Food, Feast and Fast: The Christian Era from Ancient World to Environmental Crisis by P. Fintan Lyons OSB (Columba Books, €19.99) Reading Fr Lyons’ title, one’s mind turns back at once to Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat and seven lean cows, and seven ears of corn ripely full, and seven ears thin and…
The World of Books by the Books Editor This year we are celebrating Easter in a time of trial. With so many of us being isolated, or rather ‘cocooned’ we have to celebrate much as the very early Christians did, just within the family circle – and indeed as Jews today still celebrate the…
I wonder what would be filling our news programmes if it wasn’t for Covid-19. Yes, I’ve got FOMO – fear of missing out! Yet it’s a serious question as significant events creep under the radar – it shows how important it is to check out and support reliable newspapers, to get a more rounded sweep of…
In these strange times when people can’t get to the cinema I thought it might be an idea to let you know of an American channel where you can watch Christian films at a low cost. It’s called the New Faith Channel and you can join up for $5.95 a month, or the euro equivalent.…
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (William Collins, £12.99/€18.19) This is a famous book of apologetics which is splendid to see back again in the shops. Mere Christianity is a collection of three books: Broadcast Talks (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943) and Beyond Personality (1944). These in turn were printed versions of a series of talks on Christian…
Early Irish Saints by John J. Ó Ríordáin (Columba Books, €12.99) When people talk in general about the saints of early Christian Ireland, that is those three or four centuries after St Patrick, they often emphasise their travels across Europe, adding in as an extra measure some comments on the relevance of this to the…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor Back in January, Steve Green, the billionaire founder with his family of the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC, issued a book he had co-authored. It is called This Beautiful Book (Zondervan, £18.99), one of a series he is devoting to his main interest in life…
Coping with Coronavirus: How to stay calm and protect your mental health A psychological toolkit Dr Brendan Kelly (Merrion Press, eBook €0.99; audio book in preparation) Dr Kelly, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College, suggested this book to his publisher and within five days he had a text prepared, and a week later they had…
Vivarium (15A) Excellent ***** Like all great science fiction films, suspension of disbelief is key to the immersion in the plot that’s demanded here – and richly achieved. We enter the seventh circle of hell and accept it because, hey, that’s just the way things are. So when Tom and Gemma, a house-seeking couple,…
Anything that provides calm, relative normality or even distraction in these troubling times is welcome. Gardening surely ticks all these boxes, so I was glad to watch Gardeners’ World (BBC2) on Friday. Recently returned for a new season, presenter Monty Don exuded calm and enthusiasm and it was almost a virus-free zone – he did…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone