Wars and rumors of wars: eight books

Political commentary

On Democracies and Death Cults

Douglas Murray
Broadside Books, 240 pages

Amid global confusion, Douglas Murray addresses the Gaza conflict with moral clarity. Drawing from travels in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, Murray captures the brutality of the attacks at the Nova Music Festival and kibbutzim, countering liberal Western media’s often anti-­Israel bias. This work exemplifies empathetic, rigorous, and honest journalism. Murray dismantles the simplistic “oppressor vs. oppressed” narrative, instead framing the conflict as a struggle between Israel’s democratic values—capitalism and individual rights—and Hamas’ anti-Semitic, genocidal ideology, rooted in Islamic teachings. His intellectual clarity warns that Western sympathy for such ideologies threatens global democratic values. Murray supports Biblical calls to “choose life,” and he contrasts Israel’s vitality with Hamas’ death cult. Encounters with soldiers, hostage families, and terrorists reveal a spectrum of human experience. Written with elegant yet accessible prose, marked by wit and precision, the book critiques Western hypocrisy and underscores the theological roots of the conflict. —A.S. Ibrahim

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Literary criticism

Paradise Lost: A Biography

Alan Jacobs
Princeton University Press, 224 pages

For the most part these days, John Milton’s 17th-century epic, Paradise Lost, lies woefully unread. So when a knowledgeable guide comes along to help readers not only understand the poem better but also catch a glimpse of hundreds of years of debates about its theology, politics, and influence, hope springs that readers might reengage with it. In six brisk chapters, Jacobs covers Milton’s life; the structure and key moments in the epic; the vicissitudes of Milton’s reputation among literary figures and scholars such as Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, Mary Shelley, C.S. Lewis, and Stanley Fish; and the legacy of the poem in contemporary popular culture. Jacobs’ book is academic yet accessible and genially introduces one of the greatest religious books in the English language. A final bonus is that, whereas some critics enjoy speculating about Milton’s alleged Arianism, Jacobs recognizes that there is no evidence of the heresy in Paradise Lost, and he wisely omits the matter entirely. Aspiring readers of the epic would benefit from Dennis Danielson’s parallel prose edition published by Broadview. —Jeremy Larson

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Christian fiction

Winter’s Chill

Morgan L. Busse
Enclave, 304 pages

Brighid fights to survive the war against the southern forces as well as the dark binding placed on the soldiers of the Nordic north. With her supernatural strength of unknown origins, she is the only northern captive to survive being separated from the so-called “allies” who bound her under their spell. When Kaeden—southern healer of the Word and wielder of a powerful light—frees her to return to her people, Brighid is finally able to discover the origin of her strength. Yet unless Kaeden, Brighid, and their friends from both north and south work together, they will all fall under the dark power of the Shadonae. Winter’s Chill is the second installment in the Nordic Wars Trilogy, a Christian fantasy series set in an intricate world of political intrigue and supernatural gifting. Through fantasy, this book explores just war theory and how a doubting believer should steward God’s gifts for good in times of complex situations and great suffering. —Marian A. Jacobs

History

Summer of Fire and Blood

Lyndal Roper
Basic Books, 544 pages

In this book, Lyndal Roper hopes to recapture “the Reformation we have lost sight of” as not solely a movement taken up with elites such as Martin Luther but also the cause behind “the greatest popular uprising in western Europe before the French Revolution,” the German Peasants’ War (1524–1525). Rather than merely focusing on theology or leading radicals like Thomas Müntzer, she confidently reconstructs the variety of social, political, and economic factors that coalesced to urge poor laboring men and women to take a militant stand against their feudal and ecclesiastical overlords. Roper interprets the eventual defeat of the peasants as that which “transformed the Reformation from a movement that challenged the social order into one that supported the existing authorities.” The German Peasants’ War forces us to realize that not everyone agreed how the recovery of the Biblical gospel should change Western Christendom. Regardless of whether one feels that the peasants’ belligerence was wholly justified or not, this is a very well-written and well-defended account of an episode often neglected within popular conceptions of what counts as Reformation history. —Flynn Evans

