Curated literary articles

The Weekly Wrap: February 9-15

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Remembering a Martyred Saint

I write this on the evening of St. Valentines Day. While we celebrate it as the holiday of romantic love, the day actually marks the martyrdom of the original Saint Valentine in 269 AD. Valentine was kind and he was courageous in testifying to his faith, even in the face of a death sentence. We know little more than that about him.

While imprisoned awaiting death, Valentine wrote notes to encourage his friends, tying them with twine, signing them “from your valentine.” So that’s where the practice of all those “valentines” I had to take and exchange each year at school came from! Seriously, it is an amazing act of selfless kindness for one about to die.

As the story goes, the “valentine” he sent on the day of his death went to a formerly blind girl. A judge in one of his cases gave him a challenge. If his God was so powerful, then ask that God to heal the judge’s blind daughter. Valentine prayed and God healed the girl through him. She lived to see while he died.

Reading fiction is supposed to develop empathy. But empathy is only a feeling if it is not converted to acts of kindness. Of late, our cultural life consists more in threats and harsh words than in kindness. Perhaps it is up to us readers to be the modern Valentines, speaking and acting with kindness in an increasingly coarse world. We may never know those we heal by our kindness. And it could cost us dearly. But if that’s the cost to be kind in a cruel world, I’d choose that in a heartbeat over cold cruelty.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Many of us thought Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead one of the best novels we read, chronicling the deadly opioid epidemic in Appalachia. Kingsolver is an example of turning empathy into action. In “‘Demon Copperhead’ Explored Addiction. Its Profits Built a Recovery House,” we learn Kingsolver has used her royalties from the book to start a center for Appalachian women in recovery.

The empathy evoked from literature often comes from its exploration of suffering. In “Beyond the Cage and Fog,” Mary Grace Mangano explores the contrasting ways Gerard Manley Hopkins and Sylvia Plath addressed mental suffering.

Tove Jansson is best known for the Moomins cartoons. Lauren LeBlanc, in “The Outsider Who Captured American Loneliness” reviews a new book by Jansson, Sun City. The setting of the book is a senior community in St. Petersburg, Florida. It explores the loneliness of many who are elderly in America.

Then there is Ross Douthat. Often, the most interesting reads in The New York Times are the op-eds, and Douthat’s are among those. I appreciate his voice as a person of faith, Now, he has a new book out titled Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. “Accidental Pilgrim” adapts content from the book to describe Douthat’s own faith journey.

Finally, it is National Library Lovers Month! Of course, isn’t that the case every month for booklovers. Sadly, not all share our library love. Katie McLain Horner offers practical tips for ways we can support our libraries in “How to Stand Up for Your Local Library by Getting Involved.”

Quote of the Week

I’m a fan of the mysteries of Georges Simenon. It just so happens he was born February 13, 1903. Consider this pithy observation, with which most of us will identify:

“I adore life but I don’t fear death. I just prefer to die as late as possible.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve learned of so many good books through other readers. There is one who not only introduced me to the writing of William Kent Krueger but also to a book I am reading right now. It is And There Was Light, an interesting title for a memoir by a blind French resistance hero, Jacques Lusseyrand.

A Cargo of Eagles is the last of the Albert Campion books by Margery Allingham. I just began it. Whereas I loved the Brother Cadfael series and was sad to come to the last of the books, I honestly feel more relieved to finish Allingham. Convoluted plots, lots of people to keep track of, and an enigmatic sleuth make her books a challenge. Of the Queens of Crime, I rank Sayers, Christie, and Marsh ahead of her, in that order.

