Webster County Library

Garry Wills maintains that the Roman Catholic priesthood has arrogated to itself powers unimagined by Jesus and his disciples.

André Brink imagines the life of a slave who was owned by one of his ancestors.

Paula Byrne’s biography uses everyday objects to explore influences on Austen’s work.

Stories about women dealing with shortages (of housing and more) by the Russian writer Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

Paperback books of particular interest.

Almost half a century after his death in 1967, the folk singer Woody Guthrie hits the extended hardcover fiction list with the novel “House of Earth,” new at No. 20.

Charles Joseph Scarborough, known to almost everyone as “Joe,” is a man of many parts.

In “Ike and Dick,” Jeffrey Frank writes about the strange relationship that would help shape America’s foreign and domestic agenda for much of the 20th century.

How an early plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln was foiled.

In “Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism,” John Burt highlights the difficulties Lincoln confronted in steering between philosophical principle and practical politics.

A reader responds to a recent review of Ros Barber’s “Marlowe Papers.”

A reader responds to a recent review of Charles R. Morris’s “Dawn of Innovation.”

A reader responds to a recent review of “Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science.”

A reader responds to a recent review of “The Pinecone.”

A reader responds to a recent review of “The Lady and Her Monsters.”

Readers respond to a recent review of Edward Ball’s book “The Inventor and the Tycoon.”

Amity Shlaes depicts Calvin Coolidge as a paragon of a president, less for what he did than for what he did not do.

The Knight Foundation says it should not have paid Jonah Lehrer $20,000 for a speech.

The author of “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” recently met Louise Erdrich, but all she could say was something like “Hey, Louise, are these pimentos in the dip?”