best book recommendation ever

Did you hear about this? A book that kept a woman from getting run over?

An SUV crashed into her yard, The Salem News (Beverly, MA) reported a week or so ago. But Judy had gone indoors.

"Because I'm old, I came in to take a break from raking and sat down with a book," Judy Powers said. (Summer Light by Luanne Rice.) Minutes later, "I heard the brakes squealing for what seemed like forever."

Powers told a reporter after the accident that "she hadn't been able to reach her insurance agent and didn't know how extensive the damage was. She did, however, recommend the book . . ."

the night sky

there was a wonderful piece in The New York Times last week by David Brooks.

He talks about how a short essay (on the way people in the Middle Ages viewed the night sky) has been sitting on his desk beckoning to him, from the gloom of presidential campaign-attack-ad-tracking-poll-renouncing-mania, like a "refreshing dip in a cool and cleansing pool".

The essay, C S Lewis and the Star of Bethlehem by Michael Ward (Chaplain of Peterhouse College, Cambridge), appeared in Books & Culture.

And Dr Michael Ward himself will be appearing in NYC on May 27th at Socrates In The City to speak about his book Planet Narnia.


To register for the event, click here.