If you think being a writer is nerve-wracking, try being a reviewer.
Books
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
What ‘The Lord of the Rings’ can teach us about U.S. politics, Christianity and power
Tolkien’s fiction reminds us that power cannot be controlled; it enslaves you. To act freely is to acknowledge your limits, to see the journey as a long road that includes dozens of future elections, and to fight against the temptation for power.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Looking for a spooky read? Here are Catholic horror books to keep you up at night.
In the spirit of Halloween, we offer a selection of frightening books with Catholic themes—some written by Catholic authors, some not—that will haunt you into at least tomorrow, and maybe forever.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
We created our present-day crises. It’s uncomfortable but not unfixable.
Jason Blakely show that the very tools we human beings use to try to understand the world in fact end up constructing it, for better or for worse.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The Native American fight for survival in a white world
Stephen Graham Jones’s new novel creates an extraordinary portrait of sacrifice and costly reconciliation.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Stories of hope in a weary world
The stories in Valerie Sayers’s new collection are populated with characters who strive to hang on to something good.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Women, chronic illness and resurrection
Sarah Ramey in her new book: “My case went unsolved for fourteen years because no one would listen to me and the reason they would not listen to me is because I am a woman.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Charlie Kaufman at his most surreal
Charlie Kaufman’s debut novel is not for the faint of heart. But it rewards the effort to read through a story about self-perception and the internal monologues that rattle through all of our heads.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Curtis Sittenfeld and the art of political fiction
Reality is messier than than fiction that reduces historical figures like Hillary Clinton to the sum of her most oversimplified virtues and vices.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The significant questions of a creative life
Using familiar methods of interpretation, Christopher Pramuk translates stories that illuminate paths to the transcendent when communicated through the arts.