Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance by Wendy Lesser, Yale University Press, 2018.

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a lively and inspired biography celebrating the master choreographer, dancer, and stage director Jerome Robbins

Restoring Notre-Dame de Paris: Rebirth of the Legendary Gothic Cathedral, Photographs and Text by Patrick Zachmann, Schiffer Publishing 2024.

Photographer Patrick Zachmann was on the scene when the disastrous fire erupted in Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on the evening of April 15, 2019. At the time he did not yet know that he would continue to document the events at the cathedral over the months that followed. He clambered along scaffolding and up and down steep stairs, and he would, from atop an aerial work platform, discover hitherto unknown aspects of Notre-Dame, its new silhouette, and the artistic gems that survived.

The Pole – A Novel by J. M. Coetze, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2023.

Coetzee’s The Pole tells the story of Wittold Walccyzkiecz, a vigorous, extravagantly white-haired pianist and interpreter of Chopin who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his concert in Barcelona. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by Wittold, she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept into his world. As the journeyman performer sends her countless letters, extends invitations to travel, and even visits her husband’s summer home in Mallorca, their unlikely relationship blossoms, though only on Beatriz’s terms.

Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah by Charles King, Double Day, New York 2024.

The look behind the scenes to the people who were in the wings during the creation of the oratorio, Messiah, by Georg Frideric Handel.

Lower Than The Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Viking, 2024.

A groundbreaking history of sexual emotion, sexual activity, gender relations, marriage and the family--and how Christianity has interacted with this panorama of human concerns. Few matters produce more public interest and public anxiety than sex and religion. Much of the political contention and division in societies across the world centres on sexual topics, and one-third of the global population is Christian in background or outlook. The issue goes to the heart of present-day religion.