A few odds and ends which I'd just as soon stick in one post....

Zinger

Here at work we've been immersed in the bookselling fall-out of the new papal order. I'm partial, for some reason, to this cover, though the text is sadly out of print.

If, like me, you're a non-Catholic with a keen sense of the absurdity of an infidel caring all that much about who gets to ride in the Popemobile -- and who yet can't help but acknowledge the global effect the institution grants to one guy, you may be interested in Jack Miles's take on Ratzinger at Slate or -- more direly -- Michael Novak's cheering on of a hoped-for culture war "to preserve free societies from their own internal dangers" (N.B.: This article appeared on the Op-Ed pages of today's Times, but the American Enterprise Institute site doesn't require registration, and after all, gives you lots of linkage to Novak's other articles, should you want them).

Finally, I found this Washington Post headline wonderful.

Belles Lettres

Meanwhile, I've been trying to read some new fiction and I've been desperate to come up with some other strong recommendations for this page. But no luck. One sequel to a book I liked, one multiple literary-award-winner, and one book that has become a critical flashpoint. The sequel a severe disappointment (and making me question what I enjoyed in Part One), the award-winner feeling more like a chore than I expected, and the last one so obscured by the hooraw around it that I can't tell if my feelings about the book as I read-- a profound neutrality -- isn't just a manifestation of my inability to experience the book for its own sake.

Which says lots about how maybe all of this metatextual crap just gets in the way of the books (so why do I like reading Beatrix so much?). Anyway, I will try to have some enthusiastic recommendations up again soon.

Overdue Appreciations

My pal Sheri Holman, incidentally, is the hardest-working writer in the literary biz. Her novels are so well-researched that somebody ought to have given her a couple of history degrees, at least. They are also terrific, real triumphs of storytelling and fully realized characters. Her most recent, The Mammoth Cheese, was a departure for her as it's set in the the present day, rather than in the past, but it's anchored in as much deeply-thought-about history as her previous work has been.

It's finally getting some well-deserved recognition.

They Evict Horses, Don't They?

On this past Sunday evening, in the gloriously warm dusk, we followed a string of horses out of Prospect Park and through a set of intersections which looked like unlikely routes for equestrian exercise. But that's because the stables from which the riders in the Park come are located in a tucked-away little corner of Kensington that looks more like a place you'd find auto parts places for your Mustang than a place to saddle a pony. Helena got to go inside and visit with the animals she's now increasingly fascinated with when we go for a stroll or a jog in the park.

Today's paper had bad news for our future pony-petting prospects...