Saturday Good Reads – Oct. 17, 2026

The (unnamed) writer at A London Inheritance had a post this week about taking a walk in London. She calls pat of the “Rocque Ring,” and it forms the boundary of London in 1745. It begins at the Blue Coat School, located on Caxton Lane at the corner of Buckingham Gate, goes past Buckingham Palace, and then moves up Constitution Hill to Hyde Park. Our hotel – the one we’ve stayed at six times since 2013, is a short block from the Blue Coat School. This was “our neighborhood,” close to Victoria, near the Wellington Guards Barracks, and two blocks from the Palace and St. James’s Park. We could, and often did, walk to Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, and even Westminster Abbey. And we could, and often did, run into all the protests that are a daily occurrence in London. 

Englishman Henry Oliver, who writes about books, found himself in the Middle South of the United States – Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. And he discovered that there’s nothing boring in America. 

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Freedom Around the Globe: A World History of the American Revolution by Sarah Persall – review by Timothy Symington at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Passing Revolutionary History on to the Next Generation – Jim Sanderlin at Real Clear History.

 

The Revolutionary Battle of Valcour Island – Dan McLaughlin at National Review.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Belloc vs. Tolkien: Two Views of Anglo-Saxon England – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

You Are Formed by What You Listen To; You Are Formed by What You Read – E.J. Larow at After Progress.

 

British Stuff

 

Rules, London’s Oldest Restaurant, Given to the National Trust – Jonathan Thomas at Londontopia.

 

Poetry

 

“Autumn,” poem by John Clare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The River & The Sea – poem by Rohini Sunderam at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Sweet Music – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

“Caedmon’s Hymn,” poem by Caedmon – Adam Robets at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Life and Culture

 

A Farmer’s Alphabet – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

His Love – Skye Peterson

Painting: An Old Man Reading, oil on panel (1729) by Willem van Mieris (1662-1747).

Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 10, 2026

One thing email and texting has done is almost eliminate the old-fashioned letter. And letters were the stuff of biographers and historians. Example: we know a lot about poets like T.S. Eliot because of the letters he wrote. Another example: Robert Frost. Ben Myers, writing for Portico, looks at Frost’s letters and asks, “Did Robert Frost Despair for His Soul?” 

In 1825, a hero of the America Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette, retuned to America for a visit. He survived the French Revolution, which didn’t treat aristocrats kindly, because the American Revolution and the role he played made him a national hero in France as well. Fifty years later, he came back, and the return was a triumph.

 

I mentioned to my wife the other day that if an art museum wants a successful exhibition, then make it about the Impressionists. There’s one at the St. Louis Art Museum opening Oct. 17 about “Women Impressionists and the Land.” And the new major show at London’s National Gallery is “Renoir and Love,” and Alexandra Wilson at Engelberg Ideas has a report. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

Explaining Wendell Berry – Doug Sikkema at Comment Magazine.

 

Cormac McCarthy’s Desert Wanderings – Michael Crews at Portico.

 

Tolstoy’s Path Out of Skepticism – Marc Sims at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

America 250

 

250 Years Ago, a Cannonball Beheaded a Hessian Soldier. Did He Become the Headless Hoseman? – Ryan Thomas LaBee at Military.com.

 

Life and Culture

 

Ed Sheeran Proves Trueman Right: We All Live in Marx’s World Now – Tim Challies.

 

Poetry

 

A Song Inspired by Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” – Gunny Markefka at Society of Classical Poets.

 

What to Remember When Waking – poem by David Whyte.

 

Philip Larkin by the Book – Dana Gioia at New Verse Review.

 

“The Base Stealer” and “Pitcher,” poems by Robert Francis – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

“Disabled,” poem by Wilfred Owen and “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways,” poem by William Wordsworth – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Larkin’s Anthology: An Extract from Dana Gioia’s New Catalogue – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

British Stuff

 

Lucinda Douglas-Menzies’ Portraits – Spitalfields Life.

 

History

 

‘Hitler was a lazy criminal who slept in until noon’: why most of what we think we know about the rise of the Nazis is wrong – Philip Oltermann at The Guardian.

 

Faith

 

‘What Is the Meaning of Christian in This American Life?’ – Sarah Rexford at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

“When You Are Old,” poem by W.B. Yeats – Read by Cillian Murphy

Painting: Woman Reading, oil on canvas attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), The New Art Gallery, Walsall, England.

Some Wednesday Readings – Sept. 30, 2026

Of Star Wars and Finnegan’s Wake – Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

The Ethics of Socrates – Bradley Birzer.

 

Silence in Ruins – Geoffrey Kurtz at Front Porch Republic.

 

Do You Hand Down or Melt the Family Silver? – John Horvat at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Richard Jeffries in the City of London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Michaelmas: a sonnet for St. Michael the Archangel – Malcolm Guite.

