Blessed Advent to all!
In this week’s Angelus News column, I consider three great California memoirs: God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine, by Victoria Sweet, MD; Dear Los Angeles: The City In Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018, edited by David Kipen: and Joan Didion’s Where I Was From.
So many memoirs, so little time…I’ve already got the draft of a column called “Three MORE Great California Memoirs.”
Meanwhile, I came across this essay from a book of Christmas readings that’s on my list to read and feature in 2026. “The Dangers of Advent,” by J.B. Phillips, the essay’s called, and the blurb runs: “No amount of familiarity with the trappings of Christmas should blind us to its quiet but explosive significance.” Check it out.
I’m off to NYC December 22 for a week. This will be the second year in a row I’m on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for Christmas and I just may make it an annual ritual. Cannot wait to walk the frosty streets, see the lights, and mingle with the world’s hoi polloi as we await, whether we know/recognize it or not, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have my museum itinerary all planned and most importantly of all, the hugest gift, will be getting to participate daily in the sung liturgy at St. Vincent Ferrer.
I’m editing a memoir manuscript this month and was invited by The Guardian U.S. to write an essay, which should be forthcoming. So that’s fun.
Also fun was my Thanksgiving trip to California’s Central Coast and my time there with friends. So rich. Am working up a column on one of the places we hiked there.
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Savor every moment of the season.
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