John Thavis at CNS looks at the two new JPII books:

As Pope John Paul II’s sainthood cause rolled forward, two people close to him have offered quite different insider accounts of his life and times.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, the late pope’s personal secretary for 39 years, has produced a conversational memoir called "A Life with Karol." In anecdotal fashion, it sketches many of their major and minor experiences together.

Pope Benedict XVI has meanwhile released "John Paul II: My Beloved Predecessor," a more analytical look at the philosophical and theological impact of his pontificate.

Although the books focus on the same subject, they don’t make for redundant reading. That says something about the breadth of Pope John Paul’s 26-year pontificate.

Thavis notes in the article that Cardinal Dziwisz is articulating the desire that the beatification stage be skipped with John Paul II, and we head straight for canonization. Not a great idea, and for anyone. Personally, I wish they’d stick to the fifty-year rule as much as possible. Or, at least, the St. Therese-28-Year-Rule.