The Weekly Wrap

The Weekly Wrap: October 5-11

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The Weekly Wrap: October 5-11

Great But Unreadable

Have you ever tried to read a book that for one reason or another is “great” but just haven’t been able to finish it? I recently asked a question about books people found confusing. I was surprised by how many “great” authors made the list including Joyce Carol Oates and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Of course, topping the list for many was James Joyce’s Ulysses.

It’s book award season and I think the belief among many in the reading public is that the books nominated for these awards are ones most people won’t find readable. I think part of the suspicion is that most people have never heard of most of these books before they made the lists, let alone read them.

The most recent instance of this is this week’s nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Laszlo Krasznahorkai was hardly a household name before this week. I doubt his newest novel will do much to change that (but read the review below). In English it runs four hundred pages and consists of one sentence. One period.

This is not always the case. Han Kang, last year’s Nobel winner is someone I found challenging to read, yet whose voice drew me in. The Pulitzers for fiction in recent years include authors like Percival Everett, Barbara Kingsolver, Colson Whitehead (twice) and Anthony Doerr.

My own opinion? I think great literature will often require a certain amount of attention that “mind candy” books do not. They will require us to wrestle with hard things. But it does not seem to me that obscurity, turgid writing, or lots of “deadwood” are ever excusable. Is it too much to ask that a mark of great books is that the writing be readable?

Five Articles Worth Reading

So, speaking of four hundred page sentences, Garth Risk Hallberg reviews Herscht 07769 by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. In “This Novel Has Fewer Periods Than This Headline. It’s 400 Pages Long.” Hallberg discusses the novel as well as previous works by the author.

A lot of ink has been spilled on the causes of global populism. But after considering nine possible reasons and allowing for complexity, Francis Fukuyama argues that one reason stands out in “It’s the Internet, Stupid.”

Any of us who live in Ohio will tell you that there are at least two Ohios. There are the big cities and then the small, working class rural towns. Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America, a book by Beth Macy, explores the culture of Urbana, Ohio, where she grew up. “What Happened to Ohio?” is an article adapted from the book.

The drinking of alcohol is on a decline. Sloane Crosley considers the drinking culture of authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and asks “How Sober Should a Writer Be?“

Finally, as a reviewer, I’ve gotten a glimpse of the challenges of making ends meet as a writer. David Berry describes “How I Managed to Write a Book without Going (Too) Broke.” It will give you a renewed appreciation of the gift we are given with every book we read and why protecting author’s rights matters so much.

Quote of the Week

Poet and novelist Ciarán Carson was born on October 9, 1948. He puts into words the challenge any of us who write have when trying to express what is in our minds:

“How do you say a thing at all, at the end of the day? How do you say what’s in your mind? And as soon as you say what you actually have in mind, it’s wrong, isn’t it?”

Miscellaneous Musings

Marce Catlett, Wendell Berry’s latest Port William story arrived at my doorstep today. I am so profoundly thankful that Mr. Berry has lived to the age of 91 and continues to bless us with stories, reminding us placeless Americans of the importance of place and community and what we lose when we neglect and lose these.

One example of someone who cares for place is Ethan Tapper. In How to Love a Forest, he recounts his decision to buy a poorly managed piece of forest land in Vermont. Then he narrates vignettes of how he is seeking to restore the land, using his forestry training. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean leaving it alone. From pruning to cutting down diseased and invasive growth, he writes about how humans can promote healthy forests.

David McCullough’s latest book History Matters is a posthumous collection of his essays and lectures, mostly previously unpublished. He recommends a number of others who were influential on him including Paul Horgan and his book, Great River on the Rio Grande. I was so intrigued, I ordered a copy, not noticing the 900+ page count. Thus, I’m hoping for 900 pages of great, readable prose.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Ronald Rohlheiser, Insane for the Light

Tuesday: Terry Patchett, The Color of Magic (Discworld #1)

Wednesday: Gary M. Burge, Galatians and Ephesians (Through Old Testament Eyes)

Thursday: Christin Rathbone, The Asylum Seekers

Friday: Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for October 5-11.

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The Weekly Wrap: September 28-October 4

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The Weekly Wrap: September 28-October 4

Series Love

Thursday dashed my hopes for my beloved Cleveland Guardians making it to the World Series. But the World Championship of baseball isn’t my only series love. I am a book series lover. Why? It’s simple, when you find an author whose writing and ensemble of characters and plots you like, it is a bonus, when there are twenty or more books beside the one you are reading. It makes the choice of what to read next easier.

I’m fond of saying that Louise Penny got me through the pandemic. And her latest hits the stores soon! I want to be Gamache when I grow up. I dream of visiting Myrna Landers bookstore. I’d like to order a sampler of all the good dishes the Bistro serves. And what can I say about Ruth Zardo…

Thanks to a friend’s recommendation, I’ve been reading William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor stories. I just finished number fourteen. But I won’t buy the new one, Apostles Cove, and read out of order. It will likely have spoilers for books I haven’t read yet.

