The Bookshelf

I love browsing other people's bookshelves. Not only because of the truism that if you want to know who a person is, you should look at their bookshelf, but also because I usually end up with a few more books on my to-read list. This page is my virtual bookshelf. It's not all the books I've read, and (sadly) I don't actually own all of them. But I've crafted this list in case you, like me, are always looking for another good book to read. 

I'm nerdy enough that I have two versions of this page - one organized alphabetically and one organized by my own (non)system of grouping books that seem akin to one another. While I prefer the second, in the interests of clarity I'm posting the first one. It's loosely organized by genre (fiction, scifi/fantasy, memoir, theology/philosophy, history), and within those genres the books are listed alphabetically by author.

For a quick guide to the origins of this list, check here. I update it semi-regularly, and if you've been gone for awhile and are curious about what's new, check out my posts with the label "the bookshelf."

FICTION

Emma, by Jane Austen - yes, yes, Pride and Prejudice is dazzling. But Emma is a masterpiece of world crafting. In this novel, Austen gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of a small town in regency England with brilliant wit and insight. Plus, Mr. Knightly and Emma are definitely my favorite austenite pair. 

"What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does."

A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman – I don't really know how to describe this, except to say that it's as if Carl Fredrickson from Up crashed into Gru from Despicable Me. Written with Wodehouse-like wit and also deep poignancy, it's the story of an old Swedish man who has decided life isn't worth living, but who keeps getting angry at people not doing things right and therefore has to do things right himself. It sounds morbid, but it really isn’t. It’s one of my new favorites. 

“To love someone is like moving into a house," Sonja used to say. "At first you fall in love in everything new, you wonder every morning that this is one's own, as if they are afraid that someone will suddenly come tumbling through the door and say that there has been a serious mistake and that it simply was not meant to would live so fine. But as the years go by, the facade worn, the wood cracks here and there, and you start to love this house not so much for all the ways it is perfect in that for all the ways it is not. You become familiar with all its nooks and crannies. How to avoid that the key gets stuck in the lock if it is cold outside. Which floorboards have some give when you step on them, and exactly how to open the doors for them not to creak. That's it, all the little secrets that make it your home.” 

The Elegance of a Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery – pensive, funny, mildly crass and decidedly European book about a concierge in Paris who is actually a brilliant autodidact. A treasury of small and beautiful things. Originally written in French.

“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?” 

Fidelity, by Wendell Berry – lovely collection of short stories. I especially loved “A Jonquil for Mary Penn.” Like most of Berry’s work, it circles around themes of loving the land, home, and community.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte - I've read this four times and it gets richer every time. (This time around I read it for my Skype book club, and the discussion should be interesting in light of Wide Sargasso Sea.) I am in awe of Jane herself - her moral courage, her capacity for love, her independent spirit, and her faith. This time around I particularly enjoyed all the references to faerie - this book taps into folklore and fairytale on so many levels and I love it. 

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor . . . If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

Agatha Christie's mysteries are a great quick read. And Then There Were Nine/Ten Little Indians (different titles for editions published in the US and the UK) is particularly memorable (also creepy), but I think my favorite is The Seven Dials Mystery.

Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamello – children’s book about a lonely girl’s decision to adopt a stray dog and the way it brings a community together. Winsome and memorable.

“You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.”

The Tale of Desperaux, by Kate DiCamello – I love this book about a very small mouse with very large ears, a kingdom in desperate need of soup, and a princess named Pea. Is it choice or lineage that makes someone what they are?

“Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.” 

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens – a book that everyone should read in high school. I’m so not on the Great Expectations bandwagon – A Tale of Two Cities outclasses that one in every way. An epic tale of the beginning of the French Revolution.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” 

David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens – this doorstopper is so good. I’ve loved it ever since I got the audible version years ago. Richly varied, with Dickens’ inimitable cast of unforgettable secondary characters and an intricate plot that only he could dream up.

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

“Janet! Donkeys!”

All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot – uproariously funny tales of a country veterinarian in England in the early 1900s. 

“Why had I entered this profession? I could have gone in for something easier and gentler—like coalmining or lumberjacking.” 