I’ve long wanted to read through my grandmother’s Bible. She was a woman of faith who had a profound influence in my life for the few years I knew her. I now have outlived her but I’m curious what her Bible will tell me about her. It is an old Scofield study Bible in the King James Version with tissue thin pages. I began reading it this week.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Jeremy Lundgren, The Pursuit of Safety

Tuesday: Phoebe Farag Mikhail, Hunger for Righteousness

Wednesday: Jill Lepore, The Story of America

Thursday: Archibald A. Alexander, The Log Coillege

Friday: Megan Henning, Nils Neumann, eds., Vivid Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion: Ekphrasis in Early Christian Literature

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for February 9-15, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

The Weekly Wrap: February 2-8

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Black History

I began reading David Greenberg’s John Lewis: A Life this week. It’s my main Black History month read. You might ask why a White guy is reading Black history. To answer that, I will talk about why I wrote on my local home town for ten years. First of all, it helped me understand so much about my background of which I was not aware growing up. I also became aware of how rich the culture of my home town was. And I discovered a number of people I greatly admired who helped build the city. Finally, I learned lessons from that history, such as the folly of a town building its economy around one industry.

It’s like that with Black history. Although I’m not Black, Black history is a fundamental part of my national history. My understanding of where we’ve come from is immeasurably poorer without that history. Likewise, it is such a rich history of spirituality, music art, food, accomplishments, resilience, and the effort to call us to our collective best. There are people (including Lewis) whose lives have inspired me. And, just as Germans aware of the Holocaust remember that history with a resolve to say “never again,” there are sad lessons to learn from Black history to which I want to say “never again.”

None of this is about White guilt or fostering racial divisions. Rather it is learning all I can to foster the “beloved community” Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. I’m not sure why some want to suppress this history. It seems to me that when you try to suppress or erase the history of someone, it is the first step toward suppressing or erasing them. That is how it would come across to me if someone wanted to erase my family history or the history of my home town.

So, I will keep reading about John Lewis and review the book. And I’ll recommend other books about Blacks, other people of color, women and other marginalized groups. It’s not about politics for me. It’s about being human. And it’s about believing the children’s song I learned in Sunday school: “Jesus loves the little children/All the children of the world/Red and yellow; black and white/Jesus loves the little children/All the children of the world.”

Five Articles Worth Reading

Speaking of Black History Month, JSTOR posted a cornucopia of articles on Black history under the heading, “Celebrating Black History Month.” It was like a crash course in Black history, much of it new to me.

Feel like you have too many choices? You are not alone. The New York Times posted a review this week of Sophia Rosenfeld’s The Age of Choice, asking “Does Having Options Really Make Us Free?“

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer died on January 17. Paul Morton remembers him in “‘This Will Be Fun.’ On the Life and Times of a Comics Master, Jules Feiffer.“

It’s hard to imagine how those of us who love books might come to fear them. “In Search of the Book That Would Save Her Life” reviews Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya, a memoir of how a mental health crisis precipitated a fear of books in a woman whose life was reading.

“Local bookstores, dealt another blow by L.A. fires, become ‘community touchstones’” Bookstores have often been used as examples of “third places.” It appears that this is especially true after the L.A. fires.

Quote of the Week

“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.“

Charles Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, made this observation. It seems so important in this time of fake news and the normalization of lying that we refuse to accept deception and keep telling the truth ourselves.

Miscellaneous Musings

When I finished Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Wall I discovered that Murakami has been trying to finish this story for a long time in his postscript to the novel. I have to admit that the story feels like one in search of a resolution. Still pondering whether Murakami landed it.

I’ve found Jill Lepore’s The Story of America a delight. The book is a collection of essays on historiography, following the chronology of American history. Her essay on Noah Webster was absolutely fascinating, and a tribute in a way to this pioneer in creating a dictionary of American English.

Went to my optometrist this week. All in all, the eyes are doing OK. I do have cataract surgery in my future, explaining why I need more light than ever. There is a tendency toward macular degeneration in my family and I’ve pondered what I would do if I could not, or read easily. I guess I’ve read enough that I can savor them in memory…and as long as the hearing holds up, there are audiobooks!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Acts

Tuesday: Agatha Christie, Towards Zero

Wednesday: M.D. Hayden, Opening the Parables

Thursday: Haruki Murakami, The city and Its Uncertain Walls

Friday: Rhyne R. Putnam, Conceived by the Holy Spirit

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for February 2-8, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

The Weekly Wrap: January 26-February 1

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Book Groups

Many of us who enjoy reading love to discuss what we are reading with others. I’ve been a part of one book group or another for nearly thirty years. And I have to say that the books I’ve discussed in groups have been the ones that have stayed with me.

