I read and read and read and read. And listen to podcasts. I understand that leisure time to read is a gift and that for so many reasons, so many people don’t enjoy the same. I don’t take it for granted. But in my free time, I prioritize reading because it makes me happy and because I love to learn.
Here are a few books that have had the most impact on me.
Leadership/Personal Development
Start With Why – Simon Sinek
Dare to Lead – Brene Brown
Life is in the Transitions – Bruce Feller
The Power of Regret – Daniel Pink
Think Again – Adam Grant
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman
Smart Brevity – VanderHei, Allen & Schwartz
The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control – Katherine Morgan Schafler
Inspiration/Reflection
When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi
In Shock – Rana Awdish
Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma – Claire Dederer
Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine Is Complicating the Way We Die – Blair Bigham
Faith/Religion/Spirituality
Jesus and John Wayne – Kristin Kobes Du Mez
The Making of Biblical Womanhood – Beth Allison Barr
Anatomy of the Soul – Curt Thompson
Social Justice
Medical Apartheid – Harriet A. Washington
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America – Richard Rothstein
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped from the Beginning – Ibram X. Kendi
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy – Ta-Nehisi Coates
The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
Poverty, By America – Matthew Desmond
Christian Nationalism/Politics/Law
The Power Worshippers – Katherine Stewart
Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines – David Pepper
American Idolatry – Andrew Whitehead
American Crusade – Andrew L. Seidel
Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past – Kruse and Zelizer
The Privateers: How Billionaires Created A Culture War and Sold School Vouchers – Josh Cowen
Fiction
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford
American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins
The Great Alone – Kristin Hannah
The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
Podcasts
The New Evangelicals – Tim Whitaker
Straight White American Jesus – Bradley Onishi and Dan Miller
Throughline (NPR)
American Idols – Andrew Whitehead
Social Media
Rev. Ben Cremer (on X and https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile)
Zach W. Lambert (on X)
Beth Moore (on X)
Diana Butler Bass (on X)
Kristin Du Mez (on X)
Shane Claiborne (on X and https://redletterchristians.org/friend/shane-claiborne/)
Disclaimer: My viewpoints are not necessarily reflective of my employer, or any local, regional or national organization that I belong to. As a matter of fact, I pretty much just speak for myself. Please keep that in mind.