Missive #499 Published 21 May 2025

The Bush years have justifiably given rise to fears of a new Imperial Presidency. Yet despite the controversy surrounding the administration's expansive claims of executive power, both Left and Right agree on the boundless nature of presidential responsibility. The Imperial Presidency is the price we seem to be willingly and dangerously agreeable to pay the office the focus of our national hopes and dreams. Interweaving historical scholarship, legal analysis, and cultural commentary, The Cult of the Presidency argues that the Presidency needs to be reined in, its powers checked and supervised, and its wartime authority put back under the oversight of the Congress and the courts. Only then will we begin to return the Presidency to its proper constitutionally limited role.

Missive #498 Published 19 May 2025

Volume 3 of the monumental Story of Civilization, CAESAR AND CHRIST depicts the rise of Rome from a crossroads town to empire. The world's first republic, Rome spread its civilization over the Mediterranean and western European world.Another very long book that I broke up reading by stopping 3-4 times to read other books. It is an academic product with massive footnotes and extremely dry reading. Names and dates but light on what they all mean. Its long, slow crumbling and final collapse plunged Europe into darkness and chaos.

Missive #495 Published 14 May 2025

Charles Hythloday observes the world from the comfortable confines of his family estate, and doesn't much care for what he sees. At twenty-four, Charles aims to resurrect the lost lifestyle of the aristocratic country gentleman. But Charles's cozy existence is about to face a serious shake-up. With the family fortune teetering in the balance, Charles must do something he swore he would never do: get a job. Booted into the mean streets of Dublin, he is as unprepared for real life. And it turns out that real life is a tad unprepared for Charles, as well.

Missive #492 Published 8 May 2025

Over the years, Wendell Berry has sought to understand and confront the financial structure of modern society and the impact of developing late capitalism on American culture. There is perhaps no more demanding or important critique available to contemporary citizens than Berry's writings — just as there is no vocabulary more given to obfuscation than that of economics as practiced by professionals and academics. Berry has called upon us to return to the basics. He has traced how the clarity of our economic approach has eroded over time, as the financial asylum was overtaken by the inmates, and citizens were turned from consumers — entertained and distracted — to victims, threatened by a future of despair and disillusion.

Missive #491 Published 6 May 2025

For all those who adore Joanna Trollope's cool, honest writing style comes the fifth novel in the hugely popular "Caper Court" series. Leo Davies QC - charismatic, attractive and sexually ambiguous - inspires powerful feelings. Feelings that sometimes border on obsession.

This book was more 'Chick Lit' than the previous books in the series. I didn't like it as well. There are three more books in the series that I'll read hoping that this one was an outlier.