New Releases by Brian Doyle

Brian Doyle was a one-of-a-kind author who wrote one-of-a-kind prayers about everyday subjects that help readers change the way they see the world. Prayers for cashiers and good shoes; for shorter sermons and better senators; prayers for the bruised, foolish, glorious, stumbling, brilliant Church; for chaplains and mathematicians; for idiot authors and muddy dogs: These are the most heartfelt and headlong prayers you will ever read and share—the grinning, snarling prayers we mouth quietly in the car and the shower and the pub, the small chapels of our everyday life. Doyle said he aimed to write short pieces that functioned like “arrows to the heart.” This book is a quiver full of those sharp arrows, "stealth theology” that explores everyday encounters—from nuns to possums, from Chet Baker to Port-A-Potties—through a Catholic, sacramental imagination. Since Doyle’s death in 2017 from a brain tumor, enthusiasm for his award-winning writing has only swelled, whether it’s his quirky prayers, kinetic essays, or magical novels such as Mink River and The Plover. This tenth anniversary edition of A Book of Uncommon Prayer includes a new foreword from his wife, Mary, and an afterword from his good friend Peter Boland, who delivered the eulogy at Doyle’s funeral.

"The most passionate Catholic storyteller in America? That might be Brian Doyle, the author of this eclectic and compelling collection of stories about discovery the incarnated Spirit of God every time he turns around, often in the most unlikely of people, places, and things. In 37 short snapshots, he captures the spiritual essence of everyday life from the perspective of a committed Catholic who loves his faith, his family, his community, and his church, even with all their warts and failings ..."--Page 4 of cover

From a "born storyteller" (Seattle Times), this playful and moving bestselling book of essays invites us into the miraculous and transcendent moments of everyday life. When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of sixty after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted readers who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the twenty-first century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon. At a moment when the world can sometimes feel darker than ever, Doyle''s writing, which constantly evokes the humor and even bliss that life affords, is a balm. His essays manage to find, again and again, exquisite beauty in the quotidian, whether it''s the awe of a child the first time she hears a river, or a husband''s whiskers that a grieving widow misses seeing in her sink every morning. Through Doyle''s eyes, nothing is dull. David James Duncan sums up Doyle''s sensibilities best in his introduction to the collection: "Brian Doyle lived the pleasure of bearing daily witness to quiet glories hidden in people, places and creatures of little or no size, renown, or commercial value, and he brought inimitably playful or soaring or aching or heartfelt language to his tellings." A life''s work, One Long River of Song invites readers to experience joy and wonder in ordinary moments that become, under Doyle''s rapturous and exuberant gaze, extraordinary.

What People Are Saying about "The Call" "The Call is one of the most heartfelt, honest and truly inspiring accounts of the life journey of my teammate, who I am honored and humbled to also call my dear friend. Brian's story is a true testament of his devotion to the love of his life, Connie, and his beautiful family as well as his strong faith and unwavering determination to overcome any obstacle in life by always trusting in the Lord. No matter what your belief is or what challenges you may face, Brian's message will resonate with you." --Bucky Dent, Starting shortstop for the New York Yankees in World Series Championships, 1977 and 1978 "Brian Doyle is my friend, teammate, and my hero. Read "The Call" and find out how this Christian gentleman has captured the love and respect of everyone he meets. Brian has faced many challenges in his life, but his faith in Christ has never wavered. I'm proud to call him my friend. The world needs more Brian Doyles." --Ron Guidry, New York Yankees, Pitcher and Pitching Coach, Cy Young Winner, Golden Glove Recipient "Brian's life story is important to read, he has proven to be a great athlete, instructor, mentor, spiritual leader and a loyal friend. Learning about his life will give spiritual inspiration and important life lessons to all." --Chris Chambliss, Two-Time World Series Champ and Golden Glove Recipient "I have known Brian Doyle for over 30 years. His courage, integrity and faith have been an inspiration to me in my own walk with the Lord. This book will give you a look into Brian's journey, his battles, successes, and his heart." --Bill Rose, Limited Partner New York Yankees Brian and Connie Doyle have been married 45 wonderful years. Brian was the leading hitter in the 1978 World Series. Brian is the Director of Curriculum and Connie is the Office Administrator of Global Sports Ministry a 501c3 corporation. Brian and Connie have shared over 40 years in professional baseball and over 15 years in ministry. Their adult children are Kirk Doyle and Kristin Hamaker. Kirk is married to Amy and have three children, Parker, Payton, and Paris. Kristin is married to Trevor and have two children, Tyson and Reagan. Brian and Connie live in the Atlanta area close to their family.

