Tricia's Summer Reading Recommendations

Published in this month's Bellows, the following post is Tricia's summer reading recommendations. If you've read any of these books already, please comment on it below. If you haven't, follow the links to Amazon.com to purchase a copy.

Non fiction

Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup. When our former parishioner Mary Sadler, who now lives in Hartwell, called me last summer and asked if her sister-in-law Kate Braestrup could hold a book signing at St. Dunstan’s I said yes, just to do a nice favor. Turns out the favor was to me and everyone else who came that night and bought Kate’s book. Kate is a widowed mother of four (her husband and Mary’s brother Drew, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident), a Unitarian minister, and a chaplain to game wardens in Maine. Kate intersperses the story of her life in with stories of the people she serves on search and rescue missions. Here is an example of her fine writing: “Nowhere in scripture does it say ‘God is a car accident’ or ‘God is death.’ God is justice and kindness, mercy, and always, always love. So if you want to know where God is, look for love.”

The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. If you were intrigued by Marcus Borg’s comments in the Living the Questions series in Sunday School this spring, you will love this book. In it, Borg writes of an emerging new paradigm of Christianity, which is about loving God and loving what God loves, rather than rigidly adhering to a specific set of beliefs. Borg offers an intelligent, compassionate view of Christianity that offers a welcome counterpoint to much of what is presented as Christian today.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen. This is hands down the most powerful book I have read in the last year. Mountain climber Greg Mortensen became separated from his group on an expedition in Pakistan. Lost and alone in some of the world’s most breathtaking but inhospitable terrain, he stumbled into a remote Pakistani village, whose people literally saved his life. When Mortensen realized that the village was so poor it had no school, he promised to return and build one. Three Cups of Tea is the story of how he built not only that school, but more than 50 others in the remotest areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, areas that have become strongholds for terrorist groups. Mortensen offers a powerful witness for peace in a part of the world torn apart by war.

Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett. Every Sunday morning on the way to church I listen to a snippet of Krista Tippett’s NPR show Speaking of Faith. In her book by the same name, Tippett weaves the story of her own life with the conversations about faith she has had with many of the world’s greatest theologians, philosophers, scientists, artists and authors. The intelligent conversation about faith that Tippett offers radio listeners is echoed in this thoughtful, well-written memoir.

Amish Grace by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt and David Waver-Zercher. In a time when shootings at schools have become sadly almost routine, the shooting of 10 Amish schoolgirls in Pennsylvania still shocked the country. Even more surprising than the shootings was the Amish response to the killer and his family – total forgiveness. Amish Grace tells the story of the community’s response to the tragedy and explores the Amish people’s countercultural, but deeply Christian, practice of forgiveness.

Fiction

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming. How can I resist a mystery series where each book begins with an epigraph from the Episcopal hymnal or Book of Common Prayer, and the protagonist is a female Episcopal priest, the Rev. Clare Fergusson? I Shall Not Want is the sixth, and best, of this series. As with many mystery series, it is best to begin at the beginning, which in this case is In the Bleak Midwinter. Spencer-Fleming does an excellent job of combining the suspense of murder mysteries and the suspense of character development with Clare and the chief of police in the small upstate New York town in which she works, Russ Van Alstyne.

World Without End by Ken Follett. Eighteen years ago, Follett wrote Pillars of the Earth, an epic novel about the building of a great cathedral in 12th century England. The Kingsbridge cathedral is also at the center of this sequel, set 200 years later, as the descendants of the cathedral’s builders engage in love and intrigue, and battle the Black Death that is racing through Europe. You don’t have to have read Pillars to enjoy World Without End, but I ended up rereading it and enjoying them both.


To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. When I first read Harper Lee’s classic novel about growing up in the South during the Depression, I, like Scout, had to look up the word rape in the dictionary, and still wasn’t sure what it meant. Despite that, I loved this book and its commentary on race and justice and the pains of growing up. More than four decades later, I still love it. If you’ve never read it before, do it now. If you read it as a child or teen-ager, read it again. You won’t be disappointed. [Andy's English teacher note: here's a link to a great resource page from the National Endowment for the Arts that I use when I teach TKAM.]

Song Without Words by Ann Packer. Packer’s beautifully written novel is about the place of friendship in women’s lives, what brings us together, and what can tear us apart. Sarabeth and Liz, now in their 40s, have been friends since they were teenagers. Their friendship helped Sarabeth survive her mother’s suicide. But a crisis in the life of Liz’s daughter threatens to tear the life-long friends apart.