On Susan Wise Bauer's Rethinking School

Plough Quarterly has quickly become one of my favorite publications, and I’m honored that they have featured my review of Susan Wise Bauer’s Rethinking School in their Winter 2019 issue. In general, I think Wise Bauer raises important questions about the efficacy of public education, but her critique misses the mark, and I’d like to talk a little bit more about that in this post. Do read my review first, as I won't rehash it here.

Netflix does "Hold the Dark": William Giraldi's novel on the screen, directed by Jeremy Saulnier

I don't watch too many movies these days (kids and work and all) but I am hoping to catch the screen adaptation of William Giraldi's Hold the Dark, which was released on Netflix yesterday. The novel is outstanding, in my opinion, and betrays the author's deeply Catholic imagination, though he may not care to admit it.

What am I talking about? For those interested, I'll re-up two pieces I wrote when I first read the novel a few years back:

-My initial take for this blog

-My essay for Dappled Things, which won third place in their 2017 non-fiction contest

I have a few book reviews forthcoming--stay tuned! When they run I will post links here.

Review of How to Think

My review of Alan Jacobs' How to Think is up and running at the American Interest. It's my first time writing for them, and I've been impressed by the quality of their publication. I admire Jacobs as a writer and thinker, but I came away from How to Think with mixed feelings. Though the book contains exactly the right kind of advice for our distracted, tribal age, the form of Jacobs' argument--scattered, unnecessarily redundant, and circuitous--works against the very good habits he wants to inculcate in his readers.

The American Interest allows two free articles per month without a subscription, so if you're looking for another offering, check out Sean Keeley's thoughtful take on Ross Douthat's most recent book on Pope Francis.

An Update, and Some News

It's been over six months since my last post here, and I wanted to update any regular readers (hi Mom!) on the status of the blog and my writing. This past year our family has grown and my school obligations have increased, and I just haven't had the time to spend on the blog. And perhaps that's not a bad thing: these kinds of undertakings naturally ebb and flow, and I'm amazed to see that it's been 3 1/2 years, and 72 posts, since my first one on Walker Percy. It certainly hasn't felt that long.

The time I have had to write I've dedicated to publishing, and in the near future I'll have three reviews running in various publications, both print and online. They are: Tara Westover's Educated, Alan Jacobs' How to Think, and Susan Wise Bauer's Rethinking School. I'll post all links here when they run.

New blog posts are on hold for now and for the forseeable future, but I will continue to use this site as a hub of sorts for my writing. I'll use it to update readers when my writing is published, and I may also post "further thoughts" on articles and reviews I've written. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!