Last week's reads, on-time and condensed

It's probably unsustainable to write a little mini-essay on everything I read each week, so this is a more list-like collection.

First, some good conservative writers complain about Trump:
Tom Nichols, Washington Post, Trump's First Year: A Damage Assessment
David Frum, The Atlantic, An Exit from Trumpocracy
Gracy Olmstead, The American Conservative, This is Your Brain on Trump TV

I really disliked this NYT review of Patrick Deneen's new book, but I liked Dreher's interview with him:
Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, If Liberalism is Dead, What Comes Next?
Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, Classical Liberalism Strikes Out

Speaking of reviews, this one is better:
N T Wright, The Christian Century, The New Testament in the strange words of David Bentley Hart

Emma Green is a fantastic journalist. Here in The Atlantic, she writes a typically nuanced piece examining how Science is Giving the Pro-Life Movement a Boost

Claudia Dreifus, The New York Review of Books, "Studies in Power": An Interview with Robert Caro "I don’t really regard my books as biographies. I’ve never had the slightest interest in writing a book to tell the life of a great man. I started The Power Broker because I realized that there was this man, Robert Moses, who had all this power and he had shaped New York for forty-four years. And nobody knew where this power was coming from, and neither did I. I regarded the book as a study of power in cities.
After I finished that, I wanted to do national power. I felt I could learn about how power worked on a national level by studying Lyndon Johnson. Rightly or wrongly, I regard all these books as studies in political power, not biography."

Also on the subject of power in cities: Collette Shade, Splinter News, How to Build a Segregated City

From the "Modern Love" section of the NYT, on biking through the pain of divorce: Elaisha Stokes, New York Times, The Bike That Saved My Life

This piece was really interesting albeit problematic. The analysis of what colleges read what and how their selections may artificially inflate certain books is great; knocking on an author's TV appearances in a way that shows the authors can't really decide if he's too smart or too dumb for his success, not so much. Florence Dore, J. D. Connor, and Dan Sinykin, Los Angeles Review of Books, Rebel Yale: Reading and Feeling "Hillbilly Elegy"

Liz Bruenig always knocks it out of the park, whether she's discussing Augustine and historical Christian approaches to charity for the poor, or in her new WaPo column, discussing our modern ethics of sex and freedom, and how both are abused by celebrities, the President, and the rest of us.
Elizabeth Bruenig, The Point, Charitable Living
Elizabeth Bruenig, Washington Post, The sexual revolution isn’t going away. It never really happened.
Elizabeth Bruenig, Washington Post, President Trump is the freest man alive

More thoughts on the modern sex ethic, and a defense of the Victorian one:
Samuel James, First Things, Purity and Prejudice
David Sandifer, Touchstone, In Defense of Prudery

Some tech stuff, everything is terrible:
Sherry Turkle, Washington Post, Why these friendly robots can’t be good friends to our kids
Fred Vogelstein, Wired, Facebooks's Adam Mosseri on why you'll see less video, more from friends
Tony Reinke, Desiring God, Why We Should Escape Social Media (And Why We Don't)

Christ & Pop Culture is still putting out great stuff, like this review of "Lady Bird" and a plea for more honest repentance from church leaders:
Hal Koss, Christ & Pop Culture, Lady Bird Offers Us an Antidote for Our Cultural Homesickness
Abby Perry, Christ & Pop Culture, The Church Needs a Masterclass in How to Apologize for Sexual Assault

A few other miscellaneous things:
Andy Crouch, andycrouch.com, The Three Callings of a Christian
Chris Willman, Billboard, Why Are the Eagles So Hated? An Explainer on the Immensely Popular Yet Divisive Rock Band