December 14, 2017 My dear Friends: This may not surprise you, but I’m going to let you into a little secret: I’m a bit of a nerd (actually, I’m totally a nerd). One way that my nerdiness manifests itself is this: I track my reading all year long. I have a special journal (a J. R. R. Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings,” Moleskine) that I received as a gift. Since 2013, I have logged every book that I’ve completed in this journal. That’s a big qualifier—I start a lot more books than I finish. Sometimes I get distracted and that’s my fault; most of the time, though, I blame the author for failing to hold my attention to the end of the book. Thus far in 2017, I’ve completed 40 books, which is pretty poor compared to past years (last year, I completed 70 books, by way of comparison). I have found over the past couple of years that my reading has shifted away from history and theology (although I still read my fair share) towards fiction and poetry. This year was a bit odd because I didn’t have a real “kick” or interest area where I read a lot of books in rapid succession in one particular area. I suspect that the driving back and forth to Hattiesburg had something to do with that as well. At the end of each year, I like to highlight my favorite books and pass them along to you. These aren’t necessarily books that were published in 2017, simply ones that I read during the calendar year. Most years, I highlight ten; however, I don’t have ten favorites this year. These five books did rise to the top as the most memorable and enjoyable: Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy. Stevenson is the head of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama; this book comes out of his work, seeking to provide genuine defenses to death row inmates who all too often have found that the legal system has failed them. This is a powerful book that has stayed with me through the year. Brian Doyle, The Adventures of John Carson. I love Brian Doyle, an Oregon-based author who died this year of brain cancer. In his final novel, he uses the voice of Robert Louis Stevenson (another of my favorites) to unfold stories related to John Carson. But in doing so, he explores the mysteries of love, the vagaries of faith, and the longing for home. Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder. In my preparation to preach through Revelation, I read Reversed Thunder this summer. This is Peterson at his absolute best; and in these reworked sermons, you get a sense of a different way to approach the book under the guise of “last words.” It was thoroughly enjoyable, a book that I’ve recommended to several of you as we have gone through Revelation. Robert Moor, On Trails: An Exploration. Another book that I read this summer while hiking trails in western North Carolina—Moor unfolds the histories of trails, from the smallest trails in the fossil record to the International Appalachian Trail, the longest human trail. In doing so, he explores why we make trails, whether trails are random or not, and what trails say to us about what it means to be human in this world. Anne Fadiman, The Wine Lover’s Daughter. I’ve been a big Anne Fadiman fan since her second book, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. This book is a long personal essay in which she uses her father, Clifton Fadiman, and his love for wine both to explore his life (at one time, Fadiman was a most famous public intellectual) and her relationship with him. Beautiful, satisfying, enjoyable, and educational all in one. I hope that you might check one of these out—but even more, that you would be people who love to read. It is often said that in adulthood, the two things that shape us are the friends that we have and the books that we read. If we don’t read, then we are shutting ourselves off to significant influences that might broaden us and help us see the world differently. And God help us if the only reading we do is social media! Here’s hoping that this Christmas you might end up with one or more books under your tree! In the grip of God’s grace,
Rev. Sean Michael Lucas, PhD Senior Pastor Independent Presbyterian Church Memphis, TN