By John C. “Chuck” Chalberg. The recent death of Norman Podhoretz prompted me to return to his “political memoir,” Breaking Ranks. Published in 1979, it deserves to be read or re-read today—and not simply as a historical account of his evolution from left to right...
Michelangelo and Titian: A Tale of Rivalry and Genius By William E. Wallace. Princeton University Press, 2026. Hardcover, 248 pages, $35.00. Reviewed by Jesse Russell. There is a running joke that Americans remain perpetually torn between Puritanism and pornography....
Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century By Melanie McDonagh. Yale University Press, 2026. Hardcover, 354 pages, $38. Reviewed by Adam Schwartz. In September 2025, King Charles III visited the Birmingham Oratory to...
The Locust Years By Paul J. Pastor. Wiseblood Books, 2025. Paperback, 129 pages, $20. Reviewed by Sarah Reardon. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”...
Home Songs By Sarah Reardon. Resource Publications, 2025. Paperback, 46 pages, $6. Reviewed by Annmarie McLaughlin. Sarah Reardon’s Home Songs, a collection of twenty poems about marriage and family life (seven of which were previously published individually), has...
The Last Westerner By Chilton Williamson Jr. St. Augustine’s Press, 2025. Paperback, 386 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Patrick J. Walsh. Apparently, there are still cavaliers and men who believe in love between men and women. Chilton Williamson’s new novel, The...
Gates of Heaven: A Novel By Glenn Arbery. Wiseblood Books, 2025. Paperback, 554 pages, $20. Reviewed by Chilton Williamson, Jr. Gates of Heaven is Glenn Arbery’s third novel; it is also the last in a trilogy that, reckoning by the publication dates, was a labor that...
We Have Ceased to See the Purpose: Essential Speeches of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Edited by Ignat Solzhenitsyn. University of Notre Dame Press, 2025. Hardcover, 228 pages, $28. Reviewed by William Scott. The eighth title to appear in Notre Dame Press’s “Center for...
Why Democracy Needs the Rich By John O. McGinnis. Encounter Books, 2026. Hardcover, 280 pages, $32.99. Reviewed by Michael Munger. Hostility toward wealth is not an American value. But that has changed in the past 15 years, with a culturally salient event being Barack...
Poetry as Enchantment: And Other Essays By Dana Gioia. Paul Dry Books, 2024. Paperback, 272 pages, $21.95. Reviewed by Oliver Spivey. In his essay titled “Reading,” W. H. Auden sets forth what he views as the special duties of the literary critic: What is the function...
