Saturday Good Reads

The largest racially-charged riot in American history took place in – of all places and of all times – New York City in July, 1863. Deliberately-fostered rumors about freed slaves taking the jobs of German and Irish immigrants, a new Union Army draft law, and festering resentment about the Civil War merged into violence that took the lives of hundreds. Emerging Civil War has the story.

Rebecca Reynolds at The Rabbit Room might have rolled her eyes when she was advised to read Bono’s song lyrics, but then she did – and discovered Bono was a psalmist.

I think I read too much. The more I read, the more I think our brave new world has totally lost its mind. Now it’s the American Psychological Association telling us that “polyamory” is okay, and it’s even launched a task force to promote “awareness and inclusivity about consensual non-monogamy and diverse expressions of intimate relationships.” In other words, monogamy is passé in our enlightened culture.

I joke with my friend Sandra Heska King about the critters one can find in Florida, and then I read Ian Frazier’s account in Smithsonian Magazine of Burmese pythons destroying the wildlife of the Florida Everglades. We are talking snakes that can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 200 pounds – in the tens of thousands.

More Good Reads

Faith

When My Children Grow Strong and I Grow Weak – Tim Challies.

The Painful Shortcut to Peace – Sam Van Eman.

Maybe It Was Meant to Be – Zak Schmoll at Entering the Public Square.

Ireland’s Treasure: The Book of Kells – Seth Lewis.

Writing and Literature

The Power of Metaphor – David Gosselin at The Imaginative Conservative.

Rebuilding Jane Austen's Library – Rebecca Rego Barry at Lapham’s Quarterly.

Poetry

Reflection upon Psalm 121 – Christopher Howell at Image Journal.

‘A Stubborn Parable’ by Mark Burrows – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

Sloth – James Matthew Wilson at Literary Matters.

Isn’t It Byronic? ‘Don Juan’ at 200 – Michael Caines at The Times Literary Supplement.

For M – Paul Hughes at Poet and Priest.

Culture

Does the “i” in iPhone Stand for “Idol”? – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

US Women’s Soccer and Our Culture of “Tolerance” – Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder.

American Stuff

George Washington’s “Favorite” Charles Lee – Roy Orrison at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

Anointed with Oil: Evangelicals and the Petroleum Industry – Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition.

Storm Clouds: Review of several books on the run-up to the Civil War – Adam Rowe at Claremont Review of Books.

History

Sunday Morning at Auschwitz – Rod Dreher at The American Conservative.

Tulips in the Netherlands

Painting: Girl Reading, oil on canvas by Charles Edward Perugini(1878).