The Last Catholic in America

Literature & Fiction

POWERS, John R.

Genre Fiction

Popular Library

Last Catholic in America

First confession and its terrors. Eighty-four first graders in a classroom ruled by just one nun. The agony and the ecstasy of Lent. The dubious honor of being declared the worst altar server ever. Dinah Shore and the Blessed Virgin haunting your dreams. This is Eddie Ryan's world as he grows up in the intensely Catholic world of South-Side Chicago's St. Bastion's parish in the 1950s. In this classic coming-of-age novel, John Powers draws readers into Eddie Ryan's world with deep affection and bittersweet humor.

WARNER BOOKS

“Hilarious, touching, beautiful . . .” —Detroit News“A totally enjoyable novel with at least one laugh on every page.”  —Fresno Bee“. . . you’ll never forget it.” —Publishers WeeklyGrowing up on Chicago’s South Side in the 1960s, Eddie Ryan is learning a  lot—and not just from the Brothers at his all-boys Catholic high school. Eddie’s  world is populated by peculiar adults, oddball classmates, and puzzling  girls—the greatest mystery of all. He takes it all in through the prism of his  Catholic upbringing, which often deepens the mystery, but sometimes clarifies  it, too. Entering Eddie Ryan’s world will delight not only readers who grew up  there with him, but also those too young to remember.This new edition of  Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? includes a new  introduction as well as discussion questions designed to help deepen the reading  experience for both individuals and reading groups.

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

Eddie Ryan somehow makes it through adolescence and Catholic high school despite his own shifting maze of dogma, pecking orders, athletics, academic, and sexual shortcomings

Literary

GRAND CENTRAL PUB.

Returning to his childhood home on Chicago's South Side, Hollywood comedy writer Donald Cooper roams the streets searching for the key to his identity. Reprint.

The Junk-Drawers Corner-Store Front-Porch Blues

Contemporary

Signet

A humorous, nostalgic voyage through Chicago of the 1950s remembers a time of heartwarming innocence. By the author of Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? Reprint.

The Last Catholic in America (Signet Novel)

BERKLEY

Donald Cooper returns home after twenty years to purge the adolescent memories from which he left town to escape, in a compelling story that summons up the intimate and innocent family life of the 1950s. 25,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

The Junk-Drawer Corner-Store Front-Porch Blues

United States

Dutton Adult

In a world of evens, you have to be ODD. Imagine a world in which you live your way and embrace the wondrous peculiarities of your personality, talents, desires, whims, habits, and ideals. This is the wonderful world of ODD. John Powers, Ph.D., a successful playwright and motivational expert who pursued his own dream--to help others achieve their success--has succeeded thousands of times over through his seminars, speaking events, and motivational books. Now, this master storyteller invites you to open this book of Odditude and relearn and reignite the way you were meant to live--the act of being your original self--no excuses, no apologies, no fears. Seriously! To John, Odditude is more than a fun, clever word he made up. It is the attitude he adopted later in his life that literally saved him from the ultimate letdown of mediocrity. John explains that we are all born with Odditude, the X-factor that separates us from one another and prevents us from being one big population of homogenous drones. But somewhere along the way toward adulthood, when we start caring about what people think, we check our Odditude at the door and become bogged down by pointless boundaries and distracted by social impacts and untruths. Knowing that it’s the state of being Odd that allows us to be truly happy and achieve success, John set out to reestablish his Odditude by paying attention to the Odds around him--quirky family members, outcast classmates, and quizzical strangers. In this book, John shares in enthusiastic, idiosyncratic, and just plain funny prose the odd lessons he learned and how you, too, can reconnect with who you really are and what you were meant to do. These stories are so refreshing that after you’re done laughing out loud, you will breathe a giant sigh of relief--the relief that only comes from true self-acceptance and appreciation for your talents and unique gifts of Odditude.

Odditude: Finding the Passion for Who You are and What You Do

Self-Help

Motivational

Killer Tennis

Humor & Entertainment

Kleiman, Carol

Humor

Contemporary Books

The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice-Cream God

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Books by POWERS, John R.