Happiness is a new book in the mail

Latest Catholic Company book arrived – Amy Welborn’s Prove It!: God.

I have this bad habit of getting people books as gifts, but acquiring them early enough that I have time to read the book myself.  Been doing it all my life.  In this case, though, I’m required to do so, since I have to write a review before I ship my copy (or one just like it) out west to my neice*.

Here’s what happened:

1) My niece asked me to be her confirmation sponsor.

2) Her parish has this really great interview form for a mandatory conversation between student & sponsor.  I’ll post the questions soon.  We had a great conversation.  (Hint: I am pretty much rolling in awesome young kinspeople.)

3) She explains that many of her friends don’t believe in God.  It frustrates her because she can’t explain to them why she believes.

4) I think about the Amy Welborn books that I’ve seen at my local catholic bookstore, but the quickest thing is to send her to Catholic Answers.

5) I get invited to a friend’s house for supper.  My friend has to take a phone call.  I pick through her library, and find Prove It: God.  I read a few pages.  I kick myself for not choosing this as my Catholic Company review book when I first saw it on the list.

6) My Eric Sammons book review gets approved, and the Amy book is still up for grabs.  Meanwhile, there is another guaranteed-win book on the CC list, that my other niece needs.  Serious conflict now — which book to choose?  But hey, I look over to Tiber River, and the other must-read book is there.  (I’ll post that title once it shows up at the house.  ‘Tis in transit as I type.)

7) So I pick the Amy book for my next CC review.  Shows up today.  Yay!

Safe money says it will be read by end of day Saturday at the latest.  What with the lousy luck on library books, I have a surplus of reading time.

*No surprises were ruined in the making of this blog post.  I am very predictable in my gift choices.  Less predictable in my ability to use a post office. That’s the real surprise: not what, but when?

Cover art courtesy of OSV.