Friday Links
Sept 13, 2024
Micah Mattix with The Blackbird + Blue Walls: A Double Book Launch
James Earl Jones, legendary voice and theater actor, dead at 93
Stay lovely boy! Why fly'st thou me
17 Novels You Need to Read This Fall
Gloves of Mettle: An Interview with Timothy Steele
Micah Mattix with The Blackbird + Blue Walls: A Double Book Launch
Sally Thomas and Joshua Hren both have new books out this year. Sally’s collection of short stories, The Blackbird and Other Stories, is available now from Wiseblood Books and it is very, very good. Joshua’s new novel, Blue Walls Falling Down, will be out in October from Angelico and it is also very, very good. You can hear both of them read from their work at this online, double-book launch, on October 10th at 8pm EST. The fantastic and charming Micah Mattix will host. Just follow the link for more information and to register.
James Earl Jones, legendary voice and theater actor, dead at 93
The great actor James Earl passed away on September 9. While on active duty during the Korean War, he converted to Catholicism: “The only thing I had that was not geared toward the art of killing was the Catholic Church, to which I had converted in the Army, and the complete work of Shakespeare.”
Stay lovely boy! Why fly'st thou me
Victoria Moul writers (over at Substack Horace & friends) about George Herbert and his big hit, Temple.
Some works of literature take time to gather a following, and some were plainly a hit from the start. George Herbert’s Temple is an obvious instance of the latter category: there are quite a lot of surviving examples of people reacting enthusiastically and as it were ‘in real time’ to their first reading of it at or shortly after its publication, and its influence upon contemporary poetry was obvious by the middle of the century. The Temple was published in 1633 just after Herbert himself had died, aged only 39, and it was his first and only collection of English verse; during his lifetime, he was known mainly as a Latin poet and orator, and a few of his Latin poems were circulating quite widely in the years before his death.
17 Novels You Need to Read This Fall
Well, I’m not sure you need to read all, or even any, of these novels recommended by the LitHub staff, but the list is an interesting overview of what novels are getting hyped this season. Personally, I take my reading recommendations from the likes of John Wilson, Micah Mattix, and Boris Dralyuk. I’ve gotten burned too many times with the likes of Sally Rooney. And, it just so happens, that Micah has his list of forthcoming Fall books up at the indispensable Prufrock.
Gloves of Mettle: An Interview with Timothy Steele
Elijah Blumov and Timothy Steele together at last, my friends!
