Here’s a unique way to teach young children about Mary, the mother of Jesus: through her clothing. Our Lady’s Wardrobe takes the child through events in Mary’s life, particular mysteries of the rosary, and several of Mary’s more prominent apparitions around the world.

St. Thomas Aquinas never wrote a word about Marian consecration, but wrote amply about consecration to the religious life. Yet, as the authors of this slim volume point out, the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, lived radically by religious men and women, are to be lived in spirit by all baptized Christians.

The short answer to the title question is “No,” and the long answer is “Heck, no!” Or, as Pope Pius XI wrote in his 1931 social encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, “Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true Socialist.”

For Catholics, Lent and Easter are all about ashes, fasting, fish on Fridays, palm branches, and those Easter Triduum liturgies, correct? Well, as Fr. Saunders relates in this fine book, there’s actually a whole lot more to these liturgical seasons that make them so rich in opportunity for spiritual growth.

What can 21st-century Catholics learn from the Angelic Doctor? Quite a lot, as Kevin Vost explains in his insightful new book.

Fitzgibbons takes some of the commonly seen marital issues such as selfishness, anger, pornography, and infidelity and suggests how they can be avoided — or healed.

Consecration to St. Joseph can be accomplished with a simple prayer of entrustment, but here Fr. Donald Calloway sets forth a 33-day program of preparation similar to what St. Louis de Montfort recommended for Marian consecration in his True Devotion to Mary.

Richard Baxter was a 17th-century pastor in the Church of England who, as a Noncomformist, carved out a self-styled Protestantism that was as much Puritan or Presbyterian as anything else. This book, written in the last decade of his life, reads as an exhortation to perform good works to accompany one’s Christian faith.

In this little volume, Fr. Broom describes a plan for navigating through practices that advance growth in personal holiness. This “road map” requires prayer, order, good habits, and a certain mindfulness about fulfilling this destiny.

There’s a “man crisis” in the Catholic Church today and indeed throughout society. Men need to step up and become what real men are supposed to be: gentlemen who stand firm for what is good and true, who do combat with evil, who defend the innocent and protect the vulnerable.

Baptism infuses the Christian with the gift of faith, but there are two other theological virtues –hope and love – also bestowed – and often neglected. Fr. Philip Bochanski focuses on hope, which seems in short supply amid the relentless procession of bad-news headlines, the epidemic of depression, and other tribulations of today’s world.

Can a good capitalist also be a good Christian? Yes, says Jay W. Richards, with emphasis. Here the research assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America defends capitalism by showing how entrepreneurship, undertaken virtuously, actually helps create a more just society.

How is evangelization like marketing? You have a message, you want to get people’s attention, and you want them to respond by buying in to the message. Donna Heckler applies her broad experience in corporate marketing to the Catholic Church in this eye-opening book by offering successful business strategies to help the Church at every level do what it is called to do – attract people to the Gospel message and save souls in the process.

Did the Soviet Union collapse under its own weight? No way, say the authors of The Divine Plan. It wouldn’t have happened without the vision and collaboration of two remarkable world leaders, Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan.

Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Eighty of his family members and 45,000 of his parishioners did not. Shaken by the tragedy, he has dedicated his ministry to reconciliation and healing between the Tutsis and Hutus whose long-simmering ethnic animosity ignited the slaughter of some 800,000 Rwandans.

Looking for a kids’ storybook on the real meaning of Christmas, and keeping the gift of Christ as its focus? Here it is.

This volume does a good job of explaining the cosmos, creation, and evolution in a faith-friendly manner, all the while skewering scientific hubris. Well-written and enlightening.

The author has curated 36 of the best stories, essays, and poems that evoke the spirit of Christmas. An excerpt from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is here, of course, and Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” but there also are lesser-known classics from authors including Henry Van Dyke, Willa Cather, Ruth Sawyer, and Hilaire Belloc. This book will provide seasonal reading for years to come.

Confused about something the pope said, or didn’t say, or what someone said he said? Or did something sound amiss from your pastor or small group leader?