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo – this book. Detective story, redemption story, love story, revolution story, with a good dose of random background information on the battle of Waterloo, the sewers of Paris, street slang, and obscure convents thrown in. Stunning on every level. 

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” 

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston – beautifully written story of a spunky black woman in the Everglades around the 1920s. This is a key work both for women’s literature and African-American literature.

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee – a classic for a reason. It’s so much more than a story of racial injustice in the Jim Crowe South. It’s a story about childhood and growing up, family, community, and walking around in someone else’s shoes. And who doesn’t love Scout Finch?

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis – widely considered to be Lewis' best fictional work, this one blows my mind every time I read it. Reimagining of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, with profound things to say about love, integrity, the longing for home, and knowing oneself.

“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.” 

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton – classic about apartheid South Africa. A book about the land, fathers and sons, faith, and racial divide. 

“The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.”

The Chosen, by Chaim Potok – classic about an unlikely friendship between Jewish boys in Brooklyn during WWII. A book about faith, fathers and sons, and friendship.

“As you grow older you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them --"ordinary things" is a better expression. That is the way the world is.” 

Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome – wonderful book about British children vacationing in the Lake District during (I think) WWII. It's not a fantasy, but the dynamics of the children remind me of the Pevensies from Narnia. They have a sailboat - the Swallow - and spend the summer on a “desert island” competing with the Amazons and fighting pirates. 

“Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown.” 

Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys – I expected to dislike this, but found it well-written, compelling, and very sad. It’s the backstory of Bertha Rochester, Mr. Rochester’s mad wife in Jane Eyre. Elements of gothic, postcolonialism, and magical realism. Postmodern in that there are several unreliable narrators. Realization that no one ever knows the full story. Grappling with identity as a 3^rd culture kid. What is true? What is real? What is pure construction?

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson – a stunningly beautiful book. One of my top 5 favorite books ever. A letter from a dying father to his young son, it’s a meditation on grace, fathers and sons, forgiveness, faith, and the beauty of this earthly life. People tend to either absolutely love it (that’s me) or be bored to tears because not a ton happens. I love the sequel, Home, too (it’s a kind of prodigal son retelling), but I may just be partial because it touches on themes near and dear to me. 

“This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it.”

Any of Dorothy Sayers' Peter Whimsey mysteries. These take more effort than Agatha Christie, but it's well worth it. You could go through them in chronological order, but if you don't feel like doing that, I'd start with The Nine Tailors. 

“But to Lord Peter the world presented itself as an entertaining labyrinth of side-issues.” 

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt – delightful narrative about middle schoolers during the Vietnam War and how reading Shakespeare gives them the tools to handle day-to-day situations. This description falls totally flat, but it’s laugh-out-loud funny, thought-provoking, and tear-jerking.  

“You can't just skip the boring parts."
"Of course I can skip the boring parts."
"How do you know they're boring if you don't read them?"
"I can tell."
"Then you can't say you've read the whole play."
"I think I can live a happy life, Meryl Lee, even if I don't read the boring parts of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark."
"Who knows?" she said. "Maybe you can't.” 

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck – extremely dark at times but also at times exquisite, this book is well worth the 600 pages. Set in California around the turn of the 20th century, it’s a multi-generational story about individual choice, the consequences of familial love and lack thereof, and asking questions about what determines someone’s character. I love this book for the secondary characters. Like Les Mis, exceptionally well-done on every level. Lyrical description, powerful exploration of themes, excellent characterization. 

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?” 

Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild: Sweet book that to be perfectly honest I read because Kathleen Kelly recommends it in You've Got Mail. I picked up my copy at the books market on the South Bank of the Thames in London, and it smells wonderful. In the vein of Swallows & Amazons, The Railway Children, and All-of-a-Kind Family. Didn't love the ending, though.

The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is farthest away from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it to be taken to look at the dolls' houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day, and if not too wet, expected to "save the penny and walk". 

Saving the penny and walking was a great feature of their lives.

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy – epic on the scale of Les Mis. Sweeping perspective on the Napoleonic wars with a fascinating cast of characters. Don't worry about keeping all of the characters straight in the beginning - they will sort themselves out eventually.

Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles – sparkling with wit, spunky heroine, compelling narrative, beautiful prose. New York in the 1930s. Some sex and language.

“For better or worse, there are few things so disarming as one who laughs well at her own expense.” 

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles - the same mastery of language, observation, and characterization found in Rules of Civility, with a very different feel. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov spends most of his life under house arrest in a hotel in Moscow, but as the years pass his world expands rather than becoming confining. Food, friendship, fun and games - and a tumultuous era in Russia. Somewhat slow at parts, but immensely satisfying climax. Points for Casablanca references and an engaging child with a penchant for yellow.

"How do you spend your time?"

"Dining, discussing. Reading, reflecting. The usual rigmarole."

Anything PG Wodehouse for a laugh-out-loud funny quick read about young, do-nothing, well-off members of British society in the 1920s. 

“There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, 'Do trousers matter?'"
"The mood will pass, sir.” 

Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolfe – prose that reads like poetry. A slim novella about one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway and life in London post-WWI. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

“First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air.” 

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak – this deserves every ounce of the hype it's gotten. It’s an exquisite book about children in WWII Germany, the allure of books, courage, and kindness and heroism in the least expected places.

“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”

Chess Story, by Stefan Zweig – brilliant novella by a master. Chess, Nazi Germany, and teetering on the brink of insanity in solitary confinement

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams – laugh-out-loud funny. I read it and suddenly understood a whole lot more pop culture references than I had before. You need to be in the mood for it, though – this book is absurd.

“Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?” 

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury – Excellent. Reminiscent of Entertaining Ourselves to Death in that government censorship is just the last step down a road traveled by a culture so preoccupied by bread and circuses that there is no space for anything as uncomfortable as silence and ideas and thinking and seeing and caring. Jam-packed with vivid imagery.

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” 

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury's creepy Halloween fantasy that is immensely satisfying. I almost put it down because the evil in this book is so palpable it’s disturbing, but I was so so glad that I stuck with it and finished.

“Good to evil seems evil.”

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card – fascinating sci-fi looking at education, leadership, teamwork, ruthlessness and what makes us human. Military school with a twist.

“We're all trying to decide whether your scores up there are a miracle or a mistake."

"A habit. ” 

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke – slow buildup, breathtaking climax. The wit of Jane Austen plus a reimagining of how the Napoleonic wars would have been different if magic had been in the mix. Somewhat dark – the fairies in this book are not fun playthings.

“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange.
Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never could.” 

Little, Big, by John Crowley – I debated back and forth about whether or not to put this on the list. I read it for a Christianity and Fantasy class in college, and I’m not sure whether I would have fallen in love with it as much as I did if I hadn’t had the guidance of a fabulous professor. That said, the poetry of the dense prose, the multigenerational narrative, the themes of faith, doubt, love, longing, home, and narrative make this a fantasy I’m confident I’ll return to throughout the years. Be alert to skip sex scenes.

“The further in you go, the bigger it gets.”

The Giver, by Lois Lowry – Dystopian story exceptionally well done. What would life be like in a place where pain was utterly eliminated? Not much joy there… And how does a community cope with memories that contain all experience of joy and pain alike? Much better than the movie.

“Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?” 

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel – I didn’t like this book after I finished it, but in hindsight it’s been growing on me. It’s a post-pandemic examination about what holds humans together when everything falls apart. 

“All three caravans of the Traveling Symphony are labeled as such, THE TRAVELING SYMPHONY lettered in white on both sides, but the lead caravan carries an additional line of text: Because survival is insufficient.” 

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern – imaginative and captivating fantasy about a circus that only performs at night and whose color palette is purely black and white. 

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss – fantasy involving a child prodigy, ghosts, fabulous university libraries, dragons, and a rather unconventional damsel in distress. This author has mastered the fine points of the writer’s craft and uses imagery that still sticks with me 3 years after reading the book. 

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.” 

Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salmon Rushdie – a delightful children’s fantasy exploring the question “What is the use of stories that aren’t even true?” Reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth. 

“To give a thing a name, a label, a handle; to rescue it from anonymity, to pluck it out of the Place of Namelessness, in short to identify it -- well, that’s a way of bringing the said thing into being.”

