2019 Books of the Year
Great books tell stories. Here’s our pick of vivid and insightful new releases for better understanding America, world events, history, science, and theology
Words on paper
Three reasons for pessimism, and three more for optimism, about the future of printed books
Unequally yoked
Can Christian publishers owned by secular companies maintain their Christian distinctives?
Topical paradise
The best books on subjects ranging from the Earth’s beginning to internet innovation
Seven more fat years
160 reading recommendations, 2007–2014
Books of the Year
Excellence in popular theology, history, and analysis
Voices
Janie B. Cheaney
Empty frigates
Has this ever happened to you? You’re in the airport terminal waiting to board a flight, or perhaps you’ve just taken a seat on a city bus. Across from you sits a woman reading a book. You tilt yo...
Joel Belz
Your children's children
I wouldn’t exactly call it a panic attack—but I have to admit that it goes way beyond a merely casual concern. I’m worried, you see, about my grandkids. Implicitly, I’m worried about ...
Mindy Belz
Deadly business
These days when a book is the click of a mouse away, it’s important to remember what suffering and hardship guided many great books to safe harbor in our hands. Fifty years ago Boris Paster...
The Editors
Mailbag
‘The edge of extinction’ May 17 Your cover story on the persecution of Christians in Iraq was excellent. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, over 70 million Christians have...
Marvin Olasky
Completely personal
This issue’s cover date is June 28, a date that should live in infamy. On June 28, 1914, an assassin killed Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Balkan city of Sarajevo. That incident touched ...
Andrée Seu Peterson
Chasing dreams
Now that we’re heading toward the All-Star game, here’s a quick quiz: Who wrote the unofficial anthem of America’s favorite pastime, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”? (A) A 1920s Brooklyn Dodgers fan...
Notebook
Science
Code blue
The newest emergency in the emergency room may not be a health ailment. It may be the number of patients. In May the American College of Emergency Physicians published a poll indicating nearly hal...
Lifestyle
Midwest models
Small government works best in partnership with big hearts in the private sector. That’s important practically when helping those in need, and it also has a political dimension: Conservative drive...
Houses of God
St. Giles' Cathedral
The ceiling of Thistle Chapel in St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. The cathedral is a leading place of worship in the Church of Scotland. ...
Sports
Run for the children
Somewhere along the northeast Appalachian Trail, Drew Burnett and Power Ranger Megaforce are trying to hike nearly 2,200 miles in 46 days. Burnett, 33, is an ultra-runner and former c...
Money
Bailout fever
During the recent financial crisis, former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was dubbed “the bailout king” by a prominent New York Times columnist. Now he has released a new book, Stress Test, t...
Technology
Autonomous autos
Google revved up its secret plans for the world’s future last month when it unveiled a self-driving car prototype with no steering wheel or brake pedal. The electric vehicle has two seats, a “star...
Culture
Notable Books
Notable Books
Some economics professors use The Simpsons to explain basic microeconomic principles to their classes. In this volume they contribute essays about money, market failure, externalities, and other c...
Movies & TV
Finding virtue
Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a coward. Not a sniveling, whining sort of a coward, but a charismatic officer in the U.S. Army who does public relations work to stay out of combat and will do ...
Movies & TV
Ida
From Schindler’s List to Life Is Beautiful, a wide range of movies have examined aspects of the Holocaust, but few films explore the ripple effect of one of history’s darkest moments. That’s the v...
Movies & TV
Words and Pictures
For a movie mainly about inspiration, Words and Pictures is spectacularly lacking in it. This movie is an hour and 44 minute–long rant (that feels longer) masquerading as a romantic comedy ...
Movies & TV
Box Office Top 10
Cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com S ...
Q&A
A team effort
David Jeremiah, author and senior pastor of a San Diego–area evangelical megachurch, has mastered the use of audio and video to expand his audience. He forthrightly explained to Patrick Henry College...
DVD
Still Mine
During an early scene in Still Mine, a thoughtfully true story of lifelong love recently released on DVD, 87-year-old farmer Craig Morrison (James Cromwell) learns that he won’t be able to sell hi...
Music
The old ballgame
The Baseball Project is a uniquely American alternative-rock supergroup made up of the Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey, Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn, plus Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3’s Lin...
Books
A century ago
Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (Harper, 2012) engrossingly shows how myths that glorified terrorism a century ago led to millions of deaths and struck a blow ...
Notable CDs
Notable CDs
Give Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney credit for trying to maintain their precarious place atop the rock ’n’ roll heap. Not only have they retained Danger Mouse, the producer who helmed 2011’s El C...
Dispatches
News
Unwelcome fame
Seattle Pacific University student Jon Meis likes to be prepared. That’s why he always carries a can of pepper spray. Meis was ready on June 5 when Aaron Ybarra, 26, allegedly opened fire at SPU, ...
News
Feeling respected
Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop will no longer sell wedding cakes. That’s because owner Jack Phillips discriminated against two gay men, according to the state’s Civil Rights Commission, when he r...
Human Race
Human Race
Suing Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, 52, sued the NFL over concussions he suffered as a player. Marino joined 14 other former players in filing the suit in late May, claiming the leag...
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
June 23 New York Knicks star forward Carmelo Anthony has until today to notify the Knicks that he plans to pick up a contract option and play the 2014–15 season in New York. Otherwis...
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
Flying high On May 28, weather radars picked up what meteorologists initially believed to be flash storms brewing just west of Albuquerque, N.M. At first, technicians believed their equipme...
Quotables
Quotables
‘We came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt.’ Hillary Clinton speaking in defense of her and her husband’s six-figure speaking fees. A Republican National Comm...
News
Dispatches
JUNE 10: Insurgents overran the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the country’s second largest city, underlining the tenuous control the Iraqi government holds in the country. The militants, from the ...