My Name Is Asher Lev

Title: My Name Is Asher Lev
Author: Chaim Potok
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780141190563

From the publisher: Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels even when it leads him to blasphemy. In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher’s passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination.

Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. But in time his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a classic modern novel.


This is Mary's favourite book

Whose Bible Is It?

Title: Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures through the Ages
Author: Jaroslav Pelikan
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780141022680

From the publisher: The Bible is among the world's most influential and important books - and the most controversial. It affects not just religious beliefs but every aspect of our culture, including the very language we speak. But how did it become the book we know it to be?

In this superbly written history, Jaroslav Pelikan charts its evolution from oral tales via Hebrew texts, Greek, and Latin translations, to its many different forms today, offering a new insight into the history of the last three thousand years. This is an enduring work of scholarship and a fascinating read.

A Crime So Monstrous

Title: A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern-Day Slavery
Author: Benjamin Skinner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9780743290081

From the publisher: To be a moral witness is perhaps the highest calling of journalism, and in this unforgettable, highly readable account of contemporary slavery, author Benjamin Skinner travels around the globe to personally tell stories that need to be told -- and heard.

As Samantha Power and Philip Gourevitch did for genocide, Skinner has now done for modern-day slavery. With years of reporting in such places as Haiti, Sudan, India, Eastern Europe, The Netherlands, and, yes, even suburban America, he has produced a vivid testament and moving reportage on one of the great evils of our time.

There are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history. After spending four years visiting a dozen countries where slavery flourishes, Skinner tells the story, in gripping narrative style, of individuals who live in slavery, those who have escaped from bondage, those who own or traffic in slaves, and the mixed political motives of those who seek to combat the crime.

Skinner infiltrates trafficking networks and slave sales on five continents, exposing a modern flesh trade never before portrayed in such proximity. From mega-harems in Dubai to illicit brothels in Bucharest, from slave quarries in India to child markets in Haiti, he explores the underside of a world we scarcely recognize as our own and lays bare a parallel universe where human beings are bought, sold, used, and discarded. He travels from the White House to war zones and immerses us in the political and flesh-and-blood battles on the front lines of the unheralded new abolitionist movement.

At the heart of the story are the slaves themselves. Their stories are heartbreaking but, in the midst of tragedy, readers discover a quiet dignity that leads some slaves to resist and aspire to freedom. Despite being abandoned by the international community, despite suffering a crime so monstrous as to strip their awareness of their own humanity, somehow, some enslaved men regain their dignity, some enslaved women learn to trust men, and some enslaved children manage to be kids. Skinner bears witness for them, and for the millions who are held in the shadows.

In so doing, he has written one of the most morally courageous books of our time, one that will long linger in the conscience of all who encounter it, and one that -- just perhaps -- may move the world to constructive action.


From salon.com: Modern Slaves - During the four years that Benjamin Skinner researched modern-day slavery for his new book, A Crime So Monstrous, he posed as a buyer at illegal brothels on several continents, interviewed convicted human traffickers in a Romanian prison and endured giardia, malaria, dengue and a bad motorcycle accident... click here to read the full interview

A View Of The Ocean

Title: A View Of The Ocean
Author: Jan de Hartog
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-42470-0

From the publisher: The internationally best-selling novelist, playwright Jan de Hartog, author of The Captain and The Peaceable Kingdom, moves and inspires us with this simple, elegant story of his mother and himself.

She was a quiet, unassuming woman married to a giant of a man, a famous Protestant theologian and pastor, simple, bighearted and big-muscled, who moved through life with gusto and the commotion of a wagon train and who, but for God, might have become a pirate or a general. He adored his wife and didn’t like anyone else around to claim her attention. Their sons saw him as a monster of egocentricity, a tyrant, a blustering bully; to her he was a sensitive, shy, helpless man with a mission. She believed in him from the moment they met, and under the wings of her faith in him as a philosopher, he became one.

During their thirty years of marriage this woman’s only concern was to enable her husband to hearken to “the voice of God.”

After his death she discovered somewhere deep inside a core of drop-forged steel. She rose to the challenge of widowhood and, continuing his work, took his place in the world. The full splendor of this tiny, frail woman’s character, intelligence, and courage became evident during her World War II internment in a Japanese camp in the Dutch East Indies, when she managed to arrange a cease-fire between the Dutch Army and Indonesian guerillas.

