Silas House is a New York Times bestselling author. Recent words in The Atlantic, Garden and Gun, Time, Ecotone, and more. www.silas-house.com
There is so much good music and television, so many great books and films out there today that I can't possibly see/read/hear them all but of the books I've read this year, these are my favorites, and I believe all of them were published within the last two years. I've curated this list for you on Bookshop and you can order any or all of them at this handy link . I will donate any proceeds from…
illustration by Gabriela Pesqueira I hope you will have time to read my new essay for the Ideas section of The Atlantic . A brief excerpt: "My own parents...cut corners so that they could help less fortunate kids from my school, or our church. I was taught to sacrifice my own comfort for the good of others, whether it be by volunteering my seat to elders in a crowded waiting room, letting a…
First in a series of short essays based on photographs. This is my Great Uncle Dave's camping chair. He carried it to Dale Hollow Lake for almost fifty years, from when he first visited there in the late 1940s until shortly before his death in 1996. These types of chairs are still common at some funeral homes in the South but when I was growing up the elders in my family always took the…
There's a moment in the new film The Dig that tore me down. I don't want to give too much away, but it involves a line about a queen sailing through space on a ship. The scene moved me so much because it so perfectly captured the way I've often felt about death involving my loved ones: that deep hope and faith that I will see them again, in some form, although most likely in one that our human…
"The Dead" by James Joyce is one of my favorite pieces of writing to have ever been written. A few years ago I was teaching the story in Ireland and it struck me that many of the issues being explored in the short story are still pertinent in my homeland today. Themes such as the complications of being loyal to your own place in the world, choosing sides, homesickness, and the way a culture can…
This year, especially: Find a body of water, and be still beside it for a time. Build a fire and watch the flames. Sit on the porch. Lie on the grass. Light candles. Take a deep breath. Write a letter to someone. Discover something new everyday. Learn. Tell stories. Listen to old people. Ask them questions. Do something nice for others when you can and treat yourself occasionally. Read actual,…
1. Tired and Weary The fourth Sunday of Advent meditates on peace. This sets me to thinking of all the ways the idea of peace has been given to me through music and literature throughout my life. When I was a child, few songs at church moved me more than “There Will be Peace in the Valley”. The image of being in the valley suggests being between high ridges, a familiar setting for me, so I always…
Note: I'll be sharing some thoughts every Sunday through Advent to help myself plow through this time of stillness when I so often love to go to church for the ceremony surrounding the waiting time. One of my prized possessions is a 45 single of "Please Come Home For Christmas" by The Eagles. I like The Eagles a lot but I would never call myself a super-fan. But this particular record belonged to…
Note: I'll be sharing some thoughts every Sunday through Advent to help myself plow through this time of stillness when I so often love to go to church for the ceremony surrounding the waiting time. On the Second Sunday of Advent it is traditional to light the second purple candle, which is a symbol of faith. This makes me think about how so many people I know associate their belief with a…
The Great Mystery- First Sunday of Advent. During this pandemic time when so many of us are unable to attend church because we want to protect others, Advent is more important than ever. I'll be sharing some thoughts every Sunday through Advent to help myself plow through this time of stillness when I so often love to go to church for the ceremony surrounding the waiting time. The word Advent…
Huge showers of red and yellow and green and blue and white exploded on the sky, blossoming like giant willow trees. The booms were huge and square-sounding, echoing several times down the hills lining the river. Between explosions, blue smoke hung on the sky. After a while, a sort of reverent silence fell upon us. All the children stopped running about and screaming, and everyone became still.…
This was in 1992. In the foreground is CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, who at the time was one of the most famous journalists in the world after narrating most of the Gulf War to us. That’s me right above his head. At the time I was editor of my college newspaper and our wonderful faculty advisor, Susie Bullock, took us to see Shaw when he came to the University of Kentucky to give the Creason Lecture.…