 

Murders for September – Jerey Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

The long peace: On American military power and technology – Nicholas Zamiska at The New Criterion.

 

From six years ago: Dancing Prince: Anticipating a DNA Study of Vikings? – at Dancing Priest.

 

Photograph by Steinar Engeland via Unsplash. Used with permission.

  

Saturday Good Reads – Sept. 26, 2026

My first novel, Dancing Priest, begins at the University of Edinburgh with a conversation between a theology student, Michael Kent, and his roommate and best friend, Tommy McFarland. Michael will earn his theology degree and move to San Francisco. More adventures await in the next four books in the series. But if I was writing that novel today, I’d have to do something different – the University of Edinburgh, after 440 years, is dropping its divinity program.  

If you wander around Poet’s Corner in London’s Westminster Abbey, you’ll find an amazing array of tombs and memorial stones – Charles dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, the World War I poets, Samuel Johnson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and so many more. And now joining them with a memorial plaque will be J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

It was a big week for people reading and writing about classic novels. Richard Rensch at City Journal considered Walker Percy and his novels’ prophetic vision.  Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft read Don Quixote. Henry Oliver at The Common Read delved into Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. And Fiona Macdonald at the BBC found a program in which J.R. R. Tolkien talked about the most tragic moment in The Lord of the Rings. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Television

 

The making of a masterpiece – John MacLeod at The Critic Magazine.

 

America 250

 

The Battles of Saratoga – Chris Farmer at Old Dominion Post.

 

What the Revolution Can Teach Us About Liberty: Conversation Starters with…Wilfred M. McClay – Anthony Sacramone at Acton Institute.

 

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Life and Culture

 

We know what kind of society we are. We’re just haggling over the price – Stephen McAlpine.

 

Narnia Among the Deathworks – Tim Challies.

 

The Illiterati – Mark Malvasi at Th Imaginative Conservative.

 

10 Reasons Why Marxism is Bad for Humanity – Patricia Engler at Answers in Genesis.

 

What Nikole Hannah-Jones Wouldn’t Let Herself See – Jennifer Weber at City Journal.

 

The Homes That Stick With Us – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Books Will Never Die – if Publishers Remember What Books do and How They Do It – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Literary Landscapes: Justin Hamm – Tom Darin Liskey t the New Territory.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien on ‘the most tragic moment in The Lord of the Rings’ – Fiona Macdonald at BBC.

 

Faith

 

The Repeating of Christian History – Shannon Holzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Coming Tsunami – Scot McKnight.

 

The Lost Art of Manners and Why Children Still Need Them – Brenden Bott at The Gospel Coalition / Canada.

 

News Media

 

The New York Times Sued by Shareholders Over Biased Israel Coverage – Maya Sulkin at The Fre Press (story unlocked).

 

Poetry

 

“Spring and Fall,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Our Grieving and Our Staying – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic on Wendell Berry’s poetry.

 

“Recessional,” poem by Rudyard Kiplung – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient & Modern.

 

Abide with Me – King Harald of Norway Funeral

 Painting: A Girl Reading, oil on canvas (1932) by Vanessa Bell (1879-1961).

Saturday Good Reads – September 19, 2026

My wife and I have joke about PBS: When all else fails, do Downton Abbey or some variation on the theme. Reruns, fundraisers – it seems at times it all turns to Downton Abbey and the Crawley family. And now, for the true fan of the famed British television series, comes the spinoff to end all spinoffs – the 4,711-piece Official Downtown Abbey LEGO set, complete with 13 minifigures! And it’s only $349.99! 

Most of what we read about the Declaration of Independence focuses on the events leading up to it, the writing of it, or what it still means. Emily Sneff took a different approach and looked at how the Declaration was disseminated in the six months after its adoption by the Continental Congress.

 

What do you do when your entire life seems to have hit a wall, and you simply don’t have the will to go on? Marc Sims at Et Cetera takes that familiar experience and sets it in the context of Christianity.

 

More Good Reads

 

Faith

 

A Murderer Like Me – Missy Roepnack.

 

“Rise Up, O Men of God,” Hymn by William Pearson Merrill – Anthony Esolen at Word & Wong.

 

You Are Not Your Trials – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.

 

America 250

 

Washington Resigns His Commission and Foreign Threats to the Republic – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Benjamin Rush – The Revolution’s Indispensable Doctor – Joseph Loconte at Acton Institute.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Samuel Johnson: “A Writer for Us All” – Henry Oliver at The Priory.

 

Belloc’s “Belinda” – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Where have all the vicars gone? – A.N. Wilson.

 

In Search of Roman London – Spitalfields Life.

 

American Stuff

 

American Malls Were Once Packed – So What Killed Them? – Secret State Files (video).

 

Art

 

Art imitating life: Artist self-portraits in the SLAM collection – Emily Wasserman at St. Louis Art Museum.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Making of Roger Scruton – Dan Hitchens at First Things Magazine.

