what I'm reading, summer 2021

To hear Dr. Kellett describe each book, click here: https://youtu.be/rtV9RYubxuw

As July begins to wind down, my mind and body inevitably know school will start soon. I have courses to prep, supplies to buy, kids to shuffle. Before that transition happens though, this week I want to share the many ways I have indulged and learned this summer. Great writers have released incredible work this year! Below you’ll find a short blurb describing each text from my point of view. Please get in touch if any of these descriptions tweak your interest, and I’d love to tell you more about any book listed.

Additionally, on the website, under the tab labelled “What I’m Reading,” you’ll find live Amazon links to purchase any text you might want. Despite this endorsement, I strongly encourage Nashvillians to instead walk into Parnassus for all your book needs. British Bill is a wonderful resource and he orders books for me all the time! Local bookstores are a gem, and I always go there first. I know I am a gigantic hypocrite for linking to Amazon…so I’ll just let my failure linger in the air J

Now, on to the good stuff!

Nonfiction

Caste, Isabel Wilkerson

A story teller, journalist and historian, Wilkerson establishes tenets for every caste system, firmly embedding American hierarchies within the context of other caste-based societies. Drawing from India and Nazi Germany, she explains the impact of such hierarchal realities on those at the top and bottom. I learned more about me and our country in reading her. Super helpful.

How the Word is Passed, Clint Smith

A poet, Smith tells the story of how the story of slavery is told across America (and the coast of Africa). He roots each chapter in a historic place significant to the lives of and responses to enslaved folks. Many will be familiar and some might be new. He offers a long view of history, but he mixes in conversations he had with other visitors to each sight in the last few years, helping contextualize our history and the way we commemorate or ignore it.

Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley

A brilliant and helpful book affirming the important role of Black theologians on the shaping and spread of global Christianity. This is part history, part theology, part apologetic for the necessary inclusion of Black voices in every theological discussion. I’ll read everything he writes.

Soul Food Love, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams

My favorite cookbook of the summer! Alice Randall is a famed writer, and she tells the stories of the women who shaped her, explaining how they ran their homes and welcomed their communities with parties and food. As a bonus, her family is deeply rooted in Nashville, so you get to learn about the beautiful Black legacy of our town while you read. Randall and her daughter revised and improved the health impact of dozens of recipes here. The stories, the recipes and the images are fantastic. Many of these have become staples for us already.

The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann

This is an old work, but good night it is fresh. Brueggemann reads scripture in a way that reminds us of the upside down approach to power that the Gospel of Christ commands. He challenges our notions of “mine” and of “us” in ways that might just change your life.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Pete Scazzero

Scazzero believes that you cannot be mature spiritually if you are immature emotionally, and he laments the fact that we have millions of Christians who have been discipled in studying God’s word, but who don’t really experience the love of God. Moreover, we are often the worst people, and wound others right and left! This book is convicting and invitational toward a new way to be with God and others.

Fiction

My Year Abroad, Chang-Rae Lee

This book lives up to the hype. I loved it, devoured it. Lee is a fantastic story teller, capturing the stubborn ambiguity so many of us feel as we make choices that may or may not make sense, choices that deeply impact our life trajectory. As characters bounce around the globe, we see the power of love to rescue others from our worst fears, and the way curiosity can keep the game going far longer than it should.

Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell

Mitchell is my favorite white British writer, and his gifts continue to stun me. This time he takes a young uber-talented crew of musicians who catch the rocket to 60s band stardom. They are lovable and dangerous and dumb and beautiful. And wildly talented. As a bonus, Mitchell has them run into every one from the Beetles to Joplin to Hendrix, and he delivers! Crazy fun.

Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi

Specializing in generational movement and overlapping grief, Gyasi is a gift. Here she writes about being alone, longing for freedom, the price we pay to pursue greatness, and how to survive pain. Her characters span from Africa to the South to California, and they struggle to know how to share their exceptional gifts or devastation with each other. I learned a ton and lamented along side them.

Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri

Lahiri is one of my favorite Indian writers to teach. Her novels feel like short stories because they are so perfectly paced and detailed. This is her first novel written first in Italian,then translated into English for the version I read. In small vignettes, we follow the banal moments of life for a woman learning to love and heave her routines. Lahiri teaches us to pay attention, to lean into loneliness, and to pursue our own agency in unexpected places.

The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris

Harris’ book has gotten a lot of buzz both for how she exposes the lethal competition and self absorption of the publishing industry, and for the way her portrayal of being the “only Black one” in an office resonates with so many. Deeply human, her story also has some dystopian scifi elements that are terrifying to consider. She forces us to hold the weight a person of color carries in many spaces where they aren’t sure where they fit or what they are being asked to bring to the table.

The Parted Earth, Anjali Enjeti

Enjeti offers a riveting story across many generations impacted by the partition imposed by the British Raj when they ended their colonizing efforts in India. As Pakistan and India became sites for majorities of Muslims of Hindus, the hate spreads, sparking violence and causing destruction every where it went. She writes about reconnecting with a past long gone, about learning to reclaim oneself, the redemptive power of generous neighbors, and how we have to go back to go forward. We all need to know this story. Plus, her characters are wonderful and her pacing is perfect.

First Person Singular, Haruki Murakami

Murakami is one of the greatest living writers. He’s also one of the best practitioners of magical realism. I used to talk about him in conversation with Rushdie, and now I’ve gladly brought D. Mitchell into the mix as well. This is his newest collection of short stories.

Black Bottom Saints, Alice Randall

A novel written through short biographies of fabulous figures, this offers a fun romp through the outsized producers of music, food and entertainment in Detroit. As a bonus, each “saint” has a recipe for her own cocktail! If you love the entertainment industry, Black creative talent, and Detroit, you’ll love this book.

 Happy Reading!