“The Qualities of a Leader” in Taki’s Magazine

Theodore Dalrymple is the sort of writer that makes me wish I knew him.

“Who Cut the Balls Off San Francisco” in Taki’s Magazine

“Writing as the Cat Purrs: Ten Tips” on BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog

Brevity publishes mostly banal stuff, but this essay is worth a read if writing is part of your game. Smart and funny.

Cathay by Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound was one of my favorite poets in college and even in graduate school. I loved his imagist poems and “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” and was awed by “The Cantos.” But the poems that broke my heart were the 15 classical Chinese poems that he translated for this collection (published in 1915).

Pound could not read Chinese fluently, so based his translations on the notes of Ernest Fenollosa, an American who had studied Chinese under a Japanese teacher. For me, that’s not a problem. For me, the poems in Cathayare Pound’s.

Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces by Michael Chabon

Most of these essays were published elsewhere. They are reminiscences of Chabon’s experiences with his children and about his efforts to navigate the uncharted waters of parenthood. Some are better than others. The first essay, which ran in GQ, talks about his son’s fascination with fashion. It is a great example of one of Chabon’s skills as a writer: doing the hard work of identifying the details that make a story feel rich and true.

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

This is one of two novels by Kurt Vonnegut that I read recently for my book club (The Mules). It would probably be indexed under “science fiction,” but it reads as a somewhat superficial but funny satire of science, technology, religion, and the arms race. Like Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, it is a triumph of dark humor, mixing irony and parody with a compelling plot.

Flash Fiction from The New Yorker: “The Weight” by Anne Enright 

“Fare Warning” in Taki’s Magazine 

The latest issue of AWAI’s Barefoot Writer

In this issue:

* “Mind-Blowing Writing Projects That Protect Forests, Rebuild After Disasters, Save Lives… and Pay Your Bills”

* “Prague, Paris, and the Dutch Romance That Launched My Writer’s Life”

* “The Unforced, Nonthinking Bridge to Better Habits”

* “Is This the Missing Link Between You and an Avalanche of Paying Clients?”

The latest issue of Independent Healing

“The Great Vegetarian Con”  LINK

The meatless movement is peddling bogus science. Giving up animal foods won’t make you healthier or help the environment.