Some series, like this are best read in order, But others can be picked up just about anywhere. I’ve found that true of Agatha Christies Poirots. Although they are numbered, I just read them as I find them. Likewise for the Lord Peter Wimsey books, although the development of his relationship with Harriet Vane occurs over several books.

Alas, there are also the series I haven’t finished. Some, like the Patrick O’Brien Aubrey-Maturin series I can’t really say why. I even have all the books. In the case of another series, I am a couple short, but I just felt the writer was losing her touch and they weren’t as good.

My latest series project, at the behest of my son, is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series which runs to 41 books. Not sure whether I’ll finish that one (or live long enough to do so!) but I finished #1 and will go on to #2. At least I don’t have to wonder what I read next. Thanks to my son, all 41 are loaded on my Kindle.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Since college, I’ve been hearing about Thomas Pynchon. He’s one I’ve never gotten around to reading. After a hiatus, Pynchon has a new novel out, Shadow Ticket. If you are thinking of taking him up, A.O. Scott offers a reading guide in “The Essential Thomas Pynchon.”

My mom was a Leon Uris fan. And so, I read some of his books that she had laying around the house. And if you are of my generation, you can’t forget the music theme, and perhaps the film version of Exodus. Alexander Nazaryan remembers his novels about Israel in “An Exodus from History.”

One of the more popular prints I’ve seen adorning many walls is The Great Wave off Kanagawa. If Japanese wave and ripple patterns fascinate you, Public Domain has posted three volumes of these from a 1903 work by artist Mori Yūzan. The article is: “Hamonshu: A Japanese Book of Wave and Ripple Designs (1903).”

Although my Guardians season is over my love for baseball is not. But a new development, allowing appeals to “robotic umpires” might take some of the magic away. Each umpire has his or her own strike zone. Managers, batters, and pitchers all make it their business to know and part of ‘inside baseball” are all the adjustments. Take that away for an “objective” strike zone and I think the game will lose something. So does Nick Burns, who writes about “The Disenchantment of Baseball.”

Many of us who were around in 1972 were captivated by Cat Stevens’ rendering of an old Christian hymn “Morning Has Broken.” It was number one in the US that year. Over the years, from rough beginnings, he has explored a number of faiths before landing in Islam and taking the name Yusuf Islam. Now, he has published an autobiography. The Guardian ran a review this week: “Cat on the Road to Findout by Yusuf/Cat Stevens review – fame, faith and charity.”

Quote of the Week

Miguel Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547. He wrote:

“In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.“

I wondered if this was the inspiration of the song “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha. It captured the imagination of so many of us in the 1960’s, when many of us dared dream the impossible.

Miscellaneous Musings

Amidst our immigration debates, I’ve wondered why people would leave home, family, community, take perilous journeys, and seek refuge in a country not particularly eager to have them. In The Asylum Seekers, which I’m reading at present, that question is answered. It usually amounts to a life threatened or a family member murdered. It strikes me that the qualities of character such people exhibit suggest the kind of people we’d want to welcome.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine. He wrestles with the wave of technology overwhelming us (did any of us ask for all this AI?). He’s concerned that this threatens something essential to our humanity. Despite the flood of money flowing into this tech boom, it seems to me essential to ask these questions.

The backdrop of William Kent Krueger’s Windigo Island is the trafficking of young girls to satisfy the sexual appetites of men on lake freighters and in oil boom towns. The book underscored the moral unacceptability of this practice, even among billionaire playboys. Whatever comes of the Epstein fiasco, I hope we will determine to be a society with zero tolerance for such crime, which is what it is, and no leniency for traffickers, procurers, and perpetrators.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Kristin M. Colberg and Jos Moons, SJ, The Future of Synodality

Tuesday: Ross Douthat, Believe

Wednesday: David McCullough, History Matters

Thursday: Randy S. Woodley, Shalom and the Community of Creation

Friday: Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for September 28-October 4.

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The Weekly Wrap: September 21-27

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The Weekly Wrap: September 21-27

Pagination

A pet peeve. I recently read a book where I had to read fifty pages before getting to page 1. There was a foreword, preface, and then a biographical sketch of the author and introduction to his work. Following convention, the pages were numbered in lower case Roman numerals. I usually don’t mind these when they are just a few pages. In this case, all this front matter occupied a quarter of the book.

I do like to read this material. It helps me better understand the author and what they intended to accomplish. Yet as a reviewer, I have page goals for each book based on the numbered page count. So, it can be a dilemma. Do I skip the front matter, which I don’t tend to comment on in reviews? Do I take an extra day to read this? Or do I go extra long and read both this and up to my page goal? As I read this, I realize it may sound OCD. But I really get into what the author has written, don’t you?

On the other hand, I’ve come across other books where the first page of text might be numbered page 11. In this case, blurbs, cataloging info, title pages, and contents were counted as pages. It’s nice to be ten pages into a book before I’ve read anything. The one thing all these books have in common is that their page counts represents the Arabic numeral pages, significant when a 200 page book really has 250 pages of text.

