Tag: Italy
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Book Review: The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce was recently published on July 8, 2025 by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House. I was offered this ARC by the publisher because of my interest in and book reviews of several other books published by Random House, such as Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, one of…
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Book Review: Mayhem at the Museum by Hannah Bruckner
Thank you to NetGalley and NorthSouth Books for the ARC of Mayhem at the Museum (September, 2025), a soon-to-be published children’s picture book. This delightfully illustrated picture book is the story of young Yuri who is terrified of birds. Okay, that’s fine. The story goes on, however, that Yuri is at a museum observing a…
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The First Millennial Saint: Carlos Acutis
Thursday, April 17, 2025 Day 5 of Holy Week Reflections, First Day of the Triduum, Holy Thursday In February of 2022, I was teaching middle school religion, coming back after my first retirement, at my parish school, St. Jude Regional Catholic School. Our faculty retreat that year was held at the Shrine of St. Anthony…
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The Papacy and the Pendulum
Tuesday, April 15, 2025: Day 3 of Holy Week Reflections Pope Francis, who at age 88 is one of the oldest reigning popes of modern times, is the current Bishop of Rome. His papacy began on March 13, 2013, and I remember the day very clearly. I was in my classroom at my first school,…
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Book Review: Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
By Anthony Doerr (Published June 12, 2007 by Scribner Book Company) I realize I am late to joining the Anthony Doerr fan club, but I tore through this piece of nonfiction in less than two days. I probably would have finished it in one day had I not stopped so frequently to admire his wide…
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The Elephant in the Room
As my regular readers may know, I have always been a cat person although currently I am the catless owner of an eight-year-old Maltipoo named Puccini. In fact, my very first essay published on Cajun Girl in a Kilt was “License to Carry”, a tongue-in-cheek essay about Puccini’s reluctance to go up and down the…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 