"What a delight, to find so extraordinary a collection." --Kathleen Norris, author of Dakota and Cloister Walk   I can't be alone in thinking that, when Dorothy discovers that her ruby red slippers have (and always have had) the power to take her home, it is one of the most profound theological insights in American pop culture.  Or that the death of Stringer Bell was a moment where the ability of the TV series  The Wire  to plumb the depths of the human condition was most on display.  I like my piety with a little artistic license.  "Tell all the truth," as Emily Dickinson said, "but tell it slant." Sarah Arthur, who compiled the great new Lenten and Eastertide literary prayer guide,  Between Midnight and Dawn , is a kindred spirit in this.  She introduces her collection by comparing the movement from Lent to Easter with night to dawn and winter to spring, but don't believe her.  She's got far more tender and terrifying territory to cover in this beautiful, bountiful book.

It is too much really, and therefore a relief that the cycle of liturgical seasons will come around again next year so that the riches herein can be explored at more leisure - particularly during Holy Week when there is a selection of poems and prose for each of the eight days from Palm Sunday to Easter.  "It is nearly impossible to read a poem both quickly and well," Arthur warns, and so she advises the reader to go slow, savoring the psalm and scripture passages she offers for each section, extending the readings over several days.  Which means, of course, that you will not be able to finish the sections before it's time to move on.  'Always leave them wanting more,' I suppose. Perhaps Arthur knows that we often have to be seduced into seeing the depths of the darkness, and thus she eases the way with a framework that looks like a traditional devotional book - opening prayer, scriptures, readings, personal prayer and reflection, closing prayer.  But in those readings are the weight and wonder of the ages.  This is explosive stuff Arthur has brought together - again, too much to be absorbed in the sittings of a single Lent and Easter.  But for those who see God's hand in the devastating beauty of art and human word, this guide is a balm and a window to a deeper experience of the season.

--Alex Joyner, The Englewood Review of Books.