More brief updates and distractions. Happy New Year!: Pope John Paul’s THE ROME TRIPTYCH, the Meditations of John Paul II, written over the last several months, will be published shortly. The Church says it’s “A poetic meditation about themes of finality, a last will of sorts. The pope will discuss the choice of his successor, for example.” Wire story Books editor Geeta Sharma-Jensen at the Milwaukee Journal has a somewhat unusual take on the books of the year: “The good novel was remarkably sparse, leaving one with the persistent idea that it was merely lying fallow, germinating in the imaginations […]