The only reason I’ve read any novels over the past year was because of my Brewery Book Group (whom I’ll miss when we move from Charlotte. Anybody want to start one in Our Nation’s Capital this summer?) While the novels we read could be bleak (The Emperor of Gladness) they were usually uplifting, if dark (Vigil.)
When I read over this (gifted to you) NYT article about the 2026 Pulitzer Prize Books, I was especially drawn to the Nonfiction Winners and Finalists – as always. This doesn’t mean I’m more scholarly or serious than people who prefer fiction. It’s probably because I’m still in constant-search-of-sermon-illustrations mode. There’s nothing like a quote from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Life Together to close out a traditional Presbyterian sermon. Sermon illustrations can also be found in novels, of course, but it was often so long since I read a novel that I didn’t want to date myself. (“In that new novel The Brothers Karamazov . . .“)
Note: Preachers who quote from the most recently published novels are perhaps the most well-read pastors. They are reading what they want to read rather than what they have to read.
In regards to that article about the 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winners, I was drawn to the nonfiction list and especially to:
- We the People by Jill Lepore about the history of the U.S. Constitution which sounds interesting and also possibly disturbing.
- There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone which has got “sermon illustrations” written all over it.
- A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland. Whatever happened to disappeared people and their children in Argentina doesn’t sound inspiring, but I’m a sucker for Mom Stories. I wouldn’t give this book to your Mom or Grandmother on Mothers’ Day however.
While I take occasional breaks from the difficult news of the day, my Current Events Sabbatical never lasts more than a couple days and I have confess before you and the LORD, that I am a little judgmental about it when people tell me they “don’t read the news anymore” much less nonfiction tomes about homelessness or human torture. Reading only feel-good novels or the Style Section of the newspaper is like living in a gated community. If we don’t see homelessness or human torture, it doesn’t exist.
Clearly, I’m a fun date.
My hope for all of us is that we have some proximity to human suffering for the sake of our souls. I’ve occasionally asked in this blog “Who is the poorest person you know?” The answer reveals how gated our lives have become. If the poorest person we know has to make daily choices involving food versus medicine, we have more opportunities to follow Jesus than if the poorest person we know can only travel to Europe every other year.
Yes, Jesus died for rich people and rich people experience their own version of torture in many cases. But it’s easy to forget that not everybody can afford to meet for coffee dates or drive a car with AC when we don’t blink over buying a $5 latte or an e-car.
Gated communities, in my opinion, are a spiritual problem (unless you are the King of England.) Gated life experiences are a spiritual problem for everyone. Reading about the difficult life situations of our neighbors is part of the continuing education each of us need. If we know that human suffering exists – whether we read about it or witness it up close and personal – we are more likely to address it in some way in the name of Jesus.
Balancing the joyful and the terrible is part of life. And it’s a good indicator of our spiritual health.
A Church for Starving Artists 