Books

Jonathan Rieder surveys the events that gave rise to King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and offers a fresh perspective on the letter's substance.

On April 13, 2005, Richard Lischer's 33-year-old son, Adam, phoned his dad. The cancer had spread throughout Adam's body.

Charles Duhigg's book will remind readers of Malcolm Gladwell's best work. It represents the best "popular brain science" genre can offer.

Graham Greene "read theology constantly and always refers to God," says Pico Iyer. "But it's a God he doesn't always claim to know."

Justin Lee's book is more than charitable to his Southern Baptist origins. But his heart-wrenching stories speak for themselves.

It is easy to conclude that the Occupy movement was a flash in the pan, enacted by disgruntled people without a plan or staying power, a passing whim to be forgotten. This book insists otherwise.

My Lenten practice has almost involved some kind of endurance. As a child I usually gave up something like chocolate or sweets. My practice evolved into committing to walk to the grocery store or buy nothing but food or, one year, give up plastic. But regardless of what I took on or gave up, I have always intended for this to last through all of Lent. The practice ends—or finds a new form—at Holy Week, and the endurance test ends with it. This year, Lent has an entirely different rhythm for me—because of a book by writer and Benedictine oblate Paula Huston.

Lillian Daniel's book is a feast of words—funny, ribald, tiptoeing to the edge of sarcasm, yet full of love and unflinching hope.

Much of the Bible is not fit for children—it's a book to ease little ones into, not drop them in cold. So what's the best way to go about this?

In a guinea pig memoir, the intrepid narrator tries on a practice for a period of time, often a year, in the hope that the project will lead to personal or prophetic insight, renewed hope for the future—and a book deal.