After her release from prison camp, she returned to Amsterdam, and resumed her simple life, offering spiritual advice to those seeking solace. Finally, she was faced with the ultimate test of her spirit: a diagnosis of a cancer too far advanced for treatment.

De Hartog tells us how his mother’s blazing courage through it all inspired his own spiritual awakening as he found, in her final months, the strength, the power, and the acceptance to see her through to the end.

They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children

Title: They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children
Author: Romeo Dallaire
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9780091796310

From the publisher: In conflicts around the world, there is an increasingly popular weapon system that needs negligible technology, is simple to sustain, has unlimited versatility, and an incredible capacity for both loyalty and barbarism. What are these cheap, renewable, plentiful, sophisticated, and expendable weapons? Children.

This passionate and campaigning book is part of a personal mission against the use of child soldiers, by the three-star general who commanded the UN mission in Rwanda. When Romeo Dallaire was tasked with achieving peace there in 1994, he and his force found themselves caught up in a vortex of civil war and genocide. He left Rwanda a broken man, disillusioned, suicidal, a story he told in the award-winning international sensation Shake Hands with the Devil.

Now, in They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, Dallaire provides an emotionally daring and intellectually enlightening introduction to the child soldier phenomenon, as well as concrete solutions for its total eradication.

“In the Rwandan civil war, I was confronted with child soldiers. I saw them, heard them, faced them down, and ultimately confronted them in the midst of a carnage that swallowed their youth and my professional warrior ethic. They, the once-children in unknown villages on the top of the thousand hills of Rwanda were real, determined, deadly, and somehow camouflaging the incredible fear they must have been repressing in the constant presence of death.”

Dallaire speaks up for those without a voice - children in conflicts around the globe who do not choose to fight, but who through ill-fate and the accident of birth find their way into soldiering - in a book that addresses one of the most harrowing, urgent and important issues of our time.


Romeo Dallaire's website: http://www.romeodallaire.com Dedicated to the memory of Rwanda's genocide victims and war affected children throughout the world

"Go now to make a difference in this perilous and broken world.
May you all hold each human life in the same regard as your own.
May you bring serenity and peace to the lives of others.
May God's Loving Spirit go with you and guide you this day and always.
Amen."

- Convocation Benediction Given by The Rev. Brian Yealland,
Queen's University, 30 October 2003

Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment

Title: Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment: The Sacred Art Of Finding Your Way
Author: Nancy L. Bieber
Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-59473-289-8

From the publisher: Spiritual discernment is the traditional name for listening and responding to divine guidance. In this book you will approach decision making as an active participant, a co-creator with God in shaping your life. Drawing on twenty-five years of experience as a psychologist and fifteen years as a spiritual director, Nancy L. Bieber presents three essential aspects of Spirit-led decision making:

• Willingness—being open to God’s wisdom and love

• Attentiveness—noticing what is true, discerning the right path

• Responsiveness—taking steps forward as the way becomes clear.

With gentle encouragement, Bieber shows how to weave these themes together to discover the best path for you.

Each chapter is enriched by practical spiritual exercises to help you understand yourself and your specific situation, as well as to strengthen spiritual discernment as a daily way of life. An appendix includes a detailed guide for using the book in group study.

The Governor

Title: The Governor: The Life & Times of the Man Who Ran Mountjoy
Author: John Lonergan
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9781844882403

From the publisher: In his talks to communities throughout the length and breath of Ireland, John Lonergan finds himself coming back to one theme: the importance of kindness. It is an unexpected theme for the former boss of Ireland's biggest and toughest prison, Mountjoy, but then John Lonergan is an unusual man.

John entered the prison service in 1968 and in the years that followed, as he saw human nature at its worst - and often, unexpectedly, at its best - he developed a deep understanding both of human nature and of Irish society.

Now, after 42 years in the service, 26 of them as the most senior prison officer in the country, John tells his fascinating life story - from his idyllic childhood in rural Tipperary, to coming face to face with the ugliest face of Irish life, to grappling with the politics of working in a service that was the plaything of officials and politicians. His description of life in the prison service is not only a gripping account of humanity at its rawest, but also an invaluable primer for anyone in top level management.

Revealing, surprising and inspiring The Governor gives a unique insight into modern Ireland.

