The best of us reach our highest heights when we are making recommendations for what to read next.

The Good Word: A Recurring Reflection
It didn't happen again this year, either. Susan Stamberg didn't call me from National Public Radio to solicit my opinion about great new holiday titles. Every year about this time I'll depart on occasional reveries, imaginary conversations with NPR hosts. Occasionally, I'll even jot down a list of the books I'd mention were such a windfall to come my way.
I imagine the selection process isn't dissimilar from that of an elementary teacher in a forest of upraised hands. Certain teachers will call on the child who appears most eager, while others might target the one trying to blend in with the surroundings. Are the booksellers who are in the good graces of Ms. Stamberg the ones who left messages at her NPR office, "Hi, Susan. You don't know me, but I'm from a New England bookstore with a quaint name. Give me a call this holiday season, and I'll rock your literary world with my list!... Please?" Or does she cold-call the humble bookseller who labors diligently with no expectation of NPR recognition?
· Scott's currently tugging wayward glue bits from the spines of our backstock. [ courtesy of Put in a good word for mmmmmwwwwaaaa.... Please?]

Baghdad's Mutanabi Street has, for centuries, been one of the centers of Iraqi intellectual life, as reflected in the avenue's bookshops. In the 1970s, Saddam Hussein crushed intellectual life, forcing Mutanabi Street's alternative ideas and books underground. Secret police informants infested the cafe tables, ready to overhear whispers of dissent.
· But six months after the U.S. occupation, Mutanabi is again in ferment (Newsday)