Curated literary articles

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

The Weekly Wrap: July 27-August 2

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The Weekly Wrap: July 27-August 2

Reading Logs

The story began with a post from the Columbus Metropolitan Library about one of their patrons who recently passed. What was extraordinary about Dan Pelzer was that he kept a hand-written log of all the books he read between 1962 and 2023, 3599 in all! His family created a website reproducing the log. The story was subsequently picked up in the national media including The New York Times and Smithsonian Magazine (one of the five articles below).

I was intrigued in part because Dan Pelzer was from my home town of Columbus. But also, I have kept a reading log since the early 1980’s, when it was a hand-written list like Pelzer’s and since 2011 on Goodreads. And since February of 2014 my Month in Reviews posts list all the books I’ve read. And from the running tally I kept on the hand-written list and my Goodreads tally, I think I may have Pelzer beat! I need to do some work since the lists may overlap.

The value of the reading log, in whatever form is not only that it reminds me of what I’ve read (sometimes saving me from re-buying a book I’ve read). It also is a kind of record of my life. Looking back at what I’ve read reminds me of what we were talking about at the time.

Part of me wishes I’d kept up the hand-written tally. This would allow me (and perhaps my family) to have this all in one place. I don’t expect a Times story. I also wish I’d begun this practice earlier. I’ve always been a reader.] I would love to reconstruct my reading list from the 1970’s!

Five Articles Worth Reading

“This Man Kept a Meticulous List of All 3,599 Books He’d Read Since 1962. When He Died, His Family Published It Online.” This article tells Dan Pelzer’s story, includes local coverage and interviews with family and link’s to Dan’s list. Perhaps this will inspire you!

Speaking of lists, “W.H. Auden’s 1941 Syllabus Asked Students to Read 32 Great Literary Works, Totaling 6,000 Pages.” Educators complain about not being able to get students to read a complete book. For a sixteen week semester, students probably needed to read 400 pages a week. And this was for one class!

“In Defense of Laughter” explores the humorist art of Dave Barry and how challenging it is to be funny in print.

In “Colony, Aviary and Zoo,” David Denby, a literary critic, explores the distinctive brand of literary criticism featured in The Partisan Review. He described their editorial approach as “a demand for intellectual toughness, for originality and force, for an end to rote position-taking and inane redemption narratives.” The article gives a flavor of the New York intellectual scene in the mid-century.

Finally, Sadie Stein writes about “My Love-Hate Relationship With Hans Christian Andersen.” And I agree. The Little Match Girl” might rank among the saddest of stories.

Quote of the Week

Emily Brontë was born on July 30, 1818. She made this pithy observation that we might use to evaluate the actions of all our public officials:

“Honest people don’t hide their deeds.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I used to be able to read with instrumental music in the background or in noisy coffee shops. That is not so true anymore. With all but the lightest reading, I need silence. Perhaps it is because I’m operating on fewer brain cells. But writing is different for some reason. I have Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance playing in the background as I write this post.

Self-knowledge, both of what we do well and enjoy doing, and what we do not do well, is a gift. For example, Mark Twain was a great humorist and writer and a great lecturer. Had he stuck to that he would have enlarged the fortune his wife Livy brought to their marriage. Sadly, he tried to be a publisher and entrepreneur pursuing an ill-begotten typesetting machine. He did not have good business sense and imperiled his family’s finances. One of the lessons from Chernow’s biography of Twain.

I won’t be purchasing this but The Folio Society is selling finely bound and illustrated sets of Jane Austen’s six major works. Only 750 will be published at $250 per set, to celebrate her 250th birthday. You can read about it in “The Folio Society Celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday with Limited Edition Box Set.” Perhaps this is as good a time as any to confess that I’ve never read Austen. Maybe I ought to get onto that!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Jerome W. Berryman, Teaching Godly Play

Tuesday: William Kent Krueger, Tamarack County

Wednesday: Charles McNamara, Learning to be Fair

Thursday: Georges Simenon, The Late Monsieur Gallet

Friday: Walter R. Strickland II, Swing Low: An Anthology of Black Christianity in America (Volume 2)

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 27-August 2!

