Some Monday Readings - Nov. 2, 2026

  

Some November Murders – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

‘Thought to be lost forever’: After 2,000 years, a library buried by Pompeii’s eruption is finally revealing its secrets – Tom Howarth at BBC Science Focus.

 

Inheriting Wendell Berry – Willis Jenkins at The Hedgehog Review.

 

G.K. Chesterton’s Nightmare: The Man Who Was Thursday – Jordan Poss at Miller’s Book Review.

 

The Contrarian’s Guide to Reading the Classics – K.S. Bernstein at Apple Blossoms in a Mournful Wood.

 

On the Naming of Death – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

Weather Photographer of the Year 2026 Shortlist – Royal Meteorological Society.

 

Great Maze Pond and Guy’s Hospital – A London Inheritance.

 

Photograph: Guy’s Hospital, London, via Wikipedia.

Some Monday Readings - Oct. 26, 2026

  

Why We Need History More Than Ever Before – Sarah Irving-Stonebreaker at The Gospel Coalition. 

 

In Defense of Fantasy Fiction – Susanna Clarke at The Observer.

 

The conservatism of Beatrix Potter – Jonathan Van Maren at The Bridgehead.

 

The Coolest Non-Conformist Ever: Ray Bradbury – Bradley Birzer.

 

Beyond the horizon: Vastness in landscapes in the SLAM collection – St. Louis Art Museum. 

 

The Nights of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

A Thames Artist and the New Hicks Hall Memorial – A London Inheritance.

 

Why Is There A Bell From East London In Manhattan’s Oldest Church? – Living London History.

 

Painting: Factories at Clichy, oil on canvas by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), St. Louis Art Museum.

Some Monday Readings - Oct. 26, 2026

  

“Louisiana Fairytale” – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Anarchist Notebook – Alan Jacobs.

 

Of Course It’s the Screens. Who Are We Kidding? – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

What Ten Thousand Commandments and Flock Cameras Can’t Accomplish – Greg Sullivan at Sippican Cottage.

 

The Dogs of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Lebanon’s only church-bell maker on keeping a 300-year family tradition alive – William Christou at The Guardian.

 

The Archbishop of Canterbury (1953) and Artificial Intelligence – A London Inheritance.

 

Little by Little Actions – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

Some Monday Readings - Oct. 12, 2026

The Genius of Chesterton: Understanding the Heart of the Enduring Story – Kevin Belmonte at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Seven Years Alone on Wildcat Mountain – John Byron Kuhner at First Things Magazine.

 

Author Talk is Cheap – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

America Like Broken Pottery. America with Dragons Roaming – Katie Andraski at Katie’s Ground.

 

Such as she was, such as she would become: Richmond, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Photograph: The Governor’s Mansion at Williamsburg, Va., by Christian Alvarez via Unsplash. Used with permission.

 

Some Monday Readings - Oct. 5, 2026

 

Unconditional Poverty: The Final Days of Francis of Assisi – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

The Way the World Could Be, or the Way the World Is? – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on AI, science fiction, and The Last Upheaval by Peco Gaskovski.

 

Napoleon Revisited – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative on The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton.

 

New and Notable Author / Series Spotlight: Urcelia Teixeira and her Angus Reid Mystery Series – Mark at Thoughts of a Sojourner.

 

If My Kids Get Into America’s Most Prestigious Colleges, I Hope They Do Not Go – Clayton Wood.

 

Would you have gone through the cockpit door? – Tsahi Shemesh at American Thinker.

 

Why Followup is Critical – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Walking the Rocque Ring, Part 4: Hyde Park Corner, Wellington Arch, a Missing Horse and an Elephant – A London Inheritance.

 

A Future Self – Patti Callahan Henry.

 

Murders for October – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Photograph: The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton.

Some Monday Readings – Sept. 28, 2026

 

Treasuring the Process: On the Hard Work of Human Creation – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street. 

 

A focus for our writing – Lancia Smith at Cultivating a Writer’s Life.

 

The Doors of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Hope in an Age of Enclosure – Joe Knight at Plough.

 

The One, the Many, and the In-Between – Luke Sheahan at Law & Liberty.

 

Remembering Wendell Berry – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

30 Years Ago I published Wendell Berry – by Hand – Alan Cornett at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Avoid This Common Writing Flaw – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Photograph: A doorway in London by Isaac via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings - Sept. 21, 2026

 

Great Books and the Good Life – Peter Sikkema at Comment.

 

My plea to English students: Read the canon – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

My Books Needed a House of Their Own – Karen Swallow Prior at Miller’s Book Review.

 

A Friend for Life – Peter Mommsen at Plough.

 

Bury St. Edmunds, 1952 and 2026 – A London Inheritance.

 

Fit as a philologist – Joshua Katz at The New Criterion.

 

The Ivory Tower Is Falling – R.R. Reno at First Things Magazine. 

 

The Art of Friendship – Tara Isabella Burton at Plough.

