Home > Books & Culture > Book of the Week
"Hope Had Mourning On"
In his new novel, the author of Mariette in Ecstasy turns to the life of Gerard Manley Hopkins and the story behind his great poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland."
Reviewed by Linda McCullough Moore
posted 05/05/08
"Christianity Is Not an Intellectual System"
The theology of Pope Benedict XVI.
Reviewed by Ryan T. Anderson
posted 04/14/08
21st-Century Apologetics
Pastor Timothy Keller makes the case for faith.
Reviewed by Anthony Sacramone
posted 03/31/08
Until Death Do Us Part?
Sue Miller's new novel is a story about love and betrayal.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 03/14/08
Truly God and Truly Man
The second volume in novelist Anne Rice's projected trilogy on the life of Christ focuses on the drama of the incarnation.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 03/03/08
Salvation Lost, Misplaced
A former evangelical revisits the country of belief and believers.
Reviewed by Linda McCullough Moore
posted 02/25/08
Consistently Uncertain
A careful reading of Frederick Buechner's fiction does justice to the full sweep of his work.
Reviewed by David Stewart
posted 02/04/08
Democracy Agonistes
Good reading for the week of Super Tuesday.
Reviewed by Eric Miller
posted 01/28/08
At Heart, a Baptist Preacher
The latest volume in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., draws on previously undiscovered materials to illuminate his powerful preaching ministry with new depth.
Reviewed by Jenny McBride
posted 01/21/08
Bound Together
A mysterious manuscript in Sarajevo sheds light on the tangled history of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Reviewed by Lauren F. Winner
posted 01/07/08
Everything You Know About Fascism Is Wrong
What Mussolini, Father Coughlin, & Co. really stood for, and why it matters.
Reviewed by Mark Gauvreau Judge
posted 01/07/08
A French Updike?
Not quite.
Reviewed by Otto Selles
posted 12/03/07
Making Sense of a Broken World
In Iraq, in Denmark—wherever there are human beings making choices.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 11/05/07
Optional by Necessity
Dave Eggers' latest anthology of "Nonrequired Reading."
Reviewed by Kristen Scharold
posted 10/15/07
A Funhouse Mirror
This circus novel, a surprise hit, is now headed for the movies.
Reviewed by Betty Smartt Carter
posted 09/24/07
Lying to Protect Someone
A mother's long-deferred revelation to her children lies at the heart of Graham Swift's new novel.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 09/17/07
Our Montaigne
Joseph Epstein is back with another collection of superb essays.
Reviewed by Scot McKnight
posted 09/10/07
What Are Friends For?
A strong second novel from the author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 09/03/07
Another Way to Talk About Faith
Public radio host Krista Tippett models constructive conversation.
Reviewed by Jeff Crosby
posted 08/20/07
Sweet Reason with Spice
Tired of blustering atheists and triumphalist Christians? Here's an alternative.
Reviewed by Benjamin B. DeVan
posted 08/13/07
After the Crash
Your only son commits murder and is sentenced to life without parole. How do you go on?
Reviewed by O'Ann Steere
posted 07/30/07
Lonely as Grace
Letting what is broken also be beautiful.
Reviewed by Susanna Childress
posted 07/23/07
Think Globally, Eat Locally
Novelist Barbara Kingsolver and her family undertake a grand experiment.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 07/23/07
Tour de Faith
Dogma, discipline, and the seven-day ride.
Reviewed by Neil Gussman
posted 07/23/07
How the Amish Do It
A study of Old Order Amish and Mennonite schools should provoke us to rethink Christian schooling more generally.
Reviewed by O'Ann Steere
posted 07/16/07
Secrets of the Talented Tenth Revealed
Stephen Carter's second novel returns to the world of black élites.
Reviewed by Gerald L. Early
posted 07/02/07
Lost and Found
An adventurous tale for readers young and old.
Reviewed by Matthew Dickerson
posted 5/28/07
Can You Reason with Christians?
A response to Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation.
Reviewed by John Wilson
posted 5/07/07
Christopher Hitchens Explains It All for You
Move over, Sam Harris; another atheist wants the pulpit.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 4/30/07
Longing for We Know Not What
A powerful second novel from the author of The Piano Tuner.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 4/23/07
The Critic Looks Inward
A revealing memoir from Robert Hughes.
Reviewed by Ted Prescott
posted 4/16/07
The Story of a Lost Boy's Story
Valentino Achak Deng's long journey.
