In the process of cleaning out my parent's house and I came across some older books.
Later in life both of my parents became devoutly Catholic until their respective deaths.

But earlier on they were a bit more heterodox in their faith.

With that prologue:
I came across a book called The Reluctant Messiah. Seems to have been a big deal when it was released. Is this a book that someone here would recommend?

Who is the author?

Richard Bach

Yeah, I would avoid that one.

I would dispose of it. Bach's most famous book is the New Age classic Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

She also had a collection of works by some French writer named Maupassant. I'll start with those instead.

Good idea.

Are you familiar with him?
The one short story I'm paging through is pretty good.

I'm a big fan of Guy de Maupassant. Think of him as the French O. Henry (although IIRC, de Maupassant lived and wrote earlier than O. Henry). "The Necklace" is my favorite of his stories.

I enjoyed him in high school French class and world literature classes. Somewhere I have a collection of his short stories, but I could say the same about all sorts of books.

I think of him as Mrs. Timmy does.