Pope Francis was born in Argentina. He always loved life and had a huge passion for soccer - and dancing the tango! He also had a great love for the poor. So he decided to become a priest and make helping others the focus of his life. He worked so hard and was finally elected Pope. He is a humble man who chooses to live, not in the splendid Apostolic Palace, but in an apartment in the Vatican guesthouse. He is also a brave man and travels in an open-air 'popemobile' instead of one enclosed in bulletproof glass. He travels the world meeting the poor and rich people, reminding them to love each other.

If you love to read, or write, or both, you’ll appreciate Brain Doyle—passionate observer of and commentator on all things written. In this ultimate collection of his thoughts on writers and writing and readers and reading, he covered everything from what the books people keep stashed in the cars or sitting on their bookshelves tell you about them, to the pleasures of reading box scores or what’s hung on refrigerator doors, to the scent that books and newspapers give off as they age, to literary genres of books about nature or travel or Portland or almost any subject you can name, to (in his humble opinion) the great and not-so-great-but-still-essential writers, to why the essay is the coolest wildest literary form of all. But don’t believe us, listen to him: “Think how many times in your own work you were typing along happily, cursing and humming, and suddenly you wrote something you didn’t know you felt so powerfully, and maybe you cried right there by the old typewriter, and marveled, not always happily, at what dark thread your typing had pulled from the mysterious fabric of your heart. Maybe that happens the most with essays. This could be.”

Brian Doyle himself explains it best: “A few years ago I was moaning to my wry gentle dad that basketball, which seems to me inarguably the most graceful and generous and swift and fluid and ferociously-competitive-without-being-sociopathic of sports, has not produced rafts of good books, like baseball and golf and cricket and surfing have . . . Where are the great basketball novels to rival The Natural and the glorious Mark Harris baseball quartet and the great Bernard Darwin’s golf stories? Where are the annual anthologies of terrific basketball essays? How can a game full of such wit and creativity and magic not spark more great books?" “‘Why don’t you write one?’ said my dad, who is great at cutting politely to the chase." And so he has. In this collection of short essays, Brian Doyle presents a compelling account of a life lived playing, watching, loving, and coaching basketball. He recounts his passion for the gyms, the playgrounds, the sounds and scents, the camaraderie, the fierce competition, the anticipation and exhaustion, and even some of the injuries.

“Brian Doyle is an extraordinary writer whose tales will endure.” —Cynthia Ozick, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Quarrel and Quandary This is a guided tour through the mind of one of the most acclaimed voices in contemporary Catholic writing. Brian Doyle effortlessly connects the everyday with the inexpressible and consistently marries searingly honest prose with interruptions of humor and humanity. These essays bear Doyle’s trademark depth and deliver with eloquence his piercing observations on mohawks and miracles, vigils and velociraptors, syntax and scapulars, jail and jihad, and mercy beyond sense. A 2018 Catholic Press Association Book Award winner. The audio edition of this book can be downloaded via Audible.

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and the greatest player of the current generation has been the other-worldly Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. Overcoming a heart problem as a teenager, Ronaldo set scoring records while playing for powerhouses Manchester United in the British Premier League and Real Madrid in Spain’s La Liga, won numerous major titles, and was named the world’s best player two times. Off the field he has been cited for his generosity as the most charitable athlete, making him also a star in life. This biography will inspire young readers.

Engage answers the age-old questions: What is it Men are looking for and Need in a Church? and How do I build this Ministry? Engaging men to lead at the local church level is one of the biggest overlooked opportunities facing America’s churches today. The needs of men in the church are being missed, and the health of churches are at risk. Engage begins at a macro level, helping to build the vision for your church, to a micro level showing how to meet men at their deepest need; to engage in something powerful. Written from the perspective of 5 men in church leadership, Engage provides the game plan for developing a powerful vision that drives the actions needed from overall men''s ministry down to impactful men''s small groups. In each chapter, the authors have cut away the fat and delivered 100% Grade-A meat to your table. Engage is a systematic plan that answer those age-old questions using a strong biblical foundation that will help you assess your church and give you tools to both evaluate and create a successful plan of action. When Men are engaged, churches flourish.

