Five Pieces You Will Love This Weekend
Steinbeck, philanthropy, revenge, a paean to skiing, and how humans survive temperature.
I had some time this morning to explore
and found some great pieces I think you will enjoy.Three are by authors I had never encountered before — one of the joys of participating in this community.
Here they are in no specific order. Enjoy and please help spread the word about these great writers.
This is a classic. Dan Stone at
tells the true story, based on his interview with Thom Steinbeck, eldest son of John Steinbeck (interview audio is 2:49; transcript also provided), about how his father tricked his children into reading great books. It’s not often we get such a peek, and it features a dose of the great author’s quick wit. I recommend it highly.
David Roberts at
provides a poignant look into real-life attempts at philanthropy, and discovering the hurdles to and limitations of giving. By all means, check out A Checkbook Can’t Make You A Hero.Barrie, the fine gentleman at
, grabbed me with this 500-word piece, Hooked. I loved it. It was indeed chilling, as other readers described it. A great read.Jill at
pens her paean to skiing, a passion from her childhood in New York State to the rarified air of Oxford. There is a depth to her writing that takes us beyond skiing on ice in the United States, her transition to skiing in the UK, and outracing a “pissed off” Italian baroness. She writes:Skiing is my happy place. Floating up through trees to the top of a mountain, flying down, repeating. The whole mountain bending and arcing beneath me. The smell of snow and pines and wood fires. It is a moving meditation. It is my home. When I ski, I ski with wings.
Jill’s passion brings her full circle to her home roots where she finds . . . well, you’ll have to find out for yourself.
I recommend this piece highly.
I was delighted to discover Jeroen van Baar’s
completely by accident.Have a peek at his piece about “wet bulb temperature”, which is the accurate measurement of the actual temperature human beings can survive – it’s lower than you think – using a combination of temperature and humidity. For those of us who live in humid clients. this seems logical. Jeroen, a neuroscientist and psychologist, explains how the measurement actually works, as well as its link to population centers and implications for mass migration.
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My goodness, Ben ... I saw the list coming but I did NOT see me on the list. Super-generous. Love, love Jill's work and so excited to explore your other choices. Touched that fiction, and my short form of it, makes the list ... we 'fictioneers' need all the boosts we can garner for the genre; there are super story tellers out there - Bill Adler, Justin Deming, Meg Oolders all come to mind. Delighted to feel the encouragement, and very grateful, thank you. Barrie
Ben, thank you for this. A genuine honour to be in this line up. I read that Steinbeck piece earlier today and thought it was fabulous, as are Barrie and David. I hadn’t come across Jeroen yet but loved this piece of his and look forward to exploring more. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙏