Commonplace #16
Some things that recently caught my interest
Submariner. Reader. Writer. Seeking bold coffee, sublime jazz, and unforgettable stories.
Dear friends,
The snow and ice have finally melted here in western Tennessee. It has been warm enough to get outdoors for a bit of activity including taking Lola for a walk. We have noticed she is slowing down considerably, but she still enjoys getting out and sniffing the flowers. I treasure these quiet moments outdoors with her.
My recent letter to my fellow Americans elicited strong responses from readers. My goal was to focus on the evil of racism and moral character in leadership. Fortunately, many readers understood that. Others focused on my prior support for Trump and left nasty comments. Still others sent me vile private messages. I decided not to respond to any comments and left most of them in place. I think the comments speak more about their authors than they do about me. I deleted a couple that were particularly inappropriate.
This publication has always been primarily about my personal journey as a human being, and most often through the lens of literature. I don’t judge others for their opinions or voting habits, even when I passionately disagree with them. I think that a hallmark of this nation is that we don’t have to all be the same, and we can have different ideas. Even more importantly, I think people should be open to considering opposing viewpoints and revising their positions when they realize they were wrong. That is the path I chose, but it was obvious to me that many of my readers lost the point of the letter in their emotional response to me.
I will probably steer clear of politics from now on. As I feared, it brought out the worst in some people. But it also brought out the best in others. For those people who reached out to me across ideological divides, I am grateful. You represent the best of what this country stands for.
Now on to the fun stuff.
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” ― Edith Sitwell
Links of interest:
Bill Davison explains how gift-giving in nature fosters relationships that ensure survival. Read his essay, The Patient Accumulation of Light.
Petya K. Grady explains how to make reading your default state.
My friend Barrie occasionally dips his quill into the ink of fiction. The Seeker is a short story you might enjoy. Stick around and read some of his other works as well.
Ruth Gaskovski shares a beautiful essay On Letters: How (and why) to write for an audience of one.
I really love Susie Mawhinney’s approach to life. She is in love with her place in the world, a hill in France. Here she writes a love letter of sorts - to winter with love.
Marc Myers shares 10 LPs That Made Me Love Jazz. (Feel free to send me one of these if you have extra on hand!)
Boze explains how The World Is Aflame Because People Have Stopped Reading.
Andrew Harker explains the classical note-taking method in his essay, How to Start Using Your Own Mind.
K.S. Bernstein shares thoughts on the value of reading an author’s complete works in his essay, The Compleat Plato.
Listen:
I discovered Jazz on the Beach through a link shared by Dave pearen. I am excited to receive this weekly Jazz newsletter and two-hour radio show in my inbox. This was one of my favorite songs from this session.
My favorite podcast is Strong Sense of Place hosted by Mel Joulwan & Dave Humphreys. I have been listening to the entire back catalog of episodes and this is one of my favorites. I hope you will give them a listen and subscribe to their excellent work.
Watch:
If you missed it, Eleanor Anstruther and I had a delightful conversation using the live video feature on Substack. You can see a recording of that conversation and many other insightful discussions on her publication, The Literary Obsessive.
Jeff Rich recorded this exceptional video that explains what a slow read is and why it has become a growing trend.
Turn: Washington’s Spies is one of the best series I have watched in recent years. Great for history buffs and those who love action-filled dramas.
Look:
We experienced a brutal winter storm during the last week of January and the first week of February. The ice created treacherous conditions, and we were stuck in our house for about 10 days. At this time of year, my eye seeks out images of idyllic wintry conditions.
Personal Reading:
I’ve highlighted one fiction and one nonfiction title as my top recommendations from this list.
Recommendations:
Fiction - Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. There is a Wordsworth line that surfaces in Allen Levi’s quietly extraordinary debut novel: “The best portion of a good man’s life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.” It could serve as the book’s entire thesis. Theo of Golden follows an elderly, mysterious stranger who arrives one spring morning in the small Southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from or why. What they do know is that he has an unusual interest in the ninety-two pencil portraits hanging on the walls of the local coffeehouse — vivid likenesses of the people of Golden, drawn by a gifted local artist. Theo begins buying them, one by one, and returning each to its rightful subject. With every exchange, a story unfolds, a friendship takes root, and a life is gently, irrevocably changed. This is a novel about purposeful generosity — not the viral, performative kind our culture craves, but the quiet, costly, face-to-face kind. Levi writes with warmth, wisdom, and a deep reverence for ordinary people. I loved this book and recommend it without reservation to every reader.
