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June 3, 2010

Her.meneutics' Summer Reading List

What our regular bloggers are taking to the pool.

Katelyn Beaty

You know summer has arrived when libraries launch mega reading programs, kids breeze through dozens of books to win Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas, and just about every magazine and news site — including CT's "Theology in the News" writer, Collin Hansen — compiles a must-read summer reading list. The women's blog is no exception, though we thought it more interesting to see what our bloggers plan to read this summer, and hear what you plan to read as well. Two books made more than one list: Unsqueezed, Margot Starbuck's follow-up to last year's The Girl in the Orange Dress, and sex-and-spirituality writer Donna Freitas's new young-adult fiction book, This Gorgeous Game. And one of our own bloggers — Amy Julia Becker, for Penelope Ayers: A Memoir — made blogger Ellen Painter Dollar's list.

What books do you plan to read? Share them in the comments section, and enjoy the wealth of options below.

Amy Julia Becker

• Unsqueezed: Springing Free from Skinny Jeans, Nose Jobs, Highlights, and Stilettos, by Margot Starbuck
• The Blind Contessa's New Machine, by Carey Wallace
• Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Mental Disability in the United States, by James W. Trent
• Accompany Them with Singing: The Christian Funeral, by Thomas Long
• Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann

Elrena Evans

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer (I keep hearing things about it and I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet. Plus, it was on the shelf when I was last at the library.)

• The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work," by Kathleen Norris (This has been on my to-read list for a while; perhaps I spend too much time on laundry, liturgy, and "women's work" to want to read about it when I'm not doing it.)
• Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, by Ellen Ruppel Shell (For a look into some of the realities behind "inexpensive" goods and merchandise.)
• Mini Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella (The irony is not lost on me. It's not due out until September, but I can always hope an advanced copy will fall in my lap, right?)
• Touch the Art: Brush Mona Lisa's Hair, by Julie Appel (At least a couple hundred times. It's my 14-month-old's current favorite book, and I highly recommend the entire Touch the Art series for anyone with toddlers or preschoolers.)

Laura Leonard

• Women, Food, and God, by Geneen Roth
• This Gorgeous Game, by Donna Freitas

• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma, by Trenton Lee Stewart (The next installment in my annual beach reading through this fantastic children's series.)
• The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, by David Kirkpatrick
• The Complete Julian of Norwich, by Julian of Norwich

Ellen Painter Dollar

• Every Last One, by Anna Quindlen
• The Cradle, by Patrick Somerville
• Beautiful Boy:A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction, by David Sheff
• Why Faith Matters:God and the New Atheism, by David J. Wolpe
• Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, by our own Amy Julia Becker (My book group selected this for our summer reading since AJB will be moving about 45 minutes away from me this summer; we've always wanted to have an author come to our meeting!)

Katelyn Beaty

• This Gorgeous Game, by Donna Freitas (Almost done with this young-adult novel about a teenage girl's unwanted attention from a Catholic priest; look for a forthcoming review on Her.meneutics.)
• The Confessions, by Augustine of Hippo (A long-overdue must-read given its status as the most foundational spiritual autobiography in the West.)
• Enlightened Sexism, by Susan J. Douglas (Tipped off by Lauren Winner's short review at Books & Culture's redesigned website.)
• The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, by Lesslie Newbigin (Another classic, left over from last year's summer reading list.)
• Breaking Free, by Beth Moore (Since so many friends highly recommend it.)

LaVonne Neff

• Le Malentendu ("The Misunderstanding"), by Irène Némirovsky
• Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas & Found Happiness, by Dominique Browning
• Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment, by David Kirby
• More detective novels by Michael Connelly. I’m going to try Lee Child as well.
• All seven Harry Potter books, again. I do this in years when new movies come out.

Sarah Pulliam Bailey

• Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home, by Rhoda Janzen
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland
• Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas
• Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Super Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Julia Duin

The Magnificent Obsession, by Anne Graham Lotz

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Greg Mortenson

A God Who Hates, by Wafa Sultan

An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit, by Vinson Synan

Redefining Children's Ministry in the 21st Century, by Becky Fischer

Alicia Cohn

• Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices, by Mosab Hassan Yousef (Just started it. Reads like fiction.)
• Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, by Michael Chabon (Odd choice? I'm a Chabon fan.)
• Unsqueezed: Springing Free from Skinny Jeans, Nose Jobs, Highlights and Stilettos, by Margot Starbuck (Loved The Girl in the Orange Dress, which I interviewed Starbuck about for the blog.)
• A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin (Committing to the complete A Song of Ice and Fire series is too ambitious.)
• Lucia, Lucia, by Adriana Trigiani (I recently read my first Trigiani book, Big Stone Gap.)

Ruth Moon

• Letters to a Diminished Church, by Dorothy Sayers

The Broom of the System, by David Foster Wallace

Tinkers, by Paul Harding

Collected Poems of Philip Larkin

Hell's Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson

Christine A. Scheller

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, by Steven Pinker

South of Broad, by Pat Conroy

To Change the World, by James Davison Hunter

The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel

Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge, by Dallas Willard

Posted by Katelyn Beaty on June 3, 2010 10:28 AM

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