My solution? I’d start the front matter with page 1, and eliminate the Roman numerals. Usually title pages, copyright and cataloguing info and contents pages are not numbered. This makes it easier for the reader to know what the length of the book is, and is probably easier for footnoting purposes. And if the front matter is lengthy, it gives the reader a heads up when they learn chapter 1 begins on page 53. Too many times, I’ve wondered, “when is this going to end?”

In the grand scheme of things, this is minor–even picky. But if I were to organize the world…

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of the big novels of the fall is Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know. It is a fictional lookback at our time from a Great Britain of 2119. One preview is that those from the future call our time “The Derangement.” The book is sitting on my TBR. “Ian McEwan Knows History Is an Imperfect Judge” is Sarah Lyall’s review for The New York Times.

I posted a “By the Book” interview with Patricia Lockwood last week. “Patricia Lockwood’s Mind-Opening Experience of Long COVID” is a review of her new novel, Will There Ever Be Another You. Perhaps you are like me and know more people suffering from long COVID than people who died of it. Maybe this will help us be more sympathetic.

I reviewed a book from 1954 the other day. It won a book award. But it, like many other books and other works from the mid-twentieth-century, is fading into oblivion. Or so contends Ted Gioia in “Is Mid-20th Century American Culture Getting Erased?” He asks if any of these great authors, composers, and works exist for Americans under forty.

Children of the Book by Ilana Kurshan is a memoir of the books read together in a Jewish family and how Torah was woven into those readings. In “Between the Covers” Mark Oppenheimer hosts a discussion of the book with Molly Worthen, Ross Douthat, Cyd Oppenheimer, and Stuart Halpern. All five are parents and discuss their own reading practices as families.

Finally, our local news announced that a local data center will be among the first gigawatt consuming data centers in the country. I estimated, after some research that this one data center alone could increase our region’s power consumption by nearly 40 percent! In light of that, “Toward a Just and Sustainable Energy Transition” a review of two books, caught my attention. The article notes that sustainable power generation is not replacing fossil fuels but merely helping to meet increased energy needs.

Quote of the Week

William Faulkner, one of those mid-century writers, was born September 25, 1897. He observed:

“Unless you’re ashamed of yourself now and then, you’re not honest”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’m reading David McCullough’s History Matters, a wonderful posthumous collection of speeches and articles. McCullough notes that one of the criteria he used for book subjects was whether he liked the person, since he would end up spending several years with them, ten in the case of Harry Truman who was the subject of a nearly thousand page biography. I loved reading that book back in the 1990’s and still have it. I think it was my first McCullough book. I’ve since read all the others. I’m so glad for the people he liked enough to spend several years writing about them.

Ronald Rohlheiser’s forthcoming Insane for the Light explores the spirituality of our later years. He uses a phrase to frame this I’ve not heard before–“giving away our deaths.” The book explores how we make our last years, and even our dying, a gift to others. When you notice in obituaries that most people, apart from the long-lived, are either your age or younger, or ten to fifteen years older, it’s something worth thinking about!

You all know I like baseball books. I’m hoping one will be written about this year’s Cleveland Guardians, currently tied for first place in their division. I am a long-suffering Cleveland fan. Could this be the year? Hope springs eternal. With all the setbacks this team has faced, that would be quite a story!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John Calvin, Behold My Servant

Tuesday: Agatha Christie, Hickory Dickory Dock

Wednesday: The Month in Reviews: September 2025

Thursday: Mark S. Hansard, Star Trek and Faith, Volume 1

Friday: William Kent Krueger, Windigo Island

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for September 21-27

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The Weekly Wrap: September 14-20

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The Weekly Wrap: September 14-20

Reading as Resistance

In the past, I’ve been skeptical about Banned Books Weeks. At one time. relatively small numbers of books were being challenged and it almost felt like a ploy for booksellers to sell more books. I’ve always opposed book banning. It is contrary to the American spirit embodied in our first freedoms. But I’ve never opposed parents curating their own children’s book choices. However, it is wrong for a small number to prohibit the circulation of a book for everyone.

In recent years, the number of challenges and bans, and the number of books banned has shot up dramatically. And not only are we speaking of children’s books. We’re talking about books in service academy libraries, books secondary school students would read as well as adults. Many are books by people of color. They reveal the instances when our nation has failed to live up to its professed ideals. Some dissent from current political orthodoxy.

Publishers and authors, regardless of political affiliation are facing threats. Moreover, authors are thinking twice about book tours and other appearances.

Many of us observe encroachments on speech and press freedoms and wonder what we can do. Beyond engaging our elected representatives, may I suggest reading as an act of resistance. Any book can be dangerous, especially in a culture whose siren songs of streaming and digital media lure us from books But I’m particularly thinking of the books “they” don’t want us to read.

Why not find books people have opposed and read them as an act of resistance. Some in my personal library that I’ve not read include Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, Anthony Fauci’s memoir, one of fellow Ohioan Toni Morrison’s books, and several books on climate change. And maybe it’s time to re-read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Buying and reading the books people don’t want read communicates to publishers and authors support for their work. It asserts a freedom not often discussed, the freedom of conscience. And who knows how long we will be able to obtain these books? To even raise the possibility tells us how far things have come. So, something to keep in mind the next time you visit the bookstore.

