And Then There Were Nuns

“The best kind of memoir, revealing, refreshing, and reflective enough to make readers turn many of the questions on themselves.” —Booklist (starred review) With humor and opinions aplenty, a woman embarks on an unconventional quest to see if she is meant to be a nun. Just as Jane Christmas decides to enter a convent in mid-life to find out whether she is “nun material,” her long-term partner Colin, suddenly springs a marriage proposal on her. Determined not to let her monastic dreams be sidelined, Christmas puts her engagement on hold and embarks on an extraordinary year-long adventure to four convents—one in Canada and three in the UK. In these communities of cloistered nuns and monks, she shares—and at times chafes and rails against—the silent, simple existence she has sought all of her life. Christmas takes this spiritual quest seriously, but her story is full of the candid insights, humorous social faux pas, profane outbursts, and epiphanies that make her books so relatable and popular. And Then There Were Nuns offers a seldom-seen look inside modern cloistered life, and it is sure to ruffle more than a few starched collars among the ecclesiastical set. “A lovely, heartfelt tale. Get thee to a bookstore and buy it.” —A. J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically “In fluid and often playful prose, she introduces women and men (she spent a week at a monastery on the Isle of Wight) who have devoted their lives to prayer, including a skydiving 90-year-old nun.” —Maclean’s

Includes property, set and costume plots, sheet music, and set map.

A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree “An enchanting, sparkling book about the many meanings of sisterhood.” —Kristin Iversen, Refinery29 Claire Luchette's debut, Agatha of Little Neon, is a novel about yearning and sisterhood, figuring out how you fit in (or don’t), and the unexpected friends who help you find your truest self Agatha has lived every day of the last nine years with her sisters: they work together, laugh together, pray together. Their world is contained within the little house they share. The four of them are devoted to Mother Roberta and to their quiet, purposeful life. But when the parish goes broke, the sisters are forced to move. They land in Woonsocket, a former mill town now dotted with wind turbines. They take over the care of a halfway house, where they live alongside their charges, such as the jawless Tim Gary and the headstrong Lawnmower Jill. Agatha is forced to venture out into the world alone to teach math at a local all-girls high school, where for the first time in years she has to reckon all on her own with what she sees and feels. Who will she be if she isn’t with her sisters? These women, the church, have been her home. Or has she just been hiding? Disarming, delightfully deadpan, and full of searching, Claire Luchette’s Agatha of Little Neon offers a view into the lives of women and the choices they make.

Just as Jane Christmas decides to enter a convent in mid-life to find out whether she is "nun material", her long-term partner Colin springs a marriage proposal on her. Determined not to let her monastic dreams be sidelined, Christmas embarks on a year long adventure to four convents-- one in Canada and three in the UK. In these communities of cloistered nuns and monks, she revels in--and at times chafes against-- the silent, simple existence she has sought off of her life.

The national bestselling author of Gone with the Twins returns to South Bass Island, where the League of Literary Ladies has to find out who’s killing off nuns. B and B owner Bea Cartwright has taken on the responsibility of taking meals to ten visiting nuns, who are on retreat at the Water’s Edge Center for Spirit and Renewal on picturesque South Bass Island on Lake Erie. But the peace of the retreat is shattered when one of the nuns is found at the water’s edge—murdered. And when a second nun is killed, Bea and the other members of the League of Literary Ladies—Chandra, Kate, and Luella—start to wonder about eerie parallels with the Agatha Christie mystery classic, And Then There Were None. Since Bea has the trust of the sisters, the local chief of police asks her and the other Literary Ladies to interview each of them. Expecting a confession may be asking for a miracle, but Bea hopes she can at least find the killer before another nun gets crossed off the guest list...

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I had dreamed of this moment for six years, and it was absolutely the worst timing ever. I had decided to become a nun. I know, I know: Not the most romantic proposal. The timing was so awkward that it was hard to know whether to laugh or cry. I was in a state of ecstatic disbelief, and I blubbered like a schoolgirl. We got married a few days later at St. Mary’s Church in the village of Great Dunmow, near Colins’s home in rural Essex. For my wedding present, Colin gave me a reproduction of a seventeenth-century Italian painting he had seen in London. We hung it in our home. -> I had dreamed of this moment for six years, and it was absolutely the worst timing ever. I got married a few days later at St. #2 I had dreamed of becoming a nun for six years, and it was absolutely the worst timing ever. I was in a state of ecstatic disbelief, and I blubbered like a schoolgirl. #3 I had dreamed of becoming a nun for six years, and it was absolutely the worst timing ever. I was in a state of ecstatic disbelief, and I blubbered like a schoolgirl. #4 I had dreamed of becoming a nun for six years, and it was absolutely the worst timing ever. I was in a state of ecstatic disbelief, and I blubbered like a schoolgirl.

To smooth over five decades of constant clashing, determined daughter Jane Christmas decides to take her arthritic, incontinent, and domineering mother, Valeria, to Italy. Will being at the epicenter of the Renaissance spark a renaissance in their relationship? As they drag each other from the Amalfi Coast to Tuscany — walkers, shawls, and a mobile pharmacy of medications in tow — they find new ways to bitch and bicker, in the process reassessing who they are and how they might reconcile. Unflinching and often hilarious, this book speaks to all women who have faced that special challenge of making friends with Mom.

A National Bestselling AuthorA League of Literary Ladies MysteryB and B owner Bea Cartwright is taking meals to ten visiting nuns who are on retreat at the Water's Edge Center for Spirit and Renewal on picturesque South Bass Island. But their peace is shattered when one of the nuns is found murdered at the water's edge. And when a second nun is killed, Bea and the Literary Ladies wonder about eerie parallels with an Agatha Christie mystery.