Two of our MARS HILL AUDIO Anthologies, previously available on cassette, have just been released in a downloadable format. The first of these is called Manners and the Civil Society, and features readings of articles by columnist and etiquette queen Judith Martin, historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, and others. The second audio Anthology is called Place, Community, and Memory, with essays by Wendell Berry, Gilbert Meilaender, and a selection from Nobel prize-winner Ivo Andric. Informing both of these collections is the question, "How might the way we order social life honor the kinds of creatures we are, body and spirit?" The questions of the place of manners in our lives and of the manner in which we regard place both revolve around taking the form of life seriously. For information about these provocative MARS HILL AUDIO Anthologies, look here.

Back in December, we alerted our listeners to the arrival of Children of Men in theaters, and provided listeners to our podcast some archival interviews with Ralph Wood and Alan Jacobs about the P. D. James novel on which the film was based (and about Baroness Phyllis more generally). We also produced an Audio Reprint of a Ralph Wood article about P. D. James's writing.

When it opened, the movie turned out to be a severe departure from the novel, abandoning James's thematic concerns altogether. Now that the DVD is out, Christopher Orr has a helpful review in The New Republic, summarizing how Children of Men "was simultaneously one of last year's best movies (better, I think, than any off those nominated for Best Picture) and one of its larger disappointments." Director Alfonso Cuaron has made a visually gripping film without "a composing idea to undergird the plot." Orr's review reminds us why really good stories are always more than just good stories.