You all know I frequently link to Amazon using affiliate links — mostly (and I’m totally honest here) because they have all the books that I really highly recommend for any name enthusiast (I LOVE sharing with you the books that I love!), but certainly also because I earn a little money each time you click over using one of my links (so yes, as with my Father’s Day post, sometimes I’ll post other things I think will be of interest. I always try to have them connect to the themes of this blog though — names and faith). (As an aside — how do you all feel about affiliate links? Do you hate them? Not mind them? Are you okay with this?)

Certainly Amazon is the best for heavy duty name books, but there are so many name-related items that I think would be great as gift ideas (or “just because”) that I want to share with you, and a lot of them are available on Amazon, but every time I look on Amazon I feel a twinge that a Catholic company isn’t getting the business (and surely any Catholic companies need the patronage more than Amazon). So I’m thrilled thrilled thrilled to tell you that I recently signed up with The Catholic Company (Catholic Books and Gifts from The Catholic Company – The World’s #1 Catholic Store) to be an affiliate (like with the Amazon links).

Woo! I LOVE The Catholic Company!! No joke, I use it allllll the time for gifts for others, things for my kids, things for me 🙂 , etc., and they have SO MANY great things that fit so many occasions!!

So for my very first Catholic Company affiliate-linky post, I thought I’d list some of the kinds of books that fired up my love of the names of our faith (sancta nomina), all those years ago, when I was a wee girl.

It was all about the saints.

Oh my I loved the books of saints my mom had! And she had a lot — most of them were the same size, and fit in a brown cardboard shoebox-type box, and when I was teaching sixth grade Religious Ed the year I was pregnant with my oldest, I brought that box in with me for my students to use and the other mom who helped me out (bless her, she tried hard, but clearly hadn’t had a great formation in the faith), her eyes just about popped out of her head. “Where did you get those?” she wanted to know — she was so unfamiliar, and so hungry! You know?

These ones, the “Miniature Stories of the Saints,” are ones I actually owned. In fact, I came across one of them in my nightstand the other night! They’re small, with a quick profile of the saint on each page. And they’re very budget friendly — all less than $3.00!

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book One

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book Two)

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book Three)

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book Four)

Though I haven’t read this one, I liked the look of it, since it contains all six volumes of the “Little Book of Saints” series in one: My First Book of Saints.

This one too, which comes in two volumes: Saints for Young Readers for Every Day – Vol. I (January – June) and Saints for Young Readers – Vol. II (July to December).

And of course I have to include my boys’ particular favorite, which they have loved to literal pieces: Picture Book of Saints by Fr. Lovasik. (I love Fr. Lovasik. Anything by him is good by me.)

These books are amazing as gifts for baby showers (especially when they ask you to bring a book! I always bring books of saints), baptisms, birthdays for the younger set (maybe age 10 and younger?), and First Holy Communion, as well as Christmas (there’s always a big stack of new books under our Christmas tree, and books of our faith are always well represented).

So! I hope this is all helpful! It’s the kind of post I’d find useful, so I hope you all agree. Happy shopping! 🙂