tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34144062022-04-21T19:15:31.533-04:00Reports and commentary on the news, science, publishing, and the creative ends of the media by author John Farrell.John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.comBlogger2023125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-38245813327485075012021-02-19T11:51:00.006-05:002021-02-20T14:23:32.578-05:00

Rosalie Gilbert's new book from Mango Press, The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women, is informative for readers new to the more private side of the Middle Ages. Given how terrible conditions were for most women (and men) at the time, compared to the present day, it would have been easy for the author to adopt a more clinical and academic prose style. Instead, her more conversational tone,

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-33156554592262315442021-02-01T10:25:00.005-05:002021-02-01T10:25:26.305-05:00

Very pleased to announce that my film, A Fine Pavement, is now live at Amazon Prime. Also available to rent or purchase. Currently the film is available in the U.S. and U.K., but I hope to widen distrubution to Amazon's platforms in Europe and Japan before the summer.Link to the fim is here. Pictured above, Douglas G. Griffin as the colonel, and Sheriden Thomas as Mrs. Ternovshek.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-54502104877207297152020-11-12T08:58:00.002-05:002020-11-12T08:58:37.700-05:00

I'm late to reporting this, but my Templeton-Cambridge colleague and leading scholar in the field of science and religion, Fraser Watts, writes that the International Society for Science and Religion announced the winners for its 2020 Book Prize in September.Books on the interface between science and religion remain very popular. However, recent years have seen a significant change in the kind of

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-50379274076241939742020-11-09T14:21:00.006-05:002020-11-09T14:21:54.852-05:00

Lisa Beth Kovetz and I on the latest segment posted now at YouTube. Lisa Beth is a great host and it was a lot of fun seeing all the different movie clips she worked into our discussion.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-41390557180586116652020-10-28T10:16:00.005-04:002020-10-31T14:55:28.494-04:00

    An editor friend and colleague recently noted the news of yet another round of layoffs coming in the top five New York publishers.    Where exactly is mainstream publishing headed? One super-sized publisher, devoted only to sure-fire blockbusters and the complete disappearance of the already withered 'midlist'?    In light of this, I want to discuss the increasing appeal and popularity of

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-17740101155188385952020-10-07T09:50:00.002-04:002020-10-07T10:13:24.380-04:00

Four years ago Catholic apologist Mark P. Shea got fired from the National Catholic Register (along with fellow journalist and blogger Simcha Fisher) for repeatedly telling Catholics who supported Trump that 'this emperor has no clothes' (and also wondering what the hell is wrong with people).Over the past four years of Trump, he's certainly had plenty of reasons to broadcast Schadenfreude--but

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-71607302790071435662020-06-25T10:02:00.003-04:002020-06-26T12:21:38.991-04:00

Publisher's Weekly reports that print sales are up in June.With all categories except adult nonfiction posting increases, unit sales of print books rose 5.6% in the week ended June 13, 2020, over the comparable week last year, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The YA categories had solid gains, with nonfiction sales jumping 34.1% over the week ended June 15, 2019, and fiction sales up 21.4%

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-43242137553381865912020-06-18T10:07:00.000-04:002020-06-18T10:07:20.686-04:00

The delays due to Covid were not as grim as I feared. My book is now officially in stock. The official listing, and you can order direct from Rowman and Littlefield. And Bookshop. Fresh from the warehouse! If you buy the print edition from Bookshop, the proceeds go to help independent booksellers. Ebook eition is also available at Amazon.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-51802913332555692742018-11-22T09:01:00.002-05:002020-02-22T08:42:01.725-05:00

We're now in post-production, and delighted to be working with Spanish composer Paco Periago on the score for the film. GiroStudio is doing the color correction and sound mixing. Below are some stills from the shoot. Douglas G. Griffin and Andrew Winson Matthew Zahnzinger and Douglas G. Griffin Ed Peed and Douglas G. Griffin Douglas G. Griffin and Sheriden Thomas Douglas G.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-33066806462574774992018-02-18T11:29:00.001-05:002018-02-18T11:30:31.133-05:00

More than halfway into Margot Singer's engrossing novel Underground Fugue, her main character Esther, a middle aged American woman who has returned to London to look after her dying mother, recalls the circumstances surrounding a one night stand she had before she was married. Just once, she'd hooked up with a stranger. Reckless, yes. She was a few years out of college, on the shuttle, flying

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-61307992094696107772018-01-23T17:31:00.000-05:002018-01-23T17:33:47.211-05:00

Death was a catastrophe that no contemplation of the universe could soften. And, in explaining death as the punishment of Adam, Augustine gave the Christian laity of his time an explanation of death that was at least as melodramatic as death itself was shocking. Yet, in so doing, he caused the cosmos (that majestic and consoling source of high vision to so many ancient people of all religions

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-26249803694823192162018-01-04T16:04:00.003-05:002018-01-05T17:38:09.350-05:00

