The Aubrey-Maturin Series: My Captain Jacks (The Wall Street Journal). “Patrick O’Brian’s 20-volume sea saga is more than superb genre fiction: It’s a paean to male friendship.” I’ve read to finish this series, but it’s a remarkable tale awaiting in my reading queue.

Kelefa Sanneh, The Fight to Redefine Racism (The New Yorker). Since Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo’s books on racism are sitting atop the bestseller lists, it was helpful to revisit this profile. “If the word “racist” is capacious enough to describe both proud slaveholders and Barack Obama, and if it nevertheless must constantly be recalibrated in light of new policy research, then it may start to lose the emotional resonance that gives it power in the first place.” Trevin Wax helpfully engages this in his TGC piece, “Multi-Directional Leadership and Racial Injustice.”

The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth (Princeton University Press). As a latter-day Inkling, I have an entire shelf devoted to Tolkien (another one for C. S. Lewis), so this is already in transit to my home.

Andy Crouch, On the News. Crouch is one of the wisest Christian writers I know. “In times of crisis, spend a few minutes a day . . . learning what is happening so you can pray and act wisely. But mostly, in whatever time you have or can make amidst the demands of your life, read books. Meditate on Scripture. Fast and pray.” Amen! And he offers some book recommendations: “Books — older ones, like W.E.B. DuBois’s ‘The Souls of Black Folk,’ and recent ones, like Richard Rothstein’s ‘The Color of Law’ or Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘The Warmth of Other Suns’ — will give you far more actionable truth than any video or news report.” I wholeheartedly agree.

Carl Trueman, J. K. Rowling, Latest Casualty in the War of Transgender Ideology (The Gospel Coalition). When the Harry Potter author goes against the woke ideology of the day, it’s a moment to pause and consider what is increasingly taking place in our culture. Trueman’s essay puts things in perspective. This clash of worldviews is something we’ve engaged before in this brilliant longform piece by Samuel James: “How the Secular Revolt Against Liberalism Can Awaken People to Reality.”