Five Articles Worth Reading

In a similar vein, Judith Butler writes of “Kafka-land at UC Berkeley.” Specifically, 160 faculty from Berkeley learned that allegations against them have been forwarded to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. They were not informed of the nature of those allegations. The Trial is sounding less and less like fiction.

Phil Christman grew up in a fundamentalist home in Michigan. In “Hope External: Phil Christman’s Prophetic Ambivalence,” reviewer Todd Shy traces the development of Christman’s convictions as he reviews Christman’s new book, Why Christians Should Be Leftists. Whatever you think about the contention in the title, I found Christman’s wrestling with the teaching of Jesus of great interest.

I still have my Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 7th Edition from college. However, Stefan Fatsis asks of our present time: “Is This the End of the Dictionary?” Find out what’s happening to dictionaries.

Then Patricia Lockwood talks books and her longing for an easier way to eat (or be fed) while reading in “Patricia Lockwood Craves an Easier Way to Eat While Reading.” This is the latest installment in the NYT’s “By the Book” series.

Finally, imagine if John Cage set Finnegan’s Wake to music. Actually, he did set a portion to music and you can “Hear Joey Ramone Sing a Piece by John Cage Adapted from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.”

Quote of the Week

Queen of Crime Agatha Christie was born on September 15, 1890. We all would do well to follow her pithy advice about money:

“Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.”

Miscellaneous Musings

The squirrels around our house are busy gathering acorns from my oak tree. Likewise, my TBR pile grew this week with a posthumous work by David McCullough and a new history of the Edmund Fitzgerald..

Meanwhile, our “sell back” pile is also growing to the point that it’s time for another trip to Half Price Books. Not only do we usually walk out with cash in our pockets but we go on Tuesdays, which is “Golden Buckeye” day, worth an extra 10% off what we buy. In other words–senior savvy!

Lastly, I’m reminded of the gift of good translations. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is one of my favorite biblical texts. Robert White has recently translated seven sermons of John Calvin on this passage from the French and they read like contemporary preaching–or better.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Tony Campolo, Pilgrim: A Theological Memoir

Tuesday: C. P. Snow, The New Men

Wednesday: Robert F. Smith, Lead Boldly: Seven Principles From Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thursday: Kimberly Hope Belcher and David A. Clairmont, Accountability, Healing, and Trust

Friday: Shane J. Wood, Thinning the Veil

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for September 14-20.

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The Weekly Wrap: September 7-13

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The Weekly Wrap: September 7-13

Reading and Attention

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

These words of Mary Oliver are watchwords for my life. Arlo Guthrie, in the song “Prologue” touched on this same idea when he asked:

“Who’ll be awake when the master returns
Who will be lost in their dreams“

Attention, or attentiveness has increasingly impressed me as one of the most important qualities we need to possess, besides love, to live well. Whether paying attention to what one’s spouse, or another is saying to us, giving proper attention to the details that make for excellence in our work, or staying awake for the master’s return–attentiveness matters.

Reading both requires attention and can make us attentive. Exploring the inner world of a character trains us in empathy, a particular form of attentiveness. Sometimes, a character shines a light on our own moral failures, or inspires us to moral excellence. Then there are those books that open our eyes to a larger vision of the fabric of life and the grand story of which we are a part.

Finally, I think of the books that waken me to the rising temperature of the water in which I swim. Two examples for me are Shoshana’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny (of course, if I had read Hannah Arendt earlier, these books would have been superfluous!).

To be lost in dreams may be pleasant while being awake may mean facing a nightmare. But I’d rather be fully alive and trust that I’ll be given the wherewithal to meet whatever life serves up. And books will be among my companions on that journey

Five Articles Worth Reading

“Inarguably, the platform is the emerging locus of the literary world, and may swallow it completely in the next five years.” Ross Barkan makes this contention about Substack (on Substack) in “The Love Affairs of Prestige.” He argues that Substack newsletter reviews of books often get more attention than print reviews in literary magazines. I subscribe to a number of Substack writers and have posted some here. And it has me thinking about making some kind of move in this direction.

Speaking of Substack, Anne Trubek picks up the thread of discussion on the low rates of reading in “How to Read More.” She offers a number of practical tips including the fact that you can download 10 percent of an e-book for free on Amazon. That’s usually enough to tell you if it’s worth plunking down good money.

Sarah Chihaya review Susan Choi’s new Flashlight in “Illuminations.” Many of you will remember her from her 2019 Trust Exercise. Flashlight has been longlisted for a National Book Award in Fiction for 2025.

Pan by Michael Clune explores in fiction the very real experience of extreme anxiety that comes in the form of panic attacks. Scott Stossel review the book in “Panic Attacks and the Meaning of Life.”

Finally, on the 50th anniversary of Salem’s Lot, Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King, and a horror novelist as well, explains what made the novel so terrifying, and what it was like being Stephen King’s son in the wake of that book. The New York Times article, “So You Think Stephen King Has Scared You? Try Being His Son,” is paywall-free.

Quote of the Week

Novelist D.H. Lawrence, born September 11, 1885, wrote:

“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.”

That’s a personal aspiration I embrace!

Miscellaneous Musings

When I worked in campus ministry, I loved times of open questions from students. It seems the very best of what our universities and our democracy is about, so I was grieved to learn of the murder of Charlie Kirk in the midst of such a dialogue. I grieve for his wife and children. Words, not weapons. Ballots, not bullets. I know its complicated and I have friends whose lives were threatened because of Kirk who find it more difficult to grieve. Amid my grief, and all our complicated feelings, I am more deeply convinced of the importance of free speech and a free press, including book publishing without censorship or reprisals for anyone. It is the speech of freedom.

It is book award season and my newsfeed has been flooded with longlists, shortlists, and award announcements. I’m curious how widely many of these books are read. Here are the longlists announced so far for the National Book Awards. I’d love to know how many readers have heard of and how many they’ve read.

I don’t need a book club to get me to read. But I’m part of an online group that discusses religious books each Thursday. Currently, we are reading The Message of Psalms by Walter Brueggemann. It’s rich, and our discussions are “iron sharpening iron.” I’m grateful for this group that lasted through the pandemic and beyond.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Michelle Van Loon, Downsizing

Tuesday: Dorothy L. Sayers, Hangman’s Holiday

Wednesday: R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

Thursday: J. Daniel Hays, The Ichthus Christogram and Other Early Christian Symbols

Friday: Jeff Crosby, World of Wonders

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for September 7-13.

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The Weekly Wrap: August 31-September 6

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The Weekly Wrap: August 31-September 6

Reading and Spirituality

I see a lot of memes and quotes from bibliophiles. Sometimes I think that there is a religion of bibliophilia. Libraries are our temples and bookstores our local places of assembly. And books are a way of life. I fear I sometimes proselytize for that faith.

I’ve recently picked up Jeff Crosby’s new World of Wonders, subtitled “a spirituality of reading.” He reminds me that there is a difference between reading as one’s spirituality and how reading might be part of a more encompassing spirituality.

It’s interesting that sacred texts ground many of our major religions. We not only experience the spiritual but understood it through the reading of texts. My own faith, Christianity considers words quite important. God speaks the cosmos into existence. And One who was the Incarnate Word accomplishes our salvation.

Therefore, it is not much of a leap to see reading as something that discloses a “world of wonders.” Reading helps me make sense of the world as well as imagine what could be. Reading has helped me to probe the ineffable and challenged me with the practical implications of loving God and neighborhood. Through biographies, I’ve been mentored by people I’ve never met.

Although I could go on, I’ll just say reading is one of the practices that shapes my spiritual life. However it is not my spiritual life. Rather, reading provides signposts and trail blazes for the journey. And reading captures and holds my imagination in hope amid the world’s bleakness.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Agnes Callard has led a revival of sorts in interest in Socratic philosophy. Mary Townsend reviews Open Socrates, Callard’s latest book in “Agnes Callard’s Insistent Answers to Life’s Deepest Questions.”

But is there a hubris in our flights of philosophy, particularly when we act with abusive superiority over other creatures? William Egginton reviews Christine Webb’s The Arrogant Ape in “Think You’re at the Top of the Food Chain? Think Again.” He also pushes back on her critique of “human exceptionalism.”

Lauren Grodstein is a novelist whose fiction includes a novel set in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. In “What I Learned From the Georgia Protests” she reflects on how Georgians defense of democracy challenged her.

‘Dark academia” is a thing, I’m learning. “Dark Academia Grows Up” uses R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis to explore these questions; “What is the magic that scholars find in the academy?… What are the wrongs they’re asked to quietly endure—the things that make academia, so to speak, dark? And is the magic worth the darkness?”

Finally, Nick Burns contends “AI Isn’t Biased Enough.” While AI has biased based on the material used to train it, AI has no intellectual commitments, no personal biases. It responds sympathetically, even agreeably to whoever engages it–fascist or social progressive. Humans don’t do that, which Burns argues is a good thing.

Quote of the Week

Novelist Frank Yerby, born September 5, 1916, observed:

“Maturity is reached the day we don’t need to be lied to about anything.”

If he’s right, the quote suggests to me that some may never reach maturity!

Miscellaneous Musings

I haven’t read any Dorothy L. Sayers for several years. But recently I picked up a collection of short stories by her featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg. As a result, the stories remind me of both what an exquisite writer Sayers is, and how delightful Wimsey and Egg are as characters!

My son picked up the first of Martha Wells Murderbot series, and all of a sudden I am hearing how good this series is. This piques my interest!