I’m thinking of this because the book group of which I’m a part just finished our latest book. Now, the idea of getting together to talk about books seems inherently nerdy. Our group probably takes that to another level. We dig into theological texts, usually a chapter at a time, a week at a time, working through a book. Our latest was N.T. Wright’s The Challenge of Acts. And if that sounds nerdy, our next book is Judea under Greek and Roman Rule by David deSilva, which looks at critical background behind the Gospels and Acts.

What makes it work is we are reading what we want to read. And while our choices might seem strange, I think the principle is important, whether the group is into romantasy, historical or literary fiction, or non-fiction. We also talked about something else important. We look for books that don’t just inform us but give us something to discuss or even disagree with. They engage us, stretch our horizons, make us think and re-think.

I’d enjoy hearing from others who have been part of book groups that you thought were good. What made them work?

Five Articles Worth Reading

Her latest book, Onyx Storm, broke first week sales records, selling 2.7 million copies. In “Rebecca Yarros’s ‘Onyx Storm’ Is the Fastest-Selling Adult Novel in 20 Years,” Alexandra Alter explores her phenomenal emergence as the leading romantasy author.

There is a renewed fascination with analog–vinyl records, VHS and audio cassettes, film, hand-drawn game maps, letters–you name it. In “The Stranger Things Effect Comes for the Novel,” Mark Athitakis explores this phenomenon as it manifests in recent fiction.

Agnes Callard considers the shift she has seen in children’s literature to characters that are “weird” in some way in “Where the Wild Things Aren’t.” She explores why this is important to children and what this signifies.

Have you wondered why we refer to characters in a text as uppercase or lower text? Mental Floss answers this question in “The Surprisingly Literal Reason We Call Letters ‘Uppercase’ and ‘Lowercase’.”

Finally, I probably don’t have to do much to convince this crowd of what a good thing libraries are. But we may need to advocate for that in some communities that don’t see the value. James Folta summarizes a new study by the New York Public Library that confirms “It’s official: Research has found that libraries make everything better.“

Quote of the Week

“To read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another”

David Lodge, who was born January 28, 1935 was an English author, critic, and professor. This statement caught me up short, making me reflect on what may be one of the reasons for my undying love of reading. David Lodge died on January 1, 2025.

Miscellaneous Musings

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about the announcement by the publisher of Simon and Schuster that they will no longer require authors to solicit “blurbs” for their books. Sometimes the practice seems excessive, when I have to wade through page after page of these endorsements. But I also have to admit, that with an unfamiliar author, who endorses them tells me about their audience and serves as a clue as to whether I’ll like it. What do you think?

I’m about 200 pages into Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Walls and it feels a bit like walking through a labyrinth, with a surprise around each corner, and no clue what lies at the center. It plays on questions of what is real, what is substance and shadow. I’ll let you know what I thgink of it when I figure that out! But I’m enthralled.

I’ve loved the idea of Bookshop.org as an online platform that supports indie bookstores. To date, they have generated nearly $36 million for over 1900 stores. This week, they expanded their capacity by offering a way to purchase e-books and support your favorite local indie. you can read more about it here.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: The Month in Reviews: January 2025 (21 reviews)

Tuesday: Samuel Parkison, To Gaze Upon God

Wednesday: Stuart M. Kaminsky, Lieberman’s Choice

Thursday: Timothy P. Carney, Family Unfriendly

Friday: Amy Peeler, Hebrews

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for January 26-February 1, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: January 19-25

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

Both in central Ohio, where I live, and in many parts of the U.S. we’ve seen some of the coldest weather we’ve had in recent years. From some observations, I’m convinced that humans, and especially bibliophiles, have a hibernation instinct when it gets cold.