Reviewed by Jonathan Fitzgerald
posted 4/09/07
Chuckleheads and Timberdoodles?
A bird book you need to add to your shelves.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 3/26/07
Who Gets to Define Islam?
The question at the root of 9/11.
Reviewed by Stephen Prothero
posted 3/19/07
Eve's Exegetes
Victorian women on Genesis.
Reviewed by Timothy Larsen
posted 3/12/07
"A Crackling Bonfire of Truth and Clarity"
William Wilberforce and the battle against slavery.
Reviewed by John Wilson
posted 2/26/07
Immortal in Spite of Herself
A new edition of a splendid Dorothy Parker miscellany.
Reviewed by Betty Smartt Carter
posted 2/19/07
How Faith Happens
A winsome memoir of doubt and perplexity and blessed assurance.
Reviewed by Craig E. Mattson
posted 1/29/07
Graphic Violence
Good and bad signage on the information superhighway.
Reviewed by Alan Jacobs
posted 12/11/06
Always Distinguish
Kirk Varnedoe's posthumously published celebration of abstract art should be pondered by Christian culture-critics.
Reviewed by Daniel A. Siedell
posted 11/27/06
Not Just Another Game
How to think about chess.
Reviewed by Nathan Jones
posted 11/20/06
Thankful to Whom?
Richard Ford concludes his trilogy about Frank Bascombe, first introduced in The Sportwriter.
Reviewed by Harold K. Bush, Jr.
posted 11/06/06
Faith in Politics
What can we learn from David Kuo's memoir of a Christian in the corridors of power?
Reviewed by Amy E. Black
posted 10/30/06
Present at the Creation
How the iPod became "the most familiar, and certainly the most desirable, new object of the twenty-first century."
Reviewed by Alan Jacobs
posted 10/23/06
The Gospel of Paying Attention
Mary Oliver's Thirst.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 10/16/06
Ending It All
Two books, taking divergent approaches, offer complementary understandings of suicide.
Reviewed by O'Ann Steere
posted 10/09/06
A Canonization of Subjectivity
Andrew Sullivan's catechism.
Mark Gauvreau Judge reviews The Conservative Soul
posted 10/02/06
It Wasn't Really About Whiskey
A compelling and entertaining but also deeply flawed account of an episode in early American history.
Reviewed by Al Zambone
posted 9/05/06
The Ties That Bind
Anne Tyler's new novel centers on two very different families brought together when they both adopt Korean girls.
Reviewed by Betty Smartt Carter
posted 8/21/06
Live Like You Are Dying
Finding wisdom in wilderness.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 8/14/06
Not the Wheel Thing
A history of the Tour de France.
Reviewed by Neil Gussman
posted 8/01/06
Welcoming Resurrection
A volume of new poems from Luci Shaw.
Reviewed by D.S. Martin
posted 7/17/06
Dining Dilemmas
How shall we then eat?
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 6/26/06
Incorrigibly Bookish
Michael Dirda on reading and life.
Reviewed by Rachel DiCarlo
posted 6/19/06
Back to the Garden
Digging in the dirt as spiritual formation.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 5/15/06
Betrayed Again
The Gospel of Judas Roadshow.
Reviewed by John Wilson
posted 4/18/06
Was George Washington a Christian?
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Reviewed by Al Zambone
posted 4/03/06
Passionately Ambivalent
Christians in the art world.
Reviewed by Daniel A. Siedell
posted 2/13/06
Making—and Breaking—Vows
A compelling memoir from the son of a priest and a former nun.
Reviewed by Jenny Schroedel
posted 1/16/06
Not Just Looking
Books for the eye.
By John Wilson
posted 12/21/2005
The Shrine Next Door
A superb study of Chinese popular religion helps to set the context for the appeal of Christianity in China today.
Reviewed by Wright Doyle
posted 11/07/2005
Dissecting Divorce
A new book by Elizabeth Marquardt offers a child's-eye-view of divorce.
Reviewed by Jenny Schroedel
posted 10/24/2005
Heavenly Real Estate
A geography of art in New York at the midpoint of the 20th century.
Reviewed by Daniel A. Siedell
posted 10/17/2005
Narnia Etc.
A chronicle of reading.
By John Wilson
posted 10/10/2005
How Wide the Divide?
A proposal for compromise between "value evangelicals" and "legal secularists" on church-state issues.
