Winds of Change

December 18: “Religion, not nationalism or Arabism, is now the dominant force. God has returned to the Middle East.”  

Blinding: Volume 1

This ambitious bildungsroman by Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu focuses on a teenager and the magical-realist milieu through which he strives to grow into an untarnished adulthood.

Culinary Charmers of 2013

Critic and ardent home cook Heller McAlpin recommends new cookbooks whose winning voices and visual delights are just as beguiling as the dishes they highlight.  

Saved by Scrooge

December 17: ‘I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour…”