'The Testament of Mary' tells an intriguing though not always convincing story. It's main character—and to an extent its only character—is an old woman fretting about her past as she tries to get the facts straight.

Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson is a profound analysis of Lord Acton’s 1887 maxim: power corrupts.

Julian Barnes's new novel is a philosophical mystery that morphs into a morality tale.

On E. B. White and Henry David Thoreau.

William Carlos Williams rejected the poetic conventions of the time in favor of a distinctly American verse.

A provocative new approach to the Spiritual Exercises