My quickly written but passionate thoughts about the Oscars. Rural Erasure, As Always As always, the films that portrayed rural people with dignity and complexity were overlooked almost completely. Hollywood, like the literary gatekeepers in New York, won’t allow rural complexity to get too much attention or acclaim or it might be admitting that the sensational stereotypes aren’t truer. This year…
I read 36 books this year (not counting the books I read for blurbs, workshops, etc.). Someone told me yesterday that they don't read because they don't have time. Only a nonreader would think that's a valid excuse. That person certainly has more time on their hands than I do but I still managed to devour almost forty books (and I'm a pretty slow reader, I think). We readers know that one makes…
Today I am doing the thirteenth stop on a book tour that is going to end up going to twenty different cities and two countries. Along the way I have often been asked about the influences on this book. Since most of you out there won't be at my readings on this tour I wanted to share some of the pieces of art that inspired and informed me during the eight or nine years that I was working on…
I'm in Knoxville for my third event on the book tour for my new novel, Southernmost . More about that in a bit. First, I want to tell you about looking out the window of my hotel and being washed over with a wave of nostalgia. When I check into a hotel, one of the first things I do is examine the view. Today, I found the Church Street United Methodist Church standing right across from my room and…
Here are a few recent releases I've been loving lately. And reasons why. 1. If I Don't See Ya-Brent Cobb. Reminds me of summers on the lake when I was in my early twenties, speeding down the lake with a cooler full of beers and half the folks dancing while the other half sang songs or shouted or laughed. And those are real good memories. 2. Leave It Alone-Amanda Shires. This is a whole new sound…
A friend recently challenged me to post my ten favorite books on Facebook, one a day, for the next ten days. I've decided to post them all in one fell swoop here so I can try to articulate my thinking a bit. Choosing ten favorite books is just about impossible for me. It's akin to choosing a favorite child. So instead, I tried to think about the ten books that are really speaking to me today as…
My June tour dates. The rest of summer will be announced later. Come see me please, or I’ll be lonesome. My June tour dates. The rest of summer will be announced later. Come see me please, or I’ll be lonesome. (Missing from this: I’ll be in Abingdon, Virginia on June 30).
[This commentary on the Academy Awards nomination was published on the day the 2018 Oscars Ceremony was broadcast.] I think that Oscars shouldn't be for favorites but instead for great productions, great filmmaking, a great combination (especially the technical aspects) of all the best things that make movies great: technical aspects, performances, writing, direction, set design, everything.…
The vast majority of books I read this year were not published this year, but I did read several 2017 releases. You'll notice that hardly any of the books I absolutely loved received major awards attention or adulation this year. The hype surrounding most of the books at the tops of the critics lists were largely lost on me. I tried reading a few of them--and I won't say which ones, as it would be…
This has been a great year for music. So much, in fact, that it's almost impossible to narrow it down to just a handful of great albums and songs. That's why I've prepared a playlist with 75 songs--more than four and a half hours of music--over on my Spotify account for your listening pleasure. It runs the gamut from country to rock to hip hop to Americana and even some pop that might surprise you…
The March I was a year old, it rained for two weeks in the South. My mother tells me that she could never get my diapers dry because she couldn't hang them out on the clothesline (we didn't have a dryer, of course) and even when she hung them all over the house, our tiny little trailer was too damp for them to dry. "Everything we had in the world was in that little trailer," my mother told me last…
When I think of summer songs, I think of songs that would be good for a day out on the lake, or a long bike ride, or while enjoying my own back yard. Songs of summer tend to be more upbeat, lighter fare. So the larger culture's "Songs of Summer" tend to be more on the mindless, pop side...not that there's anything wrong with that. But I like something I can tap my foot to that also has a lot going…
January 28, 1986. We were out of school that day for snow. My best friend, Donna, and I were riding sleds off the strip mine across the road from my house. My mother came out onto the porch and hollered, telling us to come in "right now". She didn't say why but her words telegraphed over the frozen air to us that something bad had happened. I had not wanted to miss school that day because we were…