Saturday Good Reads - Jan. 10, 2026

Yes, we’re past Christmas, even past Epiphany, but I can’t resist certain posts. Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem writes about seeing the supernatural, noting that “It’s right there before your eyes.” Lara d’Entremont at A Mother Held declares she will live in the past as well as the present. Both are reflections on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. 

We tend to mythologize our heroes, and C.S. Lewis is no exception. So, it’s something of a minor shock to read that some rather pointed enmity for T.S. Eliot. It started over Lewis's own frustrated career as a poet, floundering just as Eliot’s was taking off like a skyrocket. It extended into a prank (or literary hoax), and it never really ended until toward the end of Lewis’s life. See “C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot: A Tale of Two Critics” by Jackson Greer at Front Porch Republic.

 

What does Nancy Drew have in common with The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett? They’re both mysteries, but that’s about the extent of their similarities. But they have something else in common. This year, the first four Nancy Drew mysteries and Hammett’s novel have entered the public domain. Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads has the story on those works and four other great crime stories.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Richard Montgomery: The American Martyr Mourned on Both Sides of the Atlantic Ocean – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Lydia’s Tale: The Mystery of Lydia Darragh, Irish Quaker, Patriot Spy by Robert Fanelli – review by Kelsey DeFord at Journal of the American Revolution. 

 

The Very Revolutionary United States Constitution – Vince Coyner at American Thinker.

 

Henry Know and John Andre: An Unlikely Friendship – Evan Portman at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

A Skirmish Early in George Washington’s Military Career Helped Define Him. It Could Have Killed Him – David Preston at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

The Revolution’s First Hot Take – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

The Association of Cumberland County, North Carolina – Joseph Westendorf at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Teenagers at War: On Fighting the British in New York, 1776 – Jack Kelly at Literary Hub.

 

250^th Anniversary of the Release of Common Sense – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Life and Culture

 

Why Vaclav Havel Matters – Shelly Foreshaw Brookes at The Critic Magazine.

 

To Be a Christian Is to Sanctify the Machine – Wyatt Graham at Mere Orthodoxy reviews Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth.

 

A New World Order for Hot Dogs and Pennies – Austin Jepsky at Front Porch Republic.

 

Writing and Literature

 

100 Years of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Adrian McKinty at CrimeReads.

 

Reading Dante with C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, and Charles Williams – Amy Mantravadi at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Jane Austen was no Romantic – Terry Eagleton at UnHerd.

 

Faith

 

Going Under, Coming Up – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Poetry

 

“An Old Man’s Winter Night,” poem by Robert Frost – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Limiting Poetry’s Feedback Loop – Stephen Searcy at New Verse Review.

 

Rags – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

“Sonnet 97,” poem by William Shakespeare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

American Stuff

 

“My Paramount Object in This Struggle”: Lincoln’s Public Letter to Greeley – Don Zavodny at Emerging Civil War.

 

British Stuff

 

Do we still live in a democracy? – Christopher Howarth at The Critic Magazine.

 

Where the Shore Remembers – The Cheeky Celt 

 Painting: A Gentleman Reading in a Library, oil on canvas by Johann Hamza (1850-1927).