From the review by Ivana Bacik: This honest, forthright and highly readable account of his career is written in his distinctive voice. It can often be a grim tale, but it is lightened by Lonergan’s innate faith in humanity. He displays real empathy for the prisoners under his care, commenting that “some children are born into circumstances where the odds are so stacked against them it is almost impossible for them to overcome the obstacles in their path”.... In writing this thoughtful and compassionate book, John Lonergan is shining a welcome light on a shamefully neglected area. Ministers and policy makers alike have much to learn from his vast experience as prison governor, and from the sensible, humane and rational prison reforms that he so powerfully advocates. Read the full review

Letters From Burma

Title: Letters From Burma
Author: Aung San Suu Kyi
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780141041445

From the publisher: In these unforgettable letters, Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma's borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land.

Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She reveals the impact of political decisions on the people of Burma, from the terrible cost to the children of imprisoned dissidents - allowed to see their parents for only fifteen minutes every fortnight - to the effect of inflation on the national diet and of state repression on traditions of hospitality. She also evokes the beauty of the country's seasons and scenery, customs and festivities, that remain so close to her heart.

Through these remarkable letters, the reader catches a glimpse of exactly what is at stake as Suu Kyi fights on for freedom in Burma, and of the love for her homeland that sustains her non-violent battle.

The Bread Of Angels

Title: The Bread Of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith
Author: Stephanie Saldana
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-385-52200-7

From the publisher: In 2004, twenty-seven-year old Stephanie Saldaña arrives in Damascus with a broken heart and a haunted family history that she has crossed the world to escape. She has come on a fellowship to study the role of Jesus in Islam, but speaks very little Arabic, has no friends in the city, and has no place to live. Nor is it an ideal time to be in the region—the United States has recently invaded neighboring Iraq, and refugees are flooding into the streets of Damascus. Still, Stephanie does the only thing she can think of: she begins knocking on doors in the Christian Quarter, asking strangers if they have a room to rent. So begins The Bread of Angels, the unforgettable memoir of one woman’s search for faith, love, and the meaning of her life in the place she least expects to find it.

Before long, Stephanie is offered an airy room in a glorious, dilapidated house. She begins to stumble through Arabic and to make the Old City her home. But after a series of disheartening developments, she leaves to spend a month in an ancient Christian monastery carved into the Syrian desert cliffs. There in the austere, beautiful landscape she finally begins to face the past she has been running from and to confront her wavering faith.

She is joined in her search for God and self-knowledge by a series of improbable teachers: the Sheikha, a female Muslim scholar who guides her through the Quran; Hassan, an Iraqi refugee who shows her the poetry that exists in war; the Baron, an Armenian neighbor who fusses over her like an eccentric relative; and finally Frédéric, a young French novice monk who becomes her best friend.

The Bread of Angels is the story of the unlikely year that changed Stephanie Saldaña’s life. Wise, funny, and heartbreaking by turns, it celebrates the beauty of faith, the necessity of self-discovery, and the possibility of true love.

Bible

Title: Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011
Author: Gordon Campbell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0-19-955759-2

From the publisher: This is a history of the King James Version of the Bible (known in Britain as the Authorised Version) over the four hundred years from its remote beginnings to the present day.

Gordon Campbell, expert in Renaissance literatures, tells the fascinating and complex story of how this translation came to be commissioned, of who the translators were, and of how the translation was accomplished. The story does not end with the printing of that first edition, but introduces the subsequent generations who edited and interacted with the text. The present text of the King James Version differs in thousands of small details from the original edition. Campbell traces the textual history from 1611 to the establishment of the modern text by Oxford University Press in 1769.

Attitudes to the King James Version have shifted through time and territory, ranging from adulation to deprecation and attracting the attention of a wide variety of adherents. It is more widely read in America today than in any other country, and its particular history in there is given due attention.

Generously illustrated with reproductions taken from early editions, this volume helps to explain the enduring popularity of the King James Version throughout the world today.

Orientalism

Title: Orientalism
Author: Edward Said
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780141187426

From the publisher: In this highly acclaimed work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering Orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation – a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the ‘otherness’ of Eastern culture, customs and beliefs. He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West’s romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. In his new preface, Said examines the effect of continuing Western imperialism after recent events in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In The Sanctuary Of Outcasts

Title: In The Sanctuary Of Outcasts
Author: Neil White
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780061351631

From the publisher: Daddy is going to camp. That's what I told my children. But it wasn't camp. . . .

