I have been busy writing my Beliefs column for the Times. Lately, I have written about Christian mega-donor Alonzo McDonald, Catholic lesbian blogger Eve Tushnet, and others. I have also been busy reading memoirs and fiction; I have enjoyed Jennifer Vanderbes’s new novel as well as Martin Amis’s memoir, Experience. But mostly I have been talking about Wisenheimer, and that has occasioned appearances on NPR, Morning Joe, etc. If you have read it, drop me a line...

My latest NYT “Beliefs” column, about how Ken Starr became a Sunday school teacher (more or less), can be found here. And I reviewed Lisa Miller’s Heaven here.

I have recently taped NPR’s Here and Now, although I don’t yet know when it will air. My wife loves Here and Now, and I hope host Robin Young felt complimented when I told her that the only thing that would please my wife more is if I were being interviewed by Ira Glass.

The book party in NYC was a bunch of fun: a live debate between me, Hanna Rosin, and a couple superstar young NYC debate champs. It was blogged about here and here.

I have been trying to get into the whole Twitter thing. I like it more than I would like blogging, since my brilliant insights tend to be either about 140 characters long or 5,000 words long, but not much in between.

Am currently reading the new book about neighborhoods by Peter Lovenheim.

In the past few weeks I have written for the Times about a Protestant technique for spreading the Gospel to Muslims and about a Bush appointee who believes that waterboarding is encouraged by Catholic doctrine; I have also reviewed a somewhat disappointing book about the Sabbath.

From Booklist: 

Wisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate. 

Oppenheimer, Mark (Author) 

Apr 2010. 256 p. Free Press, hardcover,  $25.00. (9781439128640). 974.4.  

In this wise, witty shout-out to geek culture, Oppenheimer relays his evolution from problem child to world-class debater. Part of what makes this memoir so special is the author’s openness about the frustration and isolation he met with as a precocious kid, especially during third and fourth grades, when he had a teacher who literally despised him. Tension at school caused him to act out and to remain friendless until he joined debate club in middle school. There he finally met other kids who, like him, loved language and lived to talk. He was so gifted at debate that he was soon participating in international tournaments—and winning them. This outlet for his verbosity not only garnered him the esteem he was so desperate to attain but also exposed him to some world-class talkers, among them the wry English, gregarious Australians, and hot-dogging Scots, who possessed a “merry nihilism.” His deft running narratives of various competitions contain the same suspense and thrills as the best sports books, while his astute analyses of teammates, coaches, and competitors read like the best kind of psychology. Read it for its sheer entertainment value or for its exuberant celebration of language—just make sure you read it. 

— Joanne Wilkinson

OK, bad pun, I know. But my Mother Jones profile of NY Times columnist Ross Douthat is now on the web here.