In year’s past, I’ve suggested books for your summer reading. I got away from that for a few years. It’s time to return. I know, you’re wondering, “Who has time to read?” Well, you do. And in fact, you need to. As C.S. Lewis noted, when the world is racing like a speeding train, you must read old books to keep your wits about you. They help you maintain perspective, even as everyone else loses theirs.
I think of reading old books as the opposite of drinking the culture’s Kool-Aide. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also read new books! I recommend reading over watching TV. They are radically different events. (And if you think I’m wrong, read Neal Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death).
For those who’ve followed previous summer reading lists, you know I tend to go heavy on nonfiction. In years past I have recommended:
- Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. This classic work is a great study of grace
- Crime and Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which invites us to think differently about what sacrifice might look like.
- Frankensteinby Mary Shelley, who wrote the book when she was just 19. (If you read it, be prepared to realize that the monster is not the monster, we are).
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This book, which is a profoundly Christian work, helped motivate the American church to rise up against slavery.
- Robinson Crusoeby Daniel Defoe. Read it and then contrast how Robinson Crusoe took advantage of his isolation to cultivate a rich inner life with God, whereas Chuck Noland, the Fed Ex exec played by Tom Hanks in Castaway, essentially has no inner world!
Lately I have been reading about the Reformation (The Complete Idiots Guide to The Reformation and Protestantism and Heiko Oberman’s Luther: Man Between God and the Devil). Note: I am reading about the Reformation because this October we’ll celebrate the 500th anniversary of Luther’s decision to nail his 95 theses on the door of the castle in Wittenberg.
At this moment I am reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari’s effort to use the natural sciences to explain human history, and Cormack MacKenzie’s The Road, a dystopian novel about life in some grim future. Neither are Christian books, and both strike me as too heavy for a summer reading list. So let me let others make recs this year.
- Love Does by Bob Goff. Cathering Pierri – Lake Forest Pre-Threes – agree with Reggie Joiner, who writes, “Every once in a while someone like Bob Goff shows up to remind us that some things matter a lot more than others. ‘Love Does’ has a kind of ‘north star’ effect that will push you to refocus your life and energy on what is most significant.” She also recommends Love Lives Here, by Bob Goff’s wife, Maria, noting that it celebrates grace, which is a contagious force we all need and crave.
- Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung. Dan Syvertsen – Highland Park Campus Pastor. This short book addresses the busyness problem, and the struggle for a well-reasons balance between doing nothing and doing it all, but not with the typical arsenal of time management tips. Instead it provides biblical tools we need to get to the source of the issue and pull the problem out by the roots. Great chapters on pride, parenting and other areas of life that drive us to choose to be busy.
- Making Neighborhoods Whole by Wayne Gordon and John M. Perkins. David Weil, who passion for making neighbors whole lead he and his wife, Susi, to relocate to North Chicago three years ago, writes, “This book provides firsthand experience (born of thirty years of hard won knowledge) on the eight components for ministry in under-resourced communities.”
- The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. Aaron Cramer – This book has challenged me to have the proper attitude towards God. In a very real way I am moved in my walk with God every time I read this book. From time to time I am in need of a refreshing wake up call in my walk with God and this book has helped to facilitate that in my life.
- Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray is the first of Sheri (my wife’s recs). Reading this deep and challenging devotional book is like sitting with a wise and gentle grandfather that is explaining how to live in close connection with Christ. It is best to take 2-3 days per each of the 31 devotions! Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Gurnard gets her second vote. “In this sweet little allegory we follow ‘Much Afraid’ on her journey to the ‘high places.’ What she learns from the Good Shepherd, and from her wise and brave companions, helps us learn how we should live on our own life’s journey.”
I hope this give you some ideas!