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The New York Times has a story about a Baptist church in Georgia adapting to a multicultural world. Having fallen from 600 to 100 members as the demographics of their town changed, the former Clarkston Baptist Church is now the Clarkston International Bible Church and is back up to 300 members.
Mr. Perrin said the impact [...]

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Although she refers to it as A personal Al Chet, Velveteen Rabbi’s prayer/poem contains much that is true for me as well. Here is just a taste:
Forgive me, Source of all being, for the sin I have sinned before you
By allowing my body to be an afterthought too often and too easily;
By not walking, running, [...]

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The New York Times reports Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.
The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any [...]

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For convenience, I decided to use a CapitalOne Mastercard for my monthly fee from Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life. This morning, I got an email from Linden Lab saying my charge had been rejected. When I called CapitalOne, they said the transaction had been sent to the fraud department since it was charged [...]

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At long last, Kage Baker’s Company novels are brought to resolution in The Sons of Heaven. Threads of story from throughout the series are picked up. I loved having not only Botanist Mendoza’s story finished, but also those of Preserver Joseph and Literature Preservationist Lewis.
Great as the pleasure of the book was, it was touched [...]

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While in Portland for the UUA’s General Assembly, I of course went shopping at Powell’s City of Books. I’ve been there once before, and what a treat it is. (They also do mail-order of new and used books.) Among the books I bought was a Dover reprint of Karl Mortensen’s 1912 A Handbook of Norse [...]

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Tobias S. Buckell’s debut novel, Crystal Rain, ties together elements of steampunk, hard sf, and fantasy (or religion), all with a distinctive Caribbean flavor.
Set in the far future on another planet, the humans of Crystal Rain have been reduced to non-electronic technology. Flight is possible by blimp, but uncommon. There are a few train lines [...]

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Via Arts & Letters Daily, I discovered a blog written by board members of the National Book Critics Circle. They have a guest post: Morris Dickstein on the Critical Landscape Today. I like some of the points he makes, and I too lament the falling-away of book reviews in major newspapers. I can’t help thinking [...]

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