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Original poster

Books about nuns

57 replies

JonasKahnwald · 06/11/2020 09:32

I'm looking for books about nuns and convent life but looking on amazon there really isn't much. It keeps recommending the horror movie The Nun Hmm

I know its a bit of a niche subject but does anyone know of any books like this?I'm really interested in what brings a woman to become a nun and their life after this decision.

Thankyou

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PepeLePew · 03/04/2024 14:52

I love nun-fiction! One of my favourite genres, and some here I've not heard of. Thank you @Minny123 for the tip off about Cloistered - I will check that out.

Minny123 · 03/04/2024 10:32

Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream is a good read. It this week's book of the week on radio 4 at the moment

wireleaf · 11/04/2021 14:09

Unveiled by Mary Loudon is interesting - interviews with nuns about their lives and motivations.

MrsDuBeke · 11/04/2021 09:37

Sister Sebastians library is an interesting look at the search for a missing nun and also digs into what exactly drove this woman to become a nun in the first place.

Viviennemary · 29/03/2021 18:19

For people who found Monica Baldwin's book interesting she wrote another book fiction this time 'the Called and the Chosen' which was even more fascinatingly awful than her own story. Same theme girl who entered a very strict enclosed order.

Wildern · 26/03/2021 09:57

@Trumpton

Thank you for the kindle tip of In This House Of Brede. I came on this thread to recommend I leap Over The Wall by Monica Baldwin. It’s one of my firm favourites.
I thought Monica Baldwin was fascinatingly awful, and it's her sheer, ingrained class consciousness that seemed to permeate every aspect of her mentality that remains with me from her memoir, rather more than what she had to say about life in a religious order.

Karen Armstrong is far more likeable company in Through the Narrow Gate -- though I quite like her theology/religious history works too.

Mariette in Ecstasy is a brilliantly odd novel -- I have a copy somewhere, but haven't reread it in years.

adeleh · 25/03/2021 23:27

Marietta in Ecstasy.
Through the Narrow Gate.
Mary Loudun - Unveiled

Trumpton · 25/03/2021 08:14

Thank you for the kindle tip of In This House Of Brede.
I came on this thread to recommend I leap Over The Wall by Monica Baldwin. It’s one of my firm favourites.

elkiedee · 25/03/2021 07:53

A lot of Rumer Godden's books were published in Virago Modern Classics editions a few years ago, in paperback and Kindle, including both In This House of Brede and Frve for Sorrow.... The first one is on offer at 99p for Kindle at the moment.

MaMaLa321 · 24/03/2021 10:55

The Anchoress by Sarah Cadwallader
Not a nun, but close enough to be interesting. I enjoyed it.

MaudTheInvincible · 24/03/2021 08:58

I forgot to mention The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark.

HardlyEver · 26/11/2020 12:42

@HBGKC

"Warning to anyone reading the admittedly brilliant In This House of Brede for the first time, there’s a scene relating to the loss of a child that is so awful I’ve never reread it."

YY to this. Also trigger-warning for claustrophobia.

Absolutely to the claustrophobia, too. While I am a ninny about horror films, I am extremely tough-minded about novels in general, but although I must have read In This House of Brede fifteen years ago or more, I've never forgotten how appalling that part is.
HBGKC · 25/11/2020 22:15

"Warning to anyone reading the admittedly brilliant In This House of Brede for the first time, there’s a scene relating to the loss of a child that is so awful I’ve never reread it."

YY to this. Also trigger-warning for claustrophobia.

HardlyEver · 25/11/2020 20:19

@zigzag12

Oh I love a good nun story myself!! You must try Kate O'Brien's Land of Spices.
This is a wonderful novel, and a complicated but largely positive depiction of a powerful nun, and her order, as a sort of alternative family for a troubled child.

Has anyone suggested The Nun’s Story by Kathryn Hulme? Astonishing portrait (based on a real woman) of a woman entering a strict order in Belgium in the 1920s. The part that’s now difficult to stomach is the unproblematically patriotic and racist tone of the order’s mission in the Congo, but it is an astonishing novel.

Warning to anyone reading the admittedly brilliant In This House of Brede for the first time, there’s a scene relating to the loss of a child that is so awful I’ve never reread it.

Standrewsschool · 23/11/2020 16:59

Scots school

Not nuns but this was an interesting documentary about Scottish men training to become priests in Italy.

MercedesDeMonteChristo · 23/11/2020 14:14

Obviously it is very expensive but hopefully a library might be able to help.

MercedesDeMonteChristo · 23/11/2020 14:12

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B083P5QT51/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This was published earlier this year/late last year. It is great. Dr Mangion is a fab historian.

FancyForgetting · 20/11/2020 16:23

My late mother and I (both convent educated) enjoyed Changing Habits by Debbie Macomber, v easy read about three young nuns through the changes in the church in the 60s and 70s.

Not sure if it’s still available, but there was a fab Australian drama series called Brides of Christ, similar themes to Changing Habits.

Also Black Narcissus, Frost in May, Sacred Hearts etc etc as mentioned by others (maybe this could be my Mastermind subject 😂).

Original poster
JonasKahnwald · 20/11/2020 16:11

Thanks all, a lot to choose from!

OP posts:
Sunbrightpeninsularsofthesword · 20/11/2020 10:59

So glad to see that someone recommended Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy! I love that book but think that it may be out of print, I think I bought my copy second hand online.

Agree with everyone who recommended In This House of Brede.

Rumer Godden really is fab.

FiveToFour · 17/11/2020 23:07

I was going to recommend In This House of Brede,one of my favourite books of all time Smile
I've also got a book called The Choice,by Sister Kirsty,which is a non fiction book about the author's decision to enter a convent.I found it very interesting ( with the odd parallel to In This House of Brede!)
Don't know if it still available though,I have had it for so long...

Mariebarrone · 17/11/2020 16:42

Five for sorrow, ten for joy also by Rumer Godden.

August20 · 07/11/2020 22:20

And Then There Were Nuns by Jane Christmas. Non-fiction.

TheSeedsOfADream · 07/11/2020 14:35

I reread In This House of Brede earlier this year, being old enough to remember Diana Rigg (iirc) in the TV adaptation in the 70s.

Virgin Territory by Sara Maitland is quite a different kettle of fish- bonkers and disturbing in equal measure.

CountFosco · 07/11/2020 14:30

Non-fiction but what about Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel?