Staff, “Watch the Trailer for The Keller Center’s New Video Group Study” (The Gospel Coalition)

“Making Sense of Us is a 7-week video group study designed to help both committed Christians and non-Christians explore key narratives that have shaped Western culture. You’ll see how these stories fall short and how the one true story of the gospel fulfills our deepest longings. Preorder or find out more at makingsenseofus.com.”

Joel Miller, “How Long Should This Sentence Be? Bad Question” (Miller’s Book Review)

“The point of a sentence is to communicate a thought—that’s basically what a sentence is, a complete thought. But if that’s the goal, then length is secondary to the thought itself, to whatever the author is actually trying to communicate. And unless you’re reading an instruction manual or a police report, what the writer wants usually goes beyond merely conveying information and includes an attempt to evoke a feeling, an experience, in the reading.”

Michael McEwen, “How Christians Can Out-Narrate Nietzche” (The Gospel Coalition)

“In the 19th century, philology was a rapidly growing field that captured the imagination of many German scholars. It connected naturally with new academic methods such as source criticism, redaction criticism, and historical-grammatical analysis, all of which used language to reconstruct the past. Using these tools, Nietzsche attempted something bold: to break apart the foundations of Western moral history, which he believed had been distorted by Christianity, and then propose an alternative.”

Walt Hunter, “Stop Meeting Students Where They Are” (The Atlantic)

“Inundating myself with thousand-page novels set in the early 19th century, I had nearly every experience one has while reading, and I had them all at once. I came as close to overdosing on Russian mood swings as I could. But by the time I reached the end of high school, I developed a tolerance for what I did not understand, and then I gradually understood it. Once I did begin to understand, I felt an extraordinary desire to repeat the experience. Reading this much made books feel like a ‘doorway’ for me, as George Saunders has called it.”

Sam Spratford, “WashPo Shutters Books Section Amid Widespread Layoffs” (Publisher’s Weekly)

“The Post’s decision to nix Book World comes as the number of newspapers that run dedicated books content is dwindling. In September, the AP shuttered its book review operation, which was widely syndicated by smaller newspapers across the country.

“Standalone books sections in newspapers began disappearing more than 20 years ago, leaving The New York Times Book Review as one of the last survivors.”