Last Saturday, ahead of the cold stretch, we stopped into our local Barnes & Noble while waiting for a take out order from the restaurant next door. The place was packed, with a long line at the cash register! I did not see any special promotion going on. Instead, I concluded that people were loading up on books to read when they were hunkered down in sub-zero cold.

It probably was a good idea. We had several days of school cancellations because of the cold. I go for daily walks, and usually generate my own heat. But that was barely the case this past week even with extra layers.

How inviting, then, to sit down in my favorite chair with a hot cup of coffee and just savor some good theology in the morning and lose myself in a mystery in the evening. While reading is an all-weather activity, I do think there is something especially comforting about a thick book, a warm comforter, and a hot drink beside my favorite chair on those cold days and colder nights! Although I can’t explain it, I can’t help but wonder if storing up that TBR pile beside our reading chair is the form that hibernation takes for booklovers!

Five Articles Worth Reading

Unfortunately, it’s not been cold everywhere. Los Angeles is burning, resulting in displacement and ruin for thousands, including some friends. One of the most referenced articles in discussions about the fires is one written in 1995 by Mike Davis, “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” reprinted in this 2018 Longreads post. He explores the clash between the native ecology and the decision to build in a firebelt.

Francesca Wade reviews Randall Fuller’s BRIGHT CIRCLE: Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism, in “You Know Emerson and Thoreau. Why Not Their Female Counterparts?” We’ve heard of the men. The book and review introduce us to the women in that circle.

At age 50, Leo Tolstoy struggled with the question, “What will come from my whole life?” He was strongly tempted to commit suicide. In a review of Open Socrates by Agnes Callard, Tim Clare explores how Socrates found a way through “:the Tolstoy problem.”

In “Laugh a Little: Why We All Should Be Telling More Jokes,” Allison Wood Brooks explains why we all could use more humor in our lives. The article is an excerpt from her book, Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves.

Finally, in an age of digital streaming, there is a resurgence of vinyl. I can attest to this. I participate in a Facebook group of over 20,000 enthusiasts of classical music on vinyl. In “A Phenomenology of Spotify and Vinyl,” Dolan Clay thinks Heidegger can help us understand what is going on.

Quote of the Week

Edith Wharton was born on January 23, 1862. I think there is a lot of wisdom in this observation:

“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I got my hat trick of championship ball caps for Ohio State (see below). There is a story for the good sports writer in this team’s season. Seniors chose not to go pro. A transfer quarterback bonded with the team. After a devastating loss to arch-rival Michigan that had people crying for the coach’s firing, the team pulled itself together to beat four top ten ranked teams. I love a good sports read. I hope someone writes it.

My Buckeye Champions ball caps from 2002, 2014, and 2024. “©Bob Trube, 2025.

Timothy P. Carney’s Family Unfriendly is a thought-provoking read. He explores why the birth-rates in the U.S. and other Western countries have tanked. He argues that we have created a “family unfriendly” culture. Carney looks at communities of large families and explores the relation of faith, being around other large families. And he considers allowing, not forcing women (or men) to choose stay at home parenting, and even how we configure our neighborhoods.

We all have blind spots. I’m reading a book on the theme of love in the parables, the subtext of which is a rather uncharitable polemic against Christian orthodoxy through most of history across the major branches of the church. I wonder if the author is aware of this contradiction. But I also wonder about my own blind spots–the places where I try to remove a speck from someone else’s eye, unaware of the log in my own.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Ed Uszynski, Untangling Critical Race Theory.

Tuesday: Jacques Maritain, An Essay on Christian Philosophy.

Wednesday: William Kent Krueger, Red Knife.

Thursday: Michael Licona, Jesus, Contradicted.

Friday: Ellis Peters, A Rare Benedictine.

