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Showing posts with the label Catholic upbringing

“Dark Beginnings, Dark Expressions”: A Review of The Trinity, by K. P. Ambroziak

(Published by the author, 2015). ISBN: 9781519740649 by Joey Madia Beneath the title of this book appear the words “A suspense novel.” I had mixed feelings about this. Having read the first two books in Ambroziak’s vampire trilogy, The Journal of Vincent Du Maurier , I was already aware of the author’s facility with suspense but I wondered at the expectations of what such a statement might produce. No need to wonder… The Trinity lives up to its label. And more. Some novels are more challenging than others to review, because to say almost anything specific is to give more than a little away, which robs the reader of that which I most savored and for which the writer worked so hard. So I will have to do a lot of “talking around” plot points here, and give you just the broad strokes of what Ambroziak attempts—and accomplishes—in the book. At its core, The Trinity is about the Roman Catholic Church… a subject of which I am a student and scholar, both in the sense of having...

“Guidance from Beyond”: A Review of I’m Not Dead, Am I?: A Paranormal Family Living in Rural New York,

 by Josette L. Berardi (Foreword, Elizabeth Tucker) (2012) ISBN: 147769336X When I first heard about the experiences of the Berardi family, through a mutual contact, I was immediately drawn to the core elements of their story because of certain similarities in my own life: Italian Catholics, the Berardis have experienced paranormal events, in their case, through the gift of mediumship that runs through the maternal side of the family and through their many clients for readings and house clearings. As readers of my reviews, blog essays, plays, and fiction are aware, I have had a lifetime of paranormal experiences, some of which have involved visitations from deceased family members, and I believe that, although I am no longer a practicing Catholic, my experiences growing up in the Roman Catholic   Church (complete with Catholic school, CCD, and church on Sundays and Holy Days) have informed my relationship with the paranormal. With all of this in mind I welcomed the oppo...