One Shelf at a Time

My favourite literary blogger, Lissa at Here in the Bonny Glen, is taking her readers on a tour of her bookshelves, one shelf at a time. I'm sure she wouldn't mind me piggybacking on her idea, so I'm going to do the same. I won't be as ambitious as Lissa, as I'm not planning to list every book, but I'm going to pick three or four from each shelf to share.

So here goes with Shelf One, the top shelf of a three shelf Billy bookcase in the living room (all my bookcases, bar one, are from IKEA's Billy range). This shelf is a mish-mash of useful stuff - local maps, a set of school reference books (dictionary, thesaurus and so on), Catechism, Bible, prayer books and saint story anthologies - library books and random booklets and pieces of paper. Here is my selection of three, all books on saints, which make up the most interesting section of the shelf ...

Saints of the English Calendar edited by Marcus Holden and written by a group of recently ordained English priests. I love this book of short biographies of saints commemorated in the calendar of the English Church. Each section begins with a quotation and a black and white illustration, and ends with suggestions for places to visit and for further reading.

Saints: a Year in Faith and Art by Rosa Giorgi. I bought this chunky little book after seeing it recommended somewhere, and was glad I did. It is a calendar of saints, one for every day of the year, with a full page fine art illustration for each. On the opposite page is a brief summary of the saint's life, patronage and a note on his or her name. It is the sort of book that could be displayed on a home altar, with the page changed daily. I keep it on a book shelf and look at it when it comes to mind.

Saint Andrew by Lois Rock, is one of the library books at the end of the shelf. One of a series of four on the patron saints of the British Isles - George, Patrick, David and Andrew (also the names of the houses at Angel's school. She is in St. Andrew's). While St. George and St. Patrick are well served with children's books, St. David and St. Andrew are not, so I wanted to check this one out. Aimed at younger children (say 4 to 8?) it tells the story of St. Andrew's life in quite simple text, then includes a prayer, a note on how relics of St. Andrew ended up in Scotland, and ends with sections on the St. Andrew's Cross and St. Andrew's Day. If I didn't know that I can get the book easily from the library, I would buy it.