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

The Weekly Wrap: July 20-26

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The Weekly Wrap: July 20-26

Reading While Retired

I received a number of unexpected responses when I asked people how they found more time to read in a recent Facebook page post. One of the top responses was “retirement.”

That makes sense when you think about it. Work and work-related activities take a huge chunk out of our days. I retired last fall, and I read more. I enjoy getting a second cup of coffee and leisurely reading rather than logging onto a Zoom call or heading out for a meeting. And we’ve all heard how reading can keep us cognitively sharp!

This made me wonder if booksellers and publishers have “retirees” on their radar. I don’t see that in most of the newsletters I read. Not only do we have more time to read. We also have more time to shop for books!

My hunch is that most are less interested in the trendy than writers who tell a good story or help them make sense of their lives and our changing society. But I have not studied this systematically. Google’s AI tells me:

“Retirees’ reading interests are quite diverse, often including historical fiction, mysteries, classics, and books that explore themes of aging, relationships, and personal growth. They also enjoy literature that sparks conversation and engagement, like those often selected for book clubs.”

That tracks with my impressions. And I’m left wondering whether this is an untapped, or at least, unheeded market.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Among the classics of literature are books written in languages other than English. In “A Question of Purpose,” Gary Saul Morson considers the challenge of translating Russian works and argues that the most important factor is the purpose of the translation. He also contends that some of the recent well-received translations “are a disaster.”

I’ve seen recent ads featuring a star basketball “reading” but in reality playing a videogame. But there are athletes who read. “‘Literature has completely changed my life’: footballer Héctor Bellerín’s reading list” chronicles the soccer player’s impressive reading habits. But speaking of translations, he needed to read Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in Spanish. Frankly, I’m impressed with someone reading that in any language.

Universities have been in crisis in recent years. This precedes the most recent administration’s attacks, which I believe are only worsening the situation. “Eight Books That Explain the University Crisis” is a helpful list to understand what has been happening in higher education over the last fifty years. While universities can’t do everything, they are a cultural “pillar” that must not be lost but strengthened and renewed.

You might have accessed this blog on social media. But for some people, social media occupies an outsized and unhealthy space in their lives. “Living a Life of Appstinence” is a conversation with Gabriela Nguyen about the Appstinence collective she leads and her 5D Method for getting off social media.

Finally, many of us know of bookstores for which one of their most endearing qualities is the bookstore cat or dog. Elizabeth Egan embarked on a cross-country journey to chronicle this phenomenon. In her photo-rich essay, “More Purring, More Buying? Why Bookstores Showcase Their Pets,” we learn the pets go far beyond just cats and dogs!

Quote of the Week

Poet Robert Graves was born on July 24, 1895. He commented:

“There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.”

Some contemporary poets have confirmed the truth of his observation!

Miscellaneous Musings

Book clubs are perennially popular ways for gathering people. In recent years, various kinds of reading parties have gathered folks. Bookriot featured an article yesterday on “Everything You Need for a Reading Picnic.” With our torrid summers, I wonder whether spring or fall are better seasons to try this idea.

Well, I’ve taken the plunge–not into a pool–but into Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain. I’m a hundred pages in with over 900 to go. Like everything else I’ve read of Chernow’s, it’s an engrossing read. Look for my review of it in about a month!

An article by Danika Ellis caught my eye yesterday. “All 50 of the Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week are by White Authors” wonders why more people aren’t reading works by people of color. I would agree with her that there are some incredible writers. But for those of us who are white, it means some intentional effort to learn about them–but one I’ve found well worth the effort.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Frank Thielman, Paul: Apostle of Grace

Tuesday: Hans Madueme, Does Science Make God Irrelevant

Wednesday: Carlos Eire, The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila

Thursday: Sandra L. Richter, Abigail and the Waterfall (a children’s book!)

Friday: The Month in Reviews: July 2025

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 20-26!

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

The Weekly Wrap: July 13-19

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The Weekly Wrap: July 13-19

Life is Short; Read Slowly

I saw a meme yesterday that said “Life is short. Read fast.”

There is no arguing with the first three words. Particularly for those of us growing older. The weeks and months just seem to pass more quickly. And we realize that the passage of time is inexorably pulling us to our own passing. It’s always been true. It’s just more real than ever.

I think there is something in booklovers that tries to defy mortality by trying to read everything we can. Impossible as it seems, we want to read all the books.