Nonfiction - The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history — catastrophic events that wiped out the majority of life on the planet. Volcanoes. Asteroids. Ice ages. Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, makes a devastating and meticulously researched argument: we are living inside the sixth one. And this time, the asteroid has a name.
Kolbert takes readers from the bleached coral reefs of the Great Barrier to the ancient forests of the Amazon, weaving together field reportage, paleontology, and natural history into something that reads less like a policy brief and more like a work of literary science writing at its finest. Each chapter examines a different species — some already gone, some teetering at the edge — and uses that creature as a lens for understanding the broader catastrophe unfolding around us.
What makes the book remarkable is Kolbert’s restraint. She does not lecture. She simply shows, with calm precision, what is disappearing and why. The cumulative effect is profound and unforgettable. The Sixth Extinction belongs on every serious reader’s shelf. It will change the way you see the world — and what remains of it.
All the rest:
James by Percival Everett. Won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. I liked it but didn’t really understand the hype. It did not seem like a prize winner to me.
The Impending Crisis: 1848-1861 by David M. Potter. Won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize in History. This was the first book in my self-study of the U.S. Civil War. Superb survey of the pre-war events. A little academic and dense at times but if you only wanted to read one book about the pre-war, this would be the one.
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov. Book five in the Foundation series. Finally finished my Asimov read-through that started last year. Glad I read his major works but probably won’t revisit any of his writing for awhile.
Dutchman’s Flat by Louis L’amour. Collection of short stories.
America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union by Fergus Bordewich. This was the second book in my self-study of the U.S. Civil War. Easier to read than The Impending Crisis and much narrower scope.
The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Read as part of a read-along with my friend Cams Campbell. I liked this but it is weird. Not sure it is for everyone. Cams did a great job with the guidance but I couldn’t go at the slow pace. I had to read ahead!
The Children of Men by P.D. James. I hit up the library before the snow storm and grabbed a few books of interest. This was my first P.D. James and it was quite good.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Another from the library haul. I enjoy Erdrich’s writing and had heard about this one on the Strong Sense of Place podcast linked above. Wow, so good.
My Friends by Fredrik Backman. I am pretty close to being a Backman completist. His writing just hits me in the feels. This was one of his best I think.
Millard Fillmore by Paul Finkelman. Read as part of my presidential biography project and my U.S. Civil War project. One of the most boring and ineffective presidents in U.S. History.
Faithful Place by Tana French. Book 3 in the Dublin Murder Squad Series. This is my favorite installment so far.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin. LeGuin is a masterful writer. This is a really intriguing standalone novel about a man whose dreams change reality. Sci-fi fans will get the most out of it but anyone looking for a different sort of social commentary might find it intriguing.
Bleeding Kansas by Nicole Etcheson. Ok, this one was tough to get through. Read it for my Civil War project but it is so detailed and academic that it wasn’t enjoyable. Excellent for someone really interested in the slavery question in Kansas and Missouri prior to the war. Everyone else can probably skip it.
When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago. This is the second book for our Roots and Wings book club. Full review coming at the end of February but I enjoyed this story quite a bit.
If you enjoy these monthly curated lists then you will likely love the weekly curated beauty from my good friends Barrie and JoJo of Feasts and Fables. You can find the full archive in their Field Notes for Curious Minds but I encourage you to subscribe to their publication to get this delivered to your inbox.
Goodreads - Quite a few folks have asked me to get back on Goodreads so I have uploaded my books there. Feel free to connect with me if you happen to be on the site.
Here’s to the books that take us beyond the shelf and into deeper waters,
Matthew Long is a writer and retired sailor living in rural western Tennessee.
Affiliate links: You can click on the title of any book mentioned in this article to purchase your own copy. These are affiliate links from Bookshop.org, earning me a very small commission for any purchase you make.
Matthew, you have one of the most expansive of reading lists. I learn so much about the books I haven't read (I'm mostly a reader of poetry, nonfiction, memoir, and biography). So thank you!
Matthew, firstly I feel saddened by the fact that you have had to read any hateful messages regarding your last essay. I found to be quite literally gut wrenching in its honesty as well as blatantly obvious regarding the message you were sending... good grief, we are all human, and to be capable of finding faith that past errors are simply that in another shows not only empathy but a deep humanity too. I am truly sorry, I guess there will always be those that are less forgiving...
Thank you so much for your generous spirit in sharing my last essay. And thank you again for recommending The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert which I have been hesitating over buying for ages! It is now on my 'definitely' list!