Listen to this episode for patriotic readings of writing by songwriters, poets, Franklin Roosevelt and Byron on General Washington, “Home on the Range,” Ben Franklin, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and Japan’s attack on America during peace talks.
Related Links and Episodes
Reading as a Hassle
Read the original article, published on my LinkedIn newsletter, The Scout, the basis for this episode, here.
Embody the Spirit of Marilyn Monroe
“Above all, I think that the willingness and the courage to keep on trying develops best if there is someone we love close by who can lend us some of the strength we do not yet have within ourselves.” —Fred Rogers
Book Review: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Like The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (with photographs by Russell Munson) puts the bird at the center of a philosophical lesson. This book by Macmillan in New York City—a huge bestseller that’s still in print, selling over 44 million books—dedicated by the author “to the real Jonathan Seagull, who lives within us all,” begins:
Movies: Michael
Michael is an intelligent film about an indelible pop singer, songwriter and dancer and it’s best thought of this way. It’s a simple, quiet, layered movie by director Antoine Fuqua written by John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator) that’s as softspoken as its subject.
Movies: “Lady Windermere’s Fan”
Ernst Lubitsch’s version of Oscar Wilde’s first play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, makes a rational man want to read the play. This is the mark of a great movie. The concise Warner Bros. film, restored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City with financing from Matthew and Natalie Bernstein, features an excellent cast and sets.
Book Review: How to Flourish by Aristotle
Philosophy professor Susan Sauvé Meyer’s translated selections from Aristotle’s Ethics, How to Flourish: An Ancient Greek Guide to Living Well (2023; Princeton University Press), serves as a useful, compact reference. I’m glad I read it.
Book Review: We the Living by Ayn Rand
We the Living by Ayn Rand begins with the sense of smell—the scent of carbolic acid—and ends with a solemn and solitary figure in white. The epic first novel by the world’s greatest literary philosopher engages the mind and senses with motive power and emotion in every part in between. What’s startling isn’t that this story of three enmeshed young lovers involves and indulges every part of your physicality. Reading
Heartstrings: Grief in the Temple
Listen to my Easter Sunday thoughts—including on Easter’s themes, such as fertility—and introduction to a new series for Autonomia’s paid subscriber.
