Books On My Table Right Now:

1. Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective—Karen Baker-Fletcher.

2. Freedom is a Constant Struggle —Angela Davis talks with Frank Barat about her philosophy on collective organizing, global issues, and prison abolition. The book also contains several of Davis’ recent speeches. It’s short!

3. Reweaving our Human Fabric: Working Together to Create a Nonviolent Future —Miki Kashtan builds on nonviolent communication (NVC) principles to suggest practical ways we can view ourselves, re-imagine our individual and collective power, and take sustainable, local action with others for good.

Books in My Tsundoku Pile

• Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change—Recommended to me by the Citizens Climate Lobby and Peterson Toscano’s Climate Stew. Marshall asks: Does it matter how we talk about climate change? And could there be neuro-psychological reasons that we’ve dodged the stakes and denied the need for action? He writes to explicate “our extraordinary and innate talent for seeing only what we want to see and disregarding what we would prefer not to know.”
• The Black Unicorn: Poems—Read more poetry this year. Just do it. It’s good for you!
• Blackmon, D. (2009). Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.
• Brownson, J. (2014). Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships.
• Cameron, D. & Kulick, D. (2003). Language and Sexuality.
• Dunaway, W. (2003). The African-American Family in Slavery and Emancipation (Studies in Modern Capitalism).
• Greven Jr., P. (1991). Spare The Child: Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse.
• Plantak, Z. (1998). The Silent Church. (Hard to find.)
• Thompson, A. (1991). Inspiration: Hard Questions, Honest Answers. (Hard to find.)

Reviews and Recommendations

• “Summer Reading Group: Mindsets of Respect, Regimes of Respect” (Aug. 2016) | Re. Volf, M. (2016). Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World. Yale University Press. (304 pages) [–no rank–]
• “Summer Reading Group: Sex and Privy” (Oct. 2015) | Re. Beck, R. (2011) Unclean. Wipf & Stock Pub. (212 pages) [–no rank–]
• “Making the ‘Invisible’ Visible with the Religion Institute” (Jun. 2014) | Re. Alford-Harkey, M. & Haffner, D. (2014). Bisexuality: Making the Invisible Visible in Faith Communities. The Religious Institute. (102 pages) [3 stars]
• “Beyond the Literal: John Spong on the Gospel of John” (Aug. 2013). | Re. Spong, J. S. (2013). The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. HarperOne. (368 pages) [5 stars]
• “Torn and Not Mended” (Mar. 2013). | Re. Lee, J. (2012). Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate. Jericho Books. (272 pages) [3 stars]
• “Habibi: A Review” (Jan. 2013). | Re. Thompson, C. (2011). Habibi. Pantheon. (672 pages) [4 stars]
• “Assumptions Matter (Sept. 2011). | Re. Dudley, J. (2011). Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics. [Kindle edition] Random House Digital. (208 pages) [4 stars]

Recent Reads

• Cone, J. (2013). The Cross and the Lynching Tree. [3 stars]
• Tabor, J. (2013). Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity. [3 stars]
• Copeland, M. S. (2009). Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being. [4 stars]
• Williams, A. K. (2002). Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace. [5 stars]
• Friedman, R.E. (1997/1987). Who Wrote the Bible? [4 stars]
• Hull, A. (G.T.), & Bell-Scott, P. (1993/1982). But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women’s Studies. [Not perfect but priceless]
• Brown Douglas, K. (1999). Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. [4 stars]
• Goodburn, A., Lecourt, D., & Leverenz, C. (2012). Rewriting Success in Rhetoric and Composition Careers (Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition). [4 stars]
• Brown, B. (2012). Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. [3-4 stars]
• Oreskes, N. & Conway, E. (2010). Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. [4 stars]
• Godin, S. (2010). Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. [4 stars]
• Wheatley, M. (2012). Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. [4 stars]
• MacLeod, H. (2009). Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. [3 stars for text, 4 for cartoons]
• Marable, M. (2013). Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. (unabridged audio) [3 stars]
• Willis, C. (1993). Doomsday Book. [4 stars]
• Crichton, M. (2004). State of Fear: A Novel. [4 stars]
• Malamud Smith, J. (2003/1997). Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life. [4 stars]
• Pressfield, S. (2002). The War of Art. [4 stars]

All-Time Top Ten-plus

These are ten of my all-time favorite books. They span literature, research, theology, epistemology, post-colonial education, and peace-building. Add them to your collection!

1. Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace — Miroslav Volf
2. Tao Te Ching (I love the translations from Gia-Fu Feng and Jonathan Star)
3. Freedom, Glorious Freedom: The Spiritual Journey to the Fullness of Life for Gays, Lesbians, and Everybody Else — John J. McNeill
4. Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction —ed. Devon Carbado
5. Strategic Ambiguities: Essays on Communication, Organization, and Identity — Eric M. Eisenberg
6. The Art of Peace — Ueshiba Morihei
7. Parable of the Sower — Octavia Butler
8. Anatomy of the Spirit — Caroline Myss
9. The Fifth Sacred Thing — Starhawk
10. Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism — Jay Michaelson
11. Pedagogy of the Oppressed — Paolo Freire
12. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination — Toni Morrison
13. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace — M. Scott Peck
14. The Psychic Grid: How We Create the World We Know — Beatrice Bruteau
15. East of Eden — John Steinbeck

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