 

The death of biblical literacy – Gwion Wyn Jones at The Spectator.

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Artificial Intelligence – Teddy Macker at Front Porch Republic.

 

Poetry

 

“At Melville’s Tomb,” poem by Hart Crane – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Inside the once-hidden workshop of ‘The Muppets’ creator Jim Henson – Associated Press

 Painting: Man with a Book, oil on canvas by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), The Leiden Collection.

Saturday Good Reads - Sept. 12, 2026

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered beginning in 1947. A group of Bedouin shepherds discovered clay jars almost a thousand years old in desert caves. Jars kept being discovered into 1956. Selections from the scrolls are being exhibited this year at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. And Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative explains why the scrolls are so important to Western civilization. 

It happened back in the 1920s, a time of excess, prosperity, and broad disillusionment. America seemed to fall in love with vicious killers. And now, it seems to be happening again. Daniel Darling at The Daily Wire explains why America, or some subset of Americans, now worships its cold-blooded killers.

 

I have been bombarded by emails from people described as marketing experts, agents, editors, and book promoters, often with elaborate descriptions of my novels and how wonderful they are. Your heart might react a little, until you realize that all of these experts are likely derived from an AI application and the whole thing is a scam. Tim Challies explains how scammers are targeting Christian authors.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

The Poetry of American Independence – Steve Knepper and Brad Skow at New Verse Review.

 

Strange Bedfellows: Adams and Franklin – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

How Did the Nation Get Its Name? – Greg Daugherty at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

A Battle in Our Own Backyard – Molly McMurphy at Missouri Historical Society.

 

Washington’s Invalid Crops: Wounded Warriors Still Served the Revolutionary Cause – David Welker at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Crucifixion of Patrick Clancy – Bethel McGrew at Further Up.

 

Homeschooling Is More Normal Than You Think – Tessa Carman at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Faith

 

Why we need to be students of the past / church history – Michael A.G. Azad Haykin at Historia ecclesiastica.

 

A Catechism on Technology – Darryl Dash at Dashhouse.

 

Writing and Literature

 

What is literary criticism, if not close reading? Art, Magic, and Common Sense – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

American Stuff

 

The Enduring Tragedy of 9/11 – Michael Oren at Clarity.

 

25 years ago, two strangers met in the twin towers and escaped on 9/11. What happened next? – David Smith at The Guardian.

 

On Escaping This Horrible Era – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

The First Rough Draft of 9/11 History – Nicholas Clairmont at The Free Press. 

 

Poetry

 

“My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is,” poem by Sir. Edward Dyer – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“September 1913,” poem by Wiliam Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

British Stuff

 

Tearing at the fabric – James Price at The Critic Magazine.

 

Shut Up and Dance – Movie Compilations

Painting: Hotel Room, oil on canvas (1931) by Edwad Hopper (1882-1967); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Saturday Good Reads - Sept. 5, 2026

Since his death on Monday, people have been writing about Wendell Berry (1934-2026). Including me at Tweetspeak Poetry. Below are quite a few links – memories, remembrances, assessments. I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s words, “Let us endeavor so to live so that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.” Wendell Berry was loved, and he left a deep mark. 

In late August, I wrote about how The Norton Anthology of English Literature shaped my understanding of poetry. It turns out I wasn’t the only one. Mark Bauerlein at Portico discusses his own Norton experience. 

 

The author of the blog Spitalfields Life took a walk along the Ridgeway, considered to be the oldest road in Britain. He wrote about the experience, and he took pictures, too. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Wendell Berry

 

Stewarding Land and Language – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Love’s Shadowless Light – Jeffrey Bilbro at Front Porch Republic.

 

In Memory: Wendell Berry – Gracy Olmstead at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Wendell Berry’s Eternal Story – Paul Kingsnorth at First Things Magazine.

 

The Once and Future Wisdom of Wendell Berry – Rod Dreher at The Free Press.

 

Wendell Berry, writer and prophet, was extolled by many as a modern-day prophet – Yonat Shimron and Adelle Banks at Religio News Service.

 

Wendell Berry’s vision of a sacred world – Norman Wirzba at The Christian Century.

 

Why Wendell Berry mattered – Nate Hanrahan at The Spectator.

 

The Real Ideal – Paul Pastor at Front Porch Republic.

 

Remembering Wendell Berry – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.

 

A Voice for My Generation – Samuel Heard at Front Porch Republic.

 

Writing and Literature

 

We Still Need Fairy Tales – Ashley Hales at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Life and Culture

 

When Everything Is Forgotten – Joseph Orso at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Art

 

Riding the Waves of Stone Sea, St. Louis Art Museum’s Largest artwork – Emily Wasserman at St. Louis Art Museum blog. 

