Saturday Good Reads

One of my U.S. senators, Josh Hawley, gave a speech at the National Conservatism Conference, and from all accounts, it rocked the meeting. It wasn’t a barn-burning jeremiad; that’s not his style. Instead, he pointed the way to the future of conservatism, noting that the great divide in America isn’t between right and left but between elites and the American middle. (The link has both the text and the video recording of the speech.) And Brad Littlejohn at Mere Orthodoxy has a summary report on what happened at the conference.

Benjamin Myers writes poetry, loves poetry, teaches poetry, and believes in poetry. His recently published poetry collection Black Sunday is a marvel. In “How Poetry Can Save Us in Our Age of Superficiality,” he argues that teaching poetry is more critical than ever before.

St. Louis photographer Chris Naffziger spends an enormous amount of time taking pictures of St. Louis architecture – office buildings, homes, churches, even cemeteries. He also takes photos of buildings in decay, which St. Louis seems to have an abundance of, unfortunately. One street that has withstood the ravages of time and survived quite well is Kingsbury Place, one of the “private streets” that dot the city’s Central West End and tell a story of the great wealth that once was found here. 

More Good Reads

Culture

Against Pop Culture – Brad East at Mere Orthodoxy and Responding to “Against Pop Culture” – Zak Schmoll at Entering the Public Square.

The Question Abortion Advocates Won’t Answer – Scott Klusendorf at Desiring God.

British Stuff

The Many Faces of Arthur - 3 Historical Candidates – Chris Thorndycroft at English Historical Fiction Authors.

The History of English Part II: From Conquest to Printing Press – Annie Whitehead at Casting Light upon the Shadow.

Elihu Yale and His “Wicked Wife” – David Ebsworth at English Historical Fiction Authors.

Poetry

Daffyd ap Gwilym – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

Mary Magdalene – Malcolm Guite at The Imaginative Conservative.

Was the poet John Keats a graverobber? – Kelly Grovier at BBC Culture.

American Stuff

The First Battle of Bull Run, 1861 – Samuel English, Second Rhode Island Volunteers at Eyewitness to History.

A Conversation with Author Robert Conner on Grant’s Dying Days – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Civil War.

New Media

Is Reality Only for the Privileged? – Samuel D. James at Letters & Liturgy.

Writing and Literature

Children’s Book Author Sharon Stohler’s Path to Self-Publishing – Ann Kroeker.

Herman Melville at Home – Jill Lepore at The New Yorker.

Land as Literary Character – Christine Norvell at The Imaginative Conservative.

What is the Aim of Christian Writing? – Cody Cunningham.

Faith

One Man’s Fall is Another Man’s Warning – David Qaoud at Gospel Relevance.

What I Found in My Grandfather's Amazing Journals

Painting: Portrait of a Man Reading a Book, oil on canvas by Karl Aksel Jorgenson (1920).