Gerard Jones
Gerard Jones is the author of Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence (Basic Books, $25) and the forthcoming Men of Tomorrow: The Story of How Super Heroes Were Invented and What They Mean.
The Masks of God by Joseph Campbell (Viking, 4 vols., $18 each). At 20 I thought it was the Truth revealed. Decades later it’s still an intoxicating plunge—the whole mess of human history pulled into one grand romance through myth-drunk fervor and an autodidact’s fearless leaps.
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (Bantam, $6). She’d just dumped her parasitic husband and her slippery lover in favor of a big touring car—and now Edith opened the throttle on her freest, funniest novel, roaring through her familiar literary landscape with the wind in her hair and a spray of mud from her wheels.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Exile’s Return by Malcolm Cowley (Penguin, $15). The only literary history that made me cry: personal memories of the lost generation, from high school snottiness to the long, cheap binge of Paris to the deaths and resignations of the Depression, told with a heartbreaking intimacy.
The Sound and the Fury (Random House, $16) and As I Lay Dying (Knopf, $17) by William Faulkner. One a slow, dark, gnarling river of a novel, one a quick-twisting creek of narrative ingenuity and liquored-up fantasy, they were pressed into a single proletarian edition after World War II that became a new book unto itself, at once gruesome and funny, populist and profound.
Romantic Comedy: In Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges by James Harvey (Da Capo, $21). Elegantly, thoroughly, and with a wise infatuation, Harvey leads us through Hollywood’s most exquisite products, bringing us not only to a new understanding of the oblique profundities of mass entertainment but to a sort of ethic of love, a wit that holds the irreconcilable demands of sex and civilization in perfect tension.
Summer Lightning
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - March 30, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - strawberry fields forever, secret files, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 hilariously sparse cartoons about further DOGE cuts
Cartoons Artists take on free audits, report cards, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
John McWhorter’s 6 favorite books that are rooted in history
Feature The Columbia University professor recommends works by Lyla Sage, Sally Thorne, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Abdulrazak Gurnah's 6 favorite books about war and colonialism
Feature The Nobel Prize winner recommends works by Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Elliot Ackerman’s 6 favorite books on war and duty
Feature The Marine veteran recommends works by Robert A. Heinlein, John le Carré, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Xochitl Gonzalez’s 6 favorite books that shaped her storytelling
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Stephen King, Julian Barnes, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Jason Isaacs's 6 favorite books that changed his perception on life
Feature The British actor recommends works by George Orwell, C.S. Lewis, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Tessa Bailey's 6 favorite books for hopeless romantics
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Lyla Sage, Sally Thorne, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Pagan Kennedy's 6 favorite books that inspire resistance
Feature The author recommends works by Patrick Radden Keefe, Margaret Atwood, and more
By The Week US Published
-
John Sayles' 6 favorite works that left a lasting impression
Feature The Oscar-nominated screenwriter recommends works by William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and more
By The Week US Published