Saturday Good Reads – April 25, 2026

In the summer of 1776, Abigail Adams faced a hard tough decision for herself and her children. Years earlier, she’d watched her husband John make the same decision, and she had struggled with worry. Now it her turn, and the turn of her children. Her husband was in Philadelphia at the meeting that would lead to the Declaration of Independence. She finally made the decision for herself and the family – and got inoculated for smallpox.  

Some 37 letters written by the poet John Keats to his great love Fanny Brawne were owned by John Hay Whitney, a former U.S. ambassador to Britain. They were stolen in the 1980s. They had been in the possession of Brawne’s children after her death in 1865, and then they’d been sold at auction in 1885. At some point Whitney had purchased them. After the theft, they had disappeared for 40 years, until an unnamed individual tried to sell some rare books inherited from his grandfather. Included with the books were the Keats letters. And now they’re back with the family they were stolen from. 

 

My wife and I have a significant difference over reading William Faulkner. She had to read “The Bear” and “Barn Burning” in required English classes in college (I took English literature, so I missed Faulkner’s stories). She was not a fan. I came to Faulkner years later, via the authors of the Latin American Boom, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. They’d been heavily influenced by Faulkner, so I decided to read The Sound and the Fury. I was hooked, even with Faulkner’s tendency to often forget about punctuation. But One thing I never considered – some people find reading the author to be therapeutic.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

How Jefferson Crafted a Case Against Slavery – Cara Rogers Stevens at The Coolidge Review.

 

Paul Revere’s midnight ride unfolds in broad daylight – with a police escort – Michael Casey at Associated Press.

 

The French Connection – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and the Battle for New York City – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

The Capital has fallen! The Philadelphia Campaign from Brandywine to Valley Forge – Boom Goes the History via Spotify.

 

10 Books That Reframe the American Revolution – Sophia Hollander at History.

 

Faith

 

Why Did (almost) All of Christian Music Become Worship Music? – Andrew Osenga.

 

Why Religious Freedom Matters – Allen Hertzke at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Puritan Theology That Built America & the Church Abandoned – Virgil Walker at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics.

 

Once and Future Saints – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Life and Culture

 

The timeless specter of Western decline – Victor Davis Hanson at The New Criterion.

 

Poetry

 

Hatley St. George, a poem for St. George’s Day – Malcolm Guite.

 

“Here,” poem by Rhina Espaillat – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Why Read Shakespeare? – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

He Arose – Tommee Profit and Phil Wickham

Painting: Woman Reading Newspaper, oil on canvas by William Merritt Chase (1849-1916).

Worthless religion

After James 1:26-29 

A definition

of religion:

to visit orphans

and widows

in affliction.

Beyond that:

keep unstained

from the world,

If you can’t

control your

tongue, you’re

deceiving yourself

about your faith;

it’s worthless. 

Your tongue 

speaks from

your heart, so

guard your heart

and bridle 

your tongue.

 

Photograph by the blowup via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Dwelling,” poem by Nellie deVries – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Fundamentals of the Faith: Why Creeds & Catechisms Still Matter – Jonathan Shirk at Gentle Reformation.

 

Searching for a Sign – Seth Lewis.

 

A Mundane Life Is a Courageous Life – Alan Noble at The Gospel Coalition.

I Grew Up in "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

I was sitting in a graduate seminar called “The Nature of Story.” About 20 of us, all in a Master of Liberal Arts program, sat at tables gathered in a U-configuration. We were discussing the first reading assignment, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  

This was not your typical graduate seminar. The program was designed for people who’d been out of college for a while, and we ranged in age from 30s to 70s. I was 35 at the time – and the youngest in the class. Professors tended to love these classes, and the university had a waiting list of teachers wanting to have a course in the program. We were not the kind of students they were used to; we’d all had life experiences, work experiences, and we tended to challenge the professor (and each other) more than not. 

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Prophecy,” poem by Elinor Wylie – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Lost Federico Garcia Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written – Sam Jones at The Guardian.

 

Ten Years Later – poem by David Whyte.

 

“George, Who Played with a Dangerous Toy, and Suffered a Catastrophe of Considerable Dimensions,” poem by Hillaire Belloc – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

The Christmas Solo – my new story at Cultivating Oaks Press

I have a new story at Cultivating Oaks Press. Entitled “The Christmas Solo,” it’s a tale of a man floundering after a marriage disaster who finds his way back with a Christmas song.  

It’s inspired by a song that has a short but strange history on YouTube, of all places. Early last October, a suggested video showed up on my YouTube page. Because it used a photo of the singer Josh Groban, I thought it was a new song by him. It was called “Light of Heaven,” and after listening to it a couple of times, I realized it sounded like Groban singing but wasn’t. Then I ask myself, what is this? Something done with an AI program? Identity theft? But if it was on YouTube, shouldn’t it have been vetted or approved with a new channel?

 

There were a number of similar videos, most using Groban’s picture and the voice sounding like Groban’s, but not quite his. A few other videos used other well-known singers like Rihanna. 

 

But I liked “Light of Heaven.” I’d listen to it while I did my periodic walks. Slowly, as I listened, a story began to shape itself in my mind. A song about the Nativity could become a way of redemption for a broken man. 

 

That’s the story I wrote for Cultivating Oaks Press. 

 

I had continued to listen to “Light of Heaven” on YouTube until this past weekend. It was still available on Saturday. On Sunday, clicking on the link brought this message: “Video unavailable. This video has been removed due to a contractual obligation with a music licensor.” Not only had the video vanished, but its channel, along with all the other songs, was gone as well.

 

It’s a story based on a song that became a ghost. All that’s really left of the song is this story. 

 

Photograph by Tom Allport via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Wisdom through the awful grace of God – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

The Adams Book Club: An Introduction – Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Archaeologists stunned to find Homer’s Iliad inside ancient Egyptian mummy – Vishwam Sankaran at The Independent. 

 

Vagabondia – Spitalfields Life.

Poets and Poems: Catherine Lawton and “Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle”

Faith poetry has a long history, extending back at least to the Psalms of the Old Testament of the Bible and likely even earlier. What’s almost curious, but understandable, is how contemporary poetry has separated, largely if not entirely, into secular and religious streams. It’s a mirror of the culture at large, but not everyone mimics that mirror. 

But not every poet has followed that divergence. Some take a more holistic approach, integrating all of life in their poetry. One of those poets is Catherine Lawton. 

 

Lawton is an author, essayist, and a poet. She’s published numerous books, including fiction, memoirs, non-fiction works like Write and Publish Organically, and poetry collections such as Glimpses of Glory. Her newest poetry collection, Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle, reinforce her recurring poetic theme of life and faith as a collective whole

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

At the typewriter – poem by Amelia Friedline at Innocence Abroad.

 

“The Scholars,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Hair on Fire at the Church Lady’s Brunch – Renee Emerson at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Ars Poetica – poem by Megan Willome at Every Day Poems.

Some Monday Readings - April 20, 2026

 

Reading is magic – Sam Kriss at Numb at the Lodge. 

Tales from the road: The dead of Falling Waters, a forgotten Gettysburg Campaign battle – John Banls’ Civil War Blog.

 

No, Books Are Note Remotely Too Expensive – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

A New Wild West in Jackson, Louisiana – James Taylor Foreman at The Dispatch.

 

A Week of Tears. A Week of Storms – Katie Andraskie at Katie’s Ground.

 

Publishing has an AI problem – Alexander Larman at The Critic Magazine.

 

Learn the Hard Way – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

How Big Pharma (Successfully) Targeted Women – Matt Bivens at Racket News.

 

A Christian Philosophy of Education – Howard Merken at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Photograph: The Falling Waters historical marker.

Listen and do

After James 1:22-25 

It is a process:

the word is designed

to be heard, planted

in your hearts,

sanctifying you

over time. You

can tell if it takes

root by what you

do. Faith is not

only what you say;

faith is also what

you do. It is both

hearing and doing.

It is both believing

and doing. Neither

believing nor doing

takes priority; both

must be done. That

brings the blessing.

Listen and do.

Do and listen.

 

Photograph by Anastasiya Badun via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Paradox of the Brightening Path – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Day Death Tried to Swallow Life – Clinton Manley at Desiring God.