Of Many Things
Reading may be private act, but it has always had a social dimension.
Welcome to America’s biannual literary review
Dispatches
News from the literary world: more things to read
America’s books editor surveys interesting recent articles on literature.
Books
The literary genius of Cervantes
D. Scott Hendrickson reviews “The Man Who Invented Fiction: How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World” by William Egginton
How to cultivate a love for reading in children
In the spirit of the planting season, I offer tips for growing strong readers.
Martin Luther: hero, but no saint
This is a book I have long needed to read. Martin Luther is in the top tier of 16th-century greats whose life, actions and works forever changed the landscape of Christianity and, therefore, all of Western civilization. Yet my knowledge of the man himself was scant and tainted. In Luther the Great, Lyndal Roper, Regius…
Judas Iscariot: the first and last Christian?
Gail Lumet Buckley reviews “Judas” by Amos Oz.
The Samaritan impulse
Dennis Vellucci reviews “Signals” by Tim Gautreaux.
Books on the Bible
John C. Endres and Jean-Francois Racine consider various recent books on the Bible.
The Colonial Beginnings of North American Catholicism
Thomas J. Shelley reviews “Continental Ambitions” by
Barack Obama and the Limits of Optimism
Jason Berry reviews “A Consequential President” by Michael D’Antonio.
Fordham: A New York Story
John T. McGreevy reviews “Fordham: A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003” by Thomas J. Shelley.
Bosch and Bruegel: From the Monstrous To the Ordinary
Karen Sue Smith reviews “Bosch & Bruegel” by
The music of Van Cliburn was key to a Cold War thaw
Lisa Baglione reviews “Moscow Nights” by Nigel Cliff
‘Lincoln in the Bardo’: Between heaven and hell, a half-lit existence
John Anderson reviews “Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders.
100 years after World War I, is it possible to hope in human progress?
John Matteson reviews two books about World War I: “The World Remade: America in World War I” and “The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End.”
Why James Joyce said he was a Jesuit (but rebelled against the Catholic Church)
Joyce spent thousands of hours with the Jesuits, who figure prominently in his debut novel.
Poetry
Lourdes, 1955
On the long trip home they stopped in Glanmore
Knights of Columbus
When my father totaled the white Volvo
Lear: Act 3, Scene 2
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!
Culture
The Return of James Baldwin
A discerning critic of the American project has become a prophet for our time.
Meet the man who told the story of New York City, one crime at a time
Michael Wilson, a graduate of Loyola New Orleans, wrote the New York Times column “Crime Scene” for the past six years.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts