The Rev. Peter Luckey, senior pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.:

I love novels. To describe a novel as fiction is a misnomer, as if a story by being the product of an author’s imagination means it is not true.

Good fiction is truth, the truth about people, about how life really is.

Some novels tackle religious themes, explicitly. My top picks include, anything by Flannery O’Connor, Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov,” Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” and John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany.”

Just because a writer is not religious in a formal sense does not mean his or her writing isn’t brimming with the raw material of faith: hope, love, fear, death, longing, regret, suffering, wonder and awe. There are many wonderful authors in this category.

Choose authors who feed your soul, who bring that smile of recognition to your face, where you are inclined to say, “Thank you for putting into words what I felt.” High on my list are works by Wallace Stegner and Barbara Kingsolver.

Don’t limit yourself to fiction. If God is wholly engaged in this world, troubled and vexed though it is, then we should be as well. Non-fiction tomes on politics, history, culture, the economy, science, and the great challenges of our time deepen and expand our world view as people of faith.

Seek out a writer who has the gift of making their own spiritual journey accessible. These are our companions who by their disclosure enable us to open our own soul to the work of the Spirit. My favorites are Frederick Buechner and Henri Nouwen.

Being people of the Book, as many of us are, how could we not take great pleasure, find great comfort in our reading? As Emily Dickinson once wrote, “There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away.”

Happy reading.

— Send email to Peter Luckey at peterluckey@sunflower.com.

The Rev. Robert Leiste, pastor, Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2700 Lawrence Ave.:

This is not an uncommon question.

Which study Bible? “The Lutheran Study Bible.”

Philosophy? G. K. Chesterton and try his book, “Orthodoxy.”

What is a good summary of our understanding of what the Bible teaches? Martin Luther’s “Small Catechism.”

What is a good commentary? Try the “Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.”

Fiction? Can’t go wrong with C. S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien.

Yet, there is only one book that I have two copies of, one for me and one to loan. This is my recommendation “The Path of Celtic Prayer” by Calvin Miller. The book reminded me about the many and various ways of prayer we have learn from those who went before us such as in the Irish tradition (no, I’m not Irish). These ways are universal to the church as prayer is universal for Christians.

The book points out how prayer can be triple fold in petition reflecting the Trinity within God. There is a sense of every day life expressed in prayers said from the health of people to livestock (or today we might say livelihood). Set prayers said together as a group is pointed out as a basic part of the life of the Body of Christ. Using other people’s prayers repeated time and time again unite and express common needs and hopes. Prayer is a confession of faith, hope and love based on God.

— Send email to Robert Leiste at raleiste@yahoo.com.