Books
Elegies without consolation
An anthology of poetry mourning the demise of the Church of England
A rabbi’s memoir of making a family
Anyone with a complicated life and family—all of us—will find a home in Susan Silverman’s story.
Thinking with trans
Rogers Brubaker considers transracial and transgender identities together.
Our voices, ourselves
The voice contains the power of breath, part divine and part human.
A do-gooder’s tale
D. L. Mayfield wanted to help Somali refugees. She ended up mostly baking them cupcakes.
A didactic, irresistible novel
Leonard Pitts's story is so compelling that you barely notice how much you're learning.
At home in exile
In a time of American inhospitality, Jan Holton offers a compelling vision.
The joy of things and the trap of excess
An ethicist and an anthropologist ask: How much is too much?
Bioethics and the good-enough death
Dying poses hard questions about autonomy.
The ones that got away
As CC books editor, I get to peruse a lot of books. Too bad I can’t review them all.
Stories from a glacier-shaped landscape
If you’re new to Rick Bass’s edgy, glorious, and often brutal settings, this collection is a perfect place to start.
Why existentialism still matters
Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus have something to say about living authentically.
Possibilities, not prescriptions
Writing may not cure cancer, but it helps with the side effects.
The pains of being present
Jonathan Safran Foer asks what it really means to say, Here I am.
Can war be beautiful?
Fiction and photographs offer nuanced depictions of conflict.
What (some) Trump supporters were thinking—and feeling
A Berkeley academic empathizes with antigovernment Louisianans.
While we wait
It's Advent. What are we waiting for?
Poverty's lifelong damage
Decades worth of data have proven that poverty shortens lives. Will anyone respond?
Saint or devil incarnate?
Empress Theodora is mainly known through the writings of a man who hated her. But there's more to her story.
Agrarian agape
Norman Wirzba views theology and ecology through 1 John 4:8, "Whoever does not love does not know God."