Sally Read
Writer and Poet
I am in awe at what Sally Read has given us in these pages. What an extraordinary journey she has been on, and she now takes us with her in her discovery—step by patient, even unsettling, step—to understanding the beauty and necessity of falling in love with the Mother of God. There’s humor, wit, honesty, vulnerability, poetry (yes!), and a profound understanding of Mary’s life entwined with God’s, and her radiant presence over the centuries, from Nazareth to Walsingham to Mexico City and a hundred other places. Reader, listen. You will come away changed, even transformed, by what you find in these pages.”
—Paul Mariani, University Professor of English Emeritus at Boston College
"The current Catholic literary revival takes a huge leap forward with this essential new book. "100 Great Catholic Poems" not only lives up to its ambitious title, but exceeds it. Editor Sally Read presents an arresting cross section of the best poems from antiquity to the modern age: then she adds a useful and engaging note for each selection. This anthology helps restore a lost legacy to the Church. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or a cardinal, you will want this book on your shelf."
Dana Gioia, Former California Poet Laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
"Dawn of this Hunger" is a startling literary achievement. Nothing in the work of any contemporary poet prepares us for the impact of these poems. To the passion and exactness with which Sally Read evokes the story of the Incarnation-- from conception to resurrection--is added, in poem after poem, against all expectation, ways in which so many of the details of that story, both great and small, are found to be resonant with our own lives, our own fears and desires, our own hunger."
- Paul Murray OP​
**UK customers can support independent press publishing by buying this collection direct from Second Spring **
Sally Read discovers, in Mary's experience, the pattern of all believers in miniature. She beautifully weaves into one fabric our doubts, fears, raptures, and vocations with those of Mary, the first of us to receive within herself the Word of God.
- Al Kresta, President Ave Maria Radio
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If you ever wished for your own personal Road to Emmaus experience then this is the book for you. I felt as though Sally and I were sitting together in a charming Italian bistro while she was nonchalantly explaining all the complicated truths of our Catholic faith in a simple, conversational manner.
- Kendra Tierney, Author, The Catholic All Year Compendium​
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Sally Read's story is the best and liveliest account of a converion for a generation. It is a story of divine grace as moving and unexpected as it is luminous and profound.
- Paul Murray OP, Angelicum University, Rome
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Warning: don't start this book unless you intend to finish it. From the first part I was completely captured until the end.
- Steven K. Ray, Author, Crossing the Tiber
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In this brilliantly written, candid, sometimes shocking unveiling by Sally Read, we see vividly the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit on a heart once impenetrably hard and shut off, but then opened and reborn by the merciful joy of our triune God
- Marcus Grodi, EWTN host, "The Journey Home"
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