Beha’s Capacity for God: Sophie Wilder Revisited

Beha’s Capacity for God: Sophie Wilder Revisited

What Happened to Sophie Wilder: A Novel by Christopher R. Beha. Tin House Books, 2012. Paperback, 253 pages, $16. Reviewed by Joshua Hren In his new novel The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, Harper’s editor Christopher Beha makes grace a noisome concern, not least...
A Plutarchian Life of Brown and Lincoln

A Plutarchian Life of Brown and Lincoln

The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. Brands. Doubleday, 2020. Hardcover, 464 pages, $30. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson H. W. Brands has written perhaps his most fluent book, a constantly engaging study...
The Clandestine Poet

The Clandestine Poet

In Code: Poems. by Maryann Corbett. Able Muse Press, 2020. Paperback, 92 pages, $20. Reviewed by Alfred Nicol Maryann Corbett spent thirty-five years working for the Minnesota Legislature in the Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Here is how she describes the...
The Civil Tongue

The Civil Tongue

Wonder and Wrath by A. M. Juster. Paul Dry Books, 2020. Paperback, 85 pages, $14.95. Reviewed by Dan Rattelle It is difficult to imagine a more upstanding literary citizen than A. M. Juster. His work as an editor, lately of First Things and now at Plough,...
Why, and How, to Live

Why, and How, to Live

Leading a Worthy Life: Finding Meaning in Modern Times by Leon R. Kass. Encounter Books, [2017] 2020. Hardcover, 407 pages, $21. Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks Leading a Worthy Life is in large part the intellectual and spiritual autobiography of one of America’s leading...
The Cost of a Global Revolution

The Cost of a Global Revolution

The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History by Alexander Mikaberidze. Oxford University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 960 pages, $40. Reviewed by Casey Chalk Many, I’d imagine, would be intimidated by a 960-page book on the Napoleonic era. Or perhaps they’d be uninterested,...
Can Whimsy Save the Small-Town Novel?

Can Whimsy Save the Small-Town Novel?

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. Grove Press, 2018. Paperback, 320 pages, $17. Reviewed by Matt Miller Small towns in American fiction have a history as varied as the landscapes they inhabit. Often stifling or enervating, as in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sherwood...
Voting the Bible

Voting the Bible

The Bible and the Ballot: Using Scripture in Political Discussions by Tremper Longman III. Eerdmans, 2020. Softcover, 310 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by Jason Jewell The political involvement of American Protestant evangelicals has ebbed and flowed in the past century....