mumby road

  • Cahokia Jazz

    Loved the audiobook of Francis Spufford’s amazing novel, read by Andy Ingalls. It’s a great listen, and Ingalls is an excellent reader. But I recommend also getting a print copy for the great maps, family trees, etc. (Check your library!) Dynamite as a pair.

    cover image of Cahokia Jazz, a novel by Francis Spufford
  • You Can Count on Him /

    The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles: Masterful and enthralling. Vanderbilt in a nutshell, by a contemporary: “The Commodore’s word is as good as his bond when it is fairly given. He is equally exact in fulfilling his threats.”

  • Could be

    While reading Annie Dillard, I wondered if she and Fred Buechner ever hung out. What a mystical/concrete pair. Some Googling might come up with the facts. But, it seems more respectful to both of them to let the possibility hang without a definite answer.

  • Where've You Been All My Life

    What explains my not having read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek SOMETIME in the 50 years since it was published?! Nevermind. I’m fixing that now, and am blown away.

  • Ruth Orkin
    Black and white photo by Ruth Orkin of two young women on a New York City street in 1948

    From a wonderfully illustrated review of a book of photographs by Ruth Orkin (1921-1985)

  • A Good Yarn

    I’m really enjoying this audiobook of The Odyssey read by the actor, Anton Lesser. The translation by Ian Johnston is very accessible (if a bit awkward at times). I think this story has legs. 📚

  • Writers Who've Stuck with Me (or With Whom I've Stuck)
    an ongoing list
    P.G. Wodehouse • G.K. Chesterton • Dorothy L. Sayers • C.S. Lewis • Frederick Buechner • Kathleen Norris • Alan Jacobs • Terry Teachout • David French • Evelyn Underhill • Garrison Keillor, editor (for his Good Poems collections) • Naomi Shihab Nye • T.S. Eliot • Roger Scruton • John Donne • John Milton • Abraham Lincoln • Anthony Trollope • Jane Kenyon • John McPhee • David Brooks • Li-Young Lee • Tom Stoppard • Michael Chabon • Laurie Colwin • The author of the Johannine epistles • The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews • Witold Rybczynski • Angelo Pellegrini • Calvin Trillin (the "Tummy Trilogy" and beyond) • William Carlos Williams • Christopher Alexander, et al. (A Pattern Language) • Anne Lamott • Yuval Levin • Philip Yancey • Colum McCann • Hilary Mantel • William deBuys • Alex Harris, photographer • Victoria Goddard • Iris Murdoch • Virginia Woolf • Hampton Sides • Louis Menand • Sophocles • Charles Dickens • Jane Austen • Wendell Berrly • John Buchan • Dorianne Laux • Charles Portis • Annie Dillard 📘

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