This week, we feature an inspiring search for home in a post-modern world and an eye-opening glimpse into the microscopic world.
Nonfiction
‘Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World’
By Anthony Esolen
Nostalgia is the Ancient Greek word for a longing for home. Using stories, anecdotes, and works of Western literature, from “The Odyssey” to Daniel Beard’s books for boys, philosopher Anthony Esolen critiques our post-modern spiritual and cultural homelessness and our loss of religious faith. He then offers ways to heed our interior yearning to find both an earthly and a heavenly home, and to reclaim our humanity by becoming once again pilgrims seeking sanity, virtue, and true happiness.
Regnery Gateway, 2018, 256 pages
Science
‘Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe’
By Harry Cliff
Isaac Asimov once wrote “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny.’” Inconsistencies lead to investigations that uncover new knowledge. This book is filled with 200 years of “That’s funny…” moments. It shows how weird inconsistencies led to great discoveries. Exploring the research process, it shows why not believing the science is settled and believing it cannot be settled are traps for the unwary.
Doubleday, 2024, 288 pages
Fiction
By T.M. Doran
Castro Hume, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the hit “Stars So Bright” is a has-been. To restart his career, he returns to the screenplay’s set in Northern Michigan, now a theme park. He finds it virtually abandoned yet secretly occupied by Red Cards, individuals deemed a burden to the state, denied government aid. Set in an alternate, darker near-future United States, this thought-provoking novel explores what happens when doing the right thing conflicts with obeying the law.
Ignatius Press, 2024, 258 pages
Foreign Policy
‘A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy From the Revolution to the Rise of China’
By Dale C. Copeland
Differing ideologies, military buildups, religious intolerance, territorial expansion. There are several primary reasons why conflicts between nations and powers erupt. Mr. Copeland wishes for the reader to consider how trade and commerce play a role in deciding these fateful decisions, and how these considerations have guided America’s foreign policy decisions from the American Revolution to the Cold War. Mr. Copeland ends by considering the current standoff with China, offering several theoretical outcomes.
Princeton University Press, 2024, 504 pages
Classics
‘Agatha Christie Books Collection’
By Agatha Christie
Here is Agatha Christie’s first novel, her 1920 “The Mysterious Affair at Styles.” Acting on a dare from her sister, Christie wrote this book and, in the process, created one of the most renowned fictional detectives of literature, Hercule Poirot. This collection also contains the second and third Poirot mysteries, “The Murder on the Links” and “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” Read a few of Christie’s many whodunits, and we soon understand why she remains the best-selling novelist of all time.
Independently Published, 2022, 467 pages
For Kids
By Jason Chin
A well-illustrated, fascinating exploration into the minute and microscopic aspects of life, “The Universe in You” offers readers a mind-opening perspective on life and the world, showing the amazing similarities between the vast universe and the tiniest particles within our bodies. A great read for curious kids, adults will be fascinated, too.
Neal Porter Books, 2022, 40 pages
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