The Epic Summer Reading List

A few weeks ago I sent out an email asking for a good reading list for the summer. Here is that complete reading list, compiled from several emails (hence the commentary and varying punctuation):

• The Scarlet Letter
• Misery (yes, Stephen King)
• Crime and Punishment
• The Kingdom of the Wicked by Anthony Burgess
• A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a generation of leaders for the twenty-first century. By Oliver Van DeMille
• The 5000 Year Leap
• New Kind of Christian trilogy by Brian McLauren
• Circle Trilogy ( Black, Red, White) by Ted Dekker
• pedagogy of the oppressed, paulo freire
• works of love, soren kierkegaard
• after empire, sharon welch
• the road, cormac mccarthy
• tragic vision and divine compassion, wendy farley
• aftermath: violence and the remaking of the self, susan brison
• god is red: a native view of religion, vine deloria jr.
• the prophet by gibran is my fave book ever, really short
• the life you save may be your own by elie (learn about the modern southern gothic catholics! day, merton, oconnor, percy)
• what is the what, heartbreaking work of staggering genius; both by eggers
• extremely loud and incredibly close by foer
• the secret life of bees (it's book candy! that's what i call novels)
• the glass castle
• my life as a traitor
• absolutely anything by vonnegut (fave, man without a country and slaughterhouse five) or tom robbins (fave, still life with woodpecker)
• if no one speaks of remarkable things by mcgregor
• the long lonliness by day
• slouching towards bethlehem by didion
• deep is the hunger by thurman
• naked in baghdad by garrels
• beyond the sky and earth
• do you know what it means to miss new orleans?
• one dead in attic by rose
• persepolis
• the poison wood bible by kingsolver
• memoirs of a geisha
• snow falling on cedars
• franny and zoey by salinger
• confessions of an economic hit man by perkins
• i am not myself these days
• dharma bums by keroac
• Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
• Love in the Time of Cholera--G.G. Marquez
• The World Without Us
• Complications, or Better--both by Atul Gawande
• Firmin
• three cups of tea.
• on the road to kandahar.
• the pillars of the earth.
• empire of the word.
• "The People's History of the United States"
• "The Brothers K" by David James Duncan
• "The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Klay," by Michael Chabon
• How to (Not) Talk About God, by Peter Rollins

We'll see what I get to. My other dream project, which is learning how to play the autoharp, may actually come true - I learned the other day that ASP owns an autoharp!! I may not have to buy one!!

Training continues; today is the epic picnic where everyone finds out who their staff is. Yesterday I taught a session on Faith, and led worship this morning. Here's a copy of my presentation:



Or, a link if this somehow doesn't work out:
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcw4hfxb_42hs2477hg

And now, some pictures:

Staffers are learning about how to lay out and construct porches in this particular session, led by Lynn and Big Dave, a long time ASP volunteers and staffers.

Kevin overlooks the Barn (where the Jonesville center stores building supplies) and a model roof system, built by our liaisons (for training purposes).

The sweet older couple who came and sang for us for our culture night.


Katie "Chaplain" Cole (I'm official because I have a nametag). In the sermon/homily from worship today, I talked about how God is with us throughout this journey of summer staff, using the examples of the story of Isaiah 43 and Dad's kidney transplant. To remind the staff that God is always with us, for the offering we gave out tattoos (a physical reminder that God is with us as we encounter water, fire, butterflies... pirates...).

My tattoo is a butterfly over a heart, over my heart. The best part is that some people keep forgetting that it's not real, and are genuinely surprised when they see me, of all people, with a tattoo.