I’ve known poet, writer, editor, and publisher L.L. Barkat for 17 years. We met on Twitter, as it was called back then. I read her book Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places. And then God in the Yard. We worked together at The High Calling. And, since 2009, with Tweetspeak Poetry. She’s just published a new poetry collection, The Book of Joy: 100 Poems for Your Heart. You can read Maureen Doallas’s review and an interview with Barkat here.
Some 25 years ago, we attended a church that, seemingly overnight, discovered the book The Prayer of Jabez, a short work about a very short passage in the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 4:9-10, if you’re interested). Suddenly, The Prayer of Jabez was everywhere. Our Sunday School class. Men’s Bible studies (and the women, too, for all I know). A sermon series from the pulpit. It was a tidal wave of Jabez. It was also thinly disguised prosperity gospel, and I resisted. This week, I happened cross an article about the passage, which puts it in its proper context.
I’m not sure whom is behind the Substack entitled “Abstract Truth,” but a friend provided a link to a post, and I read it. The post is entitled “Men Don’t Hate Reading; They Hate Your Books,” and, in addition to the funny AI-generated illustrations, it contains considerable truth.
More Good Reads
America 250
From the Red Sea to 1776: How the Exodus Inspired America – Michael Freund at Real Clear History.
A Dear-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston 1775-1776 – review by Don Hagist at Journal of the American Revolution.
War and Wilderness: British Soldiers in Revolutionary America – Vaughn Scribner at History Today.
The Siege of Yorktown – Chris Farmer at Old Dominion Post.
The Jewish Patriot Who Died for American Independence – Michael Freund at Real Clear History.
Faith
Should Christians vote? – Doug Spurling at Spurling Silver.
According to the Flesh, According to the Spirit: Christianity as Poem and Myth – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.
Pruning – Christine Norvell at Mere Orthodoxy (my review of her book can be found here.)
Life and Culture
Learning to Love This Land – Frank DeVito at Front Porch Republic.
The Great Work: An Interview with David W. Orr – Terry Macker at Front Porch Republic.
Walking is Loving: The Liturgy of the Stroll – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.
Writing and Literature
The New Age of Reading – Nathan Heller at The New Yorker.
Cormac McCarthy and the Writing Life – Thomas Kidd.
“Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving – read by Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.
Poetry
“October,” poem by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Much Has Been Said – David Whyte.
“No Coward Soul is Mine,” poem by Emily Bronte – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
British Stuff
The Quest for King Arthur – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.
Pylons – Jeffrey Streeter at English Republic of Letters.
My Song Is Love Unknown – Keith & Kristyn Getty
Painting: Old Woman Reading a Book, oil on panel by Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), Hermitage Museum.
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