What's On Your Reading List? 2026

Well.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been muttering for weeks “2025 can fuck right off.” For me, it wasn’t just the hostile government takeover, the daily doses of harm, and the attempt to turn the US into an authoritarian state - although that’s more than enough. I’ve also had multiple medical issues (including a dry socket after oral surgery, which I don’t wish on my worst enemy) and some struggles with consistent work (because I live in the DC metro area, and the aforementioned harm hit this area and our congregations especially hard).

All of that to say, my lofty goal of reading 40 books last year was missed by a long shot. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the doctoral studies, I might not have read much of anything at all.

I read a total of 24 books this year, 16 of them for classes. Among the highlights of those 15 are Seeing and Believing: Religion, Digital Visual Culture, and Social Justice by Ellen T. Armour and Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care: How to Respond When Things Fall Apart by Karen McClintock.

Of the other eight books, only one was fiction: The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. It was good, although I think he creates better for the screen (including the Samantha Bond-led adaptation of Marlow Murder Club, and the Death in Paradise franchise).

The rest of the books were for work, supporting sermons throughout the year. Especially useful and engaging is The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer; it’s a short but wonderful read.

Now on to 2026.

I still want to read more fiction, and last year’s list holds firm (I have a shelf full of the books I planned to read last year, when I was foolishly optimistic about having the brain power (pain and illness are serious energy sucks). I’ve read the first chapters of several of them, if that counts for anything.

But also: after I finish my last two intensive classes in early January, I’m in dissertation mode. (I know, right? I can barely believe it myself.) I don’t really know what I will be reading, and although I have a shelf full of books I have read/skimmed that may support the work and which I may read again, I’m just starting to dig in to find the right resources. (I’ll be writing more here about my dissertation project as the year continues.)

So… no number goal for me this year. Here’s what’s currently sitting on the shelf of non-dissertation-related books, hoping I will pick them up (which may not happen until after the October 15 draft is due):

Theatre

• Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke (leftover from last year)
• Dutchman and The Slave: Two Plays by LeRoi Jones
• Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard

Biography and Memoir

• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Mythology

• Troy (Stephen Fry’s Great Mythology, #3) by Stephen Fry

Comedy

• Ghosts: The Button House Archives by Mathew Baynton, et. al.

Fiction

• S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
• Saving Grace by Lee Smith
• The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
• A Death in the Parish (Canon Clement, #2) by Rev. Richard Coles
• The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
• Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J.A. Bear
• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• The Book that No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade

And as I scroll through my “to read” list on Storygraph, I could make another completely different list. So who knows? Will I finish this year’s Thursday Murder Club book before the next We Solve Murders comes out? Will I ever finally read Saving Grace, which I’ve had on the to-read list since 1997 when we read some Lee Smith in undergrad? Only time - and next year’s recap - will tell.

So what’s on your reading list? Anything of note you read this past year to recommend? Something you’re excited about reading soon? I can’t wait to hear about it!

Meanwhile - thanks for sticking with me through this tumultuous year. As the wise Colonel Potter (M*A*S*H) once said, “Here's to the New Year. May it be a damn sight better than the old one.”