Religious Studies Per Course Instructor, Mark G. Boyer, stopped by the office recently to announce two new books recently published: The Shelbydog Chronicles and Four Catholic Pioneers in Missouri: Lamarque, Kenrick, Fox, and Hogan, Irish Missionaries and Their Supporter.

Four Catholic Pioneers is a historical book about the explorers and developers whose lives crossed each other’s paths in Old Mines, Missouri in the middle of the 1800s. Marie-Louise Lamarque was French; the other three, Peter Richard Kenrick, James Fox, and John Joseph Hogan, were Irish who landed in Missouri, as did so many during the potato famine in the 1840s, and how the four lives intersected and were integral to the growth and development of the Roman Catholic faith in rural Missouri.

The Shelbydog Chronicles, a novel by lovable dog Shelby and recorded by Mark Boyer, tells the story of her life with various owners to her current life with Mark.  Shelby, a brindle Labrador-Boxer mix, accompanied Mark to our office and was duly greeted by hugs and belly rubs by me.  She was somewhat bashful when I tried to take a photo of her; here are some of the results:

Four Catholic Pioneers and The Shelbydog Chronicles are published by Wipf and Stock and are available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or other booksellers.