Maureen Corrigan,"Too Few Books, Too Many Books," Washington Post, 19 October, reviews Fernando Báez's A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq and Larry McMurtry's Books: A Memoir.

Harold Bloom,"The Glories of Yiddish," NYRB, 6 November, reviews a new edition of Max Weinreich's History of the Yiddish Language.

Paul Richard,"India's ‘Garden' State," Washington Post, 13 October, reviews"Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur," an exhibit at Washington, DC's Sackler Gallery.

The NYRB, 6 November, features a symposium on"A Fateful Election: What's at Stake?" Joan Didion, Frances FitzGerald, Timothy Garton Ash, Paul Krugman, Michael Tomasky, and Garry Wills are among the contributors.

As blogging heads, our former colleague, Daniel Larison, and journalist Eli Lake discuss Barack Obama's and the University of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

Liz Robbins,"Historians Size Up Obama's Timeout," The Caucus, 21 October, checks in with several historians about the possible impact of Obama's leave of absence from the campaign to be at the bedside of his ailing grandmother. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.