Saturday Good Reads - Nov. 11, 2023

One book made William Shakespeare famous; without it, much of what we have about English drama would have been lost. The book is Shakespeare’s Folio, first published in 1623, which means this year is the 400^th anniversary. Florence Hazrat at The Millions describes the book that made the bard, while her colleague Tanya Kirk explains how the book was made. And Henry Oliver at The Common Reader looks at the Folio's rise, fall, and rise again.

For several decades, homeschooling has been a familiar practice in evangelical circles. With the school lockdowns during COVID, it grew by leaps and bounds among less religious parents, who wanted to keep their children learning or, thanks to Zoom meetings, discovered what was actually happening in their children’s classrooms. Now it’s such a culture-wide thing that even the national news media have discovered it. Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic takes a look at how one major newspaper reported on it.

 

When Mike Johnson was elected Speak of the House, my first thought was, “Oh, boy, I can hear the news media and the pundits already typing, tweeting, and podcasting furiously away. The horror! The outrage!” And why? Because Mike Johnson is a conservative Christian. And it didn’t take long. As Julia Duin at Get Religion points out, “When it comes to Speaker Mike Johnson, some journalists have become unhinged.” 

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

How the Customer Review Changed the World – Samuel James at Digital Liturgies.

 

Israel’s Blueprint for a Revival of the West – Saul Singer and Dan Senor at The Free Press.

 

Sherman’s Hard Truths About War Ring True Today – Kevin Carroll at The Dispatch.

 

End DEI – Bari Weiss at The Free Press.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Magic of Great Stories: And How They Lead Us to God – Clinton Manley at Desiring God.

 

Your Novel Should Be More Like Moby-Dick – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

What Sort of Catastrophe Do You Prefer? The Novels of John Wyndham – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review. 

 

The Best Locked-Room Mystery You’ve Probably Never Heard Of – Rupert Holmes at CrimeReads.

 

Poetry

 

How Wilfred Owen became a poet – Daniel Swift at The Spectator.

 

Hear Us Fall – Paul Wittenberger at Paul’s Substack.

 

The Moon Hung Low – Cynthia Erlandson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Faith

 

The Tell-Tale Heart – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

 

Add a Little Extra Beauty – Tim Challies.

 

You Probably Have a Good Pastor – Todd Pruitt at Reformation 21.

 

Christianity and Functional Liberalism (or How Evangelicalism Denies the Faith) – Bryan Laughlin and Doug Ponder at Sola Ecclesia.

 

City of Echoes: The Rise of Christian Rome – Jessica Warnberg at Church Life Journal.

 

Everybody Loves a Lover – Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver

 Painting: Reading, oil on canvas by Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933).