At Lake Institute, we often return to books—old and new—as sources of insight, reflection, and challenge in both our professional and personal lives. Whether it’s reimagining generosity through nature, wrestling with faith and justice, or exploring the power of community, the books on our shelves tend to reflect the questions we’re asking in our work and in the world. 

This winter, we asked our staff what they had been reading, watching, and listening to—and we’re excited to share their recommendations with you. Just in time for your spring and summer reading lists, we hope these picks spark new ideas, meaningful conversations, and a bit of inspiration along the way.

Elizabeth Coffee Recommends:

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy  by Jenny Odell 

Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing is not actually about withdrawal but about re-learning how to pay attention. Odell invites us to resist the constant pull of productivity and instead cultivate deeper ways of noticing people, places, and the gifts already around us. For those of us who think about faith and giving, her work is a reminder that generosity begins with presence and attention, not output. 

Amber Harter Recommends:

God of the Woods by Liz Moore 

While I was drawn to God of the Woods largely due to the acclaim it received as one of the best crime thrillers of 2024 (according to Goodreads), I was most impressed by the heavy topics it juggled with nuance. Written in dual timelines, God of the Woods investigates the disappearances, fourteen years apart, of the two Van Laar siblings, and how their family’s wealth and influence affects their community. I found it to be a thought-provoking commentary on wealth and the working class, the damage caused by poor stewardship, and the irony of self-reliance. 

Meredith McNabb Recommends:

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green 

Both Lake and John Green, perhaps known best as the author of The Fault in Our Stars, call Indianapolis home, and I always appreciate his thoughtful and civic-minded engagement with our local community. Everything is Tuberculosis traces both the impact of the world’s deadliest disease across history and on families today and calls out the ways that this treatable disease’s ongoing devastation stems from social choices about the use of resources. (I know that doesn’t necessarily sound like a rip-roaring yarn, but it really is an engaging and compelling read!) I particularly encountered the book through Green’s collaboration with the Center for Global Health, where my spouse also works on respiratory diseases across the world through the IU School of Medicine, but I deeply appreciate Green’s expressed faith formation and his commitment to both philanthropy and policy coming together to lessen human suffering.   

Anne Brock Recommends:

One Owl’s Second Chance by Barbara Brown Taylor

This short essay about a rehabilitated owl from Barbara Brown Taylor’s Substack was a balm for my soul in the midst of this current climate, both weather and politics. As a lover of creation, I appreciate the ways she ties her local habitat into the larger landscape of what’s going on in the world. I often turn to my bird feeders on days that I need to settle my mind and heart. She wrote about releasing an owl after it had healed: “what a great gift, to be in that small congregation on a gray winter morning, watching one Barred Owl take his second-chance flight into more life.”