The Nightstand is Starting to Tip Over...

With less than 100 pages to go in Devil in the White City (cue 'Hallelujah Chorus'), it's time to look toward my next venture...

~Who Killed Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan. Bought for $2.00 at a Christian bookstore that was never going to sell it.

~1984 by George Orwell. Not because I want to look for parallels to modern times but because I liked Animal Farm.

~The Color Purple by Alice Walker. One of my seminary buddies makes it a point to read this every year. He says he learns something new every time. That was enough of a plug for me.

~Faces of Poverty by Jill Duerr Berrick. I saw this in a college bookstore while my wife was shopping for her textbooks. Why not? It explores the history of the welfare program while attaching names and faces to some of its beneficiaries.

~'Tis by Frank McCourt. He wrote Angela's Ashes. This is his memoir. I've had a thing for memoir lately.

~Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels. Proposes that there was a conspiracy involving the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Thomas, and canonization.

~Francis of Assisi by Adrian House. A retired pastor was cleaning out his library and I came away with this. I dig Francis. He was an earthy dude.

~Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski. A guy decides to live as a homeless man for five months because 'he needed to know if his faith in God was real--if he could actually be the Christian he said he was apart from the comforts he'd always known.' I smell a sabbatical idea...

So that's the list. I'm leaning toward another non-theological work (in the strict sense...all of these touch on theological themes whether intentional or not) after I cheated and read McLaren along with Devil in the White City. I'm leaning toward one of the novels, because I need more novels in my life.

I originally thought about offering a poll...'Let the massive audience of Philosophy Over Coffee choose the next book!' But then, what if I didn't like the majority's choice? I don't have a Supreme Court to fall back on (ba-dum bum). Stop glaring at the screen like that.