Every summer the pile on the gold and glass coffee table in my office grows with a stack of hopeful summer reads. There’s a stack of fiction and a stack of nonfiction (as well as a very hopeful queue of Kindle and audio books over on Libby). Of the physical copies, there are books written by friends and books written by perfect strangers — but as the story today goes, all of these books were sent to me to read, review, potentially place, and of course, enjoy, because that’s just what we bookish people do.
Even though summer is quickly coming to a close for my children, that doesn’t mean I can’t sit in the backyard garden, put my feet up, and finish some of these most hopeful summer reads when they return to school.
First up, we have Grace Over Guns by Ben Daniel. Ben is a local Presbyterian (USA) pastor, a peace activist, and, dare I say, a burgeoning friend. As the back cover promises, the book “invites Christians of all backgrounds to reconsider the stories we’ve been told about war and peace.” I loved it so much I placed a review in Presbyterian Outlook and featured it in an opinion piece for Baptist News Global. Highly recommend.
Next up, Charlotte Donlon has a new book coming out called Spiritual Direction for Writers. Although I’ve not yet read it, Charlotte and I have collaborated on different projects together, I've sat under her spiritual direction, and I consider her a beautiful, generous human. As the back cover reads, “What if the writing life isn’t about daily word counts — but about daily attention to your whole self?” I can’t wait to dive in.
On a different note, Mitali Perkins is queen of most every genre, including picture books. Doing Something New releases in a week and it’s the book I wish I’d had when my family moved (back) from Seattle to Oakland and doing something new proved really, really hard. Bonus: The Beatitudes are made real and kid-applicable in its message, alongside illustrations that are perfectly, beautifully diverse.
Fourth, we have This is the Door by Darcey Steinke. Her writing is new to me, but I can see why the publisher reached out to see if I might want to read a copy: she’s my people. In the book, she weaves a tale of physical pain throughout different parts of the body, examining both the somatic and the spiritual in her body and in other bodies. As the back cover reads, “she draws on history, philosophy, religion, pop culture, and personal reporting to examine pain, as well as the myriad practical, social, scientific, and spiritual ways we attempt to make sense of it.” If memoir’s the name of your reading game, do pick up a copy.
Finally, Canadian Maggie Helwig just released Instructions for the End of the World. A priest in the Anglican Church of Canada (which is quite similar to The Episcopal Church, where I am ordained), the book is a collection of short sermons preached over the course of a couple of years. I’m not surprised the publisher reached out to me, because as I read through them, I’m like, GIRL. Same same. In other words, I love how she thinks and writes and loops it all back to the stuff of spirituality. If this too is your jam, head to Bookshop ASAP.
That’s it for now — although I will say that I’ve got a good handful of other hopeful (fall, winter) reads that will probably show up here soon enough. In the meantime, all of the books are linked to Bookshop,1 because it’s always best to support local, independent booksellers.
When you buy a book through my Bookshop link, you kick a few pennies over to me.
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