Monday, September 10, 2007

~ sweet 16 ~

Keep the reading suggestions coming. I have more than enough books to make my list of 50, but I really want to hear your recommendations (or your thoughts on those books being recommended).


EG recommended:
* Jesus and Community: The Social Dimension of Christian Faith – Gerhard Lohfink
* A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic – Stanley Hauerwas

Myles recommended:
* An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives – Veli-Matti Karkkainen
* Models of the Church – Avery Dulles

CCDA “Required” Reading:
* Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development – John Perkins
* Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor – Robert Lupton
* Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships – Sherwood Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers
* Real Hope in Chicago – Wayne L. Gordon and Randall Frame
* Trolls & Truth: 14 Realities About Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See – Jimmy Dorrell
* Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets – John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight
* Renewing the City: Reflections on Community Development and Urban Renewal – Robert Lupton
* Cross-Cultural Connections: Stepping Out and Fitting in Around the World – Duane Elmer

New Monasticism Recommendations:
* Schools(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism – Rutba House
* Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New Monasticism – John R. Stock
* To Baghdad and Beyond: How I Got Born Again in Babylon – Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
* How to Become a Saint: A Beginner’s Guide – Jack Bernard

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love biographies and historical fiction. My favorite in recent years is Red Scarf Girl.

Kimberly said...

Oh yeah - we talked about that one on our "night on the town"! Thank you for the recommendation!

Brook said...

is that a picture of your library at home? that is so great!

50 books in one year...wow. In a good year I can generally only manage about half that many.

for my list of recommendations, go to my very first blog entry. the ones near the top of the list are vaguely prioritized - something of my top 40 there (the ones at or near the bottom are more likely recent reads, unless it was REALLY good, then I'll stick it up towards the top). I'd generally recommend anything on the list (anything I read that isn't rec worthy IMO doestn't get put on there)

you've got some great posts recently! enjoy the coming year...

Angela said...

if we start talking books, i'm bound to fall in love with you, but first, i gotta ask, "are you opposed to reading anything that makes your heart bleed joy?"
good grief! you're soul's gonna die if you only read that other stuff;).

in defence of the novel which is apparently a dying art form and in case you haven't read all of my favourites, here they are...
ahem...
"in the skin of a lion" by michale ondaatje. he's one of canada's best, most amazing, fantastic, incredible writers. the guy writes prose as if it were poetry and you can hardly breathe it's so amazing (and, if i knew you better, i might giggle with you like i do the girls at church and say that no one writes sex like that man. wowza. that'll make you sweat.)

annie dillard, annie dillard, annie dillard. oh, lord, anything annie dillard. so, ya, i'm talking about her nonfiction, but really. she kills me.

"a fine balance" by rohinton mistry. really good if you want your heart torn out and then driven over, plus learn a thing or two about india.

"everything is illuminated" by jonathan safran foer. i never would have read it if a boy i adored hadn't sworn by it. the boy's gone. the book is still here. such a beautiful journey of loss and grief and hope. i know. that sounds lame, but the book isn't. really.

"gilead" by marilyn robinson. blah, blah, blah. i'm sure you've heard all about it, but, ya. it's all true. probably my favourite novel, ever.

i've also got a huge crush on the brothers karamazov right now. besides the fact that dostoevsky was in serious need of an editor that guy writes about love in a way that makes you feel like it's sitting beside you on the bed watching you read.

and virginia woolf changed my life. sorta - "to the lighthouse" was glorious.

oh! and i almost forgot vonnegut. really, slaughterhouse five is one of those anchor books i always go back to and read bits and pieces just to remember and feel good about again.

...there. that's a few and i'm already in love with you. we've talked books. it doesn't get any better than that.

happy reading!

Kimberly said...

1. disclaimer: not a picture of my own library - but wouldn't it be fabulous to have a parlor room like that someday?!

2. Wow. Ok, thanks to Brook and Angela I am now going to quit my job and move into the downtown library (please send beans and rice).

Seriously, excellent suggestions. Yes, I love novels - and I don't read enough of them. And I value the way truth is communicated through story in a way that is illumniated (and, apparently, so did the man I claim to follow).

This list is going to be so much fun - and I am going to have to experiment with different reading locations to keep it from spiraling into a task. Vienna, perhaps?

Ramón said...

I'm glad to see some folks finally put some novels up. Here are some of my suggestions to add to the list:

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera...this is hands down one of the best novels I've ever read
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides...Suicides is an interesting examination of the opposite of community if you will, and I think Middlesex is one of our generation's great novels (and I said this before it was an Oprah Book Club selection!)
'Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Body Politics: Five Practices of the Chrisitan Community Before the Watching World by John Howard Yoder
Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

All of these are fiction except for the last two, which both clock in at around 100 pages each, but you cannot beat the depth of content and power of substance found in such short books.

Kimberly said...

So many wonderful choices, what is a girl to do?! (hand on forehead, *sigh*)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is an absolute must. I am currently reading The Curtain, and adore Unbearable Lightness of Being and Identity. Kundera enchants me.