An Autumn Reading List

I was one of those kids who actually read all or most of the books on the summer reading list they sent home with us from school. I'm sure that the first year it was because there was a prize involved, but after that I was hooked. As I turn the corner into autumn, I'm beginning to compile my reading list, and I thought I'd throw out the friendly challenge to you to post a comment, a book review, or a list you yourself might "go for".

Here are my categories:

Commentaries: I usually have a book or books of the bible that I'm studying in greater depth, maybe for my own education, maybe because of a sermon or talk series I'm working on. This autumn, it's going to be Gordon Fee's Paul's Letter to the Philippians (New International Commentary on the New Testament). If you're not familiar with commentaries, these are verse by verse explanations of all the little nuances in the original languages, connected passages in other books where, say, Paul talks about the same thing or uses a similar phrase, and so forth. If your personality type is such that you love really doing a "deep read" of the passage you are studying each day, you might want to consider investing slowly (they can be expensive!) in some good commentaries.

Leadership and theology: This autumn, it's Making Room for Leadership: Power, Space and Influence by MaryKate Morse, which came to me highly recommended, and Different but Equal by Derek Morphew, a Vineyard scholar and pastor from South Africa whose fairly new book, Breakthrough, on the Kingdom of God is also a good "read"' and great refresher for Vineyard folks.

Organization and time management: I try to read one time management book every year (sometimes I cheat and re-read one that I've found particularly helpful). It's not that there are a bazillion ways to wrestle your life back into order - there really aren't. Rather, different authors have different slants on it; help you see the task from different perspectives. Two years ago, it was Getting Things Done, by David Allen. Earlier this year, it was Time Management from the Inside Out by Julia Morgenthal. Next up: Ordering your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. Gordon was in the middle years of his ministry when I was just moving from college to the working world, and now he is able to look back at a whole lifetime of ministry. I want to learn from that richness.

Biographies of women: I read biographies of men too, but in the past decade or so has there been a cascade of new biographies of previously unknown or lesser known exemplary women, and it helps me to be wiser, braver and more able to see the big picture when I can learn from their stories. First on the pile: Five Women of the English Reformation by Paul F. M. Zahl, followed by Her Heart Can See: the Life and Hymns of Fanny Crosby by Edith L. Blumhofer.

Finally, Just for Fun: Yes, I read for fun. So sue me. My current "just for fun" book is The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, which is technically a kids book but has such cleverly drawn characters and such a captivating plot that I haven't noticed yet. Next up: A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horowitz, all about the bits of early American history that they never quite get time for in school. It's history written the way you wish high school texts had been.

What about you? What are your categories, and what's on your book list for this fall?