Saturday, March 27, 2021

Saturday Good Reads


“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” was one of my favorite television shows, not the least for the droll commentary offered by the host before and after the program. One show I vividly remember to this day (because it scared my socks off) was the story of two nurses caring for a wealthy invalid. It’s a dark and stormy night, and a serial killer targeting nurses is on the loose. My father loved the program as well; his favorite show was the housewife fixing dinner for the policemen investigating her husband’s murder – and she feeds them the murder weapon. 

Hitchcock has been dead for 40 years, and yet movies like “Psycho,” “North by Northwest,” “The Birds,” and “Rear Window” still resonate. Keith Roysden at CrimeReads looks at “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and how it dominated TV entertainment. David Thomason at Literary Hub explains why Hitchcock’s films still feel dangerous.

 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the novel by Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, has turned 50 years old. David Wills at Quillette revisits what he calls one of the most important but usually misunderstood novels of the 20th century

 

No matter what you think of former President Donald Trump, one of the most remarkable achievements of the last four years was the creation of not one but several vaccines for COVID-19 – in only six months (defying the predictions of Dr. Fauci, the medical establishment, and just about everyone else). Paul Robert Gregory at The Hill describes what the facts are about Operation Warp Speed.

 

More Good Reads

 

News Media

 

When the Narrative Replaces the News – Andrew Sullivan. 

 

Project Veritas Wins Early Round In Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times – Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist.

 

Poetry

 

Poetry Advice from a Retired Schoolteacher: Robert Penn Warren’s Lost Letter – Leverett Butts at Literary Matters.

 

The Green Man in Spring – David Russell Mosley at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Listen to a wax cylinder recording of Alfred Tennyson reading “The Charge of the Light Brigade” – Walker Caplan at Literary Hub.

 

Lockdown Anniversary: The Quarantine Quatrains – Malcolm Guite.

 

Faith

 

How Long is the Dash? – Tim Challies.

 

Hot Takes Are Harming Us – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition. 

 

The boredom and the fear of grief: on C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed – Constance Grady at Vox. 

 

You Aren’t Crazy – And You Aren’t Alone – Rod Dreher at American Conservative.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Enduring Relevance of Czesław Miłosz’s ‘The Captive Mind’ – Robin Ashenden at Quillette.

 

Why Jacques Ellul is Relevant Today – Jacob Marques Rollison at Faith & Leadership.

 

The Freedom to Read Statement – American Library Association.

 

Beware of Books! – The Passive Voice.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Atticus, Scout, and the Gift of Children: On Reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' with my Daughter in 2020 – Heather Morton at Front Porch Republic.

 

Flannery O'Connor: The American Master – David Griffith at Church Life Journal.

 

American Stuff

 

Remembering Black Wall Street – Urban Faith.

 

How Great Thou Art – Home Free



Painting: Interior with Man Reading, oil on canvas (1898) by Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916).

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