Saturday Good Reads - Sept. 10, 2022

The news alerts seemed to have arrived in rapid succession. First, a report on a health watch, Shortly thereafter came the report that Queen Elizabeth II had died. The day which we all knew was inevitably coming had arrived. I was nine months old when she became Queen; I’ve known no other British monarch. She, perhaps more than any other person, connected me, and the rest of us, to my parents’ generation and all of what they experienced. 

The outpouring from media is a veritable flood. But a few reports stood out for me. David Murray writes about how watching the Queen’s first televised address always makes him cry. Alexander Larman at The Spectator talks about “our remarkable monarch.” Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative explains why the British monarchy is still relevant. The Art Newspaper featured six of the best photographs from her life. And Carl Trueman at First Things Magazines writes about the Queen’s quiet faith.

 

God save the King.

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

The ascent of Barbara Pym – Ann Kennedy Smith at The Critic Magazine.

 

How Mark Twain’s “Campaign That Failed” Captured the Nature of War in Missouri – Kristen Trout at Emerging Civil War.

 

The Insistent Cough of Grace: Remembering Frederick Buechner – Michael Farmer at Front Porch Republic.

 

Life and Culture

 

Stories Are Light – Millie Sweeny at Story Warren.

 

College Football’s Twilight: The sport as we know it is changing forever – Theodore Kupfer at CityJournal.

 

Is 'Rings of Power' Woke? Or Just What We Deserve? – Samuel James at Digital Liberties.

 

How a Firebombed Pregnancy Center Is Changing the Post-Roe Landscape – Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra at The Gospel Coalition.

 

A Serious Critic for Unserious Times: Hilton Kramer rejected political correctness to champion aesthetics and standards in art – Brian Allen at CityJournal. 

 

The Trinity School gets its anti-woke comeuppance – Chilton Williamson Jr. at The Spectator.

 

Faith

 

More on Projectors in Worship – Wes Bredenhof.

 

The Stars Still Shine in the Daytime – Seth Lewis.

 

Age with Joy—Linda Schaible at For the Church.

 

Letter to a Deconstructing Christian: Your Questions Are Good, But Not That Good: A person who's not open to answers doesn't really have questions – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

Ukraine

 

Russia’s war on Wikipedia – Marsha Borak at Rest of World.

 

Ukraine turns the tables on Russia – Charles Lipson at The Spectator.

 

American Stuff

 

A Puritan Founding? – Miles Smith at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Reflecting on a Theme: Find a Way to Serve – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War.

 

News Media

 

“Facebooks Removed:” A Funny Find from 1999 – Chris Martin at Terms of Service.

 

British Stuff

 

Boris helped save Britain from disaster – Rakib Ehsan at The Critic Magazine.

 

Poetry

 

“Broken Blessings” and “Jubilee” – Joshua Fullman at An Unexpected Journal.

 

For My Queen – Susan Jarvis Bryant at Society of Classical Poets.

 

The Story of Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel

Photograph: Standing in front of the Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace in 2017.

Royal Security, Life, and Fiction

Scotland Yard has been making some changes in how it provides security for the British royal family and government ministers, and reportedly the Queen is not appreciative. The palace declines comment on the report, as it usually does on matters like this one. The change is likely driven by a cost reduction plan.

Early on in my third novel Dancing King, there’s a conflict over security at the palace, and Michael dismisses the security chief, who leaves with almost all of his people. A stopgap plan is put in place, using the Guardsmen, and then Michael opts for a private security firm. It doesn’t seem like that major a deal, just like the Real Scotland Yard changes noted in the news report, but in the novel, it becomes a small step that will eventually lead to bigger changes.

Photograph by Steve Bryant via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

This week (on Sept. 9), Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning British monarch, surpassing the previous record held by Queen Victoria. A wonderful video shows her evolution from childhood to today.

All those stories we keep seeing in the newspaper about the decline and demise of college English departments? Turns out they’re mostly true. And this is a tragedy for American literature – and for our society.

And we had Marilynne Robinson on fear, Jeremy Black on the Magna Carta, good poetry, beautiful and thought-provoking photographs, and a trip from Chicago to rural Iowa.

Photography

Flowers – Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.

Olive Street Survivor, Western Downtown – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

Poetry

Day to Day Utters Speech – Jerry Barnett at Gerald the Writer.

Tide – Megan Willome.

Thomas Lynch – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

Refuge on the Island of Lesbos – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

Culture and History

Variant Readings – Gabriel Said Reynolds at The Times Literary Supplement.

Liberty’s Charter: On the special significance of the Magna Carta for Americans – Jeremy Black at The New Criterion.

Fear – Marilynne Robinson at The New York Review of Books.

The English Department’s Willful Self-Destruction – Jay Schalin at the John William Opoe Center.

Communication, in the country (part 1) – David Murray at Writing Boots.

Faith

Why You Might Just Have to Quit Your Job – David Rupert at Red-Letter Believers.

When a Something Happened Moment Invites Us to Ask What – Eileen Knowles at The Scenic Route.

Good Ol’ Words: Member – Winn Collier.

Work

Stripping Away the Magic and Make-Believe from Our Vocations – Vincent Bacote at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics

Writing

For When Writing is Hard – Mick Silva.

The Longest Reigning British Monarch

Painting: The Mother and Sister of the Artist, oil on canvas by Berthe Morisot (1869/1870); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.