Reading good books slowly seems counter-intuitive. Instead, I would propose that reading slowly, savoring words and ideas and stories is the way we transform fleeting moments into full ones. And consider, in the end, will the number of books we’ve read matter?

Augustine wrote of his own journey toward God that “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” Whether or not you accept Augustine’s idea, I can’t help but wonder if our frenzied ideas about reading arise from restless hearts. By the same token might one sign of the heart at rest be the capacity to be fully present to this book, this author in front of me, setting aside thoughts of unread books and TBR piles.

Your thoughts?

Five Articles Worth Reading

Ever wonder about the origins of the library? In “No Cheese Please,” Anthony Grafton reviews two books tracing their rise to the personal studies/libraries of Renaissance intellectuals.

One of the surprises of our present time is the attack upon empathy. In “How Empathy Became a Threat” Jennifer Szalai explores why some people consider empathy a bad thing. She features some recent books that make this case.

Poet Andrea Gibson died this past Monday of ovarian cancer. “Andrea Gibson Refused to ‘Battle’ Cancer” describes Gibson’s decision to refuse to “battle” the cancer and the joy they {preferred pronoun) experienced in their last years of life.

W.E.B. Du Bois is known to us as a writer but he was also a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. In the early 1900’s, as part of his research, he hand-drew a number of infographics of African-American life. In “W. E. B. Du Bois’ Hand-Drawn Infographics of African-American Life (1900)” these are strikingly reproduced, offering a demographic “snapshot” of the African-American community at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Lastly, calling all Calvin and Hobbes fans out there! Many of us felt Bill Watterson’s strips a brief shining moment in comic strip history. Barry Petchesky focuses in on “the private derangement of the average 6-year-old boy” in “Calvin And Hobbes’s Gruesome Snowmen Were A World All Their Own.”

Quote of the Week

Shirley Hughes was a children’s author and illustrator, born July 16, 1927. She said of herself:

“I never am bored. I don’t suffer from boredom. But if I have nothing to do, I wander about the garden and chat to my friends and family.”

I can’t recall who said it but a similar saying is that “there are no bored people, only boring ones.” Hughes said it more gently. This also reminds me of Pascal’s statement: “All of humanity’s problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Last week I posted an article by David Brooks exploring the “decline” of literary fiction. It turns out literary fiction writer and bookstore owner Ann Patchett is having none of it. She posted this rejoinder to Brooks at the Facebook page for Parnassus Books. I’d love to see them in conversation!

I love when authors use a few words to say a lot. For example, I’m reading Hans Madeume’s Does Science Make God Irrelevant? I’ve read much longer books on the same topic that say little more than Madeume does in a trim booklet of 96 pages.

I just began reading Tamarack County, number thirteen in William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series, which meant I only had eight to go until I learned that the twenty-first book, Apostle’s Cove is due to come out September 2. Yes!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu

Tuesday: Stuart M. Kaminsky, Black Knight in Red Square

Wednesday; Anthony T. Kronman, True Conservatism

Thursday: Keith Long, Doubting Faithfully

Friday: Graham Greene, Loser Take All

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 13-19!

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

The Weekly Wrap: July 6 -12

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The Weekly Wrap: July 6-12

The Great Conversation

Mortimer Adler, in connection with the Great Books series of yesteryear, used the phrase “the great conversation.” While Adler’s project continues to be admired and emulated by some and criticized by others, I’ve always been enthralled with the idea of the Great Conversation.

Adler, and his colleague Robert Hutchins believed that when we read “the classics” we joined a great conversation that has stretched through the ages about important ideas: God, meaning, love, the good society and more. Later writers recur to, disagree with, and build on earlier ones.

I just began reading Anthony T. Kronman’s True Conservatism and he discusses the idea of “making friends with the dead.” Kronman is another, with his own canon, who teaches a version of “Great Books.” He argues that true conservatism, unlike the current left or right, maintains friendship with great thinkers of former generations. Otherwise, our thinking ceases to be “humane” and has a kind of “cut flower” existence. Instead, we are just pragmatists after whatever we think will work. We remove ourselves from, rather than build on, and preserve the wisdom of the past.

This makes sense to me. As a Christian, I’ve spent my life reading and re-reading a 2000 year old text, and the reflections on that text of the likes of Augustine, Aquinas, Athanasius, Origen, Luther, Teresa of Avila, and many more. When I do so, I’m “communing with the saints” and joining their conversation.

But isn’t this always, to some extent what we do whenever we read? We open our minds to another mind. Our reading list, whatever it is, represents a conversation with a number of people. And we come away changed. But it does give me pause. As in in-person conversations, these literary conversations can uplift, illumine, and inspire, or speak to our baser selves and the darker instincts of fear and suspicion. What kind of conversations do your books represent?

Five Articles Worth Reading

David Brooks published an op-ed piece this week on “When Novels Mattered.” He explores the decline of literary fiction and its correlates, concluding with a note of hope about rising young writers.

“Novels are better than television, but the surest way to make money from novels is to write with television in mind.” This is the contention behind Lisa Borst’s “New TV Novels.” Perhaps this is another reason for the decline of the novel Brooks laments.

Constance Grady explores “The truth behind the endless “kids can’t read” discourse.” Her conclusions after wading through piles of research: “US schools have never done a very good job at teaching kids to read, but it seems as though there’s meaningful evidence that we’re doing a worse job right now. While high-achieving kids are still reading the way they’ve read for decades, the ones to whom reading doesn’t come easily are failing more now than they used to.”

Yesterday was the birthday of E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web and other children’s books as well as co-author of the classic Elements of Style. In Lit Hub article, Sam Weller collects “Writing Advice and Literary Wisdom from the Great E.B. White.”

Remember Westerns? “A Tale of Two Westerns” explores the trajectories of two Western novels that turn forty this year. One is Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, a huge success at the time that was turned into a mini-series. The other was Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, which received little notice at the time but has grown in literary stature.

Quote of the Week

This quote by Marcel Proust, born July 10, 1871, has me thinking:

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I took the plunge and put in a preorder with Barnes & Noble for four books coming out this fall. (They had a 25% discount, plus my B & N membership, so I saved about $40. Sadly, the discount ended yesterday.) Buckeye by Ryan Patrick has received acclaim and is set in my home state of Ohio. I read whatever R. F. Kuang publishes and so I ordered her forthcoming Katabasis. There is a posthumous collection of David McCullough essays titled History Matters. It does, in my opinion, and I’ve read everything of McCullough’s. Finally, Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm is Charles Mackesy’s sequel to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse.

Just to whet your appetite if you didn’t read the E. B. White article, I loved this quote:

“Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth. They accept, almost without question, anything you present them with, as long as it is presented honestly, fearlessly, and clearly. I handed them, against the advice of experts, a mouse-boy, and they accepted it without a quiver. In Charlotte’s Web, I gave them a literate spider, and they took that.”

–from a 1969 interview in The Paris Review

Finally, I’ve periodically posted articles from The Lamp, which describes itself as “A CATHOLIC JOURNAL OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, THE FINE ARTS, ETC.” Their current issue includes a collection of articles on Pope Francis, including articles by Diarmaid McCullouch, Makoto Fujimura, and Zena Hitz.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Perry Miller, The Life of the Mind in America

Tuesday: Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

Wednesday: Justin Brierly, Why I’m Still a Christian

Thursday: Agatha Christie, Black Coffee

Friday: Beth Allison Barr, Becoming the Pastor’s Wife

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 6-12!

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

The Weekly Wrap: June 29-July 5

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The Weekly Wrap: June 29-July 5

Vigilant Reading

Many would agree with me that these are stressful times. And for many of us, we turn to books to escape the stress. And there are times when we need that. But even the escape into fantasy like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings may awaken us to virtues of courage and perseverance and the seductions of power.

I believe that our times also call us to vigilant reading. It is the reading that helps us discern the deeper realities of what we face amid the blitzkrieg of news. And it may help us to discern how we may act.

During the time Winston Churchill was out of power in the 1930’s, he observed the rise of Adolph Hitler in Germany. During this time, he read Mein Kampf, and from that reading understood the unspeakable evil Hitler would wreak upon Europe, and that he could not be appeased, but must be resisted.

It is my reading of people like Churchill, William Shirer, and Hannah Arendt that has always made me skeptical of people in my own country who have said “it could never happen here.” Germany was highly educated, with liberal, democratic institutions. But a charismatic figure who appealed to longings for national greatness, and fears and resentments against those who were different, such as the Jews aroused a following. Then he subdued legislative and judicial checks to power and used fear and threat to bring other institutions to heel. And he created special police organizations, the Brown Shirts and the Gestapo to “disappear” the opposition and execute the Holocaust.

It’s my reading that arouses a vigilance that believes such things can (and are) happening in my own country. In this brief space, I’m not going to try to lay all that out. Essentially, in social media acronyms, IYKYK.

The question then is how shall we live? I cut my teeth on a “we can change the world” philosophy.” In a sense we did, but I’m not sure it was for the better. My reading of scripture, and other books, particularly from the Anabaptist Christian perspective, is challenging me to not think in terms of making the world different but rather what is means to be different people in the world. The former leads, I’ve concluded, to culture war. The latter reflects Jesus idea of being salt and light (in the Sermon on the Mount).

There’s a lot more I could unpack about this. But my point here is that my reading helps me to be vigilant, watchful to understand the times we are living in and how one lives in such times. Reading is far more, and far better than a great escape!

Five Articles Worth Reading

I’m writing on America’s Independence Day. Lincoln Caplan, in “America the Beautiful” tells the story of the composer of this wonderful anthem, and the troubled times in which it was written.

I mentioned Germany’s universities above. I’m kind of a university history geek, having worked in collegiate ministry. Clara Collier’s “The Origin of the Research University” is an account of the decisive transformation of higher education that took place in nineteenth century Germany.

The physical object of the book is a wonderful thing. “In This Parisian Atelier, Bookbinding Is a Family Art,” James Hill, in a photographic essay takes us into the high-end world of bookbinding.

Much of the emphasis of diet and fitness for women in the West is to make them a physically smaller version of themselves. This has sometimes resulted in untold physical and emotional harm. Julie Beck reviews Casey Johnston’s new book, A Physical Education, which considers weight-lifting as an alternative to the diet and exercise culture. The review appears in The Atlantic under the title “The Feminine Pursuit of Swoleness.”

Finally, Helen Cooper contends “Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles Is an Unexpected Masterclass in Suspense.” Cooper, a suspense writer, takes the reader through the suspense devices Hardy uses.

Quote of the Week

Nathaniel Hawthorne, born July 4, 1804, defies our cheery humanistic optimism when he observes:

“What other dungeon is so dark as one’s own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one’s self!”

I’m reminded of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, referring not to the heart of Africa, but rather, the human heart and its capacity for evil.

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve read a number of histories of both the American Revolution and the Civil War. Thirty years ago, Ken Burns riveted my attention with his epic PBS series on the Civil War. He’ll be visiting our screens again this fall with The American Revolution. This is one of the best arguments I can make for supporting PBS!

I always love learning about Ohio authors. Our local PBS station recently ran an old interview with Ann Hagedorn about her book, Beyond the River on Ohio’s underground railroad history, particularly around Ripley, Ohio. Hagedorn is an accomplished journalist and author who was born in Dayton. I picked up a couple of her books on Thriftbooks, so you may be hearing more about her.

I had a rare thing happen this week. We stopped by our local Half Price Books store, and I didn’t buy a single thing. However, my wife bought three art books. Perhaps it was thoughts of the unread books I had at home. But nothing struck my fancy.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Willard Sterne Randall, John Hancock

Tuesday: C. P. Snow, Corridors of Power

Wednesday: Sheila Wray Gregoire and Dr. Keith Gregoire, The Marriage You Want

Thursday: Lawrence S. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times

Friday: Mark A. Yarhouse and Erica S. Tan, Sexuality and Sex Therapy

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for June 29-July 5!

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The Weekly Wrap: June 22-28

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The Weekly Wrap: June 22-28

Barnes & Noble and the Big Five

A few weeks ago, my wife and I visited our new Barnes & Noble store (they had moved from a nearby location into a more spacious building). Overall, we were quite impressed with the atmosphere. But there was one thing we noticed in different sections of the store.

My wife is an artist and is always on the lookout for books on technique. One publisher excels in this area but we did not see any of their books. As you know, I review a number of religious books. I did not see hardly any of the imprints I review on the shelves. I’m on good terms with a publicist at one of those houses and she observed it is very hard for their representatives to get their books into Barnes & Noble.

It turns out that this is a systemic issue. Publisher’s Weekly ran an article titled “Independent Publishers Are Fed Up with Barnes & Noble” The reason is that mid-size and smaller publishers who aren’t one of “the Big Five” have a very hard time getting their books on the shelves. Are the Big Five books better? Certainly in some cases, but I would have no problem in that religion section suggesting good titles by notable authors with attractive cover design from publishers not represented.

What surprises me is that I thought Daunt’s Barnes & Noble was letting booksellers operate more like indies. Apparently, this doesn’t extend to how they curate their book buys.

Everyone likes to rail against Amazon. But without fail, I find Amazon links to every book I review (I use publisher’s links to let people make their own buying choice). It’s no wonder that many of the publishers I review with work with Amazon. They account for a high percentage of their sales. But people miss the particular browsing experience of the bookstore in using Amazon.

What this requires of brick and mortar B & N stores is that the booksellers truly function more like indies. It means harder work assessing more publishing lines and reading reviews of a broader range of books. And it means a different corporate vision of the publishing industry that refuses to marginalize small houses.

Five Articles Worth Reading

I know there are a number of Jane Austen fans out there. Lauren Groff contends that “Jane Austen’s Boldest Novel Is Also Her Least Understood.” The novel is Mansfield Park.

Most of us know Toni Morrison for her novels. However, most of us do not know of her role as an editor at Random House. Rather than just promote her own work, she championed the works of a rising generation of Black writers from Angela Davis and Huey Newton to Lucille Clifton and Gayl Jones. Clint Smith uncovers this unseen work of Morrison in “How Toni Morrison Changed Publishing.”

While the whole aim of our online technologies of commerce is to make buying “frictionless,” that may not be good for all of life. Select your items, click one button, and the seller will be paid and the items shipped to you, sometimes even on the same day. But is this a good thing? Regina Munch reviews Christine Rosen’s The Extinction of Experience, In “Encounters with Reality” she explores how some friction might be a good thing in our lives.

Between last year’s publication of James and Ron Chernow’s new biography, Mark Twain is on many of our minds. In particular, we like his witty quotes. But did he really say it? “Did Mark Twain Really Say That?” includes a fun quiz of potential Twain quotes. I only identified 53 percent of them correctly. Maybe you can do better!

Lastly, ” ‘Bookworm, Cliché, Deadline…’ And Other Unexpected Etymologies” explores the origins of the bookish words and phrases peculiar to bibliophiles.

Quote of the Week

Pearl S. Buck, the missionary to China and novelist, born on June 26, 1892, made this comment that is perennially relevant:

“When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I posted several articles this week on the low rates at which men are reading fiction and why they should. Personally, I don’t think telling men what they “should” do is a winning strategy. As a reviewer, I have a higher tolerance for literary fiction than most men. I have to admit, most covers and cover copy of the latest books don’t attract me. Not sure I can say why nor what needs to change. Instead I turn to classics, or mysteries, or history to find a good read. Maybe that’s just me but it appears I’m not alone.

The court decision in favor of Meta AI found that training AI on books was “fair use.” I think this is wrong and a form of theft. In so many aspects of AI, we are giving Big Tech what it wants–intellectual property, energy, water, and pervasive presence. While there may be good uses of AI, the amoral character of the industry does not bode well. in my opinion.

Finally, I admitted on my Facebook page that this blogging thing is getting harder. Facebook had been a major source of traffic to my blog at one time. Now, blog posts just get buried by Facebook’s algorithms unless devoted followers like and share them like crazy (hint, hint!). I like writing, but I also like featuring good books. I will keep writing because it crystallizes my own thinking about a book. but I will try some other things as well.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Michael Innes, Honeybath’s Haven

Tuesday: The Month in Reviews: June 2025

Wednesday: Walter R. Strickland II, Swing Low: A History of Black Christianity in the United States

Thursday: Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, Kingdom Through Covenant

Friday, Johannes W. H. van der Bijl, 1 & 2 Thessalonians

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for June 22-28!

