P, my Paris correspondent, asks me how we are holding up, I tell him we as a society will be fine if we stay true to our own selves and our customs. I approve giving his students Hawthorne to read…

Joe Queenan wrote many so-so books and one great one, a memoir called Closing Time. What he had to say about reading books is vital for many people to hear right this minute: “[B]ooks are without question the wealth of…