Finally, Buckeye dropped this week and everyone seems astir about this novel set in small town Ohio. So, I picked up a copy to see how true to life it is for this native Buckeye!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John H. Walton with J. Harvey Walton, New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis

Tuesday: Clemency Burton-Hill, Year of Wonder

Wednesday: Janet Kellogg Ray, The God of Monkey Science

Thursday: Miroslav Volf, The Cost of Ambition

Friday: Andrew J. Bauman, Safe Church

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 31-September 6

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The Weekly Wrap: August 24-30

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The Weekly Wrap: August 24-30

Old Reviews

Earlier this month I marked twelve years of blogging. Consequently, I’ve written a lot, and its all still here! This is my 3,846th post. Over the 12 years my posts have been viewed over two million times.

I don’t often think about what I was writing about in 2015. But I’ve been going back through my old posts, aware that there are a number of broken links. And I’ve been staggered by how many of those links I am finding.

The saddest experience is discovering bookstores that I wrote about that have closed (on the other hand, I wrote about Barnes & Noble when it looked like it was in trouble). The second saddest thing is to discover books that I reviewed, some newly published at the time, now out of print.

It makes me wonder about the value of reviewing. Why bother when a number of these books will go out of print within ten years?

Part of the answer is that reviews matter most close to the time of publication, when authors and publishers are launching the book. Yet a number of books have caught on over time by word of mouth. When I review backlist books, I’m part of that chain.

Another part of the answer is that past reviews serve as a reference point in the discussion of works that continue to have a readership. I consult other reviews of backlist books when I write mine and try to add to the discussion.

In the end, I can live with reviews being ephemeral. The book is the thing. I love pointing people to books I thought worth reviewing and encouraging a reading culture. In the end, it really doesn’t matter where they heard about the book if they profited from it.

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of the big book launches of the week is R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, in which two graduates go to Hell to retrieve the soul of their Ph.D. advisor. “In ‘Katabasis,’ R.F. Kuang Takes Readers to Hell“, is Kiersten White’s take for The New York Times

This is hardly the first time a descent into Hell has been the subject of a literary work. Perhaps the most famous is Dante’s Divine Comedy. In “Digesting Dante” Richard Hughes Gibson traces the history of the work’s reception and shows that its success was not always a given.

Another aspect of Katabasis is that the students are studying “Magick.” Richard Cytowic, in “When Your Father Is a Magician, What Do You Believe?” describes the influence growing up with a real-life magician had on him.

For some of us, reading Moby Dick was a kind of descent into Hell, particularly if we had to read it in high school. Caleb Crain describes what fresh insight came when he read the book when he was Ahab’s age in “Another cruise.”

Finally, on a lighter note, many of us have read Shakespeare’s plays or seen them performed in other venues. Through “Take a Virtual Tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London” you can get a 360 view of the theatre and see a clip from Julius Caesar, staged in the theatre.

Quote of the Week

Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. made this observation that I hope to fulfill in serving as a guest preacher in my church;

“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Katabasis raises an interesting question. For what would you forfeit thirty years of your life? That is the price of admission for entering Hell.

I had one of my rare experiences weekly of walking out of a bookstore bookless. I went to Barnes & Noble to check off their 50% off hardcovers sale. A few near misses but nothing that said “buy me.” I was probably aware of the queue of books in my TBR pile.

For the theologically oriented, Michael J. Gorman’s I Corinthians is one of the best recent commentaries I’ve read. His concluding reflections and questions in each section of the commentary combined with his clear exegesis make this a great commentary that brings knowledge and devotion together. I’ll be reviewing it next Friday. Speaking of which…

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: The Month in Reviews: August 2025

Tuesday: Malcolm Foley, The Anti-Greed Gospel

Wednesday: Christopher Sadowitz & Jim Harries eds., Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, but God

Thursday: John W. Miller, The Last Manager

Friday: Michael J. Gorman, 1 Corinthians

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 24-30!

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The Weekly Wrap: August 17-23

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The Weekly Wrap: August 17-23

An Alarming Decline

The American Time Use Study came out and it contributes to the evidence of a decline in reading. Between 2003 and 2023, the study indicated that the number of adults who read for leisure dropped from nearly 40 percent to 16 percent. Only 2 percent of adults read to children. The only encouraging statistics was that the time for those who do read for leisure was up from an hour and 23 minutes to an hour and 37 minutes. And those increased book sales during COVID? It turns out, this was not because of more readers but readers buying more books.

So who reads? The highest percentage of readers are found among women who identify as white, are older, more educated, have greater family wealth, live in cities and do not have a disability that would hinder reader. That maps well with the demographics I see at Bob on Books.

So what does this mean for our society? What do we lose when less of us read longer form stories and arguments? Will we become more gullible to the emotional, simplistic appeal? And is that a cultural good?

Finally, I wonder how we change such a culture. I don’t think we can shame people into reading more books. I wonder if other media could offer book tie-ins as a way to pursue something that interested a viewer or listener. But for children, I think there is no substitute for read-alouds, especially in family settings. I’m saddened that many parents are missing the delicious experience of reading together with their children. Also, children like to imitate parents, and so they will tend to read when they see mom and dad reading. Why not do that at least one night a week instead of screen time?