Reviewed by Thomas C. Berg
posted 9/12/2005
Poet with Three Heads Talks with King Solomon
Conversation touches on Hebrew parallelism, marriage, and the making of many books.
Reviewed by D.S. Martin
posted 8/29/2005
Continental Christophobia Cubed
Europe's rejection of its Christian heritage.
Reviewed by Daniel Gallagher
posted 8/15/2005
Everyday Transfiguration
A new book of poems by Paul Mariani, illustrated by Barry Moser.
Reviewed by D.S. Martin
posted 8/8/2005
How to Think the Unthinkable
The lessons of Herman Kahn.
Reviewed by Andrew Wilson
posted 8/1/2005
With God on Our Side
David McCullough's account of the pivotal year 1776 has resonance for Americans in 2005.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 7/18/2005
The Rich Are Different—and Not So Different—from Us
Think you're burned out on memoirs? Read this book.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 6/27/2005
A Grief Observed
Exploring the valley of the shadow in two literary lives.
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
posted 6/13/2005
The Mind and Soul of Combat
Perhaps war really is hell.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 6/06/2005
The Universal Language
If Latin died in our mouths, we'd just stop talking.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 5/23/2005
At Home in the Dark
The first new book of poems in almost twenty years from Rod Jellema.
Reviewed by D. S. Martin
posted 5/16/2005
Making Believe
Bedtime stories for grown-ups.
Reviewed by Rachel DiCarlo
posted 5/02/2005
Looking for God on the Holy Mountain
A journey to Mount Athos.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 4/25/2005
Unbelievable
Religion is really, really bad for you.
Reviewed by Matthew Simpson
posted 4/04/2005
This Land Is Whose Land?
An impassioned plea on behalf of the "caribou people" in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the land they have inhabited for nearly 20,000 years.
Reviewed by Larry Schweiger
posted 3/21/2005
All in Her Head
How a chronic pain sufferer found a little bit of strength in a lot of weakness.
Reviewed by Agnieszka Tennant
posted 3/14/2005
My Likeness, My Brother
A powerful autobiographical work from a prizewinning creator of comics in France.
Reviewed by Andrew Wilson
posted 3/07/2005
Gut Check
The case for intuitive judgment.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 02/21/2005
Dreams for Sale
A history of the American movie industry.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 02/14/2005
Wayfaring Strangers
Set in Mexico, Anita Desai's latest novel is a compact but multilayered tale of pilgrimage.
Reviewed by Rachel DiCarlo
posted 01/31/2005
What Do You Mean, 'Moral' Fiction?
John Gardner, Martin Amis, and the ethics of the novel.
Yellow Dog, reviewed by Philip Christman
posted 01/24/2005
Taking T.U.L.I.P. Out of the Ghetto
Relating Calvinism to "the complexities of contemporary life."
Reviewed by Nathan Bierma
posted 01/17/2005
Modern, All Too Modern
Tom Wolfe's new novel, largely reviewed as a satiric report on the sexual mores of today's college students, is fundamentally about the nature of the human will.
Reviewed by S. T. Karnick
posted 12/13/2004
Unfashionably Good
A savory collections of essays by Alan Jacobs.
Reviewed by Lauren F. Winner
posted 12/06/2004
"Summer's Ebullient Finale"
A richly varied anthology offers a "spiritual biography" of autumn.
Reviewed by Nathan Bierma
posted 11/15/2004
Reaching the Light
On Broken Legs: A Shattered Life, a Search for God, a Miracle That Met Me in a Cave in Assisi
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 11/08/2004
What's Love Got to Do with It?
Susan Howatch's new novel explores the transformation of sexual attraction to sacrificial love.
Reviewed by Karen L. Maudlin
posted 10/25/2004
Whose Independence?
All the Founding Fathers of America celebrated "independence," but what the word meant depended on who was speaking.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 10/11/2004
Darkness Visible
An unsparing new memoir by the author of Slackjaw.
By Jeremy Lott
posted 10/04/2004
A Forgotten Founder's Fatherhood
Race, nature, and patriarchy meet in Rhys Isaac's biography of early American diarist Landon Carter.
By Albert Louis Zambone
posted 09/20/2004
The Great American Hustle
The first volume of an ambitious new history of America highlights the engine of "worldly ideals"—and the role of evangelical religion in creating a distinctive American identity.
Reviewed by Albert Keith Whitaker
posted 09/13/2004
Be Careful What You Pray For
The strange tale of the controversial Bishop Pike and his fatal quest for relevance.
