Jon M. Sweeney

Cat lovers and fans of Sweeney’s other works will be excited about this title. This is a good spiritual nonfiction book, a cozy one for patrons to sit with over a cup of tea or in a meditation pose with a cat curled in their lap.

With an economy of language, these words read like Buddhist koans, encouraging a path toward the richness of an interior life.

It is immensely valuable to have in one volume the key writings by and about Francis and his first disciples; essential for libraries and individuals looking to expand their knowledge of this influential saint.

While there is nothing fresh here for religious scholars, Sweeney offers a bit of fun for spiritual and historical seekers.

Readers with more than a cursory knowledge of the Middle Ages will be frustrated by the number of overgeneralizations and suppositions, although they may admire Sweeney's efforts to make sense of such a complicated time. There is no recent comparable biography of Celestine V in English, although readers may wish to consult reference materials related to Catholicism and the Catholic Church. Some fans of fiction like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code might want to consider this.