Five Articles Worth Reading

Beverly Gage reminds us that concerns about anti-intellectualism, especially with regard to higher education is not new in “The American University Is in Crisis. Not for the First Time.“

However, our libraries are one bulwark against intellectual decline. “How Libraries Stand the Test of Time” traces the history and continuing evolution of libraries in our digital age.

Having worked in college ministry at Ohio State, I learned of “Origins” an e-zine of historical studies. “James Baldwin and the Atlanta Child Murders” chronicles in text and images Baldwin’s conclusions of the underlying causes behind the murder that constituted his las book, The Evidence of Things not Seen.

Brian Phillips offers a spirited defense of the em dash–that punctuation mark I just used–in “Stop AI-Shaming Our Precious, Kindly Em Dashes—Please.” He argues that people have been attributing the em dash to AI-produced work when it has been a time honored punctuation mark used by writers. And he argues that it likely appears in AI works trained on the output of those writers.

Lastly, I’ve noticed the chorus of cicadas on my evening walks in recent weeks. Little did I know that those choruses inspired ancient poets to write odes to this most unusual creature. Natalie Zarrelli offers an account of this in “‘O, Shrill-Voiced Insect’: The Cicada Poems of Ancient Greece.”

Quote of the Week

While thinking about the decline of reading, I came across this quote from Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, born August 22, 1920.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

I’ll leave it you to decide if you think Bradbury was right.

Miscellaneous Musings

There seems to be a lot of buzz about R.F. Kuang’s book, Katabasis, just about to drop next week. I’m intrigued by a story set in a graduate program, given that I worked with graduate students for many years. Just got a note that my pre-ordered copy is shipping.

After reviewing Ron Chernow’s 1000+ page Mark Twain, I indulged in an enjoyable change of pace in reviewing a delightful 32 page illustrated children’s book, Charlie Can’t Sleep!, a wonderful book for anyone afraid to fall asleep.

Jeff Crosby’s World of Wonders, a book I’ve long-awaited arrived this week. Jeff writes about reading for spiritual growth, a passion of mine. There is more to spiritual life than reading, but the most insightful writers I’ve read on the spiritual life all have one thing in common. They read.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Kevin Vanhoozer, Mere Christian Hermeneutics

Tuesday: Ali Smith, Gliff

Wednesday: Wafik W. Wahba, Global Christianity and Islam

Thursday: J.R.R. Toilkien (translator), Christopher Tolkien (editor), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo

Friday: Tracey Gee, The Magic of Knowing What You Want

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 17-23!

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The Weekly Wrap: August 10-16

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The Weekly Wrap: August 10-16

Reading Like Terry Gross

I’m a very different reader than Terry Gross, who has interviewed hundreds of authors on her Fresh Air program. She recently dropped a video on Facebook describing her process. Our biggest difference is that she destroys her books and I don’t. The video shows a shelf of her books with probably a third of the pages dog-eared. She dog-ears a page with quotes or ideas she wants to remember, which she circles. Gross dog-ears the bottom of pages she wants to use in her introduction. She notes key themes of the book on the frontispiece. I sell many books after she reviews them. She obviously doesn’t.

We do have some things in common. We both read the books we are reviewing or discussing in interviews. I don’t have the luxury of a staff to do this for me, but Gross reads the books herself. I read any book I review beginning to end. And I also pay attention to acknowledgements and prologues. They often set out what the author is trying to do. I’m always thinking as I read–“are they succeeding in their aim?”.

Where we differ is that I may bookmark or use a post-it note for quotes. I keep up a mental dialogue with the plot or argument. Because I re-sell many books, I don’t mark them up. And because I do daily blog posts rather than longer interviews, I try to keep my reviews between 500 and 1000 words. I’d be tempted, I think, to go much longer with Gross’s method.

However, Gross is a master at the craft and it never hurts to learn from a master!

Five Articles Worth Reading

Most of us think of MIT as a center of technology. However, this week’s Atlantic includes an article from a professor, Joshua Bennett, on “Why So Many MIT Students Are Writing Poetry.” And it’s not even for a class!

C.S. Lewis was no fan of existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, whose writing he described as  “walking in sawdust.” Nevertheless, James Como argues that there is a congruency between the two of them in “On His Existential Way.” 

Most of us have lived our whole lives under the shadow of the atom bomb. For example, I was born on the somber anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Thus, on the recent eightieth anniversary of that bombing, Peter Hitchens article, “The Empire of the Atom” seems appropriate.

When you think of road trip books, does Jack Kerouac’s On the Road come to mind? I’ll be honest and say I’m not a fan. Thankfully, there are some other road trip books that are better. Here are “18 Great Road Trip Books That Aren’t ‘On the Road’“.

We bibliophiles are lovers of words. The only thing that could be better is a list of words about bibliophiles. And that’s what we have in “22 Perfect Words About Books and Reading.”

Quote of the Week

I loved this “pungent” insight from poet Robert Southey, born August 12, 1774.

“If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.”

