Books about Monk Life?

[Anonymous]

I don't know where this interest came from, I guess in another life or if I'd have never gotten married, I'd have seriously thought about this life. I've read some good and some bad books in this realm but I'm curious first if this is even a genre and if anyone has read anything in this genre. And as a sub topic, would prisons count in this genre, particularly on the one person who is living the "monk" life in prison? Or does the fact that it's not a monestary exclude it?

Side side point. If I hadn't gotten married, I do not think I'd be Andy Dufrane.

[Anonymous]

Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose!

Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (for the monk-like prison experience)

[Anonymous]

A History of Loneliness by John Boyne (I guess more priests than monks).

[Anonymous]

The only book I have ever read about monks was called "The mermaid chair" by Sue Monk Kidd.

[Anonymous]

Does this forum consider sites like fanfiction.net or https://archiveofourown.org/ as "books". They have entries with over 100,000 words, but what does it take to be considered a book? What about webnovels?

I ask because while I have read The Count of Monte Cristo at least twice (never considered it monk-ish though, but I guess the first half is what I'm looking for), but I wonder if anyone has done anything with that template / storyline by only changing a few things.

[Anonymous]

Peter Ellis brother cadfael mysteries if you’re looking for medieval monks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Peter Ellis brother cadfael mysteries if you’re looking for medieval monks.

Sorry that should be Ellis Peters — pre coffee brain

[Anonymous]

The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Peter Ellis brother cadfael mysteries if you’re looking for medieval monks.

This is a really good suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote extensively about monasticism and monastic spirituality. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, is on Amazon along with various of his other works about the interior life.

Less available but able to be found used is Voices of Silence, by Frank Bianco, describing time he spent living with monks at various Trappist monasteries.

For something with more local flavor, Thomas Verner Moore, Psychiatrist, Educator and Monk, by Benedict Neenah tells the story of the amazing individual who was the driving force behind the foundation of Saint Anselm’s Abbey in Northeast DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote extensively about monasticism and monastic spirituality. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, is on Amazon along with various of his other works about the interior life.

Less available but able to be found used is Voices of Silence, by Frank Bianco, describing time he spent living with monks at various Trappist monasteries.

For something with more local flavor, Thomas Verner Moore, Psychiatrist, Educator and Monk, by Benedict Neenah tells the story of the amazing individual who was the driving force behind the foundation of Saint Anselm’s Abbey in Northeast DC.

Thank you . This Trappist monk will be the book I read this week. Hopefully it ends my dry spell.

[Anonymous]

Emma Donaghue's new book, Haven, is about monks. I liked it.

[Anonymous]

How about nuns? Lots of order lead (or used to lead) cloistered lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about nuns? Lots of order lead (or used to lead) cloistered lives.

A good book (recommendation) is a good book. So go ahead and recommend it. Either the OP will thank you and read it, or someone else will read it, or nobody will. We know one thing's for certain though. If you don't tell us, nobody will know what to read.

[Anonymous]

I really loved Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan. Irish Catholic sisters move to Boston from Ireland as girls, and one ends up a cloistered nun in Vermont. Read it several years ago when my kids were toddlers and babies, and the descriptions of cloistered life weren't exactly unappealing at the time. It still sticks with me.