The Calling: A Year in the Life of an Order of Nuns

For Whitney, examining a year in the life of a convent was a journey of self-discovery. That's why her carefully researched study adapts well as spoken audio: it conveys a strong sense of personal curiosity that pulls the listener along. Herself the product of a Dominican church school in the 1960s yet having long since strayed from the strict dictums of the faith, Whitney wanted to know why other women had instead felt ""called"" to become nuns (especially, among her own age group, the daughters of the libertine 1960s). This led her to interview nuns of the Sisters of Saint Dominic of the Holy Cross, members of a secluded estate-turned-convent overlooking Puget Sound in Washington State. Her ethnographic research seeks to answer the question of whether independence--of thought, sex or religious belief--can be attained within the closed patriarchal society of the Catholic Church. Narrator Breck carefully preserves Whitney's serious and considered tone. Based on the 1999 Crown hardcover. (May)