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan – weird book with some sketchy parts that I really enjoyed (the book, that is, not the sketchy parts). Google meets fantasy authors meets 500-year-old secret society. Extremely humorous and vivid.

“Neel takes a sharp breath and I know exactly what it means. It means: I have waited my whole life to walk through a secret passage built into a bookshelf.” 

The Martian, by Andy Weir – hilarious page-turner, meticulously researched. I'm usually bored by the science in sci-fi, but I wasn't with this one. If you’re turned off by language, you might want to skip this one. 

“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.” 

To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis – absolutely delightful. Laugh-out-loud funny and also thought-provoking. Time travel, Victorian Oxford, Coventry, mystery, manners, the course of history: predetermined or shaped by individual actions? Jeeves, Agatha Christie, Peter Whimsey, Three Men in a Boat, to say nothing of the dog.

“One of the first symptoms of time-lag is a tendency to maudlin sentimentality, like an Irishman in his cups or a Victorian poet cold-sober.” 

MEMOIR

God’s Smuggler, by Brother Andrew – powerful story of a missionary who smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. 

The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom – every Christian should read this at some point. As much the story of a family living faithfully in ordinary life as the story of how they handled the extraordinary circumstances of occupied Holland in WWII. 

“When He tells us to love our enemies He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” 

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith, by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield – excellent. Not only raw testimony about a postmodernist lesbian’s conversion to Christianity, but also intriguing insights into hospitality, fostering, death to self, and Christian fellowship and self-sacrifice. Random tangent on exclusively singing the Psalms, which is a little didactic. 

“They listened to me and identified with Christ.”

Christianity Rediscovered, by Vincent Donovan – this one is great paired with One Thousand Gifts and For the Life of the World. Donovan was a missionary in Kenya for decades, and this book is a challenge to de-westernize our perception of Christianity and come back to the raw power of the gospel in any and every culture.

“The gospel is, after all, not a philosophy or a set of doctrines or laws. That is what a culture is. The gospel is essentially a history, at whose center is the God-man born in Bethlehem, risen near Golgotha.”

In The Shadow of the Almighty, by Elisabeth Elliot – biography of Jim Elliot. Heavily reliant on Jim’s journals. Powerful book. 

“Lord, give me firmness without hardness, steadfastness without dogmatism, love without weakness.”

84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff – absolutely delightful book of letters between an eccentric New Yorker and the owner of an excellent used bookstore in London during the 1930s and 1940s. A must read for any lover of books.

“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to "I hate to read new books," and I hollered "Comrade!" to whoever owned it before me.” 

The Dutchess of Bloomsbury Street, by Helene Hanff - Funny, short, and poignant, with lots of reflections on literature, England, and the contrasts between London and NYC. 

Somewhere along the way I came upon a mews with a small sign on the entrance gate addressed to the passing world. The sign orders flatly: 

COMMIT NO NUISANCE 

The more you stare at that, the more territory it covers. From dirtying the streets to housebreaking to invading Viet Nam, that covers all the territory there is.

A Circle of Quiet, by Madeline L’Engle – lyrical memoir by the author of A Wrinkle in Time about faith, life, and creativity.

“An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers...To define everything is to annihilate much that gives us laughter and joy.”

Tesserae: Memories and Suppositions, by Denise Levertov – named for the bits of stone that compose a mosaic, this is a lovely collection of vignettes, reminiscent of A Circle of Quiet.

The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris - memoir about the author’s spiritual questioning, growth, and what she learned from her time living with Benedictine monks. One of my college profs calls it one of the best books on singleness she’s ever read, even though it’s not really on singleness. 

“Listening to Jeremiah is one hell of a way to get your blood going in the morning; it puts caffeine to shame.” 

Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work by Kathleen Norris - very short, practically a pamphlet, on how important small, ordinary things are in developing the rhythms of life that give us space to walk with God.

“The ordinary activities I find most compatible with contemplation are walking, baking bread, and doing laundry. ” 

“My goal is to allow readers their own experience of whatever discovery I have made, so that it feels new to them, but also familiar, in that it is a piece with their own experience. It is a form of serious play.” 

