I just came across a treasure trove, a compilation of reader reviews of My Cousin the Saint on one web site. About a dozen of them.  There’s nothing better for a writer than to see how his or her story has resonated with readers.

Alas, the link is no longer live, but here’s an excerpt from one: “When a friend suggested that I read My Cousin The Saint, I hesitated for many reasons….I am not Catholic, I expected the book to be a boring tale of a religion that doesn’t necessarily interest me and I was raised in a secular home. My friend persisted and I am so grateful to her. By page 2, I was hooked…..and my interest continued all the way into the epilogue. Justin Catanoso writes about a quest that could just as easily be mine..in another country with different characters.”

My book, by the way, can be purchased inexpensively at many online retailers, particularly www.amazon.com

Just a reminder that My Cousin the Saint — in hard cover, paperback or e-book — makes a great gift for Christmas. It’s a timeless story about faith, family, and miracles. And much of the story is set in Italy! The prices in any format are really inexpensive these days. So order early and often!

Posted recently on the online bulletin board of CapeMayHerald.com: “This isn’t a commercial but I must tell you I just finished reading a very wonderful book called “My Cousin The Saint” by former North Wildwood resident writer, teacher, Justin Catanoso. Honest, a beautiful read.  —Wildwood”

Thanks!

Some 30 years ago, I learned to write with passion, conviction and (hopefully) accuracy as a reporter and columnist for one of the finest student newspapers in America — The Daily Collegian at Penn State University. Today, writer Sandra Fischione Donovan (’72) writes about me and my book for Collegian AIG, the online publication of Collegian alums. The link is here.

A long and admiring story in TheAlternativePress.com, based in North Jersey, discusses the Dominican nuns at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, NJ.

According to the story: “During the main meal, at noon, the nuns may sit in silence and eat or one sister reads from a book that they may be jointly reading as a group at the time. Currently, the book of the moment is “My Cousin the Saint” but they do have a full library available to them equipped with the classics as well as classical music.”

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to receive a dust-jacket blurb from one of America’s great writers of nonfiction, Gay Talese. It was a very generous gesture. Turns out, as this story indicates, the generosity of Talese and his book editor wife, Nan, is legendary this time of year in New York City.

Talese’s classic work Unto the Sons remains the quintessential immigration story. He, too, traces his Italian roots to Calabria, and his father, like my grandfather, settled in Cape May County, New Jersey, and started a business that flourished. For Talese’s father, it was a men’s and women’s clothing store in Ocean City. My aunts and uncles were frequent customers.

Debbie Barsotti, a talented reporter for the Catholic Star Herald (Camden, NJ diocese), writes about “My Cousin the Saint” in this week’s issue of the paper. An excerpt:

“In Catanoso’s book, the stories of both his grandfather and the sainted cousin come alive. There is historical perspective about life on both continents. ‘In order for me to write about them,’ Catanoso said, ‘I knew I needed to provide enough history to bring them life in the context of their time. Otherwise you couldn’t appreciate the courage of both of them.’ “

The whole story is here.