This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, June 30, 2023. And here I was thinking that some things would be pretty obvious to any reasonably intelligent person: One of the big news stories of the spring was that two Supreme Court justices had accepted money from an individual for • Read More »
Archives: books
Susan Glaspell, The Resurrection of Father Brown, and the value of exercise: newsletter, June 23, 2023
June 23, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, June 23, 2023. We have all heard this message many times before: Exercise, in almost any amount, is good for your body. The research is also increasingly pointing to the fact that exercise is good for your mind. Study after study shows • Read More »
Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, Ann Radcliffe and Women With Words, and the importance of writing: newsletter, June 16, 2023
June 16, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, books, newsletter, Women writers and journalists, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, June 16, 2023. The public discourse these days has created an equivalent to “climate change.” It’s “doom.” But what if climate change doesn’t mean doom. What if it’s something different, something we never seem to consider. Author and historian Rebecca Solnit has • Read More »
Nellie Bly, Women With Words, and the first Wild West adventure stories: newsletter, June 9, 2023
June 9, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, newsletter, Vietnam Voices, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, June 9, 2023. It is something that during the majority of my working life I would have disdained and dismissed with disgust. The people who practiced it, I would have said in my youthful and middle-aged arrogance, were lazy, unmotivated, and a • Read More »
A special offer on Women With Words, Chesterton on wedding vows, and the most dangerous female spy: newsletter, June 2, 2023
June 2, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, June 2, 2023. Some years ago, I had a colleague—a man I liked and deeply respected—who asked me to read and edit an article that he was writing. He was a good writer, and I willingly took on the task. As I • Read More »
Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan spymaster, moving the bees in a bait hive, and more: newsletter, May 19, 2023
May 19, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, beekeeping, books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, May 19, 2023. This newsletter will have something special for its readers during the month of June. First, in each weekly edition, we will present one of the chapters of my latest book, Women With Words: Female Journalists and Writers (Heads and • Read More »
Anne Perry and her secret, John Creasey and his readers, and blooms for the bees: newsletter, April 28, 2023
April 28, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, April 28, 2023. Occasionally, people say in my presence that they do not want to live until the age of this number or that. Usually, it’s 90 or 95 or 100. The often unstated assumption behind that sentiment is that they will • Read More »
John Creasey, Constitutional what-ifs, the second Black MLB player, and a package of bees: newsletter, April 21, 2023
April 21, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, April 21, 2023. Someone pointed out once that the American Constitution guarantees its citizens many legal rights such as the right to a fair trial and protection against undo government intrusion. The reason it does so, it is said, is because the • Read More »
The Golden Age of Sports Writing, the non-extinction of bees, and the Father of American illustration: newsletter, April 14, 2023
April 14, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, April 14, 2023. There is an essential fact about honeybees that has been obscured by more than a decade of reporting in the news media about them. That fact is this: Honeybees are not dying, and we are nowhere close to losing • Read More »
The ‘Mother of True Crime,’ the Grand Review, a Lenten devotional and more: newsletter, April 7, 2023
April 7, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, April 7, 2023. I am fascinated by what I sometimes call the “miracle of growth.” It is something of a cliche to say that a tiny acorn can turn into a giant oak tree, but it is also literally true. A kernel • Read More »
William Hone and the fight for press freedom, more on bees and swarms, Women With Words; newsletter, March 31, 2023
March 31, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, March 31, 2023. Life begins on Opening Day. The Major League Baseball season began this week. Despite all the innovations, the game remains much the same as it was played 150 years ago. A pitcher who delivers a high heater is liable • Read More »
More about Josephine Baker, bait boxes for bee swarms, and more about Women With Words: newsletter, March 24, 2023
March 24, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, March 24, 2023. All of the seasons of the year have their special charms (yes, even winter), but none engenders my personal excitement like spring. The earth is coming back to life. Trees and flowers are beginning to bud and bloom, and • Read More »
G.K. Chesterton: The Incredulity of Father Brown: The Resurrection of Father Brown
March 20, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, journalism.Listen to this story here on LibriVox.org THERE was a brief period during which Father Brown enjoyed, or rather did not enjoy, something like fame. He was a nine days’ wonder in the newspapers; he was even a common topic of controversy in the weekly reviews; his exploits were narrated eagerly and inaccurately in any • Read More »
Josephine Baker, Handel’s comeback, and baseball’s pitch clock: newsletter, March 17, 2023
March 17, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, March 17, 2023. Old time baseball aficionados like me used to be able to brag that, unlike basketball and football, baseball was not governed by any kind of a time clock. The pace of the game could be fast, or it could • Read More »
Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Chesterton’s definition of a detective story, and a new approach to beekeeping: newsletter, March 10, 2023
March 10, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, March 10, 2023. My efforts at beekeeping in the last few years have been largely unsuccessful (not much honey harvested and hives dying in the fall or winter), so it is time to try a different approach. I have been reading some • Read More »
Charles Henry Turner, G.K. Chesterton, public shame, and the upcoming baseball season: newsletter, March 3, 2023
March 3, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, newsletter, Women writers and journalists, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, March 3, 2023. If you pay attention to these things, you hear a lot these days about “public shaming,” and its subsidiary concept, “body shaming.” These two activities are generally thought to be bad, if not evil. I would agree. Holding people • Read More »
The espionage activities of Graham Greene, the literary merits of Spare, and the last of February’s giveaways: newsletter, February 24, 2023
February 24, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, First Amendment, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, February 24, 2023. Attempts to silence writers are as eternal, and as futile, as attempts to ban books themselves. In a couple of recent high-profile instances, we have seen author Salman Rushdie physically attacked and Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling become • Read More »
Burt Bacharach, a 14-year old assassin, Women With Words nearing completion: newsletter, February 17, 2023
February 17, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, February 17, 2023. Ever since the Super Bowl ended, nearly a week ago, we have been treated to an endless number of stories about what happened during the last few minutes of the game and how a referee’s questionable call might • Read More »
Feisty librarians and female baseball players, Robert Harris, and the American mystery writer who predated Agatha Christie:newsletter, February 10, 2023
February 10, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, February 10, 2023. Sadly, attacks on libraries and librarians continue, and recently they have reached my own area. A group from a coalition of churches in my county showed up at a county school board meeting to offer some less-than-friendly instruction to • Read More »
The late editor of The Nation, the dangers of alcohol, the novel of a friend, and the improbable end of education as we know it: newsletter, February 3, 2023
February 3, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, First Amendment, history, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, February 3, 2023. During my academic career, I was fortunate enough to be able to write and publish several textbooks. Writing textbooks was a central focus of many of my efforts, and I enjoyed it immensely. One of the things I enjoyed • Read More »