The Round-Up: November 2024
A monthly miscellany of interesting links and tidbits
A reader sent me Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Glory of the Garden” in the wake of my recent post on Christianity and conservation, and I loved it. Definitely echoes some of the same thoughts of my piece.
Another poem that I just stumbled across and loved: “The Bright Field” by R.S. Thomas.
Among a dozen or so recently-unearthed sermon recordings by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is one given in 1970 at an occasion commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ sailing to America. In it Dr. Lloyd-Jones discusses the essentials of the Pilgrims’ theology, the character of their lives and God’s providence over them, and the great importance of learning from church history and applying those lessons. Very, very much worth a listen.
A recent dinner-table discussion touched on the myth that the Pilgrims always dressed in black, and it sparked a memory: I was pretty sure I’d seen N.C. Wyeth illustrations for Longfellow’s “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” and that they accurately reflected the variety of simple neutral colors the real-life Pilgrims would have worn. Turns out my memory was correct! See all of Wyeth’s illustrations for the poem (both black-and-white drawings and full-color paintings) here at the Brandywine Museum of Art.
There are infinite variations on Hundred Great Books lists, so how about a Thousand Good Books list, for a change? Literature professor John Senior defined the books on his list as “part of the ordinary cultural matter essential for an English-speaking person to grow in,” including solid popular literature as well as those called Great—which I think is a fantastic concept. The list itself could spark a lot of lively discussion among readers (e.g. I would dispute the omission of Laddie from the selection by Gene Stratton Porter, and not including anything by Tarkington but the Penrod stories). A highlight for me was the inclusion of Eugene Manlove Rhodes’ Best Novels and Stories—I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen Rhodes recommended by anyone other than a serious Western scholar or fan (and I appreciate the amount of Westerns in general on the list).
I’ve been enjoying this classical album (with fittingly seasonal cover art): American Dreams: Romantic American Masterpieces by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Among several other lovely pieces, it includes a movement from the “Johnny Appleseed Suite,” one of several commercially unsuccessful classical compositions by popular songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (born 125 years ago this month). None of his other classical works are currently available to hear online.
George Eliot’s Middlemarch was my top fiction read of 2022—a rich, hefty classic novel of the sort that makes you think and ponder and argue with it; and also simply a rewarding and enjoyable journey of a story. This month Joel Miller of Miller’s Book Review has a good review of it which captures something of how good it is and also how it’s hard to summarize upfront. (Here is my own review from 2022.)
If you haven’t seen it already, this video of foxes frolicking in the snow at Oxford’s Magdalen College is simply magical.
Also, Black Friday sales!
From Black Friday through Cyber Monday, November 29th - December 2nd, a selection of my ebooks are on sale! Land of Hills and Valleys and The Smoking Iron and Other Stories will each be $2.99, while Corral Nocturne will be free and Lost Lake House and The Mountain of the Wolf will each be $0.99.