Miscellaneous Musings

This week, I reviewed a theological memoir by Gerhard Lohfink, a book he completed shortly before his death in 2024. In short, I loved his testimony about his belief in God and how he sought to live his scholarship. As a result, I ordered a couple more of his books, something I reserve for authors I really love.

Terry Gross also mentioned she prefers books under 300 pages, which she thinks is enough for any author to say his or her piece. She notes, interviewers have to sleep too! I laughed, because I had just finished Ron Chernow’s 1000+ page account of Mark Twain. I know he writes really long books, but I think this could have been shorter.

Finally, I’ve been delighting in J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. If you ever wanted a crash course in chivalry, it’s all here. He even resists seduction by his host’s wife three times without turning her into “the woman scorned.”

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man

Tuesday: Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Wednesday: Regin V. Cates, The Real Conversation Jesus Wants Us to Have

Thursday: Ron Chernow, Mark Twain

Friday: Rachel Joy Welcher, Charlie Can’t Sleep!

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 10-16!

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

The Weekly Wrap: August 3-9

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The Weekly Wrap: August 3-9

Readers

What do Italo Calvino and Kevin Vanhoozer have in common? One was an Italian novelist. The other is a theologian who focuses on hermeneutics, the discipline of biblical interpretation. I am reading both right now and one of their shared concerns is readers.

I’m reading Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler, a novel about a reader who reads the first chapter of ten novels while developing a relationship with a woman, Ludmilla. However, the narrator directly addresses the reader between the stories, discussing how we read and the ‘you” he addresses becomes a part of the story.

Vanhoozer’s concern is different. He considers various reading strategies with which we approach reading the Bible. Behind all this, Vanhoozer explores what it means to believe that through scripture, God addresses us, and what this means for reading.

What strikes me is that most of the time, readers, I think, feel like bit players in the scheme of books, authors, publishers, the book trade, and libraries. Yet the reality is that none of this would exist apart from the reader.

We read for many reasons from necessity at school or work to diversion to illumination. But one thing all have in common is attention. Readers are people who fend off distraction to open their minds to another. At our best, we lay aside our preconceptions as best we can to understand what they author is trying to give us in his or her words. Then we ponder that, comparing it to and fitting into our experience and understanding.

If nothing else, it strikes me that we engage in quite a wonderful thing every time we pick up a book and read. We honor the writer, and all those who labored to bring us the book, by giving these words, and the meaning they convey, access to our inner lives. And that is no small thing.

Five Articles Worth Reading

In “The Kafka Challenge,” Paul Reitter considers the challenges of translating Franz Kafka’s works. Indeed, he invokes George Steiner’s idea of untranslatability. Some things cannot be fully conveyed from one language to another.

Yet translating Kafka may be important for understanding our present time in the U.S. So contends Sasha Abramsky in “We’ve Officially Entered Kafka’s America” as he considers the apprehension of a Libyan refugee who legally entered the country fifteen years ago. What is chilling is how difficult, if impossible, it is to gain the release of detainees even when it is shown they were wrongfully detained, due to quotas that must be met.

The year 2012 was the peak year globally for live births, with rates falling in many countries. And in many countries, less than two children for each two adults are being born. “After the Spike: What Slow and Steady Depopulation Means For the World” considers the implication of these population trends.

I’ll admit it. I’m partial to Ohio authors. Zane Grey wrote a series of Western novels, the most famous of which was Riders of the Purple Sage. His real first name was Pearl. In addition to harking back to his home town of Zanesville, Zane just seems a better name for a writer of Westerns. What I didn’t know is that a fishing expedition off the coast of Australia lat in life endeared him to Australians and may have inspired Ernest Hemingway. Read about it in “Why is a cowboy writer from Ohio venerated in a small Aussie beach town? The incredible story of Zane Grey.”

Finally, imagine cleaning out a home library and finding a rare first edition of The Hobbit. “A Rare Copy of ‘The Hobbit’ Is Found on an Unassuming Shelf” recounts how that happened in a home in Bristol, England, and how much this find may end up being worth.

Quote of the Week

Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and I share a birthday, August 6. He made this trenchant observation, so relevant in our “post truth” era:

“A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.”

I wonder if we still believe that.

Miscellaneous Musings

If romance fiction is among your loves, today is Bookstore Romance Day at your nearest independent bookstore. Now you have that excuse to go to the bookstore (as if you needed one).

One of the nicest birthday greetings I received on my Facebook profile came from a publicist at one of the publishers for which I regularly review books. She wrote, “Happy birthday to one of my favorite book lovers! Hope you have a great day!” I did, and I would add, she is one of my favorite publicists.

A former colleague, Tracy Gee, recently published The Magic of Knowing What You Want. She asks a question we rarely ask ourselves “What do you want?” I found that an important question in my own vocational journey and I’m enjoying how she unpacks figuring that out.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John D. Wilsey, Religious Freedom

Tuesday: Agatha Christie, Peril at End House

Wednesday: Meryl Herr, When Work Hurts

Thursday: Michael Innes, What Happened at Hazelwood

Friday: Gerhard Lohfink, Why I Believe in God

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 3-9!

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