As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, beginning this Sunday, we offer a big thank you to all of the teachers, [...]

This is the cover of "A People of Hope: Archbishop Timothy Dolan in conversation with John L. Allen Jr." The book is reviewed by Peggy Weber. (CNS)"A People of Hope: Archbishop Timothy Dolan in conversation with John L. Allen Jr." Image Books (New York, 2011) $25.

In the introduction of "A People of Hope," John Allen quotes a woman from Westchester County in New York who was moved to tears after a visit by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan to her parish.

She said, "I'm a lifelong Catholic, but the last few years, it's been so hard ... with the sex -abuse scandals, with bishops who don't seem to listen, with all of it. I came tonight, not knowing what to expect, but this guy ... I don't know, somehow he just makes me feel good about being Catholic."

Her reaction in a parish hall is what readers will probably feel after finishing this interesting and entertaining book. One feels good about being Catholic and knowing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is being led by Archbishop Dolan as president. The archbishop will become a cardinal Feb. 19.

"Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation" by Michael Novak and William E. Simon Jr. Encounter Books (New York, 2011). 191 pp.; $21.95.

This is the cover of "Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation" by Michael Novak and William E. Simon. The book is reviewed by Brian T. Olszewski. (CNS)"Lay vocation" is often mistaken as a term whose roots stem from the writings of the bishops of the Second Vatican Council. While the council fathers certainly addressed it in various documents, they did so in the context of where the lay vocation begins: baptism.

Recognizing the baptismal root of the lay vocation, Michael Novak and William E. Simon make "Living the Call" a source of encouragement for laypeople to recognize and pursue their vocations in the Catholic Church. In the first part of the book, they feature nine people who are engaged in a variety of ministries from youth ministry to hospital ministry. The stories are engaging and might evoke an "I could do that" response from readers – a welcome response for Novak and Simon.

The stories are of the "feel-good" variety, with the subjects talking about where they were in their lives and how they got to the vocation they are now living. Readers should beware that the stories lack the grit, heartache, pain, turmoil and frustration those in lay ministry can encounter in trying to live their vocations. Those stories might frighten some who are discerning their vocations, but they should be noted in the discernment process.

NEW YORK –– The last time audiences watched flag-waving hokum on the order of "Red Tails" (Fox), the show may have included a cartoon and a newsreel, and war bonds may have been for sale in the lobby. Patriotic corn, it seems, is not a staple that ages especially well.David Oyelowo stars in a scene from the movie "Red Tails." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (CNS photo/Fox)

During World War II, combat-themed films were relentlessly upbeat because the federal government, as well as the Production Code Administration, decreed such optimism to be in the interest of home-front morale.

But what director Anthony Hemingway and screenwriters John Ridley and Aaron McGruder obviously intended as an enthusiastic fact-based homage to that type of motion picture instead comes off as shallow and cliched storytelling about a famed group of Tuskegee Airmen.

As their film opens in 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group of the Army Air Forces – made up of African-American pilots based in Italy – are shown banished to rear-guard missions such as strafing a German supply train and making coastal patrols with second-hand P-40 Warhawks.

These fliers yearn to get into the scrap. But they face racism, not only from the distant Pentagon – where Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) fights the good fight on behalf of his subordinates – but from their nearby white counterparts.

NEW YORK –– With the fairly suspenseful but frequently brutal thriller "Haywire" (Relativity), filmmaker Steven Soderbergh tries his hand at [...]