What happens when a spy has Alzheimer’s?

Books & Culture’s 15th Anniversary Issue.

A novel by the first woman to head MI5, the UK’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency.

A psychological thriller set in contemporary Japan.

Three children’s books in three different genres.

How to cultivate a “culture of resurrection.”

An imaginative biography of the medieval visionary.

A response to Brad A. Greenberg’s Wall Street Journal essay, “How Missionaries Lost Their Chariots of Fire.”

Silent revolutions and cranky saints.

The case for acknowledging that the world’s religions are in fact fundamentally incompatible in what they teach and what they strive for.

Previews from the July/August issue of Books & Culture.

A masterpiece of microhistory.

A previously unpublished novel by Donald Westlake from the 1960s turns out to be a gem.

In bold defiance of “the diminished condition of American print today.”

A wonderfully illustrated cautionary tale, plus two ABC books.

Edith Grossman, translator of Cervantes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, advocates for her art.

Inviting books from Luci Shaw and Suzanne Buffam suggest the enormous range of contemporary poetry, eluding all ex cathedra pronouncements about the state of the art.

Mark Oppenheimer’s memoir of growing up as argumentative smart-aleck who thrived when he discovered the world of competitive debate.

Time to recycle that ubiquitous explain-all.

Previews from the May/June 2010 issue.

A new film by Majid Majidi, director of The Color of Paradise, is now available on DVD: don’t miss it!

How and why they go together: essays by Eugene Peterson, Lauren Winner, Jeremy Begbie, and more.

Matt Labash profiles Dick Cheney, Marion Barry, Christopher Hitchens, and more, with miscellaneous tasty side dishes of wacky realism.

Doug LeBlanc on stewardship—plus new books on the worst car in history and on the reading lists of Gilded Age women.

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.

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

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.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson on David Poyer’s new novel.

What’s the logic behind this menu?

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.

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).

Mystery grandmaster P. D. James offers a personal account of the genre, drawing on her encyclopedic knowledge of the literature of crime, nonfiction as well as fiction.

“Best Spiritual Writing” plus the Battle of the Marne.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson on more good books to give and receive.

Sociologist Chris Smith and his team of researchers follow the cohort they studied in a previous book, now in the 18-23 age bracket, away at college or otherwise “emerging.”

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson on some good books to give.

An idiosyncratic memoir by mystery writer Lawrence Block, the recollections connected by the role of walking in his life (eventually he entered race-walking marathons.)

Michael Connelly continues the long-running series featuring LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, with much of the action in an unfamiliar setting.

First published in English translation in the 1960s but now available for the first time in the form the author intended, In the First Circle makes an excellent introduction to Solzhenitsyn.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson run through some of the season’s noteworthy titles.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson talk about the new novel from Alexander McCall Smith.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson discuss a book of photographs and mini-autobiographies.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson talk about the new book from baseball historian Peter Morris.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson talk about Scott Cairns’ new book.

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson talk about reading with your children.

What do a serial killer and the death of newspapers have in common? Books & Culture editor John Wilson muses about Michael Connelly's latest thriller, The Scarecrow.

Silent revolutions and cranky saints.