It’s already time for me to make my next reading list of the year. I normally wait another month or so to make my summer list, but I want to incorporate two other upcoming events into this post: 1) My 2-month sabbatical from my National Ministries position, which will be all of May and June, and 2) the beginning of my Doctor of Ministry program, which will be in late June.
It turns out that I will have several assignments for the latter due before I step on campus, so my sabbatical reading will largely be related to my D.Min coursework. That will consist of:
- How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde
- Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within by Karen Hering
- This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley
- Home by Toni Morrison
- Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
- From Pulpit to Public Square: Faithful Speech Beyond Church Walls by Richard Voelz
There are a few other texts, but this is the bulk of it.
For the rest of summer, I will have little interest in nonfiction of any kind. So I’ll be rounding out the season with poetry and novels:
- I’m Sad and Horny by Haley Lu Richardson
- Coffee Days Whiskey Nights by Cyrus Parker
- Devotions by Mary Oliver
- My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
- Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
- Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
Given the unique circumstances, this is enough.
What are you planning to read this summer?
I have a few suggestions if you need them.
Jeffrey A. Nelson 