Rabbit Trail Reading for 2019

I am a rabbit trail reader. If a quote or reference grabs my attention, I check out the footnote or the bibliography to find out more, which leads me on the trail of yet another book by another author. I also take note of what others are reading via social media. Thus the majority of my 2019 potential reading list is a result of those tangential excursions. Some of the books are already waiting on my shelf, and many are available through the public library/interlibrary loan. (Worldcat.org is my friend.)

I want to savor books this year and read not just because I'm supposed to or to meet a quota. I will allow myself to put a book down if I need a break or even leave it unfinished. (gasp!) I will allow myself to read just for the fun and pleasure of it. But I also hope for the stamina to read with a commitment to the truth no matter what it may uncover. And finally, I will allow myself to follow whatever new and unexpected rabbit trails await me this year. So even though the following list is a work in progress, it's a good place to start.

Christianity/Theology:
Commentary on Hebrews - John Brown of Haddington. I'm planning to focus on Hebrews this year. It seems fitting given the current sermon series on Leviticus.
Devoted to God - Sinclair Ferguson
Disruptive Witness - Alan Noble
God at Work - Gene Veith
The Millenial Maze - Stanley Grenz
Susie: The Life and Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon - Ray Rhodes

Fiction:
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
The Odyssey - Homer, Emily Wilson's translation probably as an audiobook
Assorted cozy mysteries, preferably set in England with plenty of tea and scones.

Grimly Fascinating:
American Apocalypse: A History of Modern American Evangelicalism - Matthew Sutton
Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism - Molly Worthen
The Coddling of the American Mind - Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
Fundamentalism and American Culture - George Marsden
The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America - Frances Fitzgerald
God and Race in American Politics - Mark Noll

History:
Becoming Chinese American - Him Mark Lai
Doctrine and Race - Mary Beth Swetnam
The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White - James Loewen
The Problem of Slavery in Christian America - Joel McDurmon
These Truths - Jill Lepore

Philosophy:
The Concept of Woman - Prudence Allen. This is a lengthy 3-volume series beginning with Aristotle to the present. We will see if I am brave enough to start this.

Reading and Writing:
Good Advice on Writing: Great Quotations from Writers Past and Present on How to Write Well - William Safire and Leonard Safir
On Reading Well - Karen Swallow Prior
The Pleasures of Reading in a Distracted Age - Alan Jacobs
Proust and the Squid - MaryAnn Wolf
Why Read? Mark Edmundson
Why Write? Mark Edmundson

Science of the popular, muggle variety:
Caesar's Last Breath - Sam Kean (audiobook)
The Neptune File - Tom Standage
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Miodownik  (audiobook)