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for January 19-25, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: January 12-18

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January 20, 2025

This Monday marks the inauguration of one of the most controversial presidents in U.S. history to a second term. Some of my friends are thrilled. And some are in dread. Personally, I’ve accepted that this is the president the majority of our voting populace chose. I sincerely hope we will be as pleased with our choice in two or four years. As a reader of presidential history, I find this rarely to be the case,

Monday is also the day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. One of his close associates was John Lewis, who was bludgeoned at Selma, and went on to serve in Congress. David Greenberg’s John Lewis: A Life sits on my “to read” pile and I look forward to reading it this winter. John Lewis lived as a man of faith-inspired hope and grit who never stopped getting into “good trouble.” And he never stopped striving toward the “liberty and justice for all” that expresses one of our loftiest ideals, often unrealized. But he never gave up and I think he is a model for our times.

Finally, Monday night is the College Football championship game. Living in the heart of Ohio State Buckeye country, you must know I bleed scarlet and gray. I have championship ballcaps from 2002 and 2014 and think it time for a “hat trick.” Actually, it will be a hat trick of hat tricks for whoever wins–the ninth championship for the victor. Only Alabama has more at fourteen. I hope for a good game. Marcus Freeman, the Notre Dame coach who has done amazing things with their program, is a Buckeye alumnus. All in all, it will be a packed Monday, especially if Ohio State lofts that championship trophy at the end of the evening.

Five Articles Worth Reading

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on Tik-Tok if it was not sold by its Chinese company to an American buyer. This has big ramifications for publishers and authors and social media influencers. “Publishers and Authors Wonder: Can Anything Replace BookTok?” explores these consequences and the alternatives to which this triad may pivot.

The Millions has become known for its book previews. Their “Most Anticipated: The Great Winter 2025 Preview” went up this week. They pick 90 books coming out over the next three months by both recognized and new authors that you may consider,

One of the books in that preview is Nobel Prize author Han Kang’s latest, We Do Not Part. which drops next Tuesday. In “Where Han Kang’s Nightmares Come From,” Judith Shulevitz explores the dark history behind her novels, and how other countries are implicated in that history.

Another book in The Millions preview is Zora Neale Hurston’s The Life of Herod the Great, which dropped this month. Ellen Wexler explores “Why Was Zora Neale Hurston So Obsessed With the Biblical Villain Herod the Great?” for The Smithsonian.

Finally. most of us associate Hannah Arendt with her trenchant thought and formidable prose. But did you know she was a poet, as well? “For the Love of the Word” introduces us to Hannah Arendt, the poet.

Quote of the Week

Robert W. Service was born on January 16, 1874. He made this statement which is an inspiration to this plodder:

“It’s the steady, quiet, plodding ones who win in the lifelong race.”

Miscellaneous Musings

It’s interesting how different readers react to the same book. I reviewed (and loved) Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake finding myself drawn into the story and its setting. Several other readers just couldn’t get into it, despite listening to Meryl Streep’s narration. I wonder if my reaction might have been different if I listened to it on audiobook. Or perhaps it’s just that no book will appeal to everyone. Probably a good reason not to read what others say you “should” read if you can’t get into it.

I also reviewed Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a book written about the relationship of two game developers. I was not sure I would get into it–not my world–but loved the mix of characters as well as the idea behind the title. A very different book from Tom Lake, and Zevin is a very different writer from Patchett. Isn’t that the delight of books?

Two books I’m reading make me wonder why some writers make their ideas more incomprehensible than needed while others can explain complicated things simply. I suspect audience and convention are two factors. But I admire those who arrive at “the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” I suspect part of the process is living with material long enough to reach that clarity. I wonder if, in our ‘hurry up” society, we lose that clarity and incisiveness.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Chad Brand & Tom Pratt, Seeking the City

Tuesday: Tom Steyer, Cheaper, Faster, Better

Wednesday, Margery Allingham, The mind Readers

Thursday: Jeffrey F. Keuss, ed., Defiant Hope, Active Love

Friday: Joonas Sildre, Between Two Sounds: Arvo Pärt’s journey to His Musical Language

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for January 12-18, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: January 5-11

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Ways of Reading

I’ve posted a couple articles recently (and one more here) about deep reading. One is a review with that title. The other is my 2025 Reading Challenge post, which includes challenges to encourage deep reading. But a comment on the review forced me to be honest. It concerned the quantitative challenges that are about pages and numbers of books read. And the reader asked if I was one of the “old-fashioned” who enjoyed readings and gave them the attention they deserved.

