Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 18, 2025

For years, intense attention has been focused on the decline of young people attending church. Recently, it’s been discovered that younger people, especially young men, are coming back. What hasn’t been considered is another attendance issue – older people. Thom Rainer at Religion Unplugged loos at the departure of older church members. 

Much, much has been written about all of the influences on the founders of the American republic, but a new one (for me, at least) was Jonathan Swift. It turns out that several of our Founding Fathers were fans of Gulliver’s Travels. 

 

Justin Kaplan (1925-2014) was the general editor of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. He also wrote (back in 1966) what is considered to be one of the best if not the best biography of Mark Twain, which won both a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for biography. He also write a biography of Lincoln Steffens, and his biography of Walt Whitman won his second National Book Award. Kaplan’s daughter Hester has now written a biography of her father, wand went looking at Mark Twain’s home to find her dad.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

An October 1775 Birthday for the Continental Navy – Eric Sterner at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

How Two Presidents Saved the Declaration of Independence – Janice Rogers Brown at Coolidge Review.

 

Colonel William Prescott: Heroic Commander of the Battle of Bunker Hill by Donald Ryan – book review by Sam Short at the Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Revolution Could Have Started Here – Bob Thompson at American Heritage.

 

Israel

 

The Hostages Return Home and the Lies Fall Apart – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

How Real Estate-Ism Got the Deal Done in Gaza – Niall Ferguson at The Free Press.

 

Faith

 

How Do We Define the Church? – Eric Watkins at Ligonier.

 

“Jerusalem the Golden,” hymn by Bernard of Cluny – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

What Do Miniature Codices Tell Us About Early Christianity? #1 – Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder.

 

I Thought I Didn’t Need God. I Was Wrong – Charles Murray at The Free Press.

 

Presbyterian Formation vs Digital Formation – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Writing and Literature

 

What I Learned from Reading Peter Pan to My Children – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Willa Cather’s prescription for modern life – Charlotte Stroud at Engelsberg Ideas. 

 

Poetry

 

“What Are You Doing Here, Heart?”, poem by Fr. Girolamo Savonarola – translated by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

“Church Monuments,” poem by George Herbert – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

British Stuff

 

London Falling: How the Birthplace of Free Speech Became a Censor’s Paradise – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

Margaret Thatcher: late bloomer – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Art

 

Marie Lenclos in Columbia Rd. – Spitalfields Life.

 

Poetry – Taylor Leonhardt

 Painting: A Young Man Seated Reading a Book, oil on canvas by Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819-1916). 

A friend

After 1 Samuel 18:1-5 

Two souls, knit

together as one,

two souls loving

each other as one,

the exalted one

loving the lower one.

A covenant made,

a prince’s robe given,

a prince’s armor given,

a prince’s sword given,

a prince’s bow and belt given,

the lower one so honored

that he fought and conquered,

proving worth and valor,

a prince’s blessing given,

a king’s blessing given.

 

Photograph by Thiago Barietta via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Autumn Wealth,” poem by Kristijonas Donelaitis – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Theology That Forgot Christ – Lara d’Entremont at A Mother Held. 

 

Are We Under Spiritual Attack? – Andrew Klavan.

 

Events for St. Edward the Confessor – Westminster Abbey.

Poets and Poems: Christine Rhein and "Wild Flight"

Christine Rhein and her sister were born in America and raised in the Detroit area. Christine herself made a home there, developing a career as a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry. Yet one of the formative influences of her life happened decades before and thousands of miles away. 

Her father, Horst Misch, was born in Silesia in 1931. Originally part of Poland, the area had passed to the Hapsburg Empire in 1335 and then to Prussia in 1742. People of German heritage had lived there for seven centuries. To the south was the Sudeten Mountains, a region carved out of the Habsburg empire after World War I and incorporated into the new country of Czechoslovakia. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“In Refusal of Politics,” poem by Joseph Bottum and “Alas, Madam, for Sealing of a Kiss,” poem by Thomas Wyatt–Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Achilles – poem by Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

 

Ode to Pumpkin – poem by Megan Willome.

 

Poetic Responses to Turmoil – Sarah Reardon at Front Porch Republic.

"Brookhaven" and the Pearl River Lumber Company

A reader of Brookhaven sent n email, asking if I modeled the McClure Lumber Company in the novel on the Pearl River Lumber Company. A great-grandfather had worked there, the reader said, and she wondered. 