 

Movies

 

20 Years Later, ‘Amazing Grace’ Producer Says Wilberforce’s Story Still Resonates – Michael Foust at Crosswalk.

 

Poetry

 

“Last Supper,” poem by Elinor Wylie – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Derrick Porter, Hoxton Poet – Spitalfields Life.

 

Faith

 

How to Pray When You Fel Like You Pray the Same Thing Every Day – Courtney Reissig at Crossway.

 

Known by Heaven – Josh Groban and Lauren Daigle

 Photograph: Wendell Berry Reading by Ben Aguilar via The Berry Center.

Saturday Good Reads - August 29, 2026

This past Thursday was the 250^th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn. The army of George Washington lost the battle – and the American Revolution was nearly strangled right at the very beginning. What saved Washington’s army was a group of soldiers known as the Maryland 400.  

I own a Kindle, and I have a lot of books on it. I’ve also been paring back my library of physical books; some 400 have already made their way to a school library. But I do love holding a book in my hands while I read. Matthew Adams at Mining the Riches agrees, and he says some things are worth holding on to.

 

Have you ever wondered how people predicted the weather before we had Accu-Weather? Signs in the sky? Aching bones? Meteorology didn’t begin coming of age until the mid-nineteenth century, but people had been predicting the weather long before that. Becky Little at History takes a look at the various ways people used to figure out what was happening or going to happen with the weather.

 

Faith

 

The Best Argument for Christianity – Kelly Keller at Story Warren.

 

Christian Obedience in Two Words – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.

 

Surprised by Silence – Matthew Rubenstein at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

America 250

 

The 21-Mile Circle: American Revolution Heritage Sites in the English Midlands – Steve Willis at Journal of the American Revolution. 

 

Negotiating American Independence and Thwarting the Newburgh Conspiracy – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Poetry

 

Forming the Affections of Our Children – Paul Kearney at Front Porch Republic.

 

Chaucer Announces His Desire to Retire – poem by Paul Freeman at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“Farewell to Juliet,” poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and “Don Juan,” (excerpt) by Lord Byron– Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Trap: A conspiracy theory – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Chesterton & the “Great Religious Genius” of Doctor Johnson – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Relics at St. Paul’s From Before the Fire – Spitalfields Life.

 

The England I Knew Is Gone – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine.

 

The Farmers’ Choir – Britain’s Got Talent

Painting: Woman Reading, oil on canvas by Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667).

Saturday Good Reads - Aug. 2, 2026

Benjamin Franklin is rightly considered to be one of America’s founding fathers. But there was also his son, William, who had an entirely different take on the American Revolution. Danica Kirka ar Associated Press explains: “Ben Franklin chose America. Son William chose the crown. This civil war is a microcosm of revolution.” 

Hadrian’s Wall was built during the reign of the Emperor Hadrain. It stretches across the narrowest part of England – 73 miles from Newcastle on the east to Solway Firth on the west. Its purpose: keep the barbarian Picts in the north, separating them from Roman Britain. Jonathan Thomas at Anglotopia is walking the wall, and he’s providing daily updates. (He’s actually walking 84 miles, starting at the seacoast on the east.) 

 

Therapy culture has been shaping America for decades, and it has not excluded the church. Amy Mantravadi at Mere Orthodoxy reviews a new book on the subject, Resisting Therapy Culture: The Dangers of Pop Psychology and How the Church Can Respond by Matthew Loftus.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

The “Battle” of Fort Thicketty – Tom Elmore at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

This Connecticut Teenager Spied on the British During the American Revolution, Succeeding Where Nathan Hale Failed – Claire Bellerjeau and Tiffany Yecke Brooks at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

The Battle of Yorktown – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Faith

 

Don’t Be Ashamed to Be Old – Tim Challies.

 

In Praise of My Youth Pastor – Derek Rishmawy at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Writing and Literature

 

That’s the Deal. What Rankles You Most About AI Prose? – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

‘A selfish, ignoble person’ – the dark side of the Nobel prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa – Nicholas Shakespeare at The Spectator.

 

American Stuff

 

The Real Covid Scandal Is Bigger Than Fauci – Sigrid Bratlie at The Free Press.

 

Ernest Hamwi and the Ice Cream Cone – Jonathan Hickman at Missouri Historical Society.

 

Spinning in His Grave? TR, Fauci, & the Bureaucratic Beast – Chuck Chalberg at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

British Stuff

 

The English are best – James Price at The Critic Magazine.

How I Became the Jason Arday Affair Scapegoat - Nathan Cofnas at The Wall Street Journal (story unlocked). 

 

Life and Culture

 

The DSA Strategy to Build Power – David Duhalde at The American Prospect.

 

The Mission Medley – Ennio Morricone (Live in Venice 2007)

 Illustration: An Old Man Reading, etching and dry point on laid paper (1642) by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680).