May Roundup: Substack Essays, Book Reviews, and Podcast Episodes
May has been a great month in terms of producing reviews and podcasts! Each month, I’m going to try to put together a list of everything I’ve published across all channels, and a projection of coming attractions. I run a podcast called The Optimistic Curmudgeon, and write essays and reviews for various outlets alongside the two sides of the Substack; hopefully, if you like what I write, you’ll be intrigued by some of the other materials.
This month’s shoutout goes to paid-subscriber, Shawn! His support enabled the purchase of my next book for negative Substack review, Ancillary Justice! Thanks for subscribing, Shawn! Everyone else - be like Shawn, and upgrade your subscription today!
Substack:
May 3 - I published my review of Jay Kristoff’s Nevernight trilogy. This series bothered me when I began it, and I sat on my distaste for a year before working out what’s wrong with the books in my review. TLDR: Kirstoff mishandles the erotic pretending that hetero-and-homo-erotic desire are equally present in people. Instead of a nuanced view of sexuality, his story devolves into a badly written sexcapade that fails to realize its potential. Read the full review here (paid subscribers only).
May 16 - I’ve returned to the Eddings’ high fantasy Belgariad universe multiple times, not because of the prose (which is mediocre) but because the story resounds with metanarrative. All the characters are part of a grand story, and their mundane actions take on transcendent meaning. There is something in the story that recalls the biblical perspective of divine action behind the perceivable reality of human history. Read the full review here.
Law and Liberty
May 3 - Though it is titled “Love in the Ruins of the Sexual Revolution,” my essay reviews Christine Emba’s recently published Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. I give it a mixed review: Emba identifies something important in the pain experienced in the modern, professional dating scene, but she does not take her analysis far enough. Her argument fails to recognize the need for a greater provocation. The pain she identifies indicates action taken in opposition to reality, pointing to the wrong premises adopted in the Sexual Revolution. Read the full review here.
Voegelin View
May 1 - I am working on a PhD in Humanities, with concentration in Literature; this essay for Voegelin View allowed me to review two recent volumes in Christian literary criticism. Joshua Hren wrote Contemplative Realism, and Ben Myers wrote A Poetics of Orthodoxy. Both authors seek to recover a Christian humanism that sees in literature the possibility of re-enchanting our understanding of the cosmos, though they approach that goal from Catholic (Hren) and Protestant (Myers) ends. I was surprised to find by the end of writing the essay that they agree in far more than they disagree; the shared love of literature creates substantial overlap. Read the full review here.
The Acton Institute
May 25 - I met George Leef at dinner organized by Bob Luddy a few months back, and he told me about his new novel, The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale. I was intrigued, and read it. It’s not often I get to meet the author before reading the novel. The Acton Institute published the review. I argue that the novel works really well as a political fable, using the craft of literature (images, plot contrivance, and reductio ad absurdum to contrast a classical liberal worldview against the progressive mentality. Read the full review here.
The Optimistic Curmudgeon
May 2 - This podcast episode features an interview I did with Allen Mendenhall of Troy university. We discuss Richard Weaver, the idea of “the South” as a region, and what defines southern culture today. I love Richard Weaver, and it’s always fun to chat with someone who has also read him! Allen is a true gentleman, and never met a bowtie he couldn’t make look stylish. Be sure to follow him on Twitter at @AllenMendenhall. Check out the Youtube edition, or Apple Podcast edition. In either case, please subscribe!
May 25 - This podcast episode features Nathanael Blake of the Ethics and Public Policy Center discussing the Parental Rights in Education bills in both Florida and North Carolina. Dr. Blake does a great job analyzing Progressive assumptions about sexuality, and showing how those assumptions have been consistently disproved by scientific study. If you’re at all concerned about the spread of identity politics to children too young to discern the rhetoric, check out this episode. Here is the Youtube edition, and here is Apple Podcast edition. In either case, please subscribe!
Future Projects
Substack
I am adding an element to the paid subscription side! In July, I will interview Christopher Ruocchio about his Sun-Eater series. I’m really excited about this interview - I met Chris several years back when he came on my What’s the Res? high school debate podcast. His episode didn’t really fit our niche, but it was great to talk with someone writing high epic space opera, and we’ve stayed in touch. I’m hoping his will be the first of a series of author interviews that will be available to paid subscribers via Substack podcastig. So - if you want to hear from the author, subscribe!
I just bought my copy of Ancillary Justice to review for the paid side of the Substack. I tried to read this one when it first came out, and was so put off by the pronouns and disembodied nature of the protagonist that I didn’t get very far. That trilogy went on to win top awards, and merits careful attention. I’m hoping to have that review ready in early July.
I finished reading Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series, and am looking forward to publishing 4 different reviews in the coming weeks on the free side. Senlin Acscends was beautiful, and the books just got better from there.
General Book reviews
People keep sending me books to review - here is my current list. As I write them, and they are published, I’ll include links in future monthly round up posts.
The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C.S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves, by Joseph A. Kohm (reviewing for Voeglin View)
Strauss, Spinoza, & Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith, edited by Jeffrey Bloom, Alec Goldstein, and Gil Student (review not yet placed)
Confessions of a French Atheist: How God Hijacked My Quest to Disprove the Christian Faith, by Guillaume Bignon (review not yet placed)
The Reactionary Mind: Why “Conservative” isn’t Enough, by Michael Warren Davis (review not yet placed)
Disability and the Problem of Evil, by Dr. Zak Schmoll (Review not yet placed)
That’s it for the month of May! Time is flying by, and by God’s grace we can all redeem the time well. Thanks for joining me on this adventure!