3 Books Every Canadian Church Palnter Should Read

If you are involved in church planting in any capacity, you probably have a list of books you have, or still have to read.   How to books, books of best practice, books of mission, discipleship or theology etc.  Let me take a moment, take a slightly different track, and make a plug for some fiction.  I admit, my reading of fiction is somewhat sporadic.  Between books on mission and theology, commentaries and sermons, I can go weeks or months without reading fiction.  Every time I do, however, I come away rewarded by such a rich experience.  There is something about fiction that helps us not just read about a people and culture, but somehow manages to submerge us within that culture, to see how it is lived out, and provides us with windows into different perspectives by means of thoughfully crafted characters living or experiencing a time, place, circumstance and culture.

So here is a short list of books with Canadian themes, books that will help provide insight into different aspects of Canadian culture and identity.  Three books every Canadian Church Planter should read:

1)  The Orenda by Joseph Boyden - an exploration of the time of first contact between the earliest French arrivals to Canada (specifically Jesuit missionaries) and the First Nations already inhabiting the land. 

2)  No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod - a powerful story of a proud Scottish clan who settled in Cape Breton.  This story beautifully weaves stories and recollections from generations of the clan from the 1700's up to the most recent family members who find themselves in different parts of Canada wrestling with their historic identity as Gaelic Highlander's and Cape Bretoners. 

3)  Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan - this book explores the tensions that have given rise to modern Quebec as it follows the Tallard family, a French Canadian man, his Irish wife and their son who struggles to reconcile his two different ethnic/linguistic identities.  A faciniating look at the French English tensions of Canada as well as the shift in Quebec culture, the place of the church and the rise of modern society.

Admittedly, I chose these books because I have read them more recently and they had an impact on me.  I fully recognize that it is a list that is limited in so many ways.  I would love to hear some thoughts about other great books helping to explore and understand Canadian culture.  What would you add to the list?