What's on your reading list?

a not very snarky post

Jan 17, 2024

Hi folks, I’m still feeling poorly - better than last week, to be sure, but still run down and congested. I thank you all for the well-wishes and patience… and I’m going to take the easy (and, I’m afraid, less snarky) way out this week and share a list of what I hope to read this year.

I generally consider myself a voracious reader, but I realize that a lot of my reading is articles and essays and poetry, and that’s less easy to pin down. (You can see who I read here on Substack by checking out my Recommendations. I also read The Atlantic and Smithsonian on the regular, and then whatever else shows up on my feed/in my searches that is of interest.)

Also, I read a lot of children’s books in the course of creating worship services with excellent religious educators, but that’s harder to plan out.

So.. as of today… here’s my list of fiction and non-fiction books I hope to read in 2024:

Justice and Social Action

Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado De Oliveira

Ritual and Liturgy

A History of Religion in 5½ Objects: Bringing the Spiritual to Its Senses by S. Brent Plate
(I WILL finish this book this year. I will. Seriously.)

A Worship Workbook: A Practical Guide for Extraordinary Liturgy by Gerald C. Liu and Khalia J. Williams

Theology

Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology by Monica A. Coleman
(I’m finally getting to it.)

Spiritual Growth

How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying by Gareth Higgins

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl
(I’m doing a shared read with the staff of UU Ann Arbor, and it’s been utterly delightful so far.)

Writing and Language

Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher

Women’s History

Toksvig's Almanac 2021 by Sandi Toksvig

Mythology

Circe by Madeline Miller

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Troy (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #3) by Stephen Fry

Comedy

Ghosts: The Button House Archives by Mathew Baynton, et. al.

Fiction

Cat Among the Pigeons (Hercule Poirot, #36) by Agatha Christie

How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
(short story collection)

Possession by A.S. Byatt
(I have a weird feeling I read this when it came out but I haven’t any actual memory of it.)

Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne, #1) by Mark Billingham

The Distant Echo (Karen Pirie, #1) by Val McDermid

A Death in the Parish (Canon Clement, #2) byRev. Richard Coles

The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4) by Richard Osman

The Marlow Murder Club (Marlow Murder Club #1) by Robert Thorogood

The Mermaids Singing (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #1) by Val McDermid

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

That’s my list. I’ll report back in December.

Meanwhile, have you read any of these? What did you think? And what’s on your list that you’re excited about? Let’s chat!