The Weekly Wrap: October 11-17

Ohio Authors

Toni Morrison, R.L. Stine, Sherwood Anderson, James Thurber, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mary Oliver, Zane Gray, Hanif Abdurraqib, Anthony Doerr, and Ernie Cline. These are just a few of the authors who come from Ohio.

So why do I focus on Ohio authors? Because I have lived my life in the Buckeye State. If nothing else, Ohio doesn’t get very much positive press. But it is a place with many booklovers. And we are proud of our authors.

Not only that, Ohio authors often write with a sense of their place. Many of us love our place with something of an inchoate sense. But writers from that place capture the place in words and give us words to love it. For example, Hanif Abdurraqib and Wil Haygood both capture something of the culture and history of my current home town of Columbus. Patrick Wensink, who grew up in northwest Ohio, where I lived for four years, evokes the character of that place in a book I will review next week.

Those are some of the reasons I love to review books from Ohio authors as well as books on Ohio. One of this week’s articles features a review of an author from Appalachian Ohio. So, if you are an Ohio author, I will give a request to review your book more attention than usual. And, wherever you live, I would encourage you to read the authors from that place.

Five Articles Worth Reading

This review of a new biography from the New York Times caught my attention. “When Edward Hopper Painted Lonely People, He Was Channeling America” explores how Hopper captured his time.

This review by Appalachian ohio author Madeleine ffitch (her preferred spelling) also caught my attention. “Good Villains Are Hard to Come By. This One’s Great” describes a Neo-Nazi type who gathers a growing following in the time and the efforts to resist her. The town, Avalon is likely loosely based on Athens, Ohio.

I’ve gotten the emails this article talks about. Most mention books I’ve never written and many clearly have been AI-generated. But real authors are being scammed as reported in “The Lucrative World of Literary Scams.” Yet another reason AI has no place in the world of book publishing.

Aryana Petrosky determined to apply the practices Miroslav Volf outlines in Excusion and Embrace while living at a L’Abri community. That is, she committed to (1) standing confidently, (2) opening one’s arms, and (3) patiently waiting for a complete embrace. In “Encountering the Other” she describes the challenges and fruit of pursuing these steps.

Finally, many of us were repulsed by the Secretary of War’s recent proposal to livestream an execution. But can you articulate why public executions are such a bad idea? “Alypius, Public Executions, and the Formation of Souls” discusses the harm to our souls such experiences wreak.

Quote of the Week

Eugene O’Neill was born on October 16, 1888. He observed:

“Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.”

His remark reminds me of what C.S. Lewis said: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Miscellaneous Musings

For years, I might get one or two views from China in a month, likely because of their information firewalls. Suddenly, I’ve started seeing numerous visits, sometimes almost as many as from the U.S. I suspect it’s their AI bots scraping my site. But if there are real people out there, welcome.

For some odd reason, I’ve had several bouts of cellulitis in my hands, easily cleared up each time by an antibiotic. Reading about it, I’ve learned that, untreated, it could turn into septicemia and kill me. Infections like this were once a major cause of death (and sadly still are in some places). It’s made reading The Age of Cures by Barry Werth all the more fascinating because it describes the research and the people and companies who brought us those antibiotics that have saved so many lives.

Finally, reviewing means I get and read the new Advent books early so I can publish reviews ahead of the season. The challenge is to set aside the actual season as one of preparing myself for Christ’s coming. For me, it means turning to other practices, or books acquired in past years.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say

Tuesday: Patrick Wensick, The Great Black Swamp

Wednesday: Heidi Ann Russell, Human Flourishing in a World of Trauma and Stress

Thursday: Barry Werth, The Age of Cures

Friday: Gayle Boss, All Creation Waits

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for October 11-17.

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