(Both books were gifts from Dad the Emeritus Historian of Graeco-Roman Egypt.) David Biale, Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and Christians (U of California, 2007).  Studies the diverging theological and cultural functions of blood in the two religions traditions. Akih...

(Despite the length of the list, nearly everything on it was either free, for review, or courtesy of an Amazon gift certificate [thanks, W. W. Norton!].)  Joseph Hocking, "Lest We Forget" (Ward & Lock, c. 1901).  One of the last Victorian historical novels about the Marian pe...

(I've decided to start indicating which books come from where.) Michel Faber, The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories (Canongate, 2007).  Neo-Victorian short story collection that spins off from Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White.  (Amazon [secondhand]) Mary Swan, The Boys in the Trees: ...

(Whoa!  No, I didn't go bankrupt this week.) Sir Walter Scott, The Monastery (Edinburgh, 2001).  Volume in the standard scholarly edition of Scott's work. Lucy Newlyn, Reading, Writing, and Romanticism: The Anxiety of Reception (OUP, 2003).  Romantic constructions of reading and reade...

Philippe Grimbert, Memory: A Novel (Simon & Schuster, 2008).  A man recovers the truth about his parents' experiences in France during WWII. J. M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year (Viking, 2007).  Political novel about political writing, featuring three narratives running simultaneously. R...

Emily Weaver, The Rabbi's Sons: A Story of the Days of St. Paul (Charles H. Kelly, 1891).  An early church-cum-Jewish conversion novel. Weaver (1865-1943) moved to Canada during her teenage years; you can read her Canadian History for Boys and Girls at Early Canadiana Online.  Louisa May A...

Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure (Del Rey, 2007).  Medieval Jews, swords, fighting, trekking, etc. Angelique Richardson, ed., Women Who Did: Stories by Men and Women 1890-1914 (Penguin, 2006).   Anthology of "New Woman" stories. Dennis Walder, Dicke...