in ‘Fireworks Every Night,’ the debut novel by Beth Raymer, is an ode to Florida—to the rattlesnakes, the humid heat and the Palm Beach pretensions of those who out of necessity live a life apart from that glitz and glamor.
Books
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Review: Biography opens new windows into the life of MLK
Jonathan Eig’s new biography, ‘King: A Life,’ is the first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades and will take its place among the foremost of the many treatments of King.
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Review: Henri Nouwen’s profound encounters in Ukraine
Henri Nouwen’s observations in ‘Ukraine Diary’ are even more relevant today than they were at the time of his writing, offering valuable insight into the ongoing tragedy of the war in Ukraine.
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The wit and wisdom of John Tracy Ellis
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan reviews Msgr. Thomas Shelley’s ‘John Tracy Ellis: An American Catholic Reformer,’ calling it “a well-documented yet very readable biography of the ‘dean’ of American Catholic history.”
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What the editors of America magazine are reading this summer
America’s editors on some books that might catch our readers’ fancy in these final weeks of summer.
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Review: The underlying philosophy of Black Lives Matter
Vincent Lloyd’s ‘Black Dignity’ is is a profound challenge to anyone who takes seriously the struggle for human dignity, antiracism and the work of dismantling white supremacy.
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Review: A history of books dating back to antiquity
Irene Vallejo’s history of books found an audience outside of the academy because it speaks to present concerns and speaks on behalf of many book readers.
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Review: Geetanjali Shree’s new novel is one woman’s surprising reincarnation story
Frank Wynne, chair of this year’s Booker judges, noted that translating ‘Tomb of Sand’ presented “huge challenges” because the novel is about words, language and storytelling, not just characters and plot. Another judge added that it is “safe to say this [novel] is like nothing else you have ever read.”
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Mom’s Still In Bed: Mona Simpson on family, fate and mental illness
Mona Simpson’s latest novel unfurls into a stirring cartography of the impacts of a mother’s deteriorating mental health on her three children.
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Review: An inner-city Boston parish’s lessons for building a vibrant church community
‘People Get Ready’ tells how an inner-city Boston parish managed to transform itself into a vibrant church community, an experience that Reynolds believes holds lessons for a new understanding of the role of the parish in Catholic ecclesiology.