As students prepare to return to school, the L.A. Times ran an article “Many high school students can’t read. Is the solution teaching reading in every class?” One national assessment cited in the article shows 70% of eighth graders below proficient.

It puzzles me that many state legislators are trying to decide what students should not read when the real crisis is the number of students who can’t read or struggle to read. While the article goes on to discuss methodologies to address this deficit, the question seems to me to be one of helping students love reading and have role models in their lives for whom reading is important.

I suspect I’m “preaching to the choir.” Afterall, if you are reading this, you are likely a book lover. But I ask myself, what am I doing to share the love? Thursday night our church board decided to put up a Little Free Library outside our food pantry. Parents often have kids in tow, and are strapped for funds to buy them books. I also learned our local public library is now stopping by with their pop-up library every month. It’s something.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Whatever you think of his politics (and let’s not go there!) former President Obama is a prolific reader. Every summer, he posts his reading list. It came out this week. You can see it at “Check Out Obama’s Summer Reading List.” I’ve only read two of the fourteen.

Many of us grew up loving the poetry of Shel Silverstein, and for others, he’s a treasure waiting to be discovered. The New York Times ran “The Essential Shel Silverstein” which introduces his best works and brings back good memories.

Instead of a trip down memory lane, how about a literal and literary road trip? Literary Hub posted “A Literary Road Trip Across America” with cool places to visit in every state. Warning: You will spend a lot of time on this article!

Mental Floss always comes up with fascinating articles. I don’t think I’ve even seen any of the punctuation marks in “13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using.” But I can think of several I might begin using, the interrobang, the acclamation point, and the snark mark. Now, could we just get a keyboard or font set that uses these?

Finally, “Emily Dickinson’s Known World” explores the parallel lives and ideas of Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin. While they never intersected, the article explores a number of things they had in common.

Quote of the Week

Classicist Edith Hamilton was born August 12, 1867. She made this trenchant observation:

“Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.”

It seems to me that the century-long failed experiment of communism supports her statement.

Miscellaneous Musings

I’m hoping to visit Birch Tree Bookery in Marion, Ohio today. It’s the only indie bookstore in Marion, otherwise a book desert. I’ve heard good things about them and the venture of faith launching this store has been. Look for my review in the days to come.

The memoir of an Ancient Near East scholar may seem like a snooze but not An Asian American Ancient Historian and Biblical Scholar, which chronicles the life and scholarship of Edwin Yamauchi, professor emeritus at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. It helps that I’ve been acquainted with “Dr. Y” for fifty years, enjoyed hospitality in his home, and known a number of those he mentions. I’m amazed by both his productive scholarship and his warm faith and I am thoroughly enjoying this memoir.

I just finished reading The Other Side of the Wall by Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian pastor. He advocates the possibility of Palestinians and Jews sharing the land, and laments how Palestinians have often been left out of the conversation. And he laments how Palestinian Christians have been shunned by their fellow believers in the U.S. and in other countries. Not an easy read but important.

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for this week!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.