Let me encourage ministers everywhere to read. Expand your mind and your heart. You will be a better minister and person for it. And it is fun.
All tagged fiction
“The Last Novel” by David Markson
Markson defines the limits of the postmodern novel, which I know is not going to send many of you rushing out to buy it. (Fiction)
“GraceLand” by Chris Abani
The literary voices coming from all over Africa are incredibly diverse, and as more and more men and women share their stories, they turn out to be very compelling indeed. (Fiction)
“The Noise of Time” by Julian Barnes
The book makes you wonder how you would do in those moments when life itself might be at stake. How far would you be willing to compromise on your convictions to protect yourself and your family? (Fiction)
“The March” by E. L. Doctorow
Unless you’re just dead set against historical fiction, I’m quite confident you’ll find this book utterly engrossing. (Fiction)
“Mister Monkey” by Francine Prose
Mister Monkey is an absolutely awful children’s musical about a pet chimpanzee who has a penchant for theft. This terrible play is performed by a cast of very broken people. There you have it.
“Terrorist” by John Updike
Although there is a fable-like quality to the story, I found the characters to be more or less believable and the plot to be quite suspenseful. (Fiction)
“Booked” by Kwame Alexander and “Gabriel” by Edward Hirsch
I am intentionally juxtaposing these two long poems. One tells a story of a boy growing up. One mourns a son who will not grow old. (Fiction)
“The Parade” by David Eggers
You might call it parable-like or allegorical, but in the short time it took me to read it, I found my unease rising with every page. (Fiction)
“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt
The novel’s protagonist is 13-year-old Theo Decker whose mother, having taken him on an outing to the museum, is killed. (Fiction)
“Today I Wrote Nothing” by Daniil Kharms
His stories are generally short and quirky and every now and then there is one you think is going to go somewhere and then it doesn’t. (Fiction)
“The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead
Whitehead’s fiction writings are not preachy but they are penetrating. He continues to call our attention to the unfinished work of racial healing. (Fiction)
“Remainder” by Tom McCarthy
So at the risk of alienating readers who are wondering if I’m going to talk about their favorite book, let me review one that no one I know or have ever met has read. (Fiction)
“Shroud” by John Banville
How about a novel built around the founder of deconstructive literary criticism? It’s hard to imagine a more exciting premise than that. (Fiction)
“Jennifer Government” by Max Barry
What is the point of writing a novel when what is happening in the world is far more unbelievable than any act of the imagination could be? Is it even possible to write satire in a world where the news is already too kooky to be satirized? (Fiction)
“The Secret Chord” by Geraldine Brooks
Most of us have known the story of David for so long we cannot remember what it was like to hear it the first time. This novel allows us to hear this familiar story all over again. (Fiction)
Plays by Hnath, McCarthy, Schreck, and McDonagh
It is undoubtedly true that plays were meant to be seen on the stage. And yet some of these scripts are so brilliant that they yield great pleasure and insight even by their reading. (Fiction)
“After the Quake” by Haruki Murakami
The straightforward impetus for the stories is the Kobe earthquake of 1995. Four thousand were killed, and more than a quarter million were left homeless. It lasted all of 20 seconds. (Fiction)
“Motherless Brooklyn” by Jonathan Lethem
It is a call for us, individually and as a society, to try a little harder to understand and appreciate those in our midst whose minds work a little differently from our own. (Fiction)
“Crabwalk” by Günter Grass
What does it mean to deal with a national sin? What does it mean to grapple with a past that is never just the past, that keeps intruding day by day and will do so for the foreseeable future? (Fiction)