Saturday Good Reads - May 27, 2023

In my novel Dancing Prince, I included a standalone novella at the end. It’s set in Viking times, and, while it’s strictly fiction, it’s about certain Viking groups becoming Christian well before most historians thought. John Ehrett at Mere Orthodoxy has a post about Vikings, and how they became more civilized and less, well, Viking. See “The End of Viking Vitalism.” 

Way back in 2003 and 2004, I spent time working at the director of communication for St. Louis Public Schools. One program that was highly regarded was Teach for America – an organization that recruited recent graduates from Ivy League-type universities to teach in inner city schools. One of the most moving stories I read this week was “Taught for America” by Andrew X. Evans (a pseudonym). The tragedy that is too many inner-city schools is a story of the disintegration of inner-city culture and life. 

 

In high school, I was a member of my school’s debate team. It was a considerable amount of work, with the bonus (?) of traveling to debate and speech tournaments in small cities across south Louisiana – Hammond, Lake Charles, Lafayette, and once, Baton Rouge. That was more than 50 years ago. There are still debate teams and debate tournaments, but times have changed. James Fishback at The Free Press explains that debate is no longer really allowed at debate tournaments.

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

Rediscovering Martin Amis – Ben Sixsmith at The Critic Magazine.

 

Martin Amis’s death is the end of a great British comic tradition – Alexander Larman at The Spectator.

 

The 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time – BBC.

 

Ukraine

 

Why has Ukraine owned up to Russian assassinations? – Mark Galeotti at The Spectator.

 

Faith

 

The Whole World Gone Blind – Greg Doles at Chasing Light.

 

15 Things About John Calvin You May Not Know – Michael Patton at Parchment and Pen.

 

Cynicism Isn’t a Spiritual Gift – Daniel Darling at For the Church.

 

American Stuff

 

How Abraham Lincoln Broke the Barrier Between Church and State – Joshua Zeitz at Politico.

 

A Local Look at the Meanings of the Founding: A Review of The Nation that Never Was by Kermit Roosevelt III – Max Longley at Front Porch Republic.

 

The campaign against the Supreme Court’s legitimacy – The Spectator.

 

Life and Culture

 

Christopher Dawson & the History We Are Not Told – Jeffrey Hart at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The anatomy of cancellation: How speech ends up being suppressed – Charley Bentley-Astor at The Critic Magazine.

 

Is American Theater Really Dead? – Daniel McInery at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Is there anything left to conserve? The chickens of modernity have come home to roost – Paul Kingsnorth at UnHerd.

 

Does Maturity Still Matter? – Samuel D. James at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Poetry

 

Poetry Showcase: Elena Kotsile – Fevers of the Mind. 

 

Take Shelter – Keith & Kristyn Getty and Skye Peterson

 Painting: Woman Reading, woodblock print (1852) by Utagawa Kuniypshi (1798-1861).