Edward Ayres,"Dead Reckoning," CHE, 11 January (subscriber only); Richard Wightman Fox,"National Life After Death," Slate, 7 January; Adam Kirsch,"Among the Dead," NY Sun, 9 January; and Jon Weiner, LA Times, 6 January review Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Here, Terry Gross interviews Faust about her book for NPR's"Fresh Air."

Mr. H, fondly known to friends as"Aitch", recently bid farewell to his blog, Giornale Nuovo. It's hard for a brilliant blogger to quit the practice altogether, however, so Aitch has a guest post over at The Nonist. Don't miss Mr. H,"Gaikotsu's Postcards; Or, Aitch's Pick," The Nonist, 6 January.

Tony O'Reilly reviews Ian Kershaw's Fateful Choices for The Independent, 8 January. Kershaw's book examines"many of our most cherished recollections of the response to Nazi fascism and Japanese imperialism."

Thomas Lynch reviews David Rieff's Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir for the LA Times, 6 January. Susan Sontag remembered.

After the flood,"The Last Time I Saw Ignatius J. Reilly," The Beatitudes, 1 January, revisits New Orleans with the most fabulous character in American literature. When my Big Chief notebooks are filled and scattered about and my valve threatens to slam shut, I imagine that I'm Ignatius. Hat tip.

Mary Dudziak,"What a Constitutional Crisis Looks Like," Balkinization, 8 January, looks at the constitutional crisis in Kenya.

Thanks to CHE and IHE for links to The Cliopatria Awards; and congratulations to our colleague, Scott McLemee, who's been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle.

Finally, farewell at least for now to Conrad H. Roth's Varieties of unreligious Experience. Broadly and deeply learned, VunEx has been one of the finest blogs on the internet.