In this episode of CR Radio, Rita Buettner speaks with Tom Tirpak and talks about the impact he hopes his new book will have on others. Tom also shares a powerful story of a miracle his mother recalled experiencing during the canonization of St. Faustina – a beloved family patron and the saint who awakened a love for the Divine Mercy among Catholics worldwide.

In this episode of Catholic Review Radio, host George Matysek talks with Murphy, creative services director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, about his passion for art, his background in animation and the faith that has guided his life’s work. Murphy recounts how prayer and an unexpected opportunity led him to join the archdiocese in 2016 and explains how he uses creative media to share the Gospel and engage audiences of all ages.

Rita Buettner speaks with Ilka Knüppel, author of “Finding Ruth: A Personal Story of Hitler’s Secret Euthanasia Program, Action T4.”

Herewith, some suggestions for your own reading pleasure this summer, which I hope you’ll pass along to friends:

Now 90, the Cumberland native has self-published “The Cumberland Mission,” a 316-page archival study of the Catholic Church’s efforts to minister to Catholics in Western Maryland during the region’s frontier period from 1778 to 1853. Father Burkey said he began writing the book about 20 years ago, drawing on archival research he had accumulated over decades.

Pope Leo XIV said the conscience of just one person can “be worth the entire world” when it comes to preventing a nuclear catastrophe, in a new book foreword that also quotes an unpublished Bob Dylan song about the atomic bomb.

For a university founded in 1808, Emmitsburg’s Mount St. Mary’s University has surprisingly few books telling its story. That bothered alumnus John Singleton, Class of 1986, enough that he wrote one himself.

Pulitzer Prize winners, a Nobel laureate, celebrated novelists and authors from nearly a dozen countries met at the Vatican June 24 for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, who reflected on the importance of books to reveal who we are and “our inner dialogue with God.”

Vice President JD Vance’s new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” is a story of several of his conversions: from Protestant Christian to atheist to Christian again as a Catholic; from Appalachia to Washington; from a vocal skeptic of President Donald Trump to his running mate.

On June 16, Vice President JD Vance will release his second book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith” (HarperCollins). As a presumed 2028 U.S. presidential candidate, the timing couldn’t be more critical for Vance, who joined the Catholic Church in 2019.