Full of Grace by Christine Watkins (Ave Maria Press, 2010)Christine Watkins grew up without religion and without a belief in God. Her parents had told her that Jesus was a fairytale and that when you died you became part of the dirt and helped nourish plants. As an adult, she searched in vain for some shred of hope and direction.

Crows (Rykodisc, 2010) Allison MoorerLast night I warned a college writing class against assuming that the "speaker" of a poem was in fact the poet. But it's hard to ignore the life behind Allison Moorer's art. Moorer was 14 when she and her sister witnessed their father kill their mother and then himself.

Stories about Queen Elizabeth I make extraordinary drama because her reign shattered the patriarchal myth that ruling a kingdom was a man's job.

Finding My Voice By Beth Knobbe (St. Anthony Messenger, 2009) Are the young adult years simply an extended adolescence? When do we become real adults?

Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard (F-Stop/Atlantic Record/2009)Since his death in 1969, beat novelist Jack Kerouac has become a pop-culture perennial. Each generation of young rebels lays claim to his restless spirit, while a few sad cases also imitate his drinking to no good end.

Up in the Air directed by Jason Reitman (Paramount Pictures, 2009)The most unbelievable thing about Jason Reitman's slick black comedy is that there is anybody left in America who still likes to fly.

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits By Linda Gordon (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009) In the 1930s President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Farm Security Administration wanted to show America the faces of millions of farmworkers devastated by the Great Depression.

The Difference God Makes By Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I. (Herder and Herder, 2009) Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George has a knack for delivering off-the-cuff comments that generate controversy. Once asked why the church will not ordain women as priests, he responded, “Have you ever seen a male prima ballerina?

In 1929 Al Jolson told audiences of The Jazz Singer that they hadn't heard (or seen) nothin' yet, and he was right. They hadn't seen Judy Garland croon and dance down that dazzling yellow brick road to find The Wizard of Oz. They hadn't shuddered as the earth and sky trembled and quaked when God (or Cecil B. DeMille) gave Charlton Heston The Ten Commandments.

The Future Church By John L. Allen Jr. (Doubleday, 2009)  There are few Catholic journalists as well-known and quoted as the National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen. As NCR’s Vatican correspondent for the better part of a decade, his access to Catholic figures of international significance is unparalleled.