If Philip Irvin wins a Diversity Award from the city of Seattle's personnel department next month, it won't be the strangest turn of events in his seven-year battle with the diversity-policing Office for Civil Rights.

A bestselling biography of Thomas Jefferson has taken on the serious and scholarly job of assessing the third president's character. But at times American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson seems less about Thomas Jefferson than William Jefferson Clinton.

America is in crisis again and the Clinton administration stands ready to help.

Max Lucado's book The Great House of God will likely end the year as the top-selling Christian book of 1997 (though the Christian Booksellers Association won't release final figures until early 1998). And it's fine as a devotional book, with solid theology and sound conclusions. But it neither attempts nor achieves anything outstanding.