Summer Reading 2026 Part 1: The Hard Ones

It takes me a long time to finish a book.  Partly this is because I can be a slow reader. However, if you have ever spent an hour with me than you know the real problem. I get restless. It takes me a long time to get settled. By the time I have all the things I need--drink, glasses, book (or two), notebook--assembled at the place with the most conducive view, I am on to the next thing.  Some task calls to me. I am distracted by a shiny thing.

I do read though.  However, it tends to be instructional or reference books for my various hobbies.  With books like that I can be in and out then on to the next thing. Want to know something about Dungeon Crawl Classics? I have read the book and--while I might tend to make up my own rules--I have a good grasp of what the game is and where it wants to go.  Want to talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl? You are out of luck. I keep getting bored and moving on.

I have also mastered the deep dive.  I have been absolutely crushing Wendell Berry lately.  Essays and poems are my sweet spot.  People like Berry (and Mary Oliver and so on) create work that makes me think and impacts me even in my flightiest of phases. By the time I walk away, I have finished at least ​something...

Anyway, I know this about myself so every summer, when--theoretically at least--my work schedule loosens up a bit, I create a reading list of books I have a hard time of sitting down and reading. Then I publish it in some way.  The point is accountability. The purpose is to keep up with the sort of works I need to engage with in order to do a good job at my job.  I make other lists, too, but most of them are recommendations in the previous two categories. This "part one" is for things I think will be more difficult to finish.

So...here are my first six challenges. A couple of them I have tried to start more than once, then put them down and returned from time to time.  One I grabbed from the church library.  Another I have read, but I want to read it again.  Another I have been carrying around with me.  It is dense and theological.

​HERE WE GO...

Where I will read if the yard work doesn't distract me...

Only Work Sundays  by Liz Miller:  
​The title comes from an old and not terribly funny joke. Every year at least one beloved member of the Christmas and Easter crowd will crack it out as if they were the very first to have thought of it.  I try to laugh--they mean well and I am not actually offended--but it is a bit tired. It is like--as an Adam--one person a year asks "where's Eve?" and I have to at least smile.

I now have multiple copies of this book.  I bought one. Then two different members of my church gifted it to me.  I feel like that is enough of a message to put it on the list.  It is about self-care and budgeting time. I have started reading it twice and will try, try again this summer. It isn't a bad book at all.  I wouldn't read it if it was. However, with books essentially about imposing a system and a means of organization, my mind shrinks.  It hasn't had the best experience with systems. Still, self-care, right?  

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Sabbath as Resistance: Saying no to the Culture of Now  by Walter Brueggemann.
 I always think of this author as more of a Bible scholar.  Still, the issue of sabbath time--whether it is on Sunday or somewhere else in the Week--is an important one.  Also I agree with the concept.  Sabbath absolutely is a form of resistance in a capitalist system that drags us around like cogs in their money-making machine.  I am hopeful that it will be a good companion to "Only Sundays". 

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How Flowers Made Our World by David George Haskell 
The title says it all.  It is about evolution and ecosystems as seen through the lens of flowers.  The separation of religion and science is the result of modernity. I think it is important for people of faith to understand the unfolding discoveries of this world so we understand our place in the complexity of what we somewhat-metaphorically call "Creation".

​People who know me or have read extensively here will know that I have made a bit of a study in this area so I do not come to this subject uninformed. However, I have tried to start this book a few times, too.  There is so much "noise" in a day and this book takes some focus. There is a flow in science and ecology that requires more focus than I can manage sometimes. I keep having to back up a bit to recapture the thread.

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No Death, No Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh 
​Most of the people I know have a favorite Thich Nhat Hanh book.  This one is mine.  All of his books address similar themes and sometimes similar texts.  They are usually gleaned from his many years of teaching and spiritual travel. This one covers the terrain from the perspective of the fear of death.  I have recommended it to many people who have been trying to find meaning in mortality.  I am looking forward to this one. It will also be difficult, though.  I want to turn off my preacher-brain.  After all, it is full of sermon illustrations.

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Leading Change in the Congregation by Gilbert Rendle 
​Full disclosure...the underlining and margin-notes in this one indicate that I have actually read this.  I believe it was assigned for a interim minister training I took.  The training was OK, I guess.  The book was pretty helpful.  I remember it being a BEAST. That said, I do not remember a lot of what is inside it and change​ is what church and life are about these days.  I am not committing to the whole thing in this case, but at least I will look at the parts I highlighted and see where that leads me.

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What Are Biblical Values? by John Collins I actually took a couple of courses from Collins when he was teaching at the University of Chicago Divinity School. The book--like his classes--is dense.  However, the Bible gets thrown around a lot both from the left and right.  This is the book I have been carrying around. I trust my old professor to give these issues some grounding as I navigate through this world on the path of faith.

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So that is it!  All of these books will inform my work for at least the next year.  I am reading plenty of other things--the last book I read was called "Carrots Love Tomatoes"--and they also will impact work...but less directly.  Therefore, if you wonder what I will be thinking about in the fall, this list is a good place to start.

The biggest distraction to my reading right now...