Finished: Death Comes for the Archbishop (Cather). Well, a pretty good book, but I'm not sure it deserves the high spot it holds on some of the book lists. It is actually number 127 on my own list of top 100 books that I'm reading through. I know, that doesn't make sense, but I didn't stop at making the top 100...I went to about the top 130. Anyway, I think I enjoyed Willa Cather's O Pioneers! more than this one, but oh well. I was kind of thinking that this book might be some kind of mystery, but no. Set in the 1800's, Death Comes for the Archbishop is the story of French Bishop Jean Latour and his Vicar, Joseph Vaillant, who are assigned to the United States' newly acquired territory of New Mexico. They must travel the uncharted territory and bring their Catholic faith and ways to the devout Mexicans and native Americans, both of whom are already firmly entrenched in lifetimes of their own religious traditions. There's not really any extraordinary event that occurs in the book. It's just a nicely written book with beautiful landscape descriptions that gives a rather surface story (to me) about the travails and triumphs of longtime friends, Jean and Joseph who met years ago in seminary in France. Both are true and good human beings and face their difficulties and accomplishments with grace. After Jean has been in New Mexico and surrounding territories for 40 years,  and a few years after Joseph has passed away, the now Archbishop finally dies a natural death in what has become his beloved new world home.