Reviewed by Michael G. Maudlin
posted 08/30/2004
Real Fantasy
The first installment in a new Tolkien-inspired series shows genuine promise.
Reviewed by Newlyn Allison
posted 08/16/2004
'Be Happy!'
How the ancient Olympics differed from the modern spectacle.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 08/09/2004
Rediscovering "Husbandry"
What Colonial farmers have to teach us about living with the land.
Reviewed by Eric Miller
posted 08/02/2004
China's Spiritual Hunger
The lessons of Falun Gong.
Reviewed by Joy Lo Cheung
posted 07/26/2004
Ambiguous Redemption
A riveting memoir by the author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.
Reviewed by Rachel DiCarlo
posted 07/19/2004
Catastrophe and Compassion
Poems that wrestle with darkness and celebrate light.
Reviewed by D.S. Martin
posted 07/12/2004
How the Monster Grew
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian looks at the origins of modern media.
By Nathan Bierma
posted 07/05/2004
Insect Theodicy
Who sent the locusts? And who exterminated them?
Reviewed by Abram Van Engen
posted 06/21/2004
Telling Lies, Telling Stories
Lars Saabye Christensen's The Half Brother reveals imagination as escape.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 06/14/2004
The Art of Political War
A veteran columnist urges his fellow liberals to take a lesson from those nasty conservatives.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 06/07/2004
Thou Shalt Not Swap
The uses and abuses of copyright.
Reviewed by Nathan Anderson
posted 05/24/2004
Your God Is Too Small
An ironic skeptic scolds believers for domesticating the deity.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 05/17/2004
Mystery and Message
Must they compete?
Reviewed by Abram Van Engen
posted 05/10/2004
Shabbos, Sheitels, and Yarmulkes
A novel set in the world of Orthodox Judaism.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 04/19/2004
The Naked City
The story of the 1977 blackout in New York—the occasion of widespread looting and destruction—has some surprisingly timely lessons for America in 2004.
By Caroline Langston
posted 04/12/2004
"Trust but Verify"
Ronald Reagan's faith.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 03/29/2004
Mistakes Were Made
Four of the Seven Deadly Sins, as seen from a contemporary vantage point.
Reviewed by Abram Van Engen
posted 03/22/2004
How Do You Live with a Torturer?
A novel of Haiti by the brilliant young writer, Edwidge Danticat.
Reviewed by Elissa Elliott
posted 03/08/2004
Life, Work, and the Mommy Wars
A book about real choices.
Reviewed by Randi Sider-Rose
posted 03/01/2004
God Is in the Details
A scientist affirms his faith.
Reviewed by Jonathan C. Rienstra-Kiracofe
posted 02/23/2004
History Repeats Itself, Sort of
How the fate of Eugene McCarthy's insurgency against LBJ sheds light on the 2004 presidential campaign.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 02/16/2004
The Worst President Ever?
Former Nixon aide John Dean attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Warren G. Harding.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 02/09/2004
The Doom of Choice
Fate, free will, and moral responsibility in Tolkien.
Reviewed by David O'Hara
posted 02/02/2004
Baptized in Fire
A new book on Martin Luther King, Jr., emphasizes his spiritual transformation.
Reviewed by John Wilson
posted 01/19/2004
O'Connor v. the Antichrist
A hillbilly Thomist pushes back against modernity.
Reviewed by Lucas E. Morel
posted 01/12/2004
Moody, the Media, and the Birth of Modern Evangelism
A cautionary tale.
Reviewed by Dale Suderman
posted 01/05/2004
Is "Sensual Orthodoxy" a Contradiction in Terms?
Read this unconventional collection of sermons and judge for yourself.
Reviewed by Steve Thorngate
posted 12/08/2003
Urban Eden
In City: Urbanism and Its End, a new history of New Haven, Connecticut, the city (in its late 19th-century form) is an ambiguous heaven—and the suburbs that relentlessly followed are hell. Which leaves us where, exactly?
Reviewed by Nathan Bierma
posted 12/01/2003
Cool Drink of Water
A poet's voice in the evangelical wilderness.
Reviewed by D.S. Martin
posted 11/24/2003
Faith, Hope, and Charity in North Carolina
New novels by Michael Morris—whose first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass, was a word-of-mouth hit— and Jan Karon, who continues her beloved Mitford saga.
Reviewed by Betty Smartt Carter
posted 11/17/2003
Remember Afghanistan?
Two inside reports.
