What Books Are You Reading This Fall?

I've been doing a lot of re-reading. During this "Coronatide," it felt like too much for my brain to read a new book, even when I thought I'd like it. I've started to read some new ones now, though.

Recently I read, along with the Calvin Book Club and my own local book club, The Other Wes Moore. It was good, written by a man named Wes Moore, who discovered there was another man named Wes Moore who had grown up in a nearby, very similar neighborhood -- in Baltimore, mostly Black & underprivileged -- and he (the author) became a lawyer, successful in the military, a leader and speaker while "the other Wes Moore" ended up in jail because of his participation in a burglary that included a murder. Moore explores their lives and it prompts a lot of thinking about what can truly help people to get through the difficult journey of life.

I re-read Room With a View by E.M. Forster and also re-watched the movie based on it (same name). Just delightful. Beautiful words, beautiful scenery, lighthearted & lovely story. 

I am now re-reading The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope. Old fashioned British novels. Classic.

Our next book club book (my local book club) choice is The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia. I'm looking forward to starting that soon. The back of the book says, "From the day that old Nena Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed." It is "set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918." Sounds intriguing and timely.

I'm interested in hearing what others are reading!

(I write about my reading and other stuff in my blog, www.mavismoon.com.)

    "A name for Herself"   ........... K.A. Van Til

 Interesting ,true story about a Dutch immigrants life and struggles.

"God Walk" by Mark Buchanan

"Revelation For Everyone" by N.T. Wright

""Faith for Exiles" by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock

"Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story"  Wilfred M McClay

"The Splendid and the Vile"  Erik Larson

We have so much to learn about the current state of our technology and race relations in church and society!

"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power" by Shoshana Zuboff.

"We Need to Talk about Race: Understanding the Black Experience in White Majority Churches" by Ben Lindsay.

"Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope" by Esau McCaulley.

"Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission" by Michael J. Gorman.

"The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race" by Willie James Jennings.

I've just finished rereading Marilynne Robinson's novels "Gilead", "Home" and "Lila" in anticipation of her newly released book, "Jack".  
I've also been enjoying a number of books by Erik Larson and S.D. Smith.  

The fiction book club that meets at my church finished "Mila 18" by Leon Uris. We were going to read "Joy in the Morning" (also known as "Jeeves in the Morning" by P.G. Wodehouse, but the library has insufficient copies, so we are all reading different books from the Jeeves series.

My morning book club with some local guys (mostly CRC) is reading "A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story" by Michael Goheen. I've enjoyed it tremendously, and it gave me an idea for a sermon I am preaching later this month.

Another morning book club with local friends is reading Ibrem Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist." I also highly recommend this one.

My theological/philosophical book group just finished "The Cambridge History of Philosophy in the 19th Century" and is now moving to "Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology" by by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes. Probably not most people's cup of tea, but the books in this group have been very important in helping keep me thinking and engaging the mind.

On a lighter note, I just finished "Cutting for Stone" by Abram Verghese and enjoyed it very much. I have moved next to "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is book of short stories. If you like Lahiri's novels, these stories will be up your alley. I always have a sci-fi book on hand when my brain needs a rest, and I am reading "Now, Then, and Everywhen" by Rys Walker, and it is a fun read.

A more difficult piece of fiction is "The Kindly Ones" by Jonathan Littell, which tells the story of World War II from the perspective of an SS officer and explores how a person can sink to the depths of evil required to serve the Nazi regime. I'm about a third of the way through and thankful my library allows me to renew books remotely, as I can take only so much at a time, and yet it is a worthwhile read. 

I've got several more going and a pile next to my chair waiting to start...yes I have a problem. I remember being a kid and gazing up at my parents' shelves and asking my dad if he had read all those books, and him telling me, "No, most will wait for retirement." Clearly bookaholism is genetic. :-) Retirement is still more than a decade away for me, d.v., but I know what I'll be doing then!

Inspired by Rachel Held Evans
What made Jesus Mad by Tim Harlow
A Gentle Answer by Scott Sauls
Prayer, Does It Make any Difference. by Philip Yancy
Jasmin by Jan Truss
Whispers From The Camps by Kathy Kacer & Shron E.McKay
Watching The Tree Limbs & Wishing on Dandelions by Mary E. DeMuth