Books Which Are In Conversation With The Raptures - Part 2
As promised, I’ve found some time to pull together a list of non-fiction books which are in conversation with The Raptures. For the most part this is a collection of books which explore ideas of faith and doubt within the Christian tradition. Some are books I read whilst writing The Raptures. Some are books which I read many years ago. Several, are books which I continually return to because they’ve had such a fundamental impact on the way I see the world, my writing and myself. I wouldn’t say my thinking aligns with every bit of every one of these books. There are a few, like the CS Lewis, which were really important to me at the time I first read them and now feel a little redundant though elements undoubtedly shaped my thinking on faith and doubt. Several veer dangerously close to evangelistic. I’ve included them because I appreciate the real and truthful way they talk about various experiences of faith. Others are brilliantly, honest, post-religious memoirs. I’d say I currently fall somewhere between these two points. There’s a little bit of my own journey, and by association, Hannah et al’s, in every one of these books.
This is an extremely eclectic selection. Mostly memoir. Some biography. A few collections of essays, letters and diaries. These books veer wildly between desperately serious and hilariously irreverent. Not all these books will be everyone’s cup of tea and this is perfectly ok. However, I’m really glad to have encountered each of them. Some of them changed my thinking in tiny ways. Others literally turned my world view upside down. I’m pretty sure, each of these books contains at least one tiny nugget of wisdom. If you look inside my copies, many of them are underlined to within an inch of their lives. I hope there’s something here which might appeal to you. As always, I’m happy to take recommendations of your favourite non-fiction faith/doubt reads though if it comes with a ‘turn or burn’ message I’m afraid I’m probably going to pass.
(Ps sorry there are so many of these. I’ve been thinking about this blog for a very long time).
Wendell Berry - The World Ending in Fire
Brad Gooch - Flannery; A Life of Flannery O’Connor
Matthew McNaught - Immanuel
Eric Metaxas - Bonhoeffer; Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
CS Lewis - Surprised by Joy
Glenn Patterson - Lapsed Protestant
Ann Lamott - Traveling Mercies
Ed. Catherine Woolff - Not Less Than Everything; Catholic Writers on Heroes of Conscience from Joan of Arc to Oscar Romero
Dorothy Day - The Long Loneliness
Edmund Gosse - Father and Son; A Study of Two Temperaments
Christian Wyman - My Bright Abyss; Meditation of a Modern believer
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Megan Phelps- Roper - Unfollow
Marilynne Robinson - When I Was a Child I Read Books
Ed. Clayborne Carson and Kate Shepard - A Call to Conscience; The Landmark Speeches of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Apricot Irving - The Gospel of Trees; A Memoir
Rebecca Stott - In the Days of Rain; A Daughter, A Father, A Cult
Max Wright - Told in Gath
Ali Millar - The Last Days
Patricia Lockwood - Priestdaddy
Matt Rowland Hill - Original Sins; A Memoir