 |
The Church and Literature Edited by Peter Clarke and Charlotte Methuen (Boydell & Brewer) |
The range of this collection of essays is much wider than you might suspect from the rather bland title, encompassing not only "Gregory the Great: Reader, Writer, Read" and "Was Anyone Listening? Christian Apologetics Against Islam as a Literary Genre," but also "A Novel Resistance: Mission Narrative as the Anti-Novel in the Evangelical Assault on British Culture" and "Jesuit Pulp Fiction: The Serial Novels of Antonio Bresciani in La Civiltà Cattolica." This feast of a book takes us outside familiar conversations and offers much needed historical perspective, so that we can see current debates afresh.
 |
The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln A Novel Stephen L. Carter (KNOPF) |
Election Day 2012 is imminent. I can't think of a better book, for this particular moment, than Stephen Carter's counterfactual novel. It's a spy story, a legal thriller, and a meditation on race. But along with all this, it is one of the wisest accounts of American political life I have seen in a long time. No matter how you plan to cast your vote, you will profit from Carter's thought experiment.
 |
Arlo Needs Glasses Barney Saltzberg (Workman) |
If you wear glasses, you probably remember getting your first pair, wearing them reluctantly. This ingeniously designed and supremely witty pop-up, pull-out book is for you—and for your kids, who will probably need glasses too. Arlo is a nearsighted dog. The glasses-wearing boy who loves him takes Arlo to the eye doctor, where his vision is tested and glasses are prescribed. The final spread ("Arlo loves to read!!") features a pop-up array of books (Virginia Woof, for instance). Irresistible.
