Faculty & Staff Reading Ideas: Little Edition
By Louie Little
- JRR Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy– When my daughter, Katie, decided to re-read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I joined her. When we read these books, we watched the epic Lord of the Ring movies directed by Peter Jackson.
- JRR Tolkein, The Hobbit– One cannot read the Lord of the Rings without first reading The Hobbit.
- David McCullough, Truman– I am continuing my journey through biographies of the American presidents. McCullough is one of my favorite authors and I was excited to read Truman after reading his biography on John Adams a couple of years ago. Reading this biography made me want to put Truman on my list of historical people that I would like to have dinner with.
- Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace – After Truman comes Eisenhower. I chose Smith’s biography of Eisenhower after reading his biographies on Grant and Franklin Roosevelt. During Eisenhower’s eight years, America was at peace. No president since Eisenhower can make that claim. He is one of the last true statesmen to occupy America’s top office.
- Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life, John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 – I am currently reading Dallek’s biography on John F. Kennedy. Even though I lived during Eisenhower’s presidency during my early childhood, I became aware of American government during Kennedy’s term. I vividly remember what I was doing when I learned of Kennedy’s assassination. Growing up in the Deep South, I was influenced by a segregated culture and had many misconceptions of the man, JFK. I am enjoying doing a deeper dive into his life.
- Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity – I listened to this on Audible and liked it so much that I bought the book. McLaughlin has a PhD in literature from Cambridge University and a theology degree. She speaks into today’s difficult cultural issues with a balanced and orthodox voice. She confronts gender, race, diversity and difficult theological questions with truth and grace. Confronting Christianity was named the 2020 Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year by Christianity Today.