Rev. Beth Dana’s 2023 Summer Reading List
“I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction, so my summer reading list reflects this tendency. Most of all, I love stories, and each of these books (and magazines) is full of good stories that are relevant to our lives and our world today.”
Rev. Beth Dana
On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
I’ve loved reading weekly email reflections from Rabbi Ruttenberg, so I was excited when she published this book in late 2022. Rooted in traditional Jewish concepts of repentance, she takes a slightly different angle on the topic than American culture generally does. Instead of focusing on letting go of grudges, her concern is with the repair work that perpetrators must do.
A Children’s Bible: A Novel by Lydia Millet
It’s not what it sounds like! This is not a retelling of the Bible for a children’s audience. It’s a novel about family and generational divides, in which scenes start mimicking events found in the picture Bible carried around by the protagonist’s little brother.
The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer’s Life in Prison edited by Caits Meissner
Last year a long-time friend, who I grew up with in our childhood UU church, published this book in her role as Director of Prison and Justice Writing at PEN America. It’s about developing a writing practice – inside and outside the prison system – that celebrates the human, gives people the tools for freedom, and helps people reimagine and rebuild our world. I’m looking forward to seeing what wisdom I can glean from this for writing as a spiritual practice.
Radical Amazement by Judy Cannato
This book was given to me by a church member whose faith has been deeply touched and transformed by Cannato’s words. The outlook on our world that inspired this book, while not rooted in Unitarian Universalism specifically, is one that sees the harmony between science and spirituality and the interdependence of all creation.
In this time when unprecedented numbers of young people are struggling with mental health, I am always looking for ways to be supportive in my role as a minister. This book brings together pedagogical, neuroscientific, and psychological research that points toward ways we can create “learning and living environments characterized by compassion, and then…guide our youth into practices that encourage challenge, helping them face their fears in an encouraging, safe, and even playful way.”
A GIANT pile of The New Yorker magazines
Every week another issue of The New Yorker arrives in my mailbox, and it is added to an increasingly tippy pile to read “when I have time.” While I rarely find the time to read it anywhere close to when it arrives, I occasionally go on “binges.” I love the human interest stories, in particular. Many of these stories have stuck with me – a tragic story about a father of three who embarked on an arctic expedition, a history and present day picture of the antiquated and precarious New York City water system, and more. I look forward to catching up this summer and seeing what new stories I discover!
