Reviewed by Susan Olasky and World Journalism Institute students

Few of us like thinking about our own deaths—yet that’s what we must do if we are to live life properly. That’s the premise of David Gibson’s excellent book Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End (Crossway).

Education A La Carte 

Kevin Leman

HOUSTON—Before Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast on Aug. 25, a fleet of trucks from evangelical nonprofit Convoy of Hope (Springfield, Mo.) was on the road loaded with water, food, and hygiene kits. Two disaster teams from Samaritan’s Purse (Boone, N.C.) headed out on Aug. 26. Southern Baptists, with churches scattered throughout the affected area, quickly activated chainsaw teams that cleared roads and removed fallen trees.

The Hemingway Files

H.K. Bush

Giant Squid 

Candace Fleming

AUSTIN, Texas—When Amber Moon wanted a dog for a hiking partner, she strolled into the Austin Animal Center, a shelter with a bright, cavernous lobby and “suites” or “studios,” some as large as 50 feet square, for the animals.