“It is very likely that within fifty years when all the trivial, verbose disputes about the meaning of Teilhard’s ‘unfortunate’ vocabulary will have died away or have taken a secondary place, Teilhard will appear like John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, as the spiritual genius of the twentieth century.”  - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, in his 1967 book FOOTPRINTS IN A DARKENED FOREST

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-28517062732540871782018-01-01T11:50:00.002-05:002018-01-01T11:50:42.294-05:00

I missed this confab at Oxford back in July of this past year, but this brief conversation between Fraser Watts, Michael Ruse and others is one I want to come back to, either here or at my Forbes blog.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-5197107831270753102017-12-14T18:12:00.003-05:002017-12-14T18:12:56.820-05:00

My review of Michael Ruse's new book from Princeton University Press, at the Wall Street Journal.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-89240858077008709552017-11-12T16:39:00.001-05:002017-11-12T16:39:20.385-05:00

Fans of Janet Browne's epic two-volume biography of Charles Darwin will not want to miss her new book, The Quotable Darwin (Princeton University Press), which features a broad selection of Darwin's personal and professional observations on life, liberty, and of course science. Read more at Forbes...

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-47471860849112295352017-11-11T15:23:00.000-05:002017-11-11T15:23:19.664-05:00

...which I reviewed recently at Forbes. I met Fr. Scotti at Portsmouth Abbey School some years back, and am happy I was able to help him bring his book to the attention of the folks at Ignatius.

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-55583850957399711722017-02-17T10:14:00.000-05:002017-02-17T10:17:49.969-05:00

"In abstraction from specific religious or metaphysical traditions, there really is very little that natural law theory can meaningfully say about the relative worthiness of the employments of the will. There are, of course, generally observable facts about the characteristics of our humanity (the desire for life and happiness, the capacity for allegiance and affinity, the spontaneity of

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-73585768585713202242016-02-03T08:34:00.000-05:002016-02-03T08:34:05.568-05:00

If men are compelled to make the melancholy choice between atheism and superstition, the scientist, as Bacon pointed out long ago, would be compelled to choose atheism, but the poet would be compelled to choose superstition, for even superstition, by its very confusion of values, gives his imagination more scope than a dogmatic denial of imaginative infinity does. But the loftiest religion, no

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-47217006494192759842016-01-31T20:06:00.002-05:002016-01-31T20:06:53.065-05:00

Abortion is not the topic of many movies, and good films that handle the issue well are few and far between. For this month’s theme, I decided to rewind and take a look at a few features that tell a compelling story about women faced with unexpected pregnancies, and how it affects their lives and families.  The British seem to have the edge on American filmmakers here, but let’s start with the

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-9381025318594470722015-11-26T09:48:00.001-05:002015-11-26T09:48:30.571-05:00

Some recent posts: My review of the film, Spotlight, about the Boston Globe's investigation of the clerical abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. My Forbes post on Canadian researcher Timothy Kieffer and his lab's breakthrough on a stem cell therapy for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. And my plug for the History Channel's Einstein documentary, Secrets of Einstein's Brain, in which I appeared

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-35615829599248973982015-10-01T14:28:00.003-04:002015-10-01T14:29:36.913-04:00

I should not have been surprised to learn that Ian Fleming's Bond series of novels was inspired by Dennis Wheatley's earlier success with the Duke de Richlieu and his intrepid team of adventurers. The Forbidden Territory came out in 1933, featuring the Duke and Simon Aaron on a perilous journey into Soviet Russia to rescue their friend Rex van Ryn. While the next turn, The Devil Rides Out, turned

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-8184038357957771632015-09-02T14:06:00.001-04:002015-09-02T14:10:16.831-04:00

This summer I've been going back to classic paperbacks I read when I was a teenager. It's been fascinating to re-read Alistair MacLean, Dennis Wheatley, and most recently Ray Bradbury. For fun I posted snaps of the books from the beach cottage where we vacation. The Dandelion Wine cover brought a groan of recognition from one of my fellow high school classmates on Facebook. "Gawd I hated that

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-15833108275486798562015-06-30T15:01:00.000-04:002015-06-30T15:01:14.678-04:00

In Prague this week. The ‘old city’ section is a treat for history of science buffs. We managed to get a perch in front of the medieval astronomical clock in the Square. This is the oldest operating clock in the world, and the third oldest overall, surviving from the fifteenth century. The clock strikes on the hour, but was more ambitiously designed to follow the phases of the moon and the

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-27630287797077592482015-06-30T14:58:00.001-04:002015-06-30T14:58:18.915-04:00

Because you knew I would find evolution in there somewhere....

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3414406.post-79933110201278939722015-06-30T14:55:00.001-04:002015-06-30T14:55:33.422-04:00

My tribute to Christopher Lee at Forbes. To say he led a full life is an understatement. It was an honor to meet him, to write about him--and to write for him. But that's another story....

John Farrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18280296574996987228noreply@blogger.com0