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Memoir

Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me

Lana Estemirova
John Murray Publishers, 288 pages

Lana Estemirova was 15 years old when corrupt policemen killed her mother Natalia, a noted journalist and human rights advocate in Chechnya, the restive region of southern Russia. Natalia was one of 160,000 people to perish in Chechnya’s years of violence. In this memoir we see a snapshot of a war long gone from global news headlines, yet whose effects shape the present. The author’s childhood bears the hallmarks of post-Communist dysfunction. Her parents split up early. Her mother struggled to provide. Her estranged father died in the war in 2000. The author shares her own vulnerability in recalling the chaos and grief brought by her mother’s death. “I will live for both of us,” she resolves. Please Live feels relevant since the Chechen wars’ foremost leaders remain in power today. —William Fleeson

History

Rope

Tim Queeney
St. Martin’s Press, 336 pages

This book is a vivid, surprising journey through one of humanity’s oldest and most overlooked technologies. In this deeply researched and wildly engaging book, Tim Queeney unspools the long, tangled history of rope—from its prehistoric origins in Neanderthal caves to its central role in war, worship, exploration, and execution. Rope has lifted pyramids, held ships steady through tempests, stitched the skeletons of cathedrals, and rigged the gallows. It has been a tool of salvation and domination, freedom and bondage. Queeney explores both sides of its legacy—how this simple twisted fiber enabled the rise of civilization, yet also served as an instrument of torture and death. Along the way, readers meet rope-­makers, sailors, ­surveyors, executioners, and even modern climbers whose lives have literally hung by a thread. With precision, wit, and reverence for the unglamorous, Rope reminds us that some of the most powerful forces in history aren’t loud or shiny—they’re coiled quietly, holding everything together. This is not just a book about rope. It’s also a book about mastery, ingenuity, and the thin lines—literally and morally—that hold the human story in place. —John Mac Ghlionn

Read WORLD’s full review of this book here.

Education

Capitalizing on College

Joshua Travis Brown
Oxford University Press, 320 pages

Tuition prices are outpacing inflation, but universities still claim to be impoverished. The economics surrounding higher education seem to be a mess. Capitalizing on College attempts to explain how American colleges and universities got into this financial mess by looking at a small subset of the 6,000 institutions of higher education: religious colleges. Brown notes that American schools have always tended to emulate elite schools like Harvard and Yale, despite not having the deep pockets of either. The GI Bill and expanding federal aid allowed tuition-driven schools to plow funds into growth with the hope that growth would provide stability. Brown categorizes schools—which have been anonymized to allow for more candid interviews with professors and administrators—into groups based on how they attempted to grow their enrollments. Some focused on tradition, some on new programs, others on distance learning. None of these approaches insulated the institutions from harsh financial realities. Trying to look like an Ivy without an Ivy’s donor base will leave any school in a precarious position. In order to survive, too many religious colleges have had to sacrifice mission for margin. —Collin Garbarino

Christian fiction

The Heart of the King

J.J. Fischer
Whitecrown, 314 pages

When a prophecy names gravedigger Rigan North as the future bride to the heir of Jardia and the subsequent downfall of the reign of Calidore, the threatened king sends his best soldier Aureus Corcoran to retrieve the woman. On their journey to Calidore, Rigan attempts to escape her fate only to be met with the mind-controlling monsters that roam the forests. Meanwhile Corcoran’s conscience is pricked by how low he has stooped to serve his king. Corcoran must choose between turning an innocent woman over to an unstable king or forgo his mission in order to save her life. The Heart of the King is the first installment in the Painted Wind series. Fischer—known for her unique magic systems and faith-filled romantic fantasy—creates a fascinating world where the evils of sin and demon-like monsters threaten the lives of Rigan, Corcoran, and their party. Fischer also avoids the dreaded Stockholm syndrome with the careful use of genuine repentance and self-­sacrifice woven into her character arcs. With themes of overcoming trauma and loneliness, redemption and forgiveness, and loving the unlovable, The Heart of the King is a compelling beginning to Fischer’s next epic fantasy series. —M.J.