The Sinner's Guide to a Holy Happy Hour - Drinking with the Saints

"Drinking with the Saints" arrived from the store 3 days ago. The first thing my 12-year-old son said was, "That's a great cover!" And the book is handsome: well-designed, beautifully-illustrated & built for use. And it will get plenty of use in our household. This book would be well worth the price just for the remarkable variety of delicious drink recipes presented; but why not add in the rich history of the lives of the saints and the beautiful seasons and cycles of the calendar? I mean, even pagan French kids still know more about the religious calendar and the saints than most of us. Mike Foley presents remarkably extensive research with a light touch and gives us a deeper meaning to celebrate with fine cocktails, beer & wine. Skol!

I am enjoying this book way too much! Informative and intoxicating, it ought to be paired by the store with a large liquor cabinet and selection of glasses so you can serve everything up right.

Providing a good excuse for a drink almost every day, it is a fitting contribution to the tradition of casuistry at its very best.

Starts with an amazing introduction and is FILLED with tons of great information about the saints and fun drink recipes. When I opened the package I was surprised by how thick the book was - it's great. I bought this for my husband for Father's Day and he loved it, and my FIL also spent a lot of time looking at all the drinks and information about the saints. Lots of fun.

So I hear about this crazy book on Catholic radio about saints and booze...right up my alley; so I buy a copy. This is now our go-to gift and it has been a big hit...interesting, historical, fun, and the recipes are great. Brilliant.

An excellent source in hagiography (history of the saints) as ell as the excellent mixology. This is a a beautiful book, well illustrated in color and obviously created by someone who is very familiar with a scholarly approach to historical writing. It's a "whole lotta" fun!

Eclectic collection of drink recipes "mixed" with interesting backstories of the featured saints and holy days. The book also provides tutorials for mixing drinks, making toasts, and offering blessings. A great resource that is our new "go to" source for drink planning. With hundreds of drink recipes (and saints!), we will literally make use of this book for the rest of our lives.

Toast the Saints ... what a fantastic idea!! Toast the Liturgical Year .... learn more about the holy men and women that went before us, and uncover some cool history at that same time. IF you are anything like me, the first thing YOU did was go to your birthday (it is a daily encounter with saints and a companion cocktail) to see what you can celebrate with in the upcoming year. A new drink to toast and a new saint (or 2) to ask for a special birthday intercession. Totally NOT the intent of author, Michael P. Foley, but definitely another fun way to enjoy this fabulous book.

Michael also includes how to toast, how to mix and even some very solid thoughts on temperance. Enjoying a drink never a sin - in fact Jesus' first miracle included fine wine!! I enjoyed every word of Drinking with the Saints!! I also enjoyed the images, the Last Call side bars, the history of wine, champagne and the many legends and tales that surround the rich and fun history of drinking and Catholicism.

GREAT gift idea - a copy of Drinking with the Saints, along with the DWTS Swag -- coaster, glasses, or a very festive apron!!! I found it all on drinkingwiththestars.com!! IT IS a very thick book - you get your $$ worth!! I raise a glass and cheer Michael P. Foley's newest book. THIS IS A one of a kind tome .. no one else is bringing together beer, wine, cocktails, Saints, history, laughs, toasts, sketches and images of saints, hosting and toast tips and so much more!!

Drinking with the Saints is a fine, fresh look at two things of perennial interest: faith and drink. With separate sections tracking the liturgical cycle and the feast days for saints, Mike Foley recommends beer, wine, spirits, and/or cocktails for each day of the year. These may be chosen geographically (e.g. made in a saint's home town) or thematically (check out St. Albert the Great or St. Lucy!), but each time you peruse, you're in for a treat. He is a master of the distilled vignette -- each entry is pithy and punchy, with just the right blend of erudition and humor. What Bill Bryson did for popular history of the English language in "Made in America" and "Our Mother Tongue", Foley has now done for the beverage.

One word of caution (besides the obvious caveats): Foley's research is extensive. While he works in many standards and new recipes with old ingredients, occasionally his recommendations might require special order.

And finally, in the name of full disclosure: Mike Foley is a personal friend. I am acknowledged in the book and received a copy from the publisher. But don't let that keep you from buying and loving it!

The book has a description of the Saint associated with each particular day, as well as beer and wine suggestions, and 1-2 cocktails that in some way relate to the story of that Saint. For example, for St Martin, it suggests a martini using Grey Goose Vodka (St Martin hid in a goose pen when they came to make him bishop). It is garnished with a twist of lemon, to represent St Martin's torn coat (St Martin tore his military cloak in two and gave half to a beggar). Some of the sections include prayers, blessings, or even poetry attributed to the Saint. It is organized by month. There is also a section for each liturgical season.

