Reading widely and constantly has always been at the heart of my own preaching and writing practice. I never know where I will find connections, inspiration, and unexpected depths. I purposefully read nonfiction that supports my spiritual leadership and preaching.
- The True Secret of Writing by Natalie Goldberg does exactly that, as she connects the practice of writing with her spiritual practice of sitting meditation
- The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt is a profound book that will continue to weave its way into my sermons
- Although The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan is a master class in how an actor prepares a scene, it’s also a meditation on emotionally honest interactions between people. It has me thinking about how we can know each other better, and how we can help each other through hard times
This was the year I embraced audiobooks, and especially thrillers in audiobook format. I took a few long drives last winter, including a solo trip to Tennessee. I needed something to listen to on the long road. Plot-driven thrillers turned out to be just the thing. Favorites in this genre included:
- The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz A once-promising author has someone else’s perfect novel plot dropped in his lap, his for the taking. Korelitz expertly explores the consequences through many writing styles and plot twists
- I loved the classic The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Is this a ghost story or a tale of one repressed woman’s psychological undoing?
Did you know I lead a monthly book group at First U, exploring religious community through fiction and memoir? Everyone is welcome to attend; the next meeting is Wed. Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Bancroft Room. Our January book is Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline. It’s a fast-paced, sexy thriller about a Métis family targeted by a loupgarou, a werewolf-like monster. Joan Beausoleil is gutted by the disappearance of her beloved husband. When she sees him a year later in a parking lot, dressed like a preacher and seeming not to recognize her, she will stop at nothing to get him back. The book reminded me of the Biblical book Ruth as much as “Sleeping Beauty,” and introduced me to the rich Métis culture. The real monstrous threat is the colonial domination of Métis culture and land.
Another theme this year was the connection between good books and good television shows.
- Seeing Shining Girls on Apple TV inspired me to read the book; whereas the show is a thriller, the book is more of a love letter to Chicago’s history and the women (cis and trans) who have called it home. Be warned that both the TV show and the book depict sexual assaults
- Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred (published by Beacon Press) has been made into a new drama streaming on Hulu. I read Butler’s Parable of the Sower this year. It’s a deeply spiritual work of science fiction; her Earthseed aphorisms make a fine prayer.
This year I also found myself grateful for the work of translators. (It’s fitting that the book that is carrying me into 2023 is Babel by R. F. Kuang.) Translators can be hidden from view. A reader often has to read the copyright page to learn the name of the translator. A really good translator makes their work transparent, so that the reader peers through a clear glass pane of language to encounter a foreign text. Translation allowed me to read the Russian novel that inspired 1984 and Brave New World; a darkly funny book by one of Ukraine’s best-known authors; and the classic Madame Bovary, among others. Reading in translation expands what I know about the world.
All links in this post are to Tidepool Bookshop, owned by members of First Unitarian Church. I checked many of this year’s books out of the library, and I also shop for used books at Bedlam Book Cafe in Worcester. I am looking forward to more reading and sharing my insights from reading with you in 2023. I’ve signed up for the Massachusetts Reading Challenge and invite you to do the same, if you like. As always, let me know what you’re reading right now!
In faith,
Rev. Sarah Stewart
Books I Read in 2022
Novels
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (reread) (abridged audiobook)
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (audiobook)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
The Book of Philip K. Dick (stories)
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, trans. Lydia Davis
Dead Lions by Mick Herron (audiobook)
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
Slow Horses by Mick Herron (audiobook)
Spook Street by Mick Herron (audiobook)
The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz (audiobook)
The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
Search by Michelle Huneven
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, trans. Philip Boehm
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (audiobook)
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian (audiobook)
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, trans. George Bird
Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré
The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré
The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier, trans. Adriana Hunter
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, trans. Alfred Birnbaum
Falling by T. J. Newman (audiobook)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Her Last Affair by John Searles (audiobook)
In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Homicide Trinity by Rex Stout (stories)
Murder By the Book by Rex Stout
The Magician by Colm Tóibín
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (audiobook)
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, trans. Clarence Brown
Nonfiction
The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
“Our Father”: An Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer by Ernst Lohmeyer, trans. John Bowden
The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan
The True Secret of Writing by Natalie Goldberg
This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Young Doctor by Adam Kay
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
The Boundaries Workbook by Jake Morrill
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, trans. Philip Gabriel
The Defiant Middle: How Women Claim Life’s In-Betweens to Remake the World by Kaya Oakes
Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present, and Future (2nd ed.) by Michael B. A. Oldstone
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley
The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well by Mark Schatzker
Other
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth by Ken Krimstein
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure
