Book Reviews

Hands touching, background of sunset (Unsplash/Alonso Reyes)

Three books about peacemaking offer solidarity, solace and hope

Nov 28, 2020

Review: The Linn family's encounter with active nonviolence, poems by Lawrence Joseph about struggling with God and self, and a collection of stories from those who seek peaceful solutions to violence make up this fall's books roundup.

Protesters gather at a June 4 demonstration in downtown Detroit following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis May 25. (CNS/Detroit Catholic/Valaurian Waller)

Memoir recognizes need for more than talk about racial reconciliation

by Diana L. Hayes

Nov 21, 2020

Book review: In Becoming Brave, Brenda Salter McNeil traces the journey of realization that came to her after 30 years of teaching and working in the field of racial justice.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., returns to her office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Feb. 5, the day of U.S. President Donald Trump's acquittal in the U.S. Senate. (CNS/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

'Pelosi' biography chronicles wins and losses, not her inner workings

by Dana Greene

Nov 14, 2020

Book review: NCR readers who might be eager to know how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's faith — Pelosi is a committed Catholic — and actions intersect, will be disappointed, but Molly Ball's Pelosi confirms the speaker's contribution to American history.

Pfc. Raymond Rumpa of St. Paul, Minnesota, in Mỹ Tho, Vietnam, a Viet Cong base camp burning April 5, 1968 (National Archives/U.S. Army/Dennis Kurpius)

Book chronicles reckless courage of Catholic resistance to Vietnam War

by Marie Dennis

Nov 7, 2020

Review: Activist Ted Glick rightly recognized that most people today know very little about what the Catholic left did during the Vietnam War. We can learn from evaluating different nonviolent strategies in our current context.

Sections ›

Three books about peacemaking offer solidarity, solace and hope

Memoir recognizes need for more than talk about racial reconciliation

'Pelosi' biography chronicles wins and losses, not her inner workings

Book chronicles reckless courage of Catholic resistance to Vietnam War

Q&A with the Rev. William Barber, building 'fusion coalition' that unites people against poverty

Author urges progressive Christians to organize, fight — not dialogue

Sarah Posner's 'Unholy' implicates Catholics as well as evangelicals

New book examines clergy sexual abuse — in the wide lens of history

Scripture scholar John Wijngaards lays out the reasons to ordain women

Up-close account of Pell's historic trial raises an uncomfortable question

'Were we really children?' Soviet memories of WWII's searing horrors

In Marilynne Robinson's fourth Gilead novel, grace gets the last word

Finally, a refreshing new book on millennials and religion

Book takes liberties but is clear Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio was in love with Islam

Author hopes to trace 'an evolution of Catholic storytelling'

What happens when you live life 'horizontally, not vertically'

Daniel Vaca's history details evangelicalism's rise through the power of its book presses

'The Risk of the Cross' reckons with our nuclear danger

In new book, 30 evangelicals argue against Trump

Dynamic history of US church threads this book on sainthood

New book on truth is excellent resource during coronavirus pandemic

Book interweaves eucharistic practice with social, economic and ecological realities

New book urges white Christians to assess their 'abuses of faith'

'The Ethics of Encounter' makes Catholic social teaching more accessible

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