Book is a nicely bound hardback. Tabs on the side for each month and season for easy reference. The book also includes an introduction with instructions on how to use the book, how to mix, and how to toast, as well as several appendices.

This book is excellent. Its build quality is top notch with heavy weight paper, sturdy binding, and a lovely, matte-textured cover. Its layout is pleasing with beautiful art, sketched pictures of the appropriate glassware for the drinks, and marked pages for easy finding of the appropriate date. Its prose is clear, witty, and informative without a hint of dullness. Its suggested toasts throughout are in turn historically inspired, humorous, reverent, and cheerful.

In fact, if I could sum up the message of the author in a sentence, I would say it is, “Be of good cheer!” where the good cheer is just that. This is a book that uses history, drink, and the lives of these remarkably happy men and women saints to promote healthy conviviality, celebration, and good cheer.

If the concept of the book is at all of interest to you or a loved one, then you won’t regret the purchase. Highly recommended.

Drinking with the Saints is a delight. Not only is it tastefully written (pun intended, of course) but it is also thoughtfully presented and very well researched. Foley's breadth of learning is evident in every story—for he offers stories, not "lessons" about each drink and the saint with whom it is associated—never pedantic but rather always light and wry. Indeed, you can learn a great deal by reading this book without feeling that you're doing so. So, it's not "Hats off to Foley," but rather "Glasses high, and cheers of congratulations all round."

Foley's book is 200 proof fun! Start anywhere--your favorite saint day, your favorite holy day, or your favorite drink--and let the the stories, the suggested recipes, the cross-references, the prayers, and the witticisms lead you through the work. This volume will both enlighten and delight. Even serendipitous readers learn more from Foley's book (he is, after all, an educator) about the pleasures of temperate and holy(!) imbibing AND about the lives of the saints and the church calendar than almost any other work out there devoted to just one of the two subjects, which Foley has brought together ("shake forty times") in this handsome work.

* Concerning the criticism by Peter Dora, who takes umbrage at Foley's "mistaking" a Gibson for a Martini, the context must be considered. Foley's point in referencing Hitchcock's _North by Northwest_ is to note the increase over the last several decades in the standard size of martini glasses, not the drink that Grant/Thornhill/Kaplan is drinking. Additionally, the Gibson is, as I understand it, properly called a Gibson Martini, containing both the gin and the dry vermouth that constitute all "true" martinis. Details matter, indeed!

Best use of academic freedom under the Baylor tenure policy goes this year to Mike Foley, who just recently published his book Drinking With the Saints: The Sinner's Guide to a Holy Happy Hour, a 400-page repudiation of Baylor's social policies. Mike has already begun researching a companion volume, Swearing with the Saints: Cuss Words for Every Occasion.

We have started to read this book around the family dinner table--the children enjoy the fascinating stories, which prompts fun and interesting discussions. Plus...my husband and I learn to slowly savor incredibly delicious cocktail recipes. Thank you, Mr. Foley, for contributing in such a wonderful way, to our Catholic culture!

Fun, but also Substantial! This book not only has fun drink ideas to celebrate the saints and promote Catholic culture, it has substantial information about the saints. It does not treat the saints lightly, but with wonderful depth and intelligence. These are drinks for the thinking man: those who embody the true virtue of religion!

My only critique of this book is that it uses the pre-Vatican II liturgical calendar for its arrangement, which makes finding the saints difficult sometimes for those who go to daily Mass in the ordinary form.

Michael Foley has wittily and sincerely overlaid revelry with reverence in this unique mix(ology) of hagiography and spirited cheer. He infuses the histories of Church feast days (and drinks to match) with his distinctly humorous voice--you will come to hear and appreciate its range of notes over the course of the year and find yourself anticipating what clever toast, what "last call," he has concocted for the next day's feast! A must have for those of us who find repose from the week's commotion in liturgy and libations. Cheers!

An added note: This book is beautifully designed: the sort of book that you will be proud to have on a shelf or countertop as a piece of kitchen/barroom decor.

If you are a serious Christian, put down this book and pick up your Bible. Ask God to reveal to you what He thinks about drinking. According to the study, there are 11 million underage drinkers in the U.S., and 7.2 million of those teens and pre-teens are binge drinking. When you are drinking, remember these young lives that are destroyed by Alcohol.

The author can't even tell the difference between a Martini and a Gibson. Right in the introduction he refers to the 'Martini' drunk by Cary Grant on the train in the film North By Northwest. It was a Gibson. Grant / Thornhill / Kaplan orders same and is served a clear drink containing a white cocktail onion.
The premise of the book is cute, if a bit strained, but diligent research helps.