-
#7 – Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard – Best Reads of 2023
You won’t understand every move she makes. But like the moth that immolates itself in a flame in one of this book’s most memorable passages, you won’t be able to look away. →
-
#8 – The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer – Best Reads of 2023
What did I know about Mailer? Well, he liked to write long books, could be insufferable and borderline lethal as a spouse, and absolutely chewed up the scenery wherever he appeared. What I discovered was that he was also an energetic and ambitious writer who could move a story along. →
-
#9 – Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles – Best Reads of 2023
Paulette Jiles, with her poet’s eye, has a knack for writing books that feel small even when they’re about a place as vast as Texas. →
-
#10 – 24 Hours in Charlottesville by Nora Neus – Best Reads of 2023
Charlottesville is still a mostly progressive city that sometimes fancies itself a small piece of the Northeast Corridor. But every so often we get painful reminders that this is still the South and there is much to do. This is the searing record of one of the most painful. →
-
Mr. Zahnd’s Wild Ride to the Cross
Zahnd, a longtime Missouri pastor of Word of Life Church, drinks deeply from the culture around him as well as from the resources of the Christian tradition. And he finds God everywhere. →
-
Love in a Small Cell: Claire Gilbert Gives Voice to Julian of Norwich
Julian’s faith is rich and deep, never skirting past the graveyards of this world, but opening up the nature of a loving God. →
-
Reviewing the World in 5 Stars or Fewer
The internet does love it some ratings, even if I can’t quite get used to the pressure of maintaining my 5-star AirBnB guest rating. Is my mom keeping track of my visits like this? →
-
The Headlong Poetry of Laura Martin
“I know then that everything is fragile/and that everything does not have to last/to be eternal.” — Laura Martin →
-
#1 & a Recap – How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith – 2022 Best Reads
Poets can make excellent prose artists, as Clint Smith proved once again in my favorite read from 2022: How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Smith takes a journey to sites associated with slavery from Monticello to Angola Prison to the Door of No Return at Goree Island, →
/
Tumblr
/
Heartlands 