Each year at Lent, I read six books over the six weeks. My Lenten discipline is a response to the traditional Lenten fast. Instead of giving up chocolate or coffee, I take on the challenge of learning and exploring. In the past, I’ve given credit to Rev. Deborah Block, who is now a retired pastor at Immanuel Presbyterian in Milwaukee. This year, I want to mention the greatest gift I inherited from my late father: curiosity. As I chose the six books for Lent, I gained an appreciation for Dad’s unquenchable thirst to learn. Dad didn’t finish college and never went to seminary. But when I was in seminary, I occasionally gave him the books from my courses. After he died, I found these books marked and highlighted as I cleaned his library. In January of 2025, Dad finished a course on the Historical Jesus. Even at 94, with dementia, he was still learning.
Just click on the titles below to learn more about the books I’m reading. I encourage you to explore your curiosity and free your imagination during this Lenten season. Feed your soul with fasting or learning, giving up a food or embracing an idea.
James: A Novel
by Percival Everett
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth
by Zoë Schlanger
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
by Jonathan Blitzer
Another Word for Love: A Memoir
by Carvell Wallace
On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss
by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross David Kessler
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church
by Eliza Griswold
Blessings this Lenten season,
Rev. Dr. Craig Howard
