Monday, April 09, 2007

Recent Reviews

Good book review weeks seem to go in cycles, and apparently papers didn't want to run much of interest on Easter Sunday (or at least so it seemed to me in my perusal of the book sections). Here are the few that caught my eye this weekend:

- In the London Times, Bryan Appleyard has a lengthy essay on the forthcoming Tolkien book. He suggests that the release of The Children of Hurin is timed to return Tolkien to the printed page, to capitalize on the audience created by the films but at the same time to create a new generation of Tolkien readers rather than viewers.

- Michael Kammen reviews Hugh Brogan's Alexis de Tocqueville in the Boston Globe. Since this one's on my "to be read" pile I haven't looked at the review yet, but if you want a sneak preview, feel free.

- Edmund and Marie Morgan have a fascinating review commentary in the most recent New York Review of Books on six of the recent crop of books related to the anniversary of Jamestown. An elegant essay, which serves as a very good overview of Jamestown's place in American history and memory.

- In the TLS, A.E. Harvey reviews Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.