That I had to research the Pearl River Lumber Company to respond to her should answer the question. Or, more briefly, no. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Photograph: Operations at the Pearl River Lumber Company about 1900.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

From Whitefield to Kirk: Revivals That Saved Nations – John Carpenter at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

We’ve Been Reading Dracula Wrong – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Prime, a monastic hour – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

Poets and Poems: Peter Murphy and "You Too Were Once on Fire"

You Too Were Once on Fire: Poems, the new collection by Peter Murphy, begins almost biblically with the introductory poem “The Diaspora of Light.” It echoes the “Let there be light” from the book of Genesis, although the poem begins by citing Plato. It then moves to the stars, followed a leap to “The God Nobody Wanted,” with the convicting line of “What will it say on your tombstone / other than consumer?”. 

These first few poems of the collection show how important the introductory poems are. You read and digest them, and you come to expect (or read into) questions of faith and contemporary society no matter what the poem’s subject is.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The Wildflower – poem by David Whyte.

 

Facing Backward – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound on “Bill’s Story” by Mark Doty.

 

Attack the day – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.

 

Westward – poem by Sandra Marchetti at Every Day Poems.

 

“An Essay on Criticism,” poem by Alexander Pope – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Thetis & Achilles – poem by Julia McMullen at Rabbit Room Poetry.

“Murder at Abbey Head” by Roy Lewis

A landslide has opened up a seaside cave. That would geologically interesting by itself, but the cave shows signs of having been used by humans, perhaps for thousands of years. The Morpeth Department of Antiquities and Museums undertakes the task of investigating the cave and overseeing the construction of a seawall to prevent encroachment and flooding by the expected winter storms. 

Arnold Landon is the man assigned to the work, while his boss, Karen Stannard, handles all of the public-facing activities, a task for which she’s well suited. But one day, she decides to climb an interior wall; the top of the cave opens way above on the bluff and was likely the portal for human sacrifice. Stannard encounters human bones, and while it’s thought it might be from an age-old sacrifice, it so happens that the bones are much more recent, as in only 20 years old.

 

The manor and land on which the cave sits are due to be sold. And a young graduate student has been asking questions of any and all concerning what might have happened to a man who helped save his father’s life in World War II, but the man also happened to be a German concentration camp guard. Someone doesn’t want those questions answered, to the point where the student’s body is found in the cave, pitched or pushed through the opening at the top.

 

Roy Lewis

Murder at Abbey Head is the 17^th Arnold Landon mystery by British author Roy Lewis (1933-2019). It’s the first in the series in which Landon plays almost no role in the solution to the crime, with local DI John Culpepper taking most of the honors. It’s almost as if Lewis was reaching the end of possibilities in Yorkshire for Landon to investigate. Or maybe he became bored with Yorkshire. Adding to that is that the last five in the series are all set in other countries.

 

Lewis was the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. Lewis lived in northern England. 

 

Murder at Abbey Head is well written, plotted well, and contains several twists and turns. I’m going to miss Yorkshire, though, with its rolling hills, ancient history, and manors dating back to medieval times.

 

Related:

Murder in the Cottage by Roy Lewis.

Murder Under the Bridge by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Tower by Roy Lewis. 

Murder in the Church by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Barn by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Manor by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Farmhouse by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Stableyard by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the House by Roy Lewis.

Murder by the Quay by Roy Lewis.

Error in Judgment by Roy Lewis. 

Murder at the Folly by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Field by Roy Lewis.

Murder at Haggburn Hall by Roy Lewis.

Murder on the Golf Course by Roy Lewis.

Murder on the Dawn Princess by Roy Lewis.

Murder in Wolfcleuf Woods by Roy Lewis.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Kafka’s Tricksy Translations – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Escaping the Brave New World – Paul Kingsnorth, speaking at Grove City College.

 

Ancient Wisdom: A Middle Finger to the Digital Age – Joseph Epstein at The Free Press.

 

The Graffiti in the Cathedral. A Very Victorian Stunt – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Too Much Screen Time or Coming to Terms with My Idolatry – Katie Andraski at Katie’s Ground.

What did the boy know?

After 1 Samuel 17:26-49 

What did the boy know,

what did the boy think,

as he approached the giant,

the giant hurling insults

and taunts? Did the boy

feel uncertainty, feel fear?

Did he walk across

the field with a sinking 

heart or with confidence

and trust? Did he hear

the angry words of his

own brothers, embarrassed

by their cowardice, their

own fear? What we know

is this: the boy knew

the king’s own armor 

was not only useless but

a hindrance, to be cast

aside. What we know is 

this: the boy picked up

five smooth stones from

the creek bed, his only

armament against

the armed giant. What we do

know is this: the boy 

with the stones prevailed

against the armed giant,

the boy anointed 

by his Lord.

 

Photograph by Awais Jamil via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

On Hospitality – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Why Dads Still Matter – J. Warner Wallace at Cold-Case Christianity.

 

Evangelism and the Cynic – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.