Going West!

I'm excited to begin my West by Northwest speaking tour this week, which will have me speaking and signing copies of my memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same in Washington, Montana, and California. Click the flyer above for details and see my Upcoming Talks page for the latest updates.

A taste of Sunday

I'm delighted to report that Angelus, the magazine of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, recently featured an excerpt of my memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same in its Books Issue.

I like to be in America! Jesuit website features my response to James Carroll

The website of America — The Jesuit Review today features my response to James Carroll's recent Atlantic cover story arguing for the abolition of the priesthood. I place James Carroll, ex-priest, in dialogue with the late Jim Carroll, punk poet:

A novelist and poet born in the late 1940s, whose Irish-American Catholic parents named him James Carroll, summed up his childhood with the refrain, “I was a Catholic boy/ Redeemed through pain/ And not through joy.”

I thought of that classic punk-rock Jim Carroll Band lyric, from the title track of their 1980 album Catholic Boy, as I read “Abolish the Priesthood,” the cover story in The Atlantic by James Carroll, an ex-priest born a few years prior to the late musician with whom he shares a name.

Both Jim Carroll (best known for his 1978 memoir The Basketball Diaries) and James Carroll critique the church that shaped them. But whereas the lyrics of “Catholic Boy” cling to the hope of redemption, James Carroll’s article gives no hint that we are all, in fact, sinners in need of salvation; he argues that the only thing lay Catholics need to be saved from is Catholicism itself.

Read the full article at America's website.

Photo: Jim Carroll with his parents, photographed by Annie Leibovitz in a hand-colored test image for the cover of Carroll's album Catholic Boy (1980).

I discuss my new memoir on the Eric Metaxas Show

It was a pleasure to share some of the stories from my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same on the Eric Metaxas Show. Among the topics we discussed: Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson, G.K. Chesterton, and the hidden connection between St. Catherine of Siena and They Might Be Giants.

Journey to a new Dawn

Seeing is believing. It's one thing for someone to read about my life's journey, but it's another thing to actually see me BC/AC — Before Catholicism/After Catholicism.

I opened up my trove of personal videos from my rock and roll past, including clips of me with the Posies and Jeff Probst (pre-"Survivor"), to the good people at Catholic Answers Press. They in turn created this beautiful trailer for my memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock and Roll Journalist Opens Her Ears to God. If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and family — especially those who refuse to darken the door of a church. As I recently explained in an interview for Crux,

I want Sunday Will Never Be the Same to be the book that Catholics give to friends and family who hate the Church. It’s meant to reach people who can’t even imagine why anyone with a choice, let alone a Jewish rock and roll journalist with the world of New York City nightclubs at her disposal, would want to become Catholic.

Sunday Will Never Be the Same is available through Amazon, Catholic Answers Press, and wherever fine books are sold.

Would you like to host me for a talk? Contact me at the email address at the bottom of my Biography/Contact page.

"God used my love of Sixties pop"

With the Turtles' Flo (at right) and Eddie backstage at the Bottom Line, probably on or around New Year's Eve 1990.

The Catholic news site Crux today features an interview with me about my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same. Here's a taste:

The book has an interesting title. Why did you want to drive home the point that “Sunday will never be the same”? What does your choosing this title reveal about your conversion experience? 

It reveals, first of all, that I love Sixties pop music, for “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” is the title of a classic hit by Spanky and Our Gang. 

The song is part of a genre called sunshine pop that I helped popularize as a rock historian during the late 1980s and 1990s - yes, I started during my teens! I tell about that time of my life in Sunday Will Never Be the Same, partly because it was also a time when God was trying to reach me. But I also discuss it because I don’t think converts such as myself should despise our past loves when those loves weren’t sinful in themselves. 

In my case, God used my love of Sixties pop - including artists like the Zombies, the Kinks, and the Left Banke - to stir up my desire for what songwriter Robyn Hitchcock calls a “Shimmering Distant Love.” The music’s beauty made me hope that there was something transcendent that I could attain to and find happiness. And that is in fact what happened - only not as I originally hoped, which was simply that I would find a husband who liked the same music that I did. 

My memoir’s title is also meaningful because, in times past, Saturday night was the highlight of my week. It was then that I would go out to hear live music, whereas Sundays were for sleeping in. But once I became Catholic, Sunday became a day for communing with Jesus in the Eucharist. So Sunday truly never will be the same for me.

Read the entire interview at Crux.

Sunday Will Never Be the Same is available from Catholic Answers, Amazon, and wherever fine books are sold.

Would you like me to tell my story at your parish, university, or other venue? Write me at the email address at the bottom of my Contact page.

Watch now: I discuss my new memoir on Catholic Answers Live

I'm grateful to Catholic Answers Live for hosting me for a marathon two-hour interview on my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock & Roll Journalist Opens Her Ears to God. Since Catholic Answers doesn't permit blogs to display it, watch it on their YouTube channel to see me describe my faith journey and the role that some of the rock musicians I interviewed played in it.

The best interview I've ever done ...

... was last Friday for Tom Curran's podcast, and you can listen to it or download it via his website.

It was clear from the depth and breadth of Tom's questions that he had read my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same from beginning to end. I was happy for the opportunity to speak from the heart about what motivated me to tell my story and what I hope readers will take from it.