The Virgin of Bennington, by Kathleen Norris - I expected this to be a memoir, which it is in part, but it's more a tribute to Betty Kray, Norris' mentor and a hugely influential figure (though often unrecognized) in American poetry from the 1930s-1980s. Far more than an arts administrator, Kray was a hard sense businesswoman, brilliant instigator, builder of companies (in the Fellowship of the Ring sense of the word), and compassionate and beloved mentor to some of the most influential American poets of the 20th century. I found a new mentor in the pages of this book.

I had learned from Betty that being upset was not my job. Nor was I to judge. If a poet was so nervous that she showed up drunk for a reading, all I could do was try to bring the program off as well as I could. And if that failed, I might at least get some food into her before I sent her on her way.

Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, by Kathleen Norris - A bracing meditation centering around the sparse, harsh beauty of life on the Dakota plains. 

Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.

At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe, by Tsh Oxenrider – wonderful book that beautifully captures the tension between having incurable wanderlust and longing for home. Tsh and her husband sold their home and worked remotely during a year-long round-the-world trip with their three children, aged 9, 6, and 4.

“I feel at home in the world, and I feel like Alice falling down a rabbit hole.” 

10 P’s in a Pod, by Arnold Pent III – hilarious true story of an evangelizing family of 10 in the 1950s. The Christian equivalent of Cheaper by the Dozen. 

I Dared to Call Him Father, by Bilquis Sheikh – compelling memoir by a Pakistani woman who became a Christian after having dreams about John the Baptist.

“No Muslim, I felt certain, ever thought of Allah as his father. Since childhood, I had been told that the surest way to know about Allah was to pray five times a day and study and think on the Quran. Yet Dr. Santiago’s words came to me again. “Talk to God. Talk to Him as if He were your father.””

The Nesting Place, by Myquillyn Smith – one of the few decorating books I've ever read cover-to-cover. The style in the pictures is absolutely not what I would want my home to look like, but the philosophy - creating a beautiful, imperfect home with what you have and creative finds and elbow grease, and fostering contentment and hospitality and gratitude - the philosophy is spot-on. It's a beautiful book. At its core not about decorating a house but about crafting a home. 

“As long as we all choose to walk around fully clothed, the laundry will never truly be finished.”

A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken - memoir of a mentee of CS Lewis', about his (Vanauken’s) marriage and how he coped with loss after his wife's sudden death. It’s as much about the Vanaukens’ conversion from a high paganism to Christianity as it is about dealing with grief. A Christian classic.

“Religiously, we longed for the lively life in Christ, but we did not fully see that we were equally longing for the lively life of the mind - the delights of conversation at once serious and gay, which is, whatever its subject, Christ or poetry or history, the ultimately civilized thing.” 

One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp – beautifully crafted piece about gratitude, trust, faith, and living in the present. A long-time favorite of mine.

“...the secret to joy is to keep seeking God where we doubt He is.” 

“A life contemplating the blessings of Christ becomes a life acting the love of Christ.” 

Surprised by Oxford, by Carolyn Weber – riffing off Surprised by Joy, the author’s story of questioning and faith during her time as a masters’ student in Literature at Oxford University. Oozing with literary references and a delightful read. 

“He quickened his stride: 'The truth is in the paradox, Miss Drake. Anything not done in submission to God, anything not done to the glory of God, is doomed to failure, frailty, and futility. This is the unholy trinity we humans fear most. And we should, for we entertain it all the time at the pain and expense of not knowing the real one.” 

THEOLOGY/PHILOSOPHY 

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath – excellent and engaging book on communicating ideas in ways that make them stick to the listener.

“To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from "What information do I need to convey?" to "What questions do I want my audience to ask?” 

The Courage to Teach, by Parker Palmer – challenging and insightful philosophy of teaching.

“The self is not a scrap of turf to be defended, but a capacity to be enlarged.”

“Learning occurs in the concert between intellect and emotion - to open my students’ minds I must open their emotions as well.”

“Either/or thinking has given us a fragmented sense of reality that destroys the wholeness and wonder of life.”

Leisure: The Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper – philosophical work looking at the reasons rest and leisure - as distinct from mindless entertainment - are keystones of a thriving culture. 

