A summary of the December posts from the MORE TO COME newsletter.

The turning of the year is always a time for reflection. If your life is like mine, the past twelve months provided more than enough challenges and opportunities—personally, as a nation, and as members of the global community—to reflect upon.

One thing that pleased me came last Friday morning, when Andrew—our family puzzlemaster—called out from the dining room table, “Oh Dad, you’re going to love today’s New York Times crossword puzzle.” Sure enough, the clue to #17 Across was “Stay Tuned” which led to a family post from Andrew with the picture and note, “a common phrase for us in the NYT crossword today!”

Among the normal book reviews and musings readers will find on MORE TO COME, I also posted a couple of year-end reflections in recent weeks. Let’s jump in to see what piqued my interest in December.

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TOP READER FAVORITES FOR THE MONTH AND YEAR

One post far outpaced the others in terms of reader views this month. The 2024 year-end reading list is an annual affair where I pull together short summaries of the 60 books I read over the course of the year. After you skim my list, go to the comments to see what books other readers suggested and perhaps add your own.

I also took the time to look back over the books I read to consider what they reveal about the year I’ve just lived through. My state of mind. Stage of life. Shifting interests.  Seeing myself in the books I read: 2024 observations was an interesting exercise which I recommend to other readers.

And yesterday, I highlighted the top reader choices for the entire year. The best of the MTC newsletter: 2024 features a baker’s dozen of your favorites.

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HOLIDAY MUSINGS

Three posts this December tied directly to the holiday season.

• Gifts of music for Yuletide offered up some of my favorite tunes for the season. This post begins with The Duke Chapel Choir and our son Andrew Bearden Brown as the tenor soloist performing the Recitative Comfort Ye, My People followed by the Aria Every Valley for a performance of Messiah earlier this month. You can also go to the link to the full performance (where there are some nice comments about the tenor soloist!).*

• I suggested Christmas Day is a good time to slow down. “Watch. Listen. Wait. The miracle isn’t always what it seems.”

• As we approach New Year’s, I posted songs that focused on The Turning Year, with my wish for you to have “the power to know just what to keep and what let go.”

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WRAPPING UP A YEAR OF READING WELL

I finished my year’s worth of reading in December with a number of posts, ranging from reviews to overviews.

• History’s fascinating web of connections is my review of an exhilarating book entitled Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook that looks at the multiplicity of causes and effects that produced past and present.

• The late Lewis Lapham eloquently called us to put the wisdom of the past at the service of the present, as I write in Deep in our Age of Folly.

• We are the ones we have been waiting for—a review of a new Lee McIntyre book on disinformation—notes how the effort to destroy facts and make America ungovernable didn’t come out of nowhere.

• New Harmony’s extraordinary past provides an object lesson in how we can use History as a touchstone for transformation, as I discuss in this review of Ben Nicholson and Michelangelo Sabatino’s in-depth, scholarly exploration of an iconic small town in Indiana.

• Gentleness is powerful. Stillness is strength. Thich Nhat Hanh’s short work on practices to nourish our capacity for understanding, love, joy, and inclusiveness caught my attention in this time of strife.

• Great necessities call out great virtues reviews a classic book on framing, which is language for debate that carries and evokes ideas about what we value.

• A summary of my 2024 discussions with five different authors about their most recent works can be found at Conversations with writers: 2024.

• It was a dark and stormy night . . . the 2024 edition consists of prize-winning bad first lines from the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

• And there’s the always popular From the bookshelf: November 2024

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FROM BLUES TO BALM

In addition to holiday tunes, I had two other musical posts this December that were polar opposites in terms of focus and style.

• Bonnie Raitt, a 2024 Kennedy Center Honoree, is a national treasure. I feature her work in the popular post A guitar that sounds “the way bacon smells”.

• Rest in the grace of the world calls us—when despair for the world grows—to come into the peace of wild things. Here are musical settings of Wendell Berry’s beautiful poem.

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JIMMY CARTER, R.I.P.

With the news on Sunday of the passing of former President Carter, I posted Remembering Jimmy Carter, which includes personal memories of the first vote I cast in a presidential election and thoughts on living ten miles from Plains during two years of the Carter presidency.

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FEATURED COMMENTS

Few people fall so easily into the “Brilliant Reader” category as my friend Ed Quattlebaum. Ed taught at St. Paul’s School in Concord (where he served with the future Bishop of Washington, the late John Walker, and his wonderful wife Maria) before teaching American and European history for 36 years at Phillips Academy, Andover. He has degrees from Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, so, as I said, “brilliant.” Plus, he’s a great baseball fan, having raised two sons who are both “in the business.” I met Ed and his equally brilliant wife Ruth on a National Trust Tour cruise of the Black Sea (they were traveling with Andover alums) in 2006, and we’ve stayed close ever sense. Ed’s only blemish is he has nice things to say about Bill Belichick, who he knew during Belichick’s one year at Phillips Academy.

Recently, I received the following email from Ed after he’d read one of my posts about books.

“This item made me think of the most eclectic, prolific, and widespread reader that I know in all 49 states.  [Can’t yet speak for Alaska.]

Which makes you a hero.”

Ed was referring to this article entitled The One Hundred Pages Strategy.

“This is exactly what it sounds like: every day, come rain or shine, on religious and secular holidays, when I travel and when I am exceptionally busy, I read at least one hundred printed pages.”

I don’t read anywhere near 100 pages a day, but I do read five books a month which astonishes way too many people. The article is a wonderful read and has inspired me to up my game . . . and cut back even more on scrolling through online junk.

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CONCLUSION

Thanks, as always, for reading. Your support and feedback mean more than I can ever express.

As you travel life’s highways be open to love; thirst for wonder; undertake some mindful, transformative walking every day. Recognize the incredible privilege that most of us have and think about how to put that privilege to use for good. Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and others can feel especially vulnerable . . . because they are. Work hard for justice and democracy as the fight never ends.

When times get rough, let your memories wander back to some wonderful place with remembrances of family and friends. But don’t be too hard on yourself if a few of the facts slip. Just get the poetry right.

Remember that “we are here to keep watch, not to keep.” Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. And bash into some joy along the way.

Finally, try to be nice. Always be kind.

More to come . . .

DJB

*Duke Chapel says it will take this video down after January 12th, so you may want to move quickly to see it. Hopefully Andrew will be able to use his solos on his website.

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For the November 2024 summary, click here.

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