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Adrienne G. Cannon writes: I can look at my monthly calendar and plan trips that accommodate only my schedule. I don’t have to worry about matching up my dates with any one else's. And there is no reason not to make travel plans one month after another. My friends will say, "You travel a lot!" And I can smile with pleasure and not feel guilty because somebody is waiting for me at home. Yet this scenario is poignant as I return to my empty apartment. more »

The 90-minute television presentation tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict Papacy — and illuminates the extraordinary challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers. more »

According to Stanford Professor Joshua Landy, literature plays on our emotions instead of giving us rational reasons to adopt new beliefs, so we can easily be manipulated by it. Getting people to change their beliefs based on emotions is not an unambiguously positive thing: "When I do it, it's called persuasion. When you do it, it's called rhetoric. When they do it, it's called propaganda."  Does reading literature make you more moral? Scholars speaking at a Center for Ethics in Society event say the answer depends on who's reading. By Justin Tackett… more »

Jill Norgren reviews: Miss Anne in Harlem expands our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance. It is a story about female independence, race, and most of all unconventional lives — lives, Carla Kaplan writes, that are by definition the most difficult ones to live — and to judge. The book commands attention because it joins other memoir, biography, and political works that give us insight into the personalities and power. more »