By Albert Louis Zambone
posted 11/10/2003
From Dust to Dust
Soil and the future of creation.
Reviewed by Ragan Sutterfield
posted 11/03/2003
The Troubled Conscience of a Founding Father
An Imperfect God examines George Washington and slavery.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 10/27/2003
Back to the Future
A sprawling new novel by the author of Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon goes to the 17th century to investigate the birth of the modern world. (You won't be surprised to learn that the Puritans are among the Bad Guys.)
By Albert Louis Zambone
posted 10/13/2003
Poetry, Prayer, and Parable
The playful provocations of Scott Cairns
Philokalia, reviewed by David Wright
posted 10/06/2003
Terrorists on Trial
How the nation responded to an earlier attack.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 09/29/2003
Recalling California
Want to understand what's going on in the Golden State? Toss your newsmagazines and pick up Joan Didion's new book.
Reviewed by Caroline Langston
posted 09/22/2003
The Difference Between Conservatives and Prolifers
William Saletan unspins, and respins, the abortion debate.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 09/08/2003
A New View of Worldview
Some critics want to retire the concept. Not so fast, says David Naugle.
Reviewed by Daniel Siedell
posted 08/18/2003
'A Golden Age' of Religious Tolerance?
The Ornament of the World analyzes how the intellectual elites of medieval Spain eschewed fundamentalism and showed surprising sensitivity in reconciling competing truths.
Reviewed by Kate Elliot van Liere
posted 08/11/2003
Looking for the 'I'
What happens to the self when the brain is injured or malformed?
Review by Stephen Dunning
posted 08/04/2003
The Terror of the Therapeutic
Margaret Atwood's new novel considers the price we may pay for looking to technology to remedy our ills, personal and social.
Review by Stephen Dunning
posted 07/28/2003
The Catholic Church's Regime Change
Would lay power really augur a new epoch of openness and honesty?
by Eugene McCarraher
posted 07/21/2003
One-Hit Wonder
The long swansong of Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
Reviewed by Jeremy Lott
posted 07/07/2003
Divinely Decreed?
Re-fighting the Battle of Gettysburg.
Reviewed by Preston Jones
posted 06/27/2003
Facing the Past
Günter Grass and the debate over Germans as victims in World War II.
By Gregor Thuswaldner
posted 05/19/2003
Buffy and the Meaning of Life
Buffy the Vampire Slayer finally gets some respect. Too bad the life is slowly ebbing out of the show.
By Jeremy Lott
posted 05/05/2003
Getting Ahead in Order to Serve
Why "Christian ambition" isn't an oxymoron.
By Beth Henary
posted 04/28/2003
A Story Darwin Might Love
Brian McLaren's evolutionary interpretation of the faith promises more than it delivers, but what it delivers is good enough.
By Mark Galli
posted 04/11/2003
Why We Are in Iraq
Michael Kelly, R.I.P.
By John Wilson
posted 04/07/2003
Opening Day Blues, October Dreams
B&C's annual baseball preview.
By Michael Stevens
posted 03/31/2003
Lessons in Nation-Building From a Fledgling Democracy
Shays's Rebellion describes a time when revolution was no longer cool.
by Preston Jones
posted 3/24/2003
Oh, Brother
Most everyone agrees that the James ossuary is a significant find. Ask what it means, however …
by Jeremy Lott
posted 3/17/2003
Vanity Fair
A chronicler of religion plays the straight man.
by Jeremy Lott
posted 3/10/2003
Diagnosing "The Doctor"
A new assessment of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preacher.
by Mark A. Noll
posted 3/03/2003
Taken Prisoner
Stories from the far-flung frontiers of the British Empire, 1600-1850, challenge our preconceptions.
by Preston Jones
posted 2/24/2003
Another Third Way?
The mixed record of Catholic social thought.
by Christopher Shannon
posted 2/17/2003
Divine Numbers
Can you say "Christian" and "mathematics" in the same sentence?
by Karl-Dieter Crisman
posted 2/10/2003
Getting Beyond Victimology
A provocative collection of essays for "the black silent majority."
by Preston Jones
posted 2/03/2003
Strange Bedfellows
Christopher Hitchens and Christopher Caldwell collaborate on a collection of political writing. Has the millennium arrived unnoticed?
by Jeremy Lott
posted 1/27/2003
Encounters of the Gods
Christianity and Native American religion in early America.
by Richard W. Pointer
posted 1/20/2003
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