Good Read

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A monthly publication of virtues & vocations, Good Thought pieces showcase scholars from various disciplines reflecting on how issues of virtue and vocation intersect with their work in higher education.

stoneyard
Suzanne Shanahan

Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional (2023) is an eloquently spare and finely observed novel about a middle aged woman’s quest to make sense of her life and the world around her. The Booker Prize short listed novel, framed as a journal, begins as the main character is retreating from her life—her environmental work and her husband--to an isolated religious community in desolate New South Wales close to her family home she left some thirty years prior after the death of her parents. The woman is not religious, thinks little of God and is perplexed by prayer. The odd choice to take refuge in a community of religious sisters focuses her lurking despair. Unreconciled guilt and grief quietly torment her but she finds an unexpected comfort in the secluded and rhythmic nature of daily life in this community. The woman notes, “The beauty of being here is largely the silence, after all. Not having to explain or endlessly converse.” One reviewer called the novel an extended meditative vigil.

Virtue in Virtual Spaces
Suzanne Shanahan

The recent publication, Virtue in Virtual Spaces (2024),  makes a bold proposition. Authors Louisa Conwill, Megan Levis and Walter Scheirer argue that Catholic Social Tradition offers a road map for reimagining the internet as a force for good in the world. Focusing on social technologies (the internet) and dedicated to the patron saints of the Internet (the late Blessed Carla Acutis and Marshall McLuhan), this concise read turns much of what we assume about the internet on its head. But it also serves as an intuitive primer for anyone puzzling through how to enact Catholic Social Tradition (CST) in our daily lives and institutions.

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This month we want to use our "Good Read" feature to revisit one of our favorite books from the past year and announce the inauguration of a new award.

The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous
Suzanne Shanahan

Deeply rooted in the wisdom of the Jewish Tradition, Sharon Brous’s (2024) The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts and World is about the simple (though not easy) act of showing up, of being there for others in all of life’s moments. Using her own life experiences as a point of departure, The Amen Effect is both small and short (just under 190 pages) and offers a clear message about the importance of presence.

Wonder Struck
Suzanne Shanahan

Last week a student told me his dyslexia both made him unusually creative and gave him a special sense of wonder. From what I knew of him, the claim made intuitive sense to me. He is the kind of wildly clever student who sees and connects dots others never even see. I had Eoin in mind as I read Helen de Cruz’s 2024 Wonder Struck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think. 

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