Consider adding these to your own New Year’s Resolutions

For our 2024 New Year’s issue of ReadTheSpirit online magazine, we are sharing some New Year’s Resolutions from our nationwide community of authors. We did not have to ask these writers to send us “new” resolutions—because virtually all of our authors hope their books will make our world—and our lives—just a little better. That means—in the pages of their books—they’re offering readers wisdom about everything from finding happiness to peacemaking.

Please enjoy and share this column with friends this week via social media or email. That simple act of sharing this column might surprise you with the appreciation you’ll receive in response!

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WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com

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Click this photograph of Edward McNulty from his service in Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 to read our tribute to his remarkable career.

Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with film reviews and discussion guides. This resource is used nationwide by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Here are some of Ed’s most recent free reviews and columns:

• MAESTRO—Ed gives Maestro 5 stars and writes, “Don’t let the silly controversy over Bradley Cooper’s nose sour you on this magnificent depiction of an unusual marriage between two brilliant people.”
• THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS and SNAKES—Ed praises this film for having “plenty of action” and also “a strong female protagonist.“
• THE COURAGEOUS HEART OF IRENA SENDLER—This week, Ed also suggests we reach back to 2009 for the inspiring true story of a courageous woman—Irena Sendler (played by Anna Paquin)—who defied Nazi authorities during the Holocaust.
• WISH—Ed writes, “This new Disney musical fairytale pays reference to traditional classics of the studio but rejects their paternalism by focusing upon a young woman who is not waiting for a prince to come to her rescue.”
• SHIFT—“What an incredible combination of sci-fi, faith and romance writer/director Brock Heasley serves up in this utterly engrossing film!“
• RUSTIN—Ed writes, “The overlooked civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), often called the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, is finally getting his due, thanks to the new film directed by George C. Wolfe.”
• JOAN BAEZ: I AM A NOISE—Ed urges us to see this new film.
• JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM—Ed writes, “Director/co-writer Adam Anders and writer Peter Barsocchini have served up an interesting Nativity Story by combining the Gospel accounts of Christ’s birth and then adding to them a lot of fanciful material that includes singing and dancing.”

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