Summer has officially begun in the northern hemisphere.

Some of you have already gone “up north” to spend a relaxing long weekend doing yard work and chores at your second house - which is practically the same as your first house, just smaller, shabbier, farther away, and slightly closer to a lake.

For others of you nothing has changed. Work goes on and the grind never stops, just as in the other three seasons of the year. But still, there’s a calm lethargy to this season. And though you may not be sprawled out on a beach with your tattoos and tan lines all hanging out for the world’s enjoyment, your body still knows “today is not a good day to work”.

And for some of you these lines have no meaning. The days are getting longer, the nights are getting colder, and you now spend the early evenings wrapped in a warm blanket with a tasmanian devil sipping your hot flat white. The two of you cozily sit around the fireplace (a barbie) trying to convince your third companion (a kangaroo) to go out and shovel the front walk.

For me, a new season has begun as well. I have started my doctoral program at Western Theological Seminary and this means that many things will be added to my plate and some things will fall off my plate (onto the floor, where they’ll eventually be swept up by the above pictured kangaroo who doubles as my cleaning lady).

Over the next three years I’ll be conducting a large research project and writing a book length dissertation. It will be related to the focus of this cohort - spiritual formation and relational neuroscience. In other words neuroscience and our theology, and how the interaction of these two plays out in our relationships. I look forward to sharing more with you as the program goes on.

And of course the blog will continue as my refuge of madness. You’ll be able to gauge how stressed I am by the level of absurdity and trolling in these posts, so feel free to check in. Our guest contributors will also come back to share on this platform from time to time. So rest easy, we will not abandon this delightful endeavor that’s been happening for four years now.

But grad school necessarily means a lack of “free” time and less flexibility to read what you choose. In anticipation of this, I’ve been cramming books that piqued my interest over the past nine months and wanted to share the cream of the crop with you. No matter where you find yourself these next few months - a beach, a patio, or the depths of Tazmanian winter - these books always pair well with an enjoyable time spent reading alone.

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Of all the books on this list Trust probably fits best onto a summertime cottage bookshelf. I found this book by accident at one of those Free Little Libraries at the local park having never heard of either the author or book. It was published in 2022 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The book takes place in New York City in the 1920s and is essentially the same story told from four different perspectives. I won’t spoil any of the details, but this is extremely well written, readable and you will not be disappointed by this novel.

When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey

If Trust I found by accident, this book I found by intention. In the wintertime I scrolled through winners and finalists for the 2023 National Book Award and When Crack Was King caught my attention. The book follows the roots, growth, and explosion of the crack epidemic in America during the 1980s and 90s, following the stories of four people who were impacted by it in different ways. Not only is it informative, Ramsey writes humanity back into the lives of so-called “crackheads” and builds an empathy and understanding for people that is often missing in our dialogue.

The Three Body Problem (the trilogy) by Liu Cixin

Speaking of addictive, this series is strangely engrossing. It is weird, really, really weird. The general premise is an advanced alien race has discovered earth and they are coming to conquer the planet but won’t arrive for another 400 years. Humanity freaks out, melts down, and has all manner of different reactions. The third book in the series drags a bit, so if you wanted to read the first two and stop you’d be fine. On the other hand, you’re so wrapped up in the world he’s created you want to keep going. As in much science fiction, the technology and the scenarios are being used to tell a deeper story about humanity now, and like many great Chinese artists before him Liu does it in a way that is veiled and highly interpretive.

Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China by Noo Saro-Wiwa

I remember reading Peter Hessler’s River Town during my first year of living in China. His memoir of living as an expat in a small Sichuan town deeply resonated with me then as I was living in Jingzhou, Hubei. Black Ghosts is written in a similar style about the large African expat community in Guangzhou. It is a fascinating topic, and one that is sparsely written on. Noo Saro-Wiwa has an interesting perspective and the writing is clear, at points comical when describing China shenanigans and cultural misunderstandings. My only gripe with this book is that she is so fresh to China that her observations at times do not connect with those of us who were there for a long time, in fact some sections can feel like the diary of a tourist. Certainly a lot here that newbies to China will enjoy, but at points I found myself wishing that the story of Black Ghosts could be told by a more experienced voice.

7 1/2 Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett

This book is the shortest of everything on the list (a little over 100 small pages), easily read over a long weekend. While it is a book about neuroscience, the author has broken the topic down into 8 mini essays about our brain, how it functions, and what it all means. She gives really memorable metaphors for complicated brain science concepts that are sure to make you look intelligent when you share them at your next cocktail party. And there’s lots of pictures and interesting stories from the author, who is also one of the most cited researchers in the world. If you want to learn some tidbits about your brain without slogging through difficult science this is a great one to have on your shelf.

Summertime