-The young Robert Louis Stevenson, living in a boarding house in San Francisco while waiting for his beloved''s divorce from her feckless husband, dreamed of writing a soaring novel about his landlady''s adventurous and globe-trotting husband--but he never got around to it. And very soon thereafter he was married ... and on his way to becoming the most famous novelist in the world ... Now Brian Doyle brings Stevenson''s untold tale to life, braiding the adventures of seaman John Carson with those of a young Stevenson, wandering the streets of San Francisco, gathering material for his fiction, and yearning for his beloved across the bay---

Laced with erotica, racial underpinnings and the liberation of the feminine heart, this is the evolution of a writer playing in the fertile grounds of the collective imagination in a multitude of short stories.Many of the tales are profane, heartbreaking and uplifting tales of men and women on the verge, the edge, willingly diving from the precipice.These escapades explore the cohesion of the unspoken, the bounds of the fantastic, the demands of the erotic and the inherent dilemma of the dialectic.Come and explore with the people within.

Words with Teeth aims at a combination of both establishing metaphor as the primary reading strategy for approaching Biblical Hebrew Poetry and applying the said strategy to a heterogeneous group of psalms know, in rather Victorian English, as the Psalms of Imprecation. This volume will first introduce the reader to the phenomenon of metaphor and how it interfaces with the Hebrew poetic text. It will then offer an historical/exegetical review of the reception of the Psalms of Imprecation, ranging from their exclusion on theological grounds to their acceptance on psychological grounds and the various shades of curiosity and revulsion in between. The main body of the book will represent a close individual reading of the Psalms of imprecation, using metaphor as a reading strategy. It will conclude in agreement with Adele Berlin that metaphor in Biblical Hebrew Poetry is the flip-side to parallelism, that parallelism frequently provides the structuring basis upon which non-structuring metaphor is grounded, and that metaphorical speech provided the psalmist(s) with a way of speaking the unspeakable about God and her relationship with human persons.

Boy O’Boy Martin O''Boy''s life is not easy. His beloved Granny has just died, his pregnant mother and father fight all the time and his twin, Phil, is completely incapacitated. Martin is the one his mother counts on. Angel Square Young Tommy is seeing Angel Square through new eyes since his best friend''s father was beaten up just because he''s Jewish. Brian Doyle brings his award-winning blend of humor and wisdom to bear in this mystery that confronts the issue of racial hatred. Easy Avenue In his first year in high school, Hubbo O''Driscoll is torn between his poor but fun friends and the shallow but rich kids. In this novel based on Great Expectations, Brian Doyle does a brilliant job of dealing with the issue of class and all its implications. You Can Pick Me Up at Peggy’s Cove When Ryan''s dad runs away from home because of the change of life, Ryan is sent to spend the summer with his aunt in Peggy''s Cove. He goes fishing, almost gets into big trouble and learns a lot about tourist behavior, but most of all he misses his dad and hopes he''ll come back soon.

Up to Low Young Tommy and Baby Bridget, the girl with the trillium-shaped eyes, discover that living, healing and dying are not always what they seem. And they make that discovery with the help of a wonderful cast of characters, including Crazy Mickey, Frank and the Hummer. Uncle Ronald Old Mickey is one hundred and twelve years old. He can''t remember what he ate for lunch today, but he can remember every detail of what happened one hundred years ago, when he and his mother ran away from his violent father to take refuge in the hills north of Ottawa. Mary Ann Alice Mary Ann Alice McCrank was named for the pretty church bell in the steeple of St. Martin''s Church in the Martindale. She has the soul of a poet and Mickey McGuire Jr. is in love with her. Mary Ann Alice is passionately interested in many things, especially the geology of her part of the world. Her teacher, the wonderful Patchy Drizzle, shares her passion for rocks and fossils, many of which can be found along the river and in caves under the famous Paugan Falls.

Spud Sweetgrass Spud gets angry when he sees Dumper Stubbs, a creepy delivery man, dumping oil into a storm drain and causing terrible pollution in the river. When Spud blows the whistle, he loses his job. Enlisting the help of his buddy, Dink the Thinker, and Connie Pan, Spud thinks he has a chance of regaining his job . . . and stopping the Dumper''s harmful activities. Spud in Winter Spud Sweetgrass and his friends Connie Pan and Dink the Thinker are back. And this time Spud is in some frigid trouble. One morning Spud sees a terrible crime. And he can''t get it out of his mind. Detective Kennedy wants him to tell her what he saw, but he''s afraid of the man with the most beautiful hair in the world -- afraid for himself, and afraid for Connie Pan.

