Julia Duin, religion editor for The Washington Times, has written a book intended to shake up the church and to sound an alarm — people are leaving churches.

Julia Duin, religion editor for The Washington Times, has written a book intended to shake up the church and to sound an alarm — people are leaving churches.

With Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni poised to become that nation’s next Prime Minister, historical parallels to the late Golda Meir are inevitable.  “Golda,” as she was known, served as Israel’s Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974.  She was expected to be a caretaker Prime Minister who would quickly be replaced with a more conventional leader.  Nevertheless, her indomitable will and grandmotherly manner made her Israel’s indispensable leader during critical days in the nation’s history and in the context of the Cold War.

The world order has been so thoroughly transformed over the last century that some of the most powerful nations on earth no longer even exist.  Most recently, we saw this happen with the break-up of the Soviet Union.   But a national demise that rivals that of the Soviet Union is the disappearance of Prussia in 1947.

David F. Wells is, hands down, one of the most insightful analysts of contemporary Christianity.  Well known as the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Wells is a theologian best known for four courageous and important books, No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue, and Above All Earthly Pow’rs.

There is more than enough psychobabble in this world, and not enough genuine insight.  I picked up Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner unsure if I would find anything worthwhile but intrigued by his previous writings.  A professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gardner is a leading theorist behind the notion of “multiple intelligences’ – the idea that intelligence is a diverse capacity, rather than a simple score on an IQ test.

There is more than enough psychobabble in this world, and not enough genuine insight.  I picked up Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner unsure if I would find anything worthwhile but intrigued by his previous writings.  A professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gardner is a leading theorist behind the notion of “multiple intelligences’ – the idea that intelligence is a diverse capacity, rather than a simple score on an IQ test.

My guess is that most Americans assume that the practice of the bar mitzvah is a centuries-old norm among the Jewish people. That assumption is wrong, but the real story of the bar mitzvah is truly interesting. In Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America, author Mark Oppenheimer traces the history of the bar mitzvah and what it represents (or does not represent) in terms of the Jewish experience.

Books on political affairs and current events come regularly and many pack a partisan punch. This is especially true in the intense political season of a presidential campaign. Publishers have been releasing title after title into the political torrent.

Books on political affairs and current events come regularly and many pack a partisan punch. This is especially true in the intense political season of a presidential campaign. Publishers have been releasing title after title into the political torrent.

Fergus M. Bordewich has written what is best described as a biography of Washington, D.C. In Washington: The Making of the American Capital (Amistad Books/HarperCollins), Bordewich traces the history of America’s Capital City, telling that story with a compelling narrative and fascinating (and surprising) details.