Books
An American teenager in Slovakia
How a year overseas unraveled and remade Sarah Hinlicky Wilson’s identity
15 London children died in a World War II attack
Francis Spufford’s novel imagines the lives they might otherwise have led.
The complicated Lindbergh
It’s hard to strike the right balance in a biography of the heroic aviator and antisemitic activist. Christopher Gehrz succeeds brilliantly.
The White Iowans and Latino and African migrants of the meatpacking industry
Kristy Nabhan-Warren’s ethnographic study complicates familiar views of the Corn Belt.
What preachers have said in times of national crisis
Melissa Matthes well understands both the political and the religious power of mourning.
Some trees are like mothers
Scientist Susanne Simard on how trees communicate and nurture each other
Jonathan Franzen writes a family that feels familiar
In Crossroads, a troubled associate pastor faces his deepest desires and doubts.
Our social contract needs to be renewed
Economist Minouche Shafik puts public policy at the heart of her vision.
What would it take for #CurriculumSoWhite to stop trending?
According to Bree Picower, it starts with the teachers—80 percent of whom are White.
A truth-telling child of Southern Methodism
Journalist John Archibald turns the spotlight on himself, his preacher father, and White Christians’ failures.
Sister Agatha roller-skates away from the church
The heroine of Claire Luchette’s novel realizes she became a nun to avoid being herself.
The stickers and boomers of Idaho’s Treasure Valley
Grace Olmstead has written a reverent ode to those who stick around.
The voice of God in Malamud, O’Connor, Updike, and Morrison
Peter C. Brown’s project is urgent and personal.
Diana Butler Bass’s love letter to Jesus
Freeing Jesus is not the kind of book we expect from someone with a PhD.
The beautiful faith of Rachel Held Evans
Like all of her work, her posthumous book is warm, wise, and intimate.
Monique W. Morris’s advocacy for Black girls and educational equity
The world sees Black girls as dangerous. Morris shows them that they are scholars.
Elegies for Jacki
Poet Peter Cooley logs the year following his wife’s death with courage and brutal honesty.
Hartmut Rosa says we’re running faster just to stay in place
The German sociologist’s theory of “resonance” offers an alternative: deceleration.
Rubem Alves builds altars of word and song
The bold visions of the grandfather of liberation theology
Understanding the biblical Herods
Bruce Chilton moves Herod the Great and Herod Antipas from backdrop to center stage.