed with links on this page) for even more book recommendations in their appendices. Finally, it seems to me I have a son or two around here who has (or have) been working on a website of great reading for kids, but what with one life project and another, it never got launched. Once Roughhouse Magazine is launched, I'll see what I can do to get son #2 to finish the book site begun by son #1! Meanwhile, happy feasting and happy reading!!

FAVORITE READ ALOUDS

FOR LITTLE ONES

FOR YOUNG READERS
   (In which you will find separate lists for fiction, religious biography, general non-fiction, and history)
   
FOR OLDER CHILDREN
     
FOR GROWNUPS: Gentle Reads
   (In which you will find lists for novels, essays and humor, English Catholic authors, and poetry)

SAINT THERESE (THE LITTLE FLOWER OF LISIEUX)
   (In which you will find lists of books by her, books about her, and books about her siblings)

SPIRITUAL TREASURES
    Not to spoil the surprise, but to give you a few titles to brighten your Easter celebrations immensely, here is what you will find on this page of "Spiritual Treasures" -

These are potential life changers, possibly even life savers! Here is a short list of my favorite spiritual books, culminating in my very, very favorite, Conversations, by St. Therese's spiritual little brother, the Servant of God, Marcel Van.
​
Baars, Conrad - Feeling and Healing Your Emotions, Born Only Once

Gaitley, Michael - 33 Days to Morning Glory, 33 Days to Merciful Love

Martinez, Luis - When God is Silent

Phillipe, Jacques - Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart

Van, Marcel - Conversations (with Jesus, Mary, and Therese) 

*   *   *

And lest we forget what is next to be feasted within our Easter celebrations:

HAPPY DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY!
Draw me; we will run!