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Books with a Beu
Jamie Beu, owner and co-author (with his wife) of CatholicFamily.info, is a "cradle Catholic", devoted husband, and father of two girls. He is a regular contributor to his parish newsletter, as well as an impassioned defender of the faith who is able to both support and challenge others as necessary -- all in an effort to build-up Christ's Kingdom on Earth. To this end, he does a lot of reading - not just of religious books (for education and research), but also of secular books, both to decompress as well as to keep a finger on the pulse of pop culture (the better to relate to others, as well as to help restore the culture).
Currently reading
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know
Hyperion
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
Boundaries Face to Face: How to Have That Difficult Conversation You've Been Avoiding
Jesus of Nazareth
Permutation City
Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions
Is Jesus Coming Soon?: A Catholic Perspective on the Second Coming
Prelude to Foundation (Foundation: Prequel, #1)
Autobiography of a Saint: Therese of Lisieux
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
Clarke was a prolific writer. Some would say that qualifies as being a great writer, but I would say that putting out a high quantity of stories just fills the bell curve as far as quality of stories. Maybe it is because of the span of time over which these were written, but many of them read like episodes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits" - and many more read like bad episodes of such.Reading these stories, you get a feel for where the seeds of other sci-fi stories came from, but often times, you are simply left confused (like the ending of "The Star"), wanting a better ending (his endings definitely tend to be pessimistic), or simply laughing at the infantile writing while asking yourself, "This is one of the greats of sci-fi?"
Again, maybe it is just because sci-fi was in its infancy when he wrote most of these, but his prejudices and pessimistic elitist style too often cloud what could have been a decent story.