Saturday Good Reads - May 31, 2025

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erick Maria Remarque was published nearly a century ago. The author, after two earlier and unsuccessful novels, found himself one of the most successful novelists in Europe. David Bannon at Front Porch Republic considers the novel, and he finds that the sense of grief permeates nearly every page. 

Ring news: Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative looks at J.R.R. Tolkien’s seven ascending virtues, and Andrw Seeley at the same publication reviews a new book on Tolkien, The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination by Ben Reinhard.

 

Speaking of new books, Nadya Williams at Mere Orthodoxy interviews Louis Markos on his new book, Passing the Torch: An Apology for Classical Christian Education. Markos doesn’t have to convince me; I’ve seen the results of classical Christian education in the cases of my three grandsons, and it is something remarkable.

 

For 50 years, from way back in the days of I, Claudius and Flambards, my wife and I have been fans of PBS Masterpiece Theater. We even subscribe to the PBS Masterpiece app streaming service. And we’ve now noticed, actually, we’ve more than noticed, we’ve been tidal-waved by, solemn pronouncements from both national and local PBS executives on the imminent apocalypse, also known as elimination of federal subsidies. Both PBS and National Public Radio are suing on first amendment grounds, and while I’m no legal scholar, I think that approach is doomed. Or as Jeb Rubenfeld writes at The Free Press, no matter how strongly you (or I) feel about public television and public radio, NPR and PBS aren’t entitled to our tax dollars.

 

More Good Reads

 

Faith

 

God’s Gardeners: Nature and Orthodox Christianity – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

The Name of Jesus: A right reminder amid fitful nights – Chris Martin at FYI.

 

Why G.K. Chesterton? – Leo Ward at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

America 250

 

Army 250-Mile Ruck March: Marching through Army History – Maj. Eric Flanagan at U.S. Army.

 

“I wish we could have something of this kind to do every day,” The Battle of Chelsea Creek, May 27-28, 1775 – Rob Orrison at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The United States Army’s New Exhibition Highlighting the Revolutionary War Solderi’s Experience – Adam Zielinski at the Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Captain James Wallace, R.N., Faces Rebellion in 1775 – Eric Sterner at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

See the Colorful Flags Patriots Unfurled as They Fought in the American Revolution – Sonja Anderson at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Writing and Literature

 

‘The Great Unread’: Goethe’s Fuastian Life – Gus Mitchell at Commonweal. 

 

Does Style Matter in Nonfiction Writing? – Thomas Kidd.

 

Finding Your Way into Writing Fiction as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Grandson – Simon Tolkien at Literary Hub.

 

Shakespeare: Saint or Sinner? – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Worst and the Brightest – Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

British Stuff

 

Has the Princes in the Tower mystery finally been solved? – Jack Blackburn at The Times.

 

Poetry

 

The Pearl: The ultimate parade in poetry – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

“For My Dog” and “Northern Lights” – Silas House at South Writ Large.

 

“When to Her Lute Corinna Sings,” poem by Thomas Campion – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Nobody – Casting Crowns and Mathew West

 Painting: Woman Reading, il on canvas by Carl Holsoe (1863-1935).

Carried by blood

After Ephesians 2:13-19 

Lost, far off, you

were touched

by the drops 

of blood, a baptism,

drops becoming

a trickle, a stream,

a river, a flood,

freeing you from

law, carrying you

to grace, recreating

you as new. He

preached peace

to you, peace

between you, and

peace in your heart.

Carried by the blood,

we were no longer

strangers, no longer

enemies, no longer

aliens, but fellow

citizens, kin

to the saints, children

of the household of God.

 

Photograph by Alexandre Boucey via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Cathedral of Church History – Ivan Budimlic at Iotas in Eternity.

 

“Dirge for the New Sunrise,” poem by Edith Sitwell – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Fear Not Fatherhood: The Strength and Glory of Young Dads – Andrew Ballard at Desiring God.

 

God of Grace and God of Glory – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Three Castle Head – Seth Lewis.

 

A Sonnet for Ascension Day – Malcolm Guite.

Poets and Poems: Bruce Lawder and “Breakwater Rock”

It must be a phenomenon of age, but as I’ve gotten older, my visits to my hometown of New Orleans have become less frequent. At the same time, my emotional ties have become stronger, evidenced by the growing number of New Orleans-themed Facebook groups I’ve joined.  

Most of the reason for less frequent visits is family. My childhood was highlighted by the sheer number of relatives, entirely from my mother’s large family, who lived there. Now they’re gone, scattered to cities, towns, and cemeteries all over the South. I have a single cousin left living in New Orleans.

 

No, you can’t go home again, except in your memory. Poet Bruce Lawder discovered that when he visited the town where he grew up. The place is still there, but it presents a sense of dislocation. Most things have changed; even those that seem the same aren’t quite the way you remember them. (I sympathize; the backyard of the house where I grew up has shrunken dramatically from what I remember as a child.)

 

Lawder did what poets do; he wrote poems. His newest collection, Breakwater Rock: Poems,” is comprised mostly of poems he wrote before and after his hometown visit.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Fame is a fickle food,” poem by Emily Dickenson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Collage: Unwrapping Gifts from the Quiet – Ethany Rohde at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction – Dean Flower at The Hudson Review on Henry James.

 

The Art of the Critic – Nick Ripatrazone at The Metropolitan Review.