Neil White wanted only the best for those he loved and was willing to go to any lengths to provide it—which is how he ended up in a federal prison in rural Louisiana, serving eighteen months for bank fraud. But it was no ordinary prison. The beautiful, isolated colony in Carville, Louisiana, was also home to the last people in the continental United States disfigured by leprosy—a small circle of outcasts who had forged a tenacious, clandestine community, a fortress to repel the cruelty of the outside world. In this place rich with history, amid an unlikely mix of leprosy patients, nuns, and criminals, White's strange and compelling new life journey began.

An extraordinary memoir at once funny, poignant, and uplifting, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts reminds us all what matters most.

Appalling Silence

Louisa says: This is not about politics, this is not even about religion, this is about education, this is about educating yourself against ignorance and fear. I am deeply disturbed by the number of Islamophobic remarks I have heard recently, all the more so as they were from people I sincerely believe should know better. After what this island has experienced in the recent past, we are the last people who should blithely attach a religious label to political or cultural practices we disagree with. This is especially true if we have not bothered to try to understand these political or cultural differences, or how they have morphed from the religious beliefs of their adherents.

It is easy and lazy to demonise those we do not understand; it takes courage to stand in the shoes of those we fear, of those we disagree with, of those we find repellent. It takes courage because we may find that they are not so scary, that we share common ground with them, that they are not really so very different after all, and that we should be ashamed for ever having thought otherwise. Have courage, educate yourself against fear, know when you are being lied to by those who would keep you scared and by sensationalist media, speak out against bigotry. If you say to me, "I hate the way Muslim men treat their women", I will challenge you - when was the last time you talked with a Muslim of either gender on the subject? If you say to me, "The Koran incites violence", you'd better have at least read the book.

What do you know of Islam? What do you know of Muslims? Do you understand more than the TV cable news? More than the attention-grabbing headlines? Below are three books by Karen Armstrong, the tip of the iceberg but a good place to start. For further reading, there are articles online and suggestions of books at www.islamfortoday.com, a site which began as "practical and theological information about Islam" by a Western convert who states in the introduction, "I consider it essential to make a clear distinction between, on the one hand, the theology and religion of Islam and, on the other, politics and terrorism involving Muslims who sometimes swathe their local culture or regional geopolitical concerns in the cloak of Islam."

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

Title: Islam: A Short History
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6618-3

From the publisher: In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: the world’s fastest-growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggle for the soul of Turkey, or political turmoil in Pakistan or Malaysia, the Islamic context permeates all these situations.

Karen Armstrong's elegant and concise book traces how Islam grew from the other religions of the book, Judaism and Christianity; introduces us to the character of Muhammed; and demonstrates that for much of its history, the religion has been a force for enlightenment that promoted liberties for women and allowed the arts and sciences to flourish. Islam shows how this progressive legacy is today often set aside as the faith struggles to come to terms with the economic and political weakness of most of its believers and with the forces of modernity itself.

No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the religion is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.

Title: Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781842126080

From the publisher: Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity.

Title: A History Of God
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9780099273677

From the publisher: The idea of a single divine being - God, Yahweh, Allah - has existed for over 4, 000 years. But the history of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice. In this fascinating, extensive and original account of the evolution of belief, Karen Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of One God and the main conflicting convictions it engenders. A controversial, extraordinary story of worship and war, A History of God confronts the most fundamental fact - or fiction - of our lives.

The Wisdom To Know The Difference

Title: The Wisdom To Know The Difference
Author: Eileen Flanagan
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781585428298

From the publisher:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can change; and wisdom to know the difference.

Millions of people have been moved by these famous last lines from the Serenity Prayer to make important and lasting changes in their lives. But how exactly can we know the difference? How can we acknowledge the real limits that we face without negating the possibility for dramatic change? In this wise book, Eileen Flanagan guides readers in determining what they can - or perhaps should - change in their lives, accepting what they cannot, and discovering the "wisdom to know the difference."

Drawing on her own Quaker faith as well as a range of other religious and spiritual traditions, Flanagan shows readers how such practices as sifting through culturally preconceived notions and listening to our own inner voice can help us determine when a change is needed in our lives or when instead acceptance is the answer.