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The Weekly Wrap: June 15-21

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The Weekly Wrap: June 15-21

Long and Short Reads

One of the joys of summer is losing oneself in a big, fat, long book. Of course, the one condition is that it must be well-written.

I’ll be candid with you that one of my challenges as a reviewer is taking on long books to review. One of my goals (compulsions?) is to post reviews daily, Monday through Friday. In order to do that, most of the books I read need to be under 300 pages.

In addition to enjoying them, one of the reasons I mix in shorter mysteries like those of Georges Simenon is that they afford me the space to read longer works. I can finish these in a few days and most books in a week. Then there are some books that I just devour. Anything by William Kent Krueger is like that for me.

Then there are the longer ones. Right now I am working my way through a theological book, Kingdom Through Covenant that comes in at over 800 pages. It will take me three weeks to finish.

I usually have five books going at a time. Only one can be long. For the rest of summer, I will read two more long books. One is Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain and the other is Abraham Verghese Cutting for Stone. I enjoyed The Covenant of Water immensely, and some friends tell me this one is even better. I have a sense that if I read nothing else this summer, these two would make for immensely rich reading.

Five Articles Worth Reading

If you have not read anything by ecologist and Indigenous writer Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Blue Line Medicine” is a great place to sample her writing. This pull quote from the article caught my attention: “If we value the medicine the land offers us so generously, we must become medicine for the land.”

Claire McCardell is probably not a household name for many of us. But she believed women’s fashions could be “practical, comfortable, stylish and affordable. And have pockets.” Kate Bollick reviews CLAIRE MCCARDELL: The Designer Who Set Women Free by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson in “The Design Genius Who Gave American Women Pockets.”

James Joyces Ulysses and Marcel Proust’s in Search of Lost Time are two long works I will probably not read in the remainder of my lifetime. But what about a review of a new book on the first biographer of James Joyce? I think I can handle that. The article is “Yes I Will Read Ulysses Yes” appearing in The Atlantic.

Did you know that semicolon usage was once more common than it is today? Sara Hashemi explains why in “Could the Semicolon Die Out? Recent Analysis Finds a Decline in Its Usage in British Literature and Confusion Among U.K. Students.”

Finally, most of us already know that reading can be therapeutic. Now, bibliotherapy has been approved in Canada to treat depression and anxiety. “A book prescription for mental health?” confirms what we’ve known all along.

Quote of the Week

Philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623. This quote by him received quite a bit of comment:

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

Perhaps coming on the heels of the news of the religious views of the alleged murderer of a Minnesota state politician and her husband and the non-fatal shooting of two others, this quote struck home. My only observation, echoing a follower, was that Pascal wrote before atheist communism (and fascism). I believe these may also be defined as religious, and sadly have accounted for far more deaths than the traditional religions. But it points to our capacity for self-deception, that we are capable of using the noblest justifications for the most unspeakable evils.

Miscellaneous Musings

Jeff Deutsch, in In Praise of Good Bookstores speaks of the importance of bookstores as places to browse. That’s certainly one of the things I love as well. But some online friends observed the opportunities to electronically browse books, including the chance to read free excerpts before buying. I’m still not sure the two experiences are alike, but I recognize for some in “book deserts” or otherwise not able to get to bookstores, this is a viable alternative.

I celebrated Juneteenth, our national celebration of Black Emancipation, by starting in on Walter Strickland II’s Swing Low: A History of Black Christianity in the United States. I was surprised to learn that some of those brought to America were already Christians, presenting a question of whether Christians should be enslaved. Sadly, the justification was to define Blacks as an inferior race of humans, the origin both of race theories and racism.

I do believe that a key motivation of why we acquire more books than we can read is our hunger to know. Our bookshelves reflect our aspirations. It is dangerous to ask if this can get out of hand. “Hoarding” is a dirty word among bibliophiles. But I wonder if there is a healthy acceptance of our limits (and the limits of our shelf space!) that is the mark of a healthy mind and emotional life.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday. William Kent Krueger, Trickster’s Point

Tuesday. John D. Roth, Footsteps of Faith: A Global Anabaptist Devotional

Wednesday. Jeff Deutsch, In Praise of Good Bookstores

Thursday. Agatha Christie, Curtain

Friday. Steven Felix-Jager, The Problem and Promise of Freedom

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for June 15-21!