“The vacancy left by absence of worship is filled by mere killing of time and by boredom, which is directly related to inability to enjoy leisure; for one can only be bored if the spiritual power to be leisurely has been lost. There is an entry in Baudelaire... "One must work, if not from taste then at least from despair. For, to reduce everything to a single truth: work is less boring than pleasure.” 

Third Culture Kids 3rd Edition: Growing Up Among Worlds, by David C. Pollock, Ruth E. Van Reken, and Michael V. Pollock - This book is the seminal work on TCKs. Cathartic, insightful, wise, thought-provoking. I'm going to be mulling over this book for a very long time. If you are a TCK or are closely connected to one, this is a must-read. 

A childhood lived in, among, and between various cultural worlds is indeed becoming the norm rather than the exception. 

While parents may change careers and become former international businesspeople, former missionaries, former military personnel, or former foreign service officers, no one is ever a former third culture kid. TCKs simply move on to being adult third culture kids because their lives grow out of the roots planted in and watered by the third culture experience.


Grief is an affirmation of the good, not a negation. We don't grieve for the loss of things, places, events, and relationships we don't care about or love. Again, it doesn't mean there are not good days and wonderful new things, places, events, and relationships ahead. It means that something precious has been lost and there needs to be a time to mourn that loss in order to move on more fully to the good of the present. 

Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman – excellent and readable study of the dangers of a media and entertainment culture.

“Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials.” 

The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy Sayers – brilliant book using the creative process as a way to think about the Trinity.

“Our speculations about Shakespeare are almost as multifarious and foolish as our speculations about the maker of the universe, and, like those, are frequently concerned to establish that his works were not made by him but by another person of the same name.” 

For the Life of the World, by Alexander Schmemann – lyrical book by an Eastern Orthodox theologian on the sacraments, liturgy, and the role of the church in the world. Someone told me that this is the Eastern Orthodox equivalent to Mere Christianity. 

“For Christianity help is not the criterion. Truth is the criterion. The purpose of Christianity is not to help people by reconciling them with death, but to reveal the Truth about life and death in order that people may be saved by this Truth.”

“The only natural . . . reaction of man, to whom God gave this blessed and sanctified world, is to bless God in return, to thank Him, to see the world as God sees it and – in this act of gratitude and adoration – to know, name and possess the world.”

You Are What You Love, by James Smith – a readable book by a philosopher grappling with Protestant evangelicals’ tendency to treat human beings as “brains on a stick.” He challenges us to reject our tendency toward Gnosticism in order to understand what it really means to be a human being – physical as well as rational and spiritually.

The Consequences of Ideas, by RC Sproul – helpful survey of the history of philosophy, written for laypeople. (Philosophy people might be aggravated by his cramming such philosophers as Aristotle into a 12-page chapter, but it was certainly helpful for me.)

HISTORY

Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose – the story of a group of men in the 101st airborne division during WWII, inspiration for the HBO miniseries of the same name. 

The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown – page-turning true story of the University of Washington crew team that made it to the 1936 Olympics against all odds. 

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang – fascinating book reflecting on three generations of Chinese women - grandmother the concubine of a Chinese warlord, mother committed communist, daughter brainwashed by cultural revolution but eventually jumps ship (she’s the one who wrote the book). Provides intriguing insight into China's 20th Century history.

Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow – the inspiration for the Broadway hit, this book provides intriguing insight into the early history of our country. Hamilton had a penchant for being at historical epicenters and was the father of our government (as Washington was the father of the country and Madison of the constitution). Well-researched and engagingly written.

King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild – fascinating, impeccably researched and written book on King Leopold’s tyranny in Congo. Difficult to consider ongoing impacts of Western colonialism and neocolonialism. Leopold may be gone, but computers still need a mineral of which Congo has a large supply. Public Relations: control how the public perceives an event, and you control the event.

Nicholas and Alexandra, by Robert Massie – fascinating look at the Romanovs.

Dreadnought, by Robert Massie – a history of the arms race that led to WWI.

Killer Angels, by Jeff Shaara – historical fiction masterpiece following several key officers in the battle of Gettysburg, made into the movie Gettysburg. Insightful look at both sides and what excellent (and poor) leadership looks like.

All photos via Pinterest.