On My Bookshelf
(Or in My Earbuds)
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One of the greatest gifts my mother gave to me as a child was her love of books. No matter where we lived, our public library became one of my favorite places, both with my family and with my friends. When I learned I was pregnant with my son, I started reading my favorite children’s book to him, The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise. Whenever I have a problem in life, I look to books to learn different perspectives and possible solutions. Once I started seminary, I discovered audiobooks and became a voracious audiobook reader.
I have made an electronic list of the important books on my bookshelf, in my electronic reader, and/or playing in my earbuds. These books have significantly influenced my ministerial formation. Because I believe revelation is not sealed and learning and spiritual development are lifelong gifts, I will continue to update this list. Please feel free to use the Connect page to recommend books for my reading!
I have made an electronic list of the important books on my bookshelf, in my electronic reader, and/or playing in my earbuds. These books have significantly influenced my ministerial formation. Because I believe revelation is not sealed and learning and spiritual development are lifelong gifts, I will continue to update this list. Please feel free to use the Connect page to recommend books for my reading!
Pastoral Care
- Armstrong, Karen, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
- Coste, Joanne Koenig, Learning to Speak Alzheimer’s: A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease
- Dykstra, Robert C., Images of Pastoral Care: Classic Readings
- Gawande, Atul, Being Mortal: Medecine and What Matters in the End
- Goleman, Daniel, Emotional Intelligence
- Lerner, Harriet, The Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships
- Miles, Al, Domestic Violence: What Every Pastor Needs to Know
- Singh, Kathleen Dowling, The Grace in Dying
- Tutu, Desmond, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World
- Van der Kolk, Bessel, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Religious Enrichment
- Bernhard, Toni, How to Wake Up: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow
- Brown, Brene, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
- ---, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
- ---, Rising Strong: The Reckoning, the Rumble, the Revolution
- Chodron, Pema, Awakening Compassion: Meditation Practice for Difficult Times
- ---, Awakening Love: Teachings and Practices to Cultivate a Limitless Heart
- ---, Coming Closer to Ourselves: Making Everything the Path of Awakening
- ---, Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns and Encountering a Naked Reality
- ---, The Truth of Our Existence: Four Teachings from the Buddha to Illuminate Your Life
- ---, Unconditional Confidence
- ---, Walking the Walk: Putting the Teachings into Practice When It Matters Most
- Dweck, Carol, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
- Gilbert, Elizabeth, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
- Gottschall, Jonathan, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
- Green, Ross W., The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children
- Hoff, Benjamin, The Tao of Pooh
- Lamott, Anne, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
- Lonsdale, Akasha, Do I Kneel or Do I Bow: What You Need to Know When Attending Religious Ceremonies
- Martin, James, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life
- Palmer, Parker, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
- Patton, Sally, Don’t Fix Me, I’m Not Broken: Changing Our Minds About Ourselves and Our Children
- Prothero, Stephen, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter
- Taylor, Barbara Brown, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
- ---, Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night
- Tippett, Krista, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living
- ---, Speaking of Faith
- Wilbur, Ken, Integral Meditation: Mindfulness as a Way to Grow Up, Wake Up and Show Up in Your Life
Justice
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, We Should All Be Feminists
- Anderson, Carol, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
- Appiah, Kwame Anthony, The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen
- Baldwin, James, I Am Not Your Negro
- Banerjee, Abhijit V., Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
- Barber, William J., The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi, Between the World and Me
- Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne, All the Real Indians Died Off: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans
- Dyson, Michael Eric, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
- Haidt, Jonathan, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
- Hochschild, Arlie Russell, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
- hooks, bell, Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics
- Isenberg, Nancy, White Trash: The 400-yearUntold History of Class in America
- Keni, Ibram X, Stamped from the Beginning; The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., Stride Towards Freedom: The Montgomery Story
- Korten, David C., The Great Turning: Fromf Empire to Earth Community
- Leondar-Wright, Betsy, Missing Class: Strengthening Social Movement Groups by Seeing Class
- Mitchell, David, Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution
- Pinker, Steven, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
- Power, Samantha, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
- Stevenson, Bryan, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption