In ‘Canticle,’ a page-turner of a debut novel by Janet Rich Edwards, the reader is offered the Catholic equivalent of a monster truck rally: Just when you think the story has settled into one track, it delivers a fresh surprise.
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What America’s editors said about communism and the Berlin Blockade
In 1948, the Soviet Union initiated a blockade of the Western zone of the city of Berlin. ‘America’’s contributors and editors took that conflict very, very seriously.
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Review: A Vatican journalist on seeing the church behind the church
In ‘Struck Down, Not Destroyed,’ America’s Vatican correspondent Colleen Dulle offers a powerful testament to her own commitment to the church—a commitment where scrutiny and critique go hand in hand with reverence.
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Mexico’s James Joyce: Remembering Carlos Fuentes on a complicated holiday
Carlos Fuentes, sometimes called “the Joyce of Mexico,” “the Balzac of Mexico” or “the Faulkner of Mexico,” was a wizardly innovator of language and narrative and is universally recognized as one of Latin America’s literary giants.
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Review: Three books on the confusing, complex world of American politics
Three authors explore the American political landscape and offer provocative ideas on how to fix it—and if it is worth saving.
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Review: A descent into the soul
Andrew Krivak’s ‘Mule Boy’ explores depths and recesses he has invited readers to probe before.
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Review: Confronting the Christian classics
Rebecca Bratten Weiss’s ‘The Books That Made Us’ asks: What are we to do when we realize the art that formed us is, perhaps, problematic?
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Review: Christopher Beha’s journey of belief
Christopher Beha’s ‘Why I Am Not an Atheist’ recounts decades of seeking through reading, trying to find the shape of a meaningful, sustainable worldview without God.
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Review: The Mets and the history of class and race in New York City
In ‘Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team,’ A. M. Gittlitz fuses his interest in leftist sociopolitics with his love of baseball, or, rather, his very specific love of the Mets.
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Review: Thomas More, God’s good servant
Joanne Paul wrote her powerful and considerable biography of Thomas More because she finds More’s life relevant to today’s world. But the book also addresses another question: Was More a saintly martyr or a vicious murderer?