I don't read a book to find hope, but I fount it in great measure in Karen Armstrong's new one. With great clarity, a scholar's knowledge, and deep personal conviction, she shows, across cultures and time, the absolutely critical role compassion plays not only in the quality of life, but, indeed, in its survival. It is the core value learned, practiced, and taught by sages like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Mohammad, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela to name a few. Besides providing a profound understanding of what compassion is, she also provides a practical and realistic path for anyone who cares to, to lead a more compassionate life.

Munro’s newest collection of stories, now in paperback, is, of course, superb. She is unfailingly brilliant in putting what she sees in the world into deceptively simple short stories that you keep thinking and wondering about.

Tremain’s novels, consistently nominated for the Man Booker Prize, are all excellent and always surprising.  Trespass, her newest, is a dark, suspenseful, tale of two sibling pairs, their parents, and a handful of others who occupy their universe. It’s disturbing but rewardingly complex and provocative, leaving the reader to ponder fascinating parallels and contradictions and to consider intriguing questions of nature and artifice.

This novel is so striking I can’t imagine it not being on everyone’s list of the best-written books they’ve ever read. The language soars, the ideas are grand, and the plot is ingenious. You’ll be reading sentences in this book to anyone you can get to listen.