A modern telling of the ‘Little Way’ strikes a chord

The book I’m forcing on everyone this month is The Little Way of Ruthie Leming by Rod Dreher.

I first latched onto Dreher during his New York years when he reviewed movies for the New York Post and was one of the more prolific and interesting contributors to William F. Buckley’s National Review magazine and its pioneering online blog. As a conservative columnist and blogger he has a knack for folding broader cultural considerations into virtually everything he writes. Now in his mid-40s, Dreher is newly returned to his family’s home town in Louisiana after 30 years of working in various U.S. cities.

Raised a Methodist, Dreher converted to Catholicism in 1993 but entered the Orthodox Church along with his wife and children in 2006. His extensive coverage of the sex scandal in the American Catholic Church left him filled with anger and disgust at the bishops who had allowed that corruption to flourish...