On the last day of summer, some years ago, a young college graduate moves to Chicago and rents a small apartment on the north side of the city, by the vast and muscular lake. This is the story of the five seasons he lives there, during which he meets gangsters, gamblers, policemen, a brave and garrulous bus driver, a cricket player, a librettist, his first girlfriend, a shy apartment manager, and many other riveting souls, not to mention a wise and personable dog of indeterminate breed. A love letter to Chicago, the Great American City, and a wry account of a young man''s coming-of-age during the one summer in White Sox history when they had the best outfield in baseball, Brian Doyle''s Chicago is a novel that will plunge you into a city you will never forget, and may well wish to visit for the rest of your days.

Proems, taut tales, small stories with rhythm and blues and grace and bruise and laughter between the lines. Brian Doyle''s The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be is a book of cadenced notes on the swirl of miracle and the holy of attentiveness; a book about children and birds, love and grief and everything alive, which is to say all prayers. Brian Doyle''s uncategorizable form is the brief story dressed like a poem but with the loose lyricism and verve of an essay. Here are chants and litanies, like gentle songs to the sacrament of every moment.

Is Brian Doyle the most passionate Catholic storyteller in America? Here is new evidence that he is. In this brand new compilation of some of his best stories that have appeared in various publications throughout the world, Doyle explores the promise of Catholicism in America that he has experienced and observed from his childhood through today.

Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in. -- Leonard Cohen, Anthem. In this rich treasury of prose poems on matters theological, spiritual, mystical, and everyday, popular Catholic author Brian Doyle offers readers a lyrical but commonsense take on the ways grace, prayer, sin, love, boredom, joy, suffering and redemption play out in our daily lives. Doyle's hundred-plus 'proems' are lyrical creations resembling poetry, but devoid of any meter or typical poetic structure--and yet they are not strictly prose either. Some are droll and acid takes on modern life; others spirit-lifting paeans to the joy of creation; still others humorous and light appreciations of the grace-filled moments that can fill the day of any person paying close enough attention. (Publisher).

WINNER OF THE LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE WINNER OF THE BANFF MOUNTAIN BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION Dave is fourteen years old, eager, and headlong. He is about to start high school, which is scary and alluring. Martin is a pine marten, a small, muscled hunter of the deep woods. He is about to leave home for the first time, which is scary and thrilling. Both of these wild animals are setting off on adventures on their native Mount Hood in Oregon, and their lives, paths, and trails will cross, weave, and blend. Why not come with them as they set forth into the forest and crags of the mountain and into the bruising wilderness of love, life, family, friends, enemies, wonder, mystery, and good things to eat? Martin Marten is a braided coming-of-age tale like no other, told in Brian Doyle''s joyous, rollicking style. Two energetic, sinewy, muddled, brilliant, creative animals, one human and one mustelid---come sprint with them through the deep, wet, green glory of Oregon''s soaring mountain.

David was a man after God's own heart . . . What does it mean to be someone "after God's own heart?" David, King, psalmist and shepherd, gives us a picture with his own life. In many ways he is an extraordinary role model, a man who was fully human but exceeded expectations and pointed others towards God. While the other side of David is most ordinary showing a life filled with destruction, chaos, tragedy and his personal struggle with sin. How then did David become the national hero of God's chosen people? Why is he the one character in the Bible described as "a man after God's own heart?" David's life offers hope to all of us. It shows that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary men and women. And David offers an insightful perspective on what it means to be truly a man, to become like David―men after God's own heart. In this study David will delight and disappoint you. At times you will desire to be just like him while at others you will want to turn and run! The Life of David is one of the most colorful examples of manhood in all of Scripture. You will be introduced to select key characteristics of David's life but unlike David, we have time to make our lives right before God and to lovingly lead our homes. This interactive study features eight weeks of individual study materials with a leader's guide and suggested teaching plans at the back of the book.

Declan O Donnell has sailed out of Oregon and deep into the vast, wild ocean, having had just finally enough of other people and their problems. He will go it alone, he will be his own country, he will be beholden to and beloved of no one. No man is an island, my butt, he thinks. I am that very man. . . . But the galaxy soon presents him with a string of odd, entertaining, and dangerous passengers, who become companions of every sort and stripe. The Plover is the story of their adventures and misadventures in the immense blue country one of their company calls Pacifica. Hounded by a mysterious enemy, reluctantly acquiring one new resident after another, Declan O Donnell''s lonely boat is eventually crammed with humor, argument, tension, and a resident herring gull. Brian Doyle''s The Plover is a sea novel, a maritime adventure, the story of a cold man melting, a compendium of small miracles, an elegy to Edmund Burke, a watery quest, a battle at sea---and a rapturous, heartfelt celebration of life''s surprising paths, planned and unplanned.