Ill Fares The Land

Title: Ill Fares The Land
Author: Tony Judt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781846143595

From the publisher:
'Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay'
~Oliver Goldsmith

Something has gone profoundly amiss in our public affairs over the past thirty years. In the West we are wealthy and secure enough to allow ourselves to drift very far off course before anything has to be done. But we have forgotten how to think about the life we live together: its goals and purposes. Not only are we post-ideological; we have become post-ethical. When we ask ourselves whether a particular policy objective should be pursued - universal healthcare or investment in public transportation - we know only how to inquire about its efficiency: its profitability or cost, its impact upon growth and the National Product, its implications for taxation.

We have lost touch with the old questions that have defined politics since the Greeks: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society? A better world? The US and UK today are more unequal - in incomes, wealth, health, education, life chances - than at any time since 1914. Is this desirable? Is it prudent? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. Until we have learned - or re-learned - how to pose them, we shall go on as before. Can we go on 'like this'? Yes. Should we? No.

If we are to replace fear with confidence then we need a different story to tell, about state and society alike: a story that carries moral and political conviction. Providing that story is the purpose of this book.

Living Buddha, Living Christ

Title: Living Buddha, Living Christ
Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9781594482397

From the publisher: Buddha and Christ, perhaps the two most pivotal figures in the history of humankind, each left behind a legacy of teachings and practices that have shaped the lives of billions of people over two millennia. If they were to meet on the road today, what would each think of the other's spiritual views and practices? In this classic text for spiritual seekers, Thich Nhat Hanh explores the crossroads of compassion and holiness at which the two traditions meet, and he reawakens our understanding of both.

This I Believe

Title: This I Believe
Editors: Jay Allison & Dan Gediman
Publisher: Henry Holt
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8658-4

From the publisher: Based on the National Public Radio series of the same name, This I Believe features eighty contributors — from the famous to the unknown — completing the thought that the book’s title begins. Each piece compels readers to rethink not only how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Featuring many renowned contributors — including Isabel Allende, Colin Powell, Gloria Steinem, William F. Buckley Jr., Penn Jillette, Bill Gates, and John Updike — the collection also contains essays by a lawyer; a part-time hospital clerk; a woman who sells yellow pages advertising; and a man who serves on a parole board.

The result is a stirring and provocative trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of people whose beliefs — and the incredibly varied ways in which they choose to express them — reveal the human spirit at its best.

Letter From Birmingham Jail

"I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 16th, 1963

Martin Luther King's famous letter is a response to a statement made by 8 white Alabama clergymen in 1963. They argued that injustice should only be fought in a law court. King responded that without non-violent direct action, true civil rights could never be achieved. He asserted that not only was civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." The letter includes the famous statement "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," as well as the words attributed to William Gladstone quoted by King: "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." Read the full text of the letter here


Title: A Testament of Hope
Author: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780060646912

From the publisher: "We've got some difficult days ahead," civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., told a crowd gathered at Memphis's Clayborn Temple on April 3, 1968. "But it really doesn't matter to me now because I've been to the mountaintop. . . . And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."

These prohetic words, uttered the day before his assassination, challenged those he left behind to see that his "promised land" of racial equality became a reality; a reality to which King devoted the last twelve years of his life.

These words and other are commemorated here in the only major one-volume collection of this seminal twentieth-century American prophet's writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections. A Testament of Hope contains Martin Luther King, Jr.'s essential thoughts on non-violence, social policy, integration, black nationalism, the ethics of love and hope, and more.

Amish Grace

Title: Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy
Author: Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zercher
Publisher: 978-0-470-34404-0
ISBN: Jossey-Bass

From the publisher: The remarkable response of the Amish community to the horrific shooting of ten schoolgirls at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in October 2006, stunned the larger world. Amish Grace tells the incredible story of this community's reaction to this senseless shooting and explores its profoundly countercultural practice of forgiveness.

Outsiders often hold a stereotypical view of the Amish as a stubbornly backwards people—a view rooted in the picturesque images of buggies, beards, and bonnets. But there is much more to know about the Amish as a people, as we discovered after the Nickel Mines incident. The community's collective and radical act of forgiveness—the loving and compassionate response to the shooter and his family—gives us insights into who the Amish are and how they live their faith.

Amish Grace explores the many questions the story raises about the religious beliefs that led the Amish to forgive so quickly. In a world where religion spawns so much violence and vengeance, the surprising act of Amish forgiveness begs for deeper consideration.

