Austen (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2010), Susannah Carson has gathered in one place essays on Austen and her novels. Few readers are likely to scrutinize every chapter, but it's fascinating to see what C.S. Lewis understood about Austen's moral universe and Virginia Woolf admired about her craft. Some of the essays lean toward the academic; one by screenwriter Amy Heckerling explains how she tweaked Emma into the 1990s teen movie Clueless.

I suspect many contemporary young women love Jane Austen because she takes them into a world where not everything is blurted out and much remains for characters to ponder and imagine. Claire Harman in Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (Henry Holt, 2010) explores the varying reactions Austen has engendered over the years. As one criticIt's frightful every time. And it happens a few times a year. A pitcher is struck in the head by a line drive.

Last Friday it happened to Robbie Ray of the Arizona Diamondbacks after a ball left the bat of the Cardinals' Luke Voit at 108 mph. The left-hander received stitches and went on the seven-day concussion disabled list, but it was thought early in the week that he might pitch in the team's weekend series in San Francisco. Midweek, however, Ray was sent back to Phoenix from a road trip for further testing.

The overwhelming majority of major league pitchers, presumably including Ray, wear no special head protection, just a standard, official-issue ball cap.

But several St. Louis relievers are apparently wearing safety inserts in their caps to try