 

Photograph: The cathedral at Bury St. Edmunds by Karen Cann via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings – Sept. 14, 2026

London’s ice cream wars – Jim Warerson, David Hall, and Polly Smythe at London Centric. 

The Other Side (of sad stories) – Glenn McCarty at Story Warren.

 

College campuses need to be liberated from their administrators – Barry Lam at College Town.

 

Don Quixote’s Guide to Better Reading – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

9/11 and How the Western Left Continues to Shame Itself – Andrew Devine at The Devine Message.

 

A Prayer for Grandparents Day – Yuri Bezemov at How to Subvert Subversion.

 

Don’t Miss Your Opportunities – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

American nature: On a pair of exhibitions at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site – James Panero at The New Criterion.

 

Short Story, Deep Treasures: Biblical Allusion in “The Gift of the Magi” – John Savoie at Literary Matters.

Painting: Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire (1827), oil on canvas by Thomas Cole (1801-1848).

Some Monday Readings – Aug. 21, 2026

In Search of Northanger Abbey: Farleigh Hungerford Castle – Nancy Bilyeau at English Historical Fiction Authors. 

At the Zoo – Adam Smith at Ford Forum.

 

The Restless Odysseus in All of Us – Luke Sheahan at National Review.

 

Storytelling with Martin Shaw – Frank Mulder at Plough.

 

Why Is Nothing Original Anymore – E.J. Larow at After Progress.

 

The Man Called Ishi: Story of the Yahi’s Final Survivor – Brian Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Review: An Underappreciated Victory; Bernardo de Gálvez’s Mississippi River Campaign Against the British in 1779 by Stephen L. Kling, Jr. and Kristine L. Sjostrom – Phil Greenwalt at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

See 16 Stunning Images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards – Carlyn Kranking at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

“Consecration Day” – William Merriman at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Photograph: The existing buildings and part of the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle, via English Heritage.

Some Monday Readings – August 3, 2026

 

Glen Hansard Made Music Feel Alive – Spencer Klavan at The Free Press.

 

The Antiquarian Bookshops of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

A Brief History of Hold Music, From Early Patents to the Soundtrack of Customer Service Purgatory – Leo DeLuca at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Why the Left’s Own Thinkers Predict New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Will Fail – Aaron Renn.

 

All the Horrifying Things We Do to Our Books – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Local News Is Dying. This Kid Bought His Hometown Newspaper Anyway – Franne Block at The Free Press.

 

How Christopher Nolan’s Best Movies Expose The Odyssey’s Flaws – Samuel D. James at Digital Liberties.

 

Rembrandt Began a Biblical Painting. Another Artist Finished it ‘Rather Crudely.’ Now, Restorations Have Revealed the Long-Lost Original – Ellen Wexler at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Old Sarum – Hillfort, Castle, Cathedral to Rotten Borough – 1949 to 2026 – A London Inheritance.

 

Photograph: A view of Old Sarum by John H. Rhodes via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings - July 27, 2026

 

Make do – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher. 

One Tool to Rule Them All – Brad Littlejohn at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Two Ways of Looking at a Sparrow – Alexander Fayne.

 

Britain: Tome policing – Bijan Omrani at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Year I Taught in Prison – Michael Connolly at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Creatives Behind the Festival of Britain: Jacquetta Hawkes – A London Inheritance.

 

Don’t have blocks of time to write? Pockets work great! – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

 

Sounds of the Forest – Timber Festival.

 

I Read All These Books and Boy Are My Lips Tired – Greg Sullivan at Sippican Cottage.

 

Christianity and the Three Cultures – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Photograph: Jacquetta Hawkes (1910-1996) and J.B. Priestly (1894-1984) in 1960.

Some Monday Readings - July 20, 2026

Rehabilitating Time: Memory & the Writing Life – Daniel Sundahl at The Imaginative Conservative.

Charity That’s Just Ducky – Annie Nardone at Cultivating Oaks Press.

 

At Waltham Abbey – Spitalfields Life.

 

Want More Babies? We Need More Friends – Robert Henderson at City Journal.

 

“The people here are liberty mad…” Nicholas Cresswell and the American Independence – Rob Orrison at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Archaeologists Found a 2,000-Year-Old Garden Beneath a Church. It May Be the Site of Jesus’s Tomb – Michael Natale at Popular Mechanics.

 

The Hazards of Public Life – Jeffrey Bilbro at Plough.

 

Up the Hudson and Into the Heart of America – Megan Pidcock at The Wall Street Journal (unlocked). 

 

How a Chance Meeting Gave Me Some Tools to Help Mr. Wild Dog and Rejuvenated My Dream – Katie Andraski at Katie’s Ground.

 

St. Pancras Church and the Loss of the Steamship City of Boston – A London Inheritance.

 

Painting: The Beeches, oil on canvas (1845) by Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886), part of the Hudson River School, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Some Monday Readings - July 6, 2026

The ex-Dominion – David Warren at Essays in Idleness. 

The untold story of Brexit – David Shipley at The Critic Magazine.

 

No Faith Worth Defending – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine.

