Books On My Mind

Do you remember those illustrations (which used to be very common) that showed, say, a deliberately jokey “map” of what was in someone’s brain or “on their mind”? That motif doesn’t seem to be as popular as it was, but maybe readers will inform me that I am simply not looking in the right places. In any case, a rendering of what’s inside my head would have to include a lot of books, to such an extent, perhaps, that other worthy subjects, preoccupations, responsibilities, “news,” and so on would get short shrift. Books just published or about to be published are thrusting themselves on my attention, followed by books coming a bit later, not to mention books that were published some time ago but have only now come to my attention.

There is, for instance, J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism, by Crawford Gribben (Oxford University Press). Even if this book weren’t by a scholar I admire, even if it hadn’t been warmly endorsed by Mark Noll, I would want to read it. A year or two ago, I read two big books on Dispensationalism and spent some time working on a piece inspired by them. In this semi-review, I included recollections of my grandmother, who along with our mother raised my younger brother and me and who was a Dispensationalist, although of a variety not well represented in those two books. Alas, I set that aside. Will I take it up again now, with Gribben added to the mix? We’ll see.

Also just published (yesterday I received the copy I’d ordered in advance) is We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine, by Alissa Wilkinson (Liveright). Alissa is a writer I greatly admire, whom I’ve known since her first pieces were appearing. Alas, we have been out of touch for quite a while, but I have been looking forward to this book since I first heard about the project some time ago. So much rubbish has been written about Didion. I can’t wait to read what I am sure will be a welcome corrective.

Later this month, I should be receiving Luke Sherlock’s Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures (Frances Lincoln), in which more than seventy churches are featured, with illustrations by Ioana Pioaru. It will be a delight to pore over this book—though no doubt it will also be sad. And in May, I will be reading (among other things) Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home (Bodleian Library), by Beaty Rubens (it’s the British home in this instance). If anyone is looking for an omnibus review of several radio-related books, let me know!

This is merely a small selection from a ridiculous number of titles due sometime this year that are on my radar. Only today did I learn that, in addition to a novel coming in May that will introduce a new protagonist, Michael Connelly has a new Lincoln Lawyer novel, The Proving Ground, coming in October, one that will also feature the occasionally recurring character Jack McEvoy. Connelly is an inspiring figure, not least to us oldsters.

I could happily go on and on in this vein. Quite soon, a book I’ve been looking forward to for ages should be out: Silent Catastrophes, a collection of essays by W. G. Sebald. In June, Oxford World’s Classics will publish In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom, the second volume in Charlotte Mandell’s new translation of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. (Thought for a column: Write about my first reading of Proust. I was too young—fourteen, I think—to understand a lot of it, but still I fell under his spell.)

I don’t want to weary you; too many titles and the effect will be soporific, if the litany doesn’t provoke actual irritation. I wouldn’t mind hearing what books you are particularly looking forward to.