The day after Thanksgiving, my father and I were running errands in Asheville—my hometown and favorite place, where, sadly, the good Lord ...

What "everyone knows" about science and religion turns out to be less than everyone thought. Ronald Numbers' plan in this expertly edited volume ...

Chet, the four-footed narrator of this light-hearted mystery, is irresistible. Once you’ve read his story, you may find yourself stopping dog-walking strangers just to tell them about this book.

There are those, writes Charles Fountain, "who see baseball as succor to the soul, a spirit that binds eras and generations." To say the least.

In early 20th-century Puerto Rico, "baseball was what fisherman ...

The simple title makes a powerful statement all by itself: "Mrs. Dred Scott." What eminent legal scholar Lea VanderVelde does in her exhaustively ...

After the late September release of I and Love and You, The Avett Brothers performed on Late Night With David Letterman, Late Late Show with ...

Herewith a white photographer's journey into the churches of African Americans in the South Carolina low-country. The project was born when ...

Patricia Ward's meticulously researched history uncovers a surprisingly extensive vein of Protestant (usually, evangelical Protestant) engagement ...

Eric Miller’s “Republic of Baseball” and other previews from the new issue.

Dear Lord, as I began to write this, I couldn't help but overhear the women at a table close to mine in this Alaskan café. "They raped ...

If Christianity is moving North to South, as we often hear these days, then what about the East? By emphasizing this "North to South" typology ...

Historian Randall Balmer has spent decades studying the movement in which he was raised. His new book, discussed by Stan Guthrie and John Wilson, offers a sharply argued critical overview.

Sara Miles recounted her “radical conversion” in her previous book, Take This Bread. She continues the story in this new book—part memoir, part manifesto for “Feeding / Healing / Raising the Dead.”

You’ll find a lot of interesting stuff in the best magazine writing of 2009 as chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Just don’t look for writing grounded in faith.

Susan Wise Bauer is writing the history of the world. Not the history of salt, or the history of the year 1492, or the history of the color blue. No, the whole shebang.

Forthcoming books to pay attention to: The Apostle Paul, seen in the light of Greco-Roman culture; a new collection of essays from John McPhee; and the backstory of World War I.

1. Precious

A blunt and brutal matter-of-fact film about an obese Harlem teenager who's suffered years of grotesque abuse, sexual from her father and emotional from her jealous mother. What hope it has ...

1. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)

About a family trying to decide what to do with their deceased mothers's crammed provincial manor, Assayas' engrossing film questions the role of art and memory in an ...

Looking back on the year in books and highlighting some of the most interesting, including a superb account of the Baader Meinhof Group (catch the movie on DVD).

Last year at this time, the news was dominated by lost jobs and lost savings. This year? It depends. A headline from today's Wall Street Journal (Dec. 11) caught my eye: "Thousands Flee Iran as Noose ...