 

Where Did Lincoln Deliver the Gettysburg Address – Allen Guelzo at The Golden Thread. 

 

Fake World: Everything You Think Is a Lie – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on Philip K. Dick’s The Penultimate Truth.

 

Journey’s Jonathan Cain releases patriotic rock anthem, reveals meaning of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ – Leah MarieAnn Klett at The Christian Post.

 

“We Always Leave Things Unfinished” – Alexander Sorondo at Big Reader Bad Grades.

 

St Bartholomew the Less, the Chapel and Parish Church of St Barts – A London Inheritance.

 

The age of Friedman – James Piereson at The New Criterion.

 

Photograph: Author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982).

Some Monday Readings - June 22, 2026

If the First Apocalypse Doesn’t Get You, the Second One Will – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on the novels of R.C. Sherriff. 

On the third day: On the religious illiteracy of college students – The New Criterion.

 

Robert Besley, the Clarendon Typeface, and the Longbow – A London Inheritance.

 

McDonald’s is bringing back fried apple pie for America’s 250^th birthday – Colleen Cabili at Quartz.

 

The Surprising Ways Fatherhood Changes Men – Sarah Campisi Hallier at The Epoch Times.

 

Solstice Stories – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.

 

When Writers Don’t Respond – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

Photograph: The writer R.C. Sherriff (1896-1975).

Some Monday Readings - May 18, 2026

A Realist Outline of History – Joseph Woodard at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Why Read? Reading, print culture & liberal democracy – Roosevelt Montas at Commonweal Magazine.

 

God vs. Machine: How to Handle the Rise of Religious Objections to AI in the Workplace – Kit Eaton at Inc. Magazine.

 

David Copperfield: A Hero Beside the Point – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“Octopus’s Garden” – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know: Lord Byron’s Memoirs – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Case Study: 80-Year-Old Author Crushes It! – Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.

 

“Language matters: On the media’s anti-American animus – The New Criterion.

 

Fuel for Another Disappointment – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Consider the Small Town – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

St. Irenaeus on Christian Memory & Tradition – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

Painting: George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824).

Some Monday Readings - May 11, 2026

Revolting England – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Not-so-bookish thoughts about book clubs – Kelly Belmonte at Bandersnatch Books.

 

Serious Reading Was Always a Minority Sport – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Back When the Pulitzer Meant Something – Liel Leibovitz at The Free Press.

 

When You Hear Crickets – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

The Spitalfields Roman Woman – Spitalfields Life.

 

The Royal Festival Hall at 75 – A London Inheritance.

 

The Gratitude Shift – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

Photograph by Clay Banks via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings - May 4, 2026

Tolkien, Chesterton, & the Sloth of England – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Who Really Wrote Philip K. Dick’s Best Novel? – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Plato’s Cave and the Rise of the Highly Educated Radical – Jacob Howland at The Free Press.

 

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written? – Christ Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era. 

 

Celebrating 15 Years with the Kettle On – Every Day Poems – L.L. Barkat at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Illustration: The Declaration of Independence. 

Some Monday Readings - April 20, 2026

 

Reading is magic – Sam Kriss at Numb at the Lodge. 

Tales from the road: The dead of Falling Waters, a forgotten Gettysburg Campaign battle – John Banls’ Civil War Blog.

 

No, Books Are Note Remotely Too Expensive – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

A New Wild West in Jackson, Louisiana – James Taylor Foreman at The Dispatch.

 

A Week of Tears. A Week of Storms – Katie Andraskie at Katie’s Ground.

 

Publishing has an AI problem – Alexander Larman at The Critic Magazine.

 

Learn the Hard Way – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

How Big Pharma (Successfully) Targeted Women – Matt Bivens at Racket News.

 

A Christian Philosophy of Education – Howard Merken at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Photograph: The Falling Waters historical marker.

Some Monday Readings - April 13, 2026

Joe the Hero – Mark Oppenheimer at The Dispatch. 

A Wonder Is What It Is – Nick Offerman at WNYC reads ‘A Warning to My Readers’ by Wendell Berry.

 

The Man Who Read Everything: Letters of Harold Bloom and six poets – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

The BBC needs competition – James Hodgkinson at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Easter Rising – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Redundancy in action – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.

 

Two Critical Author Actions – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

St. Mary’s and the Putney Debates of 1647 – A London Inheritance.

 

Cockney Ding Dong – Spitalfields Life.

 

Photograph: Critic Harold Bloom.

Some Monday Readings - April 6, 2026

How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science – Thomas Plumper and Eric Neumayer at The MIT Press Reader. 

The Bills That Destroyed Urban America – Joseph Lawler at The New Atlantis.

 

A Truck Driver Spent 20 Years Building a Miniature Model of New York City. Then, It Went Viral – Sarah Cascone at Artnet.

 

Selma Hall, Jefferson County, Missouri – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

 

Spies and Lies: The Rosenbergs and America’s Atomic Secrets – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan – St. Louis Art Museum (video).

 

Editor, Do Your Work! – Tery Whalin at The Writing Life.

Photograph: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.