Thursday's Notes

Johann Hari,"Trouble in Paradise," Slate, 4 April, reviews Lisa Miller's Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife. Miller's"How Jews Invented Heaven," Daily Beast, 28 March, is an excerpt from the book.

Tom Bissell reviews Charles Freeman's A New History of Early Christianity for The National, 2 April.

John Carey reviews Ian Thompson's The English Lakes: A History for London's Sunday Times, 4 April.

John Steele Gordan,"Hubris of a Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon," NYT, 7 April, reviews Dominic Lieven's Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of ‘War and Peace'.

Allan Massie,"The Master of Historical Fiction," Standpoint, April, takes another look at Sir Walter Scott.

Wendy Orent,"Life and Death," The Book, 7 April, reviews Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Garry Wills,"Behind Obama's Cool," NYT, 7 April, reviews David Remnick's The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.