Last week in this space I suggested that we would all benefit from reading more, but I also said we should be careful about our sources, read some things with which we might disagree, and read deep and difficult writings to be better informed on issues. I assume it was in response to that column that someone texted me this week and said he would be interested in knowing what was on my 2020 reading list.
I’m not a particularly systematic reader. I don’t keep a list of what I have read. However, by looking at the stack of unfiled books on the shelf, perusing my Kindle, and checking my bedside table, I’ve compiled this list of what I have read in the last six months or so, what I’m reading now, and what I plan to read next. I would be very interested in hearing from you about what you’re reading, especially if you think I or other Parkway members might benefit from reading it too.
These are the books I’ve read in the last few months:
Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus by Jim Wallis
From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality by Richard Rohr
Enough: Discovering Joy through Simplicity and Generosity by Adam Hamilton
An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture by Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, and John McKnight
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
Trouble the Water by Rebecca Bruff
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance by W. Timothy Gallwey
These are the books I’m working through now. (I’m a fickle reader. I can’t seem to get all the way through one book before I pick up another.)
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges
The Ulyssean Adult: Creativity in the Middle and Later Years by John A.B. McLeish
Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy edited by Nicole Seitz and Jonathan Haupt
Uproar: Calm Leadership in Anxious Times by Peter L. Stein
These are the books that I intend to read next. You will note that some of them deal with the more pressing subjects of the day and have been recommended by people whom I trust to help me understand more about racial inequality and civil dialogue.
So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Nonviolent Communication: A Language for Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context by David P. Gushee and Glen H. Stassen