I'm not sure what's going on with (non-fiction) books and publishers these days. Just recently, author Naomi Wolf was called out (during a broadcast, no less) for misinterpreting a Victorian legal phrase - and demolishing her book's ("Outrages") argument in the process. Now it's writer Paul Dolan, whose book "Happy Ever After" makes the claim that unmarried women are happier than married women -- based on a series of misinterpreted studies and reports. Vox has the story. Don’t publishers of non-fiction books do fact-checking anymore?
George Orwell’s novel 1984 is 70 years old this week, and it still sells well. If you’ve looked up a book on Amazon and shortly thereafter found a sponsored link on your Facebook newsfeed, it can seem like 1984 is here, it just took a few years longer that the title suggested. Not to mention facial recognition technologies. Glenn Arbery at The Imaginative Conservativehas another perspective – what the book says about propaganda and the exclusion of ideas. Which is what is happening at many colleges and universities across the United States.
C.S. Lewis remains a popular writer, and not only because of his Narnia stories and The Screwtape Letters. Dr. Art Lindsley at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics considers Lewis’s warning against progress at any cost, and Samuel James at Letters & Liturgy looks at why Lewis was so persuasive.
Georgia is one of several states that has passed more restrictive abortion laws. Georgia is also home to a sizeable film industry. Netflix and Hollywood producers have threatened to boycott the state, at least as far as filming there. Justin Lee at Medium’s ARC Digital has some thoughts about the film industry doing things like this. Of course, no film company has threatened to stop distributing movies in Georgia or, in Netflix’s case, end all subscriptions in the state.
More Good Reads
Writing and Literature
Why Do Found Texts Fascinate Us So Much? – Peter Rock at The Millions.
Is There a Poet Laureate of the Anthropocene? – Ed Simon at The Millions.
Are Crime Thrillers Our New Folklore? – Sandra Ireland at CrimeReads.
Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster – Richard Florida at CityLab.
British Stuff
What was the real purpose of the English country house library? – Jeremy Musson at The Art Newspaper.
Brexit Did Not Cause Brexit – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine.
Jacqueline and Eileen Nearne: Sisters and Spies – Jennifer Ryan at CrimeReads.
Life and Culture
An Acceptable Prejudice – Elizabeth Corey at First Things Magazine.
Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Opportunity – Tim Challies.
Without Athens, There is No R.E.M.: The Loss of Local Cultures – R.M. Stangler at Front Porch Republic.
A striking, joyful portrait of America's greatest divide: On Chris Arnade’s ‘Dignity’ – Matthew Walther at The Week.
The Rise of Progressive Occultism – Tara Isabella Burton at The American Interest.
Why We Need to Be Intentional About How We Use Social Media – Blake Long at Theology & Life.
Poetry
Cabin in the Woods – Karl Kerchwey at Literary Matters.
Dylan Thomas – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.
Gospel Flag – Joe Spring.
News Media
The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s Weaponized Algorithms Silence Dissent– Whitney Webb at Mint Press News.
You Raise Me Up – Peter Hollens and 200 Kids Sing A Capella
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