2022
It was a complex year in many ways in my life and practice but It was a good year for leaning into reading. I will be bringing some books on this list with me into 2023. I believe in low demand reading and often take my time with a text, unless it is fiction. I expect many of these books will remain a constant on my list for two or three years or longer. I do hope to reintroduce more fiction into my reading diet in future years. This has been a year of significant shifts and losses, especially around navigating experiences of health crisis in my family. It was good to read books that deepened my ARAC practice and also to travel deeper into my own faith and spirituality. Reading held me up this year. I am thankful for all these authors, some of whom have recently transitioned into the ancestral realm. I’m thankful for their written works that continue to help us move towards Beloved Community.
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals our True Calling by Dan B. Allender PLLC , Cathy Loerzel
On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K.A. Smith
The Stranger: International Edition by Albert Camus
The City of God by Saint Augustine (Ongoing)
Black Theology and Black Power by Written by James H. Cone
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue
Beauty: The Invisible Embrace: Rediscovering the True Sources of Compassion, Serenity, and Hope by John O’Donohue
Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out by Ruth King
Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough by Candice Marie Benbow (Ongoing)
All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep: Hope – and Hard Pills to Swallow – About Fighting for Black Lives by Andre Henry
Disability and the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion by Lamar Hardwick (Ongoing)
This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley (Ongoing)
The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness by Raphael G. Warnock (Ongoing)
The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Ongoing)
Sacred Texts: Torah, Gospels and Pauline Texts (Ongoing)
Exposure Anxiety – The Invisible Cage by Donna Williams
An African Prayer Book by Desmond Tutu (Ongoing)
The Divine Hours: Prayers for Spring by Phyllis Tickle
The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle (Ongoing)
The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle
Eastertide: Prayers for Lent and Easter from The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle
Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World by John O’Donohue (Ongoing)
Confessions by St. Augustine
Jerome: Select Letters translated by F.A. Wright
Melania: Early Christianity Through the Life of One Family (Christianity in Late Antiquity) by Catherine M. Chin, Caroline T. Schroeder (Ongoing)
Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell Hooks (Ongoing)
FANIS JUMA 