By Sara Miles
320 pages; Ballantine

Miracles happen, or so it seems to Sara Miles, a "blue-state, secular intellectual; a lesbian; a left-wing journalist with a habit of skepticism" who, upon tasting a Communion wafer, suddenly got religion (to the horror of her atheist parents and friends) —or rather, discovered her own consuming need for it. Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (Ballantine) is Miles's energized account of how her longtime fondness for food became a sacred mission, as she began establishing food pantries and devoting her life to giving the hungry sustenance. "That impossible word, Jesus, lodged in me like a crumb," she writes, one of many tasty morsels in this surprising book.

— Cathleen Medwick