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The Weekly Wrap: June 8-14

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The Weekly Wrap: June 8-14

Patience and Reading

One of the things that strikes me about our public discourse is how poorly formed are many of the things people say. People often speak in slogans or memes rather than making real arguments I wonder if we are becoming an increasingly impatient people. Real discussion and deliberation about the common good takes time. That is because good solutions are rarely simple. It takes a lot of work and thought and back and forth to put good ones together.

The act of reading is an act of patience. For example, I am reading William Kent Krueger’s Trickster’s Point, one of his Cork O’Connor novels. There are times I’m tempted to jump ahead to find out the resolution, usually exposing a killer. But one of the rewards of patience is to savor Krueger’s writing, how he develops a worldview at the intersection of indigenous and Catholic heritage, h9ow he develops character and unfolds plot.

Long books particularly require patience. They also develop the capacity to hold the thread of a narrative or an argument. Recently, I finished Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. It is a nearly 700 page defense of the idea that our canonical gospels are either based on or are eyewitness accounts. The writer marshals ancient sources and the use of names, and other internal evidence to make an impressive case and respond to possible critiques. I think it will be a landmark book and it certainly made a compelling case

The internet and phone scrolling has arguably diminished our capacities for patience and attention. It makes good sense, it seems to me, to exclude phones during school days. (I also wonder whether excluding the use of AI when we want students to think, create, and critique might be good.) Some teachers are incorporating time for long form reading into classes. I wonder if something like this might be a good idea for our public officials as well. Of course it means a public more interested in solutions than slogans. One can hope…

Five Articles Worth Reading

Oprah Winfrey likes novelist Wally Lamb, having recently chosen his latest book for her book club, the third time she has selected one of his books. In “Wally Lamb’s Guilty Pleasure Is a History of Mad Magazine,” the latest “By the Book” interview in The New York Times, we learn he follow’s Oprah’s picks as well.

There is a small., but growing abstinence movement among singles. Melissa Febos chronicles her abstinence journey in her new book, The Dry Season. Actually, she notes her surprise at how enjoyable abstinence was for her. She recommends six other helpful books in “What to Read When You’re Ready to Say No.”

On the other hand, we are facing declining birthrates around the world. Why people aren’t having children is being widely discussed. In a newsletter from Comment, a Canadian magazine, I saw this article, “Why Have Children,” a thoughtful conversation on this topic with Anastasia berg, Brian Dijkema, and Rachel Wiseman.

At my house, we had children’s editions of some classic works including those of Jules Verne, which I ate up as a child. But “9 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Jules Verne’s ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas’ ” was all new to me!

Finally, Elena Gosalvez Blanco recounts what it was like to work for “The Talented Ms. Highsmith.” She worked for Patricia Highsmith, the writer of psychological thrillers during the final months of her life. Her interview for the job consisted of one question: “Do you like Hemingway?” Ms. Blanco answered “no” and discovered Highsmith hated Hemingway. She got the job!

Quote of the Week

Dorothy L. Sayers, the playwright, novelist, and Christian essayist was born June 13, 1893. This quote seems even more true in our “post-truth” era than it was in her day:

“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I love hearing from people who read my blogs or follow me on social media. A delightful 89 year old gentleman contacted me today with a question about a recent review. If nothing else, it’s good to know that people do read what I write.

This gentleman also admitted that he hasn’t read many of the books I reviewed–the review told him enough. I joked that “I read so you don’t have to!” Actually, reviewers often serve that function. There are books I am glad to know about that I won’t have time to read, or sufficient interest. So don’t feel guilty about not reading everything I review!

I received a book this week titled “Mid-Faith Crisis,” by Catherine McNeil and Jason Hague. I learned recently that many who go through such crises often are not young, as it is thought, but in their fifties. My own conclusion is that we are meant to grow in our faith journey, and what we learned and believed in our twenties may not always work so well later in life. I’m curious to see what these writers say.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Justin Evans, The Little Book of Data

Tuesday: Roger Lundin, Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief

Wednesday: Emily Hunter McGowin, Households of Faith

Thursday: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fall of Numenor

Friday: Rowan Williams, Passions of the Soul

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for June 8-14!

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