A summary of the April posts from the MORE TO COME newsletter.
When April’s warm weather turns suddenly cool—which seems to happen about every twelve hours—Candice will invariably say, “Well, we’re in Winter/Spring season.” She is kind enough not to add, “What do you expect?”
But she was thrilled to find a recent New York Times article where the writer Melissa Kirsch was using April-themed poems to make a similar and larger point. “April days contain multiple seasons. There’s a lesson in there if we want to take it, about holding multiple things at once.”
“Certainty is easier” [Kirsch continues]. “April, in much of the country, is liminal, vacillating between winter and spring, refusing to resolve cleanly. If you look closely, you can observe this tension: the tulips quivering in the gusting wind; people in shorts and people wearing mittens on the same block; stepping onto the porch to see a robin and instead seeing your own breath. The internal work is much the same. Sitting quietly, paying close attention to the weather inside, you can observe the hope that blows in with the fear, the lightness and heaviness that seem to be competing.”
This April, I found myself writing about living in these liminal times and spaces. The purple iris and the revolutionary nature of flowers is a meditation of sorts that fits this theme. In a not terribly enthusiastic review of a self-help book, I spend a good bit of the post quoting the poet Carrie Newcomer and the way she reflects on “living in that vibrating and shifting center point between all that was and all that’s to come.” This month you’ll find thoughts on creation, darkness, and the coming of spring.
In our conversation about his new novel—a post which was at the top of the list of reader views in April—Nathaniel Popkin notes:
“None of us are what we wish we were, nor what others wish we were, but we are what we are, as painful as that may be sometimes. In this particular novel, I do want to help the reader see complexity, to feel how hard it is to be certain about anything. To hold possibly oppositional truths and not necessarily to accept them but to acknowledge their simultaneous presence.”
Kirsch writes that her work in the Times to identify things that bring joy is not meant “to deny that there are difficult things in the world, or to avoid the inevitable contradictions that come from loving things: beautiful films about sad subjects, art that emerges from suffering.”
Life is hard because mystery is hard. Life is also joyful and full of wonder. Like all truth, life is a paradox. Joy, as Rebecca Solnit has observed, can be a fine initial act of insurrection. In a similar vein, doubt can be a doorway to truth.
April, that most liminal of months, brings hope and joy along with the doubt and fear.
Let’s jump in and take a look at the encounters, discoveries, and observations from the slow lane of life that I uncovered in April.
READER FAVORITES
Three posts were at the top of the list of reader favorites in April.
- When our refuge is shattered was the latest installment of the MTC Author Q&A series. Nathaniel Popkin talked with me about his upcoming novel Partly Strong, Partly Broken (due out on May 5th) and the story of a progressive rabbi trying desperately to hold her interfaith community together. This is a thoughtful and deeply compassionate examination of the age-old divisions poisoning America’s social contract in the 21st century, and our readers found Nathaniel’s conversation with me both moving and timely.
- My plan to visit six bookshops on the last Saturday in April during the 2026 DC Independent Bookstore Crawl was another big hit with readers. A celebration of independent bookstores gave an update on my bucket-list quest to visit all 29 DC-area indies this year. I provided a short photo essay of our adventure in the follow-up post—A successful 2026 Independent Bookstore Crawl—which was also a reader favorite.
JOURNEYS THAT SHAPE A LIFE
Journeys are literal and figurative, temporal and spiritual. Interior journeys can take place without leaving home. In April, I wrote about different kinds of journeys that continue to shape my life.
- Recently I have been thinking of past journeys in my life where I have moved physically as well as emotionally and intellectually. I’ve wanted to reflect on what I gained from seeing more of the world and what we have to lose as travel becomes more difficult in this time of self-inflicted geopolitical suicide. Journeys is a series of short takes on fifteen trips that changed my life: that first family vacation; the drive to meet our children for the first time; an unforgettable visit in Ukraine; a memorable excursion in Southeast Asia, and more.
- Reading is one of the ways we take interior journeys. Although I was a late starter, I’ve made good progress in the Chapter One Bookstore 2026 reading challenge, as I report in Need to broaden your horizons? Try a reading challenge.
- In this year of turmoil and unrest The job of God is already taken was my reminder to myself as well as to you, dear readers, to remember that no one has it all figured out. As we continue to look to the promise of what America is about and work to make it a land for everyone, this Saturday grab bag collected thoughts from writers and songs from musicians to help us move forward.
A BUSY MONTH FOR READING
April brought some time to read. So I took advantage of the opportunity . . . and to visit more independent bookshops in the DC region.
- The forgotten life and mysterious death of baseball’s first phenom is a review of Thomas W. Gilbert’s Death in the Strike Zone. This 2026 book examines the life and mysterious death of baseball’s first hero, James Creighton, who invented modern pitching and then died a mysterious death at the age of 21. I found this book—and a host of other treasures—at Wonderland Books, a cozy yet bustling independent bookshop in the heart of Bethesda.
- My history book group read a sympathetic yet balanced portrayal of one of the American Revolution’s defeated voices. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson by Bernard Bailyn is being re-released on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Considering revolution from a different viewpoint is my review of this National Book Award–winning masterpiece.
- Living in the in-between times of life is my less-than-enthusiastic take on From Strength to Strength, a 2022 book by Arthur C. Brooks. The New Yorker had a scathing review of the most recent work by Brooks that included this assessment: “Like much popular social science, it makes no effort to prove or even to persuade. It simply asserts and instructs. Its tone as it does so is distinctly infantilizing.” Every now and then I read a book so you don’t have to, dear friends.
- Hanging out with John Prine is my review of Tom Piazza’s Living in the Present with John Prine, an intimate portrait of one of the most beloved singers and songwriters of our times.
- Creation begins in the darkness examines The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis.
COMMENTS I LOVED
I shared the post of my visit to Wonderland Books with the owners and both wrote lovely notes in response. Amy Joyce said,
“Thank you so much for this, David. What a lovely write up of Death in the Strike Zone! (Gayle and I are huge baseball fans, as you clearly saw in our front window.)
Thanks for all the attention you bring to independent bookstores, which we both have loved since we were young. We feel very lucky to have the chance to own Wonderland—it’s been a dream.”
Friend and Brilliant Reader Sandy had a personal memory to add to my review of the Bernard Bailyn book on Thomas Hutchinson.
“I took Bailyn’s courses in colonial and revolutionary war history when an undergraduate. He was a wonderful teacher—you can imagine from his book how engaging his lectures (and both were big lecture classes) could be. He used to tell stories of the founding fathers’ foibles, with tears running down his cheeks from laughing at the absurdity of some of their actions (Franklin was a prime target, as I recall, though Thomas Jefferson got some as well). He was one of my favorite professors, although I was not an American history major. The ‘strangeness and pastness of the past’ was always top of his mind, and he brought that strangeness alive to his students. I’ve not read the book on Hutchinson, but was delighted to read your summary. Thanks for the trip down memory lane . . .”
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Thanks, as always, for reading. Your friendship, 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, public servants, and others can feel especially vulnerable . . . because they are. Work hard for justice and democracy as the fight never ends.
But also keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Take time to dawdle and dream. Let yourself be bewildered!
Leave enough empty space to feel and experience life. Those gaps are where the magic begins. 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.
Be comfortable in the mystery. Seek the uplifting spirit that leads to a life of grace and wonder.
Grace to help us remember that we can do hard things. “Grace to never sell yourself short; Grace to risk something big for something good; and Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love . . .”
Wonder to help us 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.
Life is finite . . . love is not.
Try to be nice. Always be kind.
More to come . . .
DJB
For the March 2026 summary, click here.
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