Sunday Book Review, May 11, 2008

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COVER REVIEW: In "Exiles," Ron Hansen meditates on commitment, faith and art in the lives of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (above) and the nuns lost in a tragic shipwreck. Reviewed by Minna Proctor

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

God's cold, dark waters

Exiles: A Novel by Ron Hansen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 228 pp., $23)

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'American Eve' by Paula Uruburu

American Eve

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'We Are Now Beginning Our Descent' by James Meek

We Are Now Beginning

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'The James Brown Reader,' edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds

The James Brown Reader

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'Moyers on Democracy' by Bill Moyers

Moyers on Democracy

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'City of Thieves' by David Benioff

City of Thieves

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'Group Theory in the Bedroom' by Brian Hayes

Group Theory in the Bedroom

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'The Story of a Marriage' by Andrew Sean Greer

The Story of a Marriage

BOOK REVIEW

'The Last Day' by Nicholas Shrady

May 11, 2008

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God' by Amos Nur with Dawn Burgess

WHAT IF Troy was destroyed by an earthquake? What really brought down the walls of Jericho or the Colossus of Rhodes? These are some of the questions Stanford University geophysicist Amos Nur raises in "Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God" (Princeton University Press: 324 pp., $26.95), a book that posits seismicity -- rather than invaders or social forces -- as the prime dynamic behind the fall of ancient civilizations.

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'A Proper Knowledge' by Michelle Latiolais

A Proper Knowledge

May 11, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican' by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner

MICHELANGELO studied the Kabbalah and Talmud? It's all right there, above our heads, as Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner demonstrate in their fascinating study of the Sistine Chapel, "The Sistine Secrets" (HarperOne: 336 pp., $26.95). I understand the desire to reach Dan Brown's audience with the book's provocative subtitle -- "Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican" -- but this book is hardly a "Da Vinci Code" knockoff. The authors, both experts on Judaica, scoured Michelangelo's work and found many oddities, raising such questions as: Why does the serpent in Eden have arms? Why, in that scene, is the Tree of Knowledge a fig tree instead of an apple tree? And, hey, why does the shape of "The Last Judgment" resemble the tablets of the Ten Commandments?

May 11, 2008