• Brenda Hillman, Pieces of Air in the Epic (Wesleyan 2005)
• Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (Vintage 2004)

Beyond Belief: I bounced off this one hard when I first read it in 2003. I have no idea why, considering how absolutely up my alley all of Elaine Pagels’ books had been up to that point. My guess is that it’s because Beyond Belief is, at times, much more personal than her previous books, which I don’t think I was in a position to appreciate at the time. This book feels different, too, as though she was trying to stay focused yet kept taking in wider and wider vistas.

No Emo joke this week, sorry. And Irenaeus? Yep, still an asshole.

Hillman: Holy shit, is that an actual book of poems? Pledging to finish all the unfinished and unstarted poetry that was lying around is what started this whole thing off, waaay back in January of 2019. And poetry has been thin on the ground for a very long time. Who knows, maybe I’m ready to get back into all that. Tune in next week for another exciting episode.