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I’m just back from two weeks on the road, so my apologies for this week’s abbreviated blog. 

For one of the weeks I was away, I attended the inaugural Buechnerfest, hosted by the Buechner Institute at King College. It was a lovely time of good books and good conversation. And as always when one is around book-loving folks, I came away with appreciation for old favorites as well as recommendations for books to add to my to-read list.

The New York Times has, of late, been having its own little mini-fest surrounding faith and fiction, encouraging its writers and readers to contribute suggestions of “favorite religious fiction.” The responses include a good many usual suspects, but it is worth checking out nevertheless.

So…what are you reading this summer? What are you recommending that we read or re-read again? What, in your opinion, are the best texts that address faith in fiction? Share your responses in the comments, if you’d like.  

Jennifer L. Holberg

I’ve taught English at Calvin College since 1998–where I get to read books and talk about them for a living. What could be better? Along with my wonderful colleague, Jane Zwart, I am the co-director of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, which is the home of the Festival of Faith and Writing as well as a number of other exciting endeavors. Given my interest in teaching, I’m the founding co-editor of the Duke University Press journal Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition and Culture (and yes, I realize that that is a very long subtitle). I also do various administrative things across campus. As an Army brat, I’ve never lived anywhere as long as I’ve now lived in Grand Rapids. I count myself rich in friends and family. I enjoy kayaking and hiking. I collect cookbooks (and also like to cook), listen to all kinds of music, and watch all manner of movies and tv shows. I love George Eliot, Jane Austen, Marilynne Robinson, Dante, E.M. Delafield, Tennyson, Hopkins, and Charlotte Bronte (among others). And I have a bumper sticker on my car that says: “I’d rather be reading Flannery O’Connor.” Which is true.

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