“What better way to quell our fears than to tame them into stories and draw our loved ones near by sharing them—say, around a fire, with a cup of mulled cider?”
A Commonweal Christmas tradition: Editors and friends of the magazine offer book recommendations that may just be the perfect gift for someone on your list.
“So, the reason I love her so much, Billie, is that she knows, she knows everything, she knows about love, and she knows about hate, and she sees everything.”
The editors read nonfiction about the escapist fantasies of the ultra-wealthy, novels about the Redwoods, and a memoir on Sikh teachings of service and love.
“When Sonny died, I hadn’t stepped foot in a church in twenty years. Not to get married, not while I was going through chemo, not when my husband left me.”
Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel hones in on a religious community fifty years in the past, one that successfully conveys the emotional tenor of social media today.