I had to be honest and answer “sometimes.” The truth is, I read a lot of books (237 last year according to Goodreads). It’s not a competition, but rather this retirement avocation of reviewing. I have a stack of books from publishers awaiting reading and reviewing. I generally post at least four reviews a week and typically have five books (plus a book club book) going at a time.

Part of how i do that is that i read different books differently. For example, I am reading a long, somewhat polemical tome which I read quickly to follow the argument (which to be honest didn’t need 900 pages!). Meanwhile, I am savoring a graphic biography of the composer Arvo Pärt, enjoying how the illustrations capture something of the essence of his composing philosophy. On the other hand, a Margery Allingham mystery is a pleasant evening diversion, although her labyrinthine plots do require attention. And an argument for how technology will help us “win’ the climate war is a straightforward matter of following a clearly stated argument. It’s a fast read.

What I don’t want to do is read a deep work of theology or philosophy as I would a murder mystery. Nor can I read poetry as I would a straightforward non-fiction essay or argument. This is what makes reading such a rich part of one’s life. Books offer us both meat and mind candy. We just don’t want to mistake one for the other nor only focus on an exclusive diet of either.

The commentor made one observation that I thought was so good that I will share it: “For me, reading is about enjoying a book and taking the time needed to honour the author and really get into it.” I totally agree!

Five Articles Worth Reading

Speaking of deep reading, I came across this article from William Deresiewicz from last May: “Deep Reading Will Save Your Soul.” He describes how students and faculty, frustrated with the state of reading in higher ed, are fashioning their own programs to deeply engage important works.

I thought this was an amazing rendering of two poems using a “Greek chorus” and instrumental accompaniment, appearing in Open Culture, titled “Laurie Anderson’s Mind-Blowing Performance of C. P. Cavafy’s Poems “Waiting for the Barbarians” & “Ithaca.” “Waiting for the Barbarians” is chilling.

Ought we read escapist lit? In “Trying and Failing to Figure Out “Escapism” in Books,” Molly Templeton says part of the question is what we mean by escapist and part is why we are reading. Sometimes, she suggests, we need a respite to give us perspective when reality is wearying.

There are a number of books on fathers and their maturing children. In “Two Different Ways of Understanding Fatherhood,” Lily Meyer reviews two recent books exploring the transition of men into fatherhood.

From fathers to children. Board books are, for many children, their first encounter with books. In “Jon Klassen on the Art of the Board Book,” the author-illustrator describes the experience of creating books for little ones who can’t read.

Quote of the Week

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

Astrophysicist and writer Stephen Hawking embodied his words. He was born January 8, 1942.

Miscellaneous Musings

I finished Tom Lake this week. I told you I sometimes found her endings disappointing. She nailed this one. Look for my review next week.

I’ve done enough editing work that the editor’s voice plays in my head when I read some books. I’m thinking of a book I’ve mentioned that could easily have shed half of its 900 pages. I suspect the editor found that too daunting, and having contracted for the book, published it more or less in its form. Another book by an author with a very fertile and big picture mind tried to incorporate everything he thought into his work, barely hanging onto his thesis. Less is more is a hard lesson for authors and preachers to learn.

I mentioned the Arvo Pärt graphic biography I am reading. My son bought it for Christmas, along with four CDs of choral works by Pärt. I’m listening to some of it as I write. Arresting music that reflects his faith and immerses me in his distinctive compositional style. The book helps me understand the life journey leading to the creation of such music. What thoughtfully paired gifts!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Rainie Howard, The Love Habit

Tuesday: Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Wednesday: Nadya Williams, Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic

Thursday: Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Friday: Neil J. Whitehouse, The Gospel of Jesus Green

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for January 5-11, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.