Today is the 150th anniversary of the breakthrough attempt that ended Confederate hopes. Five thousand southern soldiers died in the short-lived Pickett’s Charge: That’s more Americans than died in the long-lived Iraq War. 

If news of this week’s Gettysburg re-creations gets your reading juices flowing, some recommendations:

The current issue of WORLD includes an interview with Os Guinness, noted speaker and author or editor of more than 30 books, including A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future (IVP, 2012). Here are some of his comments we didn’t have room for in the magazine.

Stephen Meyer, 54, is director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge, is a former professor at Whitworth College, and was WORLD’s Daniel of the Year for 2009. We selected him for that honor because we admire the guts of those willing to put up with attacks because they believe we have a Creator and are made in His image.

While executive surveillance overall has proliferated, the Obama administration since 2011 has made mosques off-limits to FBI agents. Surveillance and undercover sting operations at Islamic worship and teaching centers require high-level approval from the Justice Department’s “Sensitive Operations Review Committee.”

Since so many excellent books emerge each year, we try to select a Book of the Year that is not only terrific but timely as well. Timeliness can be immediate, medium-range, and long-term: 

Summer reading lists surround us, many of them commendable, like those you’ll find in this annual books issue of WORLD. Yet if the term “summer reading” conjures only escapism, a luxurious time to indulge in reading that soothes and affirms, these recommendations may not be for you. We’ve deliberately focused on good if a little challenging reads on topics not well covered in mainstream conversations, on the bestseller lists, or in the front-of-the-bookstore kiosks.

What’s the Great American Novel? Publishers Weekly asked that question of its bookish readers last March. The top three contenders (in ascending order) are about a teenage boy drifting down the Mississippi with an escaped slave, a self-made millionaire hitching his dreams to the woman he loved and lost, and a 9-year-old girl and her older brother confronting racism in a small Southern town. Can you guess the titles?