Weak Endnotes

Carnivalesque LVII, an ancient/medieval edition of the festival, is up at Judith Weingarten's Zenobia: Empress of the East. Weingarten's"Just the potion to needle a republic," THE, 17 December, reviews Adrienne Mayor's The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy.

David Farley,"The Family Jewels," Smart Set, 19 December, identifies the top ten unlikely Christian relics, up to and including Mary's breast milk and Jesus's foreskin.

Michael Dirda,"Mystic Terror Revisited," WSJ, 19 December, reviews Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time.

Philip Hensher reviews Frank Kermode's Concerning E. M. Forster for the Telegraph, 12 December.

Carolyn See reviews Ted Gioia's The Birth and Death of the Cool for the Washington Post, 18 December; and Louis Bayard reviews Terry Teachout's Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong for the Washington Post, 20 December.