William Dalrymple,"The Egyptian Connection," NYRB, 23 October, reviews Michelle P. Brown's The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe, Éamonn Ó Carragáin's Ritual and the Rood: Liturgical Images and the Old English Poems of the Dream of the Rood Tradition, and William J. Diebold's Word and Image: An Introduction to Early Medieval Art.

The new Common-Place is up! It's a carnival of early American political history, with an introduction by Jeff Pasley.

Stacy Schiff,"The Woman Who Never Stopped Talking," Slate, 6 October, reviews Francine du Plessix Gray's Madame de Stael: The First Modern Woman.

Cornelia Dean,"Audubon's Species: Bird Art, in All Its Glory," NYT, 6 October, reviews Darryl Wheye's and Donald Kennedy's Humans, Nature and Birds: Science Art From Cave Walls to Computer Screens, Jonathan Elphick's Birds: The Art of Ornithology, Audubon: Early Drawings, with an introductory essay by Richard Rhodes, and Rosamond Purcell's, Linnea S. Hall's and René Corado's Egg and Nest.

Freeman Dyson,"Struggle for the Islands," NYRB, 23 October, reviews Paul D. Stewart and others, Galápagos: The Islands That Changed the World.

Michael Dirda reviews Alison Light's Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury for the Washington Post, 5 October.

Michael Novak,"A Spirit of Affirmation," Washington Post, 5 October, reviews John W. O'Malley's What Happened at Vatican II.

Gerald Early,"The End of Race as We Know It," CHE, 10 October, and David R. Roediger,"Race Will Survive the Obama Phenomenon," CHE, 10 October, debate the effect of the Obama campaign on American race relations. See also: Roediger,"What Effect Would Obama's Election Have on Race Relations?" HNN, 6 October.

And, in case you haven't seen them, there are The Measure of a President, which shows that taller and heavier win by a 2 to 1 ratio; and the Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart, which tracks Palin-Think. Hat tip.