Ontario Catholics should never assume publicly-funded Catholic schools will continue to form generation after generation of youth, according to the author of a concise history of the province’s Catholic schools.

VANCOUVER -- Anyone walking the grungy streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside can’t help but notice the striking work of local graffiti artist Larissa Healey.

I paused the PVR and looked at my husband: “Did you notice what a big deal they were making about a first kiss?” 

If we’re going to be Catholic, it might be useful to know what we’re supposed to be part of and how to be part of it. 

The Vatican Cookbook: 500 Years of Classic Recipes, Papal Tributes and Exclusive Images of Life and Art at the Vatican by the Pontifi￾cal Swiss Guard. (Sophia Institute Press, 204 pages, $41.45 on Amazon.ca)

During an era in which coffee￾table books collect dust while handheld social media consumes idle time, there seems little need for another large hardback to join the lot on bookstore discount shelves. But The Vatican Cookbook stands out as an extraordinary and remark￾able collection holding within its pages 500 years of recipes, histor y and photographs.

A person can get whiplash trying to keep up with the career of David Braid.

Elizabeth Seton: American Saint by Catherine O’Donnell (Cornell University Press, 552 pages, hardcover, $37.44 on Amazon.ca)

WASHINGTON – Sr. Wendy Beckett has been widely described as both an unlikely art critic and television star, but that may have been what made her all the more likeable.