Currently reading: All Things Are Full of Gods by David Bentley Hart 📚
Finished reading: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi.
Some books feel like they’re written just for you. This one has some sections that I really needed to think through while reflecting on my life, the assumptions I tend to make about myself, & the way the world works in general.
Plus, I enjoyed learning about Alfred Adler, who was part of the same Vienna circle as Freud and his disciple Jung—but who reached very different conclusions about the human person & the role of psychology. 📚
Currently reading: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi 📚
Finished reading: The Son by Philipp Meyer.
This book is incredible—I see why some think it’s the novel of the century so far. It follows one remarkable Texas family for 150 years, telling the family’s story through the interwoven lives of, primarily, three of its members. 📚
Finished reading: Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner 📚
A clerihew for MacIntyre:
RIP, Alasdair MacIntyre, A Catholic who, with Marxist fire, Sought to heal the is/ought wound Inflicted by his fellow Scotsman, Hume.
Currently reading: Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner 📚
It’s the first day of summer break, & my kids just discovered Weird Al. So… it’s going to be a long summer 🫠
Finished reading: Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. Read this one, & Out of the Silent Planet, with my daughter. We’ve both loved both books, so it’s on to That Hideous Strength! 📚
Currently reading: The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne 📚
Currently reading: The Lords of Limit: Essays on Literature & Ideas by Geoffrey Hill 📚
Really, Wordlebot? Really??
Current listening: Anouar Brahem’s beautiful, haunting new album After the Last Sky. Brahem is accompanied by two brilliant peers, Dave Holland on bass and Django Bates on piano. 🎵
Latest newsletter: The brilliant idiot & the wise fool: aphorisms on two ways of life
Grateful to have caught Bill Charlap at the Dakota tonight. The trio included the great Kenny Washington on drums and, unexpectedly for me, David Wong on bass.
An absolutely incredible set. Highlights were Charlie Parker’s scorching “Segments” & the encore, “Some Other Time.” 🎵
I wrote a short essay on Chinese architect Liu Jiakun for my newsletter. Liu, who won this year’s Pritzker Prize, is an architecture whose work I find stunningly beautiful.
Latest issue of my newsletter:
“The Wolrd is Run by Brilliant Idiots” and what we can learn from Holy Fools about how to respond.