Puttering in the Study

The Bones of St. Peter - John Evangelist Walsh

I picked this book up in a souvenir store just off St. Peter's Square in Rome in July since when our last trip to Rome we had been on Scavi tour of the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica, including St. Peter's tomb.  The book was everything that I had hoped for – a thorough, heavily illustrated and diagrammed history of the excavations under the church. It explained the fall starts regarding what had been found, and what is known today – or more properly what was known 30 years ago when this book was released – about the bones that were found in the recess of the wall adjacent to the original grave.

I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the subject. 

Popes and the Papacy: A History

By a wide margin, this is my favorite course by The Learning Company so far.  In 24 lectures, Prof. Thomas F. X. Noble of the University of Notre Dame goes through the history of the papacy from its origins to the present.  He's by far the best presenter I have yet seen in these lectures, and I found myself repeatedly just enthralled by the stories he was telling about a particular period or individual.  (It may also have had something to do with watching a number of them in the study late at night fortified with a good glass of wine).
It's obvious that I learned a great deal, of course, but I also enjoyed it immensely.