The Hammock of Selfish Motivation

In Akron they asked us to think about what our selfish motivations were for doing a year of SALT service. What I thought of immediately was that I signed up so that I could go to the tropics to eat fruit and see the sun every day, never be cold, and that I could live life at a slower pace. And one reason to live at a slower pace was that I would have time to read plenty of books. So with a little bit of chagrin, I confess to you that I have been reading bastante. And in the meantime, I’ve sentenced my hammock to hard labor. But I thought I might be able to supplant my selfishness by sharing my list with you and making some recommendations, so maybe you can enjoy them :-) I know I’ve left out some books and if I remember them I’ll add them, but at the moment this is what I can remember.

Whats So Amazing About Grace? By Philip Yancey – One of the best books I’ve ever read. Plenty of fascinating explanations of Biblical stories as well as some modern ones. Challenges the church to be the haven of grace that Jesus calls us to be. Powerful and motivational.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver – A truly inspiring book. About her family spending a year growing as much food as they can for their own consumption and buying the rest that they need from neighbors. Challenging yet exciting, it really makes you want to grow tomatoes and have chickens or something.

Kite Runner – Another excellent book, but pretty depressing at times. I related to a disturbing extent with the broken friendship that the book presents and it actually hurt to read it. It provoked some great reflection.

The Secret Life of Bees – Wonderful book about community, racial tensions in the 60s, dealing with personal past, and personal growth in character, spirit, and body. Very well written.

Preventing Violence by James Gilligan – A fascinating look crime and the reason behind it. Does a great job of breaking it down and making sense. Takes a good look at the US’ justice system and alternatives to punitive justice, such as restorative justice.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Exciting story about a boy on a quest. It works with a very vague worldview and vague understanding of spirituality that sounds universalistic or animist. Verdict? Harmless.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond – About the history of people and why things turned out the way they did, with Europeans colonizing the world. Chalk full of fascinating research and insights. Its long and it looks heavy, but its definitely worth reading.

Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti – Sassy author who explains different branches of feminism and the logic behind them. Full of enraging stories and statistics, but in the end encouraging and empowering.

Freedom of Simplicity – Paradoxically has possibly the most advanced vocabulary of any book I’ve read. Plenty of good thoughts and suggestions for simplifying life and therefore being more involved in life. Challenging in quite a few ways.

Violence and Nonviolence in South Africa by Walter Wink – Challenges popular nonviolence. Very helpful because it is insight from experience. It reviews violent and nonviolent conflict strategies and roadblocks that present themselves.

The Shack – Despite my initial skepticism, it turned out to be a pretty good answer to plenty of theological and spirituality questions. Unfortunately it is limited to a North American perspective, (almost) completely forgets about service as an integral part of Christianity, and tends to focus on sadness and regret as opposed to life and love. Still a worthwhile book to read.

Liberation theology – About the Latin American empowerment movement in churches and communities. Despite the subject matter I couldn’t get through it. Due to being translated from Spanish where sentences are written paragraphs at a time, it was difficult to keep a thought developing. I stopped reading it because it was so tough to read and I felt like it was repeating a lot of theology that I had already come into contact with through Mennonite connections and other books.

Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder – Another book I was excited about until I couldn’t read more than a couple pages at a time. Could have to do with sentences half the page long and a pretty elevated vocabulary. I couldn’t get very far, I’ll try again though.

Wild at Heart – A macho perspective on the world and a man’s soul. The author presents an opinion, gives a one-line explanation, then accepts his answer as the obvious, ultimate truth. Apart from how sickening most of it was, it had one chapter that I related to a little, but it really wasn’t very helpful. Completely leaves service out of Christianity.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri – I’m currently reading this, it is a bunch of short stories about broken marriages and people with serious issues. They’re good stories and its well written, its just very frustrating because it doesn’t ever resolve anything.

Now its your turn! : )