 

“No, Thank You, John,” poem by Christina Rossetti – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

"The Collected Breece D'J Pancake"

Up to a point, the similarities between John Kennedy Toole and Breece D’J Pancake are uncanny. 

Toole (1937-1969) wrote two novels. The first was The Neon Bible, which was published a decade after the second novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. Both received repeated rejections from publishers. Toole would eventually commit suicide in 1969. His mother, Thelma, was determined to see A Confederacy of Dunces published, and she pestered publishers and writers for years, finally wearing down Walker Percy who read it and was blown away. It took Percy three years to find a publisher, and it was LSU Press. A Confederacy of Dunces was a bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 

 

Pancake (an unusual but real last name) wrote 12 short stories and a few fragments of others. Born in 1952 in West Virginia, he managed to graduate from Marshall University. and taught at two military academies. He enrolled in the creative program at the University of Virginia, where he sensed a “class” consciousness between those who held only a B.A. degree and those who had more advanced degrees. But Pancake was the one selling stories to The Atlantic, which made a typographic error when they printed his stories, changing his middle initials “D.J.” to D’J; he kept it. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The American West – Writing Advice from John Steinbeck – William Groneman at Cowboy State Daily.

 

Tariffs in American History – John Steele Gordon at Imprimis / Hillsdale College.

 

At Dr. Johnson’s House – Spitalfields Life.

 

Poets and Poems: Patricia Clark and "O Lucky Day"

I’m still trying to make my mind up about whether Patricia Clark writes meditative poems or poetic meditations in her new collection, O Lucky Day. I could call it in either direction, and I suspect it won’t make much difference. Let’s say Clark’s poems contain more than a small element of meditation and let it go at that. 

She writes an open letter to her husband after a quarrel, calling it “Oxygen.” She describes bathing in the forest, and it becomes almost a uniting of skins, plants, and trees. She considers juneberry leaves as gold coins and dives into the wrecked landscape of Fukushima, or how common, everyday objects (a hat, a cigar box) evoke her grandfather. And she asks for a new face to cover her face, because “I’ve looked at myself too long.”

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Married to the Land – poem by David Whyte.

 

Burial at Sea – poem by Eric Fosbergh at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Poetry Prompt: The Phoenix – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“On a Raging Storm” and “Oceanic Flux” – poems by Jeff Kemper at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“The Silent Slain,” poem by Archibald MacLeish – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Imagine It – poem by Elizabeth Herron at Every Day Poems.

 

"Hubris" by Pete Brassett

A fishing boat runs aground on the coast; the only person on board is a body in the hold. A young woman goes missing. Witnesses who tend to lie with impunity. Detective Inspector Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team have their hands full with identifying a body, chasing down fake alibis, and trying to determine what’s real and what’s a façade. 

Retired DCI James Munro and Charlie’s former boss reappears to help out, now faithfully attended by his dog Murdo. As the team delves further into the case, they find the roots go back decades, and no one involved seems to be what he or she claims to be.

 

The man who rents the fishing boats. The brothers who rented the boat. The dead man in the hold. The missing woman. The parents of the missing woman. They all have a story, and it’s a different one (or two) from what they tell the detectives. 

 

Pete Brassett

Hubris is the eleventh novel in the Inspector Munro detective series by Scottish writer Pete Brassett. Not only is it a good story; it’s worth reading for the repartee between members of the detective team by itself. Brassett has a tremendous gift for comic dialogue, and each member of the team (four, counting Munro) has a personality suited for both light and dark comedy. 

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 13 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles. His first novel was Clam Chowder at Lafayette and Spring, followed by three independent crime novels – Kiss the Girls, Prayer for the Dying, and The Girl from Kilkenny, in which he dealt with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, religious scandal, and manic depression. With Munro and West, Brassett came into his own, and the series is one of the most enjoyable I’ve read (and I still have two or three to go). 

The villains of Hubris will eventually find themselves no match for Munro’s experienced insight, West’s dogged determination, and her team’s gifts for ferreting out information. As Julius Caesar once said, “It’s only hubris if I fail.” With Munro and West on the scene, the bad guys will all soon discover failure.

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

Talion by Peter Brassett.

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

Rancour by Peter Brassett.

Penitent by Pete Brassett.

Some Monday Readings

 

Freedom is a Light for Which Many Men Have Died in Darkness – Mark Maloy at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

‘Do Not Mourn Me Dead’ – Elliot Ackerman at The Free Press.

 

Why Kids Need Fairy Stories in a Modern World – Samantha Roth at Story Warren.

 

Books Before Print, Paper, and Pixel – Joel Miller at Miler’s Book Review.

 

Why the “quiet revival” is missing the Church of England – The Critic Magazine.

It's not about equal rights

After Philippians 2:1-11 

It’s not about equal rights

or position; it’s not about 

equality with God.

Self is demanding;

set it aside.

We have the example:

the One who stepped down,

who became a servant,

who set self aside,

who assumed the likeness

of man, who humbled

himself, who became

obedient even to death,

The emptying, the descent,

the obedience led

to exaltation, the giving

of the name above

all names.

 

Photograph by Katherine Conrad via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

When Ball Becomes Baal – Jim Elliff at Christian Communicators Worldwide.

 

“Ode on Solitude,” poem by Alexander Pope – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“The Orange,” poem by Wendy Smith – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

John Wesley’s Life-Changing Conversion Experience – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.