From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others last fall in a Nickel Mines, Pa., schoolhouse, media attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community. The authors, who teach at small colleges with Anabaptist roots and have published books on the Amish, were contacted repeatedly by the media after the shootings to interpret this subculture. In response to the questions why—and how—did they forgive? Kraybill and his colleagues present a compelling study of Amish grace. After describing the heartbreaking attack and its aftermath, the authors establish that forgiveness is embedded in Amish society through five centuries of Anabaptist tradition, and grounded in the firm belief that forgiveness is required by the New Testament. The community's acts of forgiveness were not isolated decisions by saintly individuals but hard-won countercultural practices supported by all aspects of Amish life. Common objections to Amish forgiveness are addressed in a chapter entitled, What About Shunning? The authors carefully distinguish between forgiveness, pardon and reconciliation, as well as analyze the complexities of mainstream America's response and the extent to which the Amish example can be applied elsewhere. This intelligent, compassionate and hopeful book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on forgiveness.

There Is No Me Without You

Title: There Is No Me Without You
Author: Melissa Fay Green
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781596912939

From the publisher: In a dusty tin-walled compound on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a middle-class woman named Haregewoin Teferra suffered back-to-back losses: first her husband died of a heart attack; then her beloved 23-year-old daughter was consumed by an unnamed sickness. In grief, Haregewoin turned to the church and asked to be taken into seclusion.

Instead of allowing the bereft woman to leave the world, the church presented her with two teenage orphans and asked her to house them. Over the startled protests of her friends and family, Haregewoin said yes.

Once she opened her gate to the first two children, she never really managed to close it again. Her compound became known as a haven: here was a woman who did not run away from HIV-positive individuals and AIDS-orphaned children. From across the country, children were brought to Haregewoin on foot, by bus, or by donkey cart.

There are a million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia; There is No Me Without You shares the remarkable stories of a few of them, through the eyes of an author whose own life was altered while researching Haregowin's story.


Read more at http://www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com

The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman

Title: The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of Abolition
Author: Thomas P. Slaughter
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 978-0-8090-2848-1

From the publisher: John Woolman was one of the most significant Americans of the eighteenth century, though he was not a famous politician, general, scientist, or man of letters, and he never held public office. This superb book makes it clear why he mattered so much.

A humble tailor known at first only to the other Quakers who encountered him at meetings in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New England, Woolman became a prophetic voice for the entire Anglo-American world when he spoke out against the evils of slavery. Thomas P. Slaughter’s deft, dramatic narrative reveals how it was that the mystic Woolman became an unforgettable public figure, his gospel infused with a benign confidence that ordinary people could achieve spiritual perfection. Placing Woolman in the full context of his times, Slaughter paints the portrait of a hero—and not just for the Quakers, social reformers, labor organizers, socialists, and peace advocates who have long admired him.


From The New Yorker: In this meditative biography, Slaughter provides sensitive readings of Woolman’s writings in order to draw a picture of a “prophetic Old Testament radical” who practiced a patient and methodical mode of activism.

Nothing To Envy

Title: Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Author: Barbara Demick
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-385-52390-5

From the publisher: Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.

Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival.


Winner of the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize

Listen to an interview with the author here

Absence of Mind

Title: Absence of Mind
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300145182

From the publisher: In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought - science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson's view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality. By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

The Dead Hand

Title: The Dead Hand
Author: David E. Hoffman
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-307-38784-4

From the publisher: During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union amassed nuclear arsenals containing the explosive power of one million Hiroshimas. The Soviet Union secretly plotted to create the “Dead Hand,” a system designed to launch an automatic retaliatory nuclear strike on the United States, and developed a fearsome biological warfare machine. President Ronald Reagan, hoping to awe the Soviets into submission, pushed hard for the creation of space-based missile defences.

In the first full account of how the arms race finally ended, The Dead Hand provides an unprecedented look at the inner motives and secret decisions of each side. Drawing on top-secret documents from deep inside the Kremlin, memoirs, and interviews in both Russia and the United States, David E. Hoffman introduces the scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies who saw the world sliding toward disaster and tells the gripping story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and many others struggled to bring the madness to an end. When the Soviet Union dissolved, the danger continued, and the United States began a race against time to keep nuclear and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states.


Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for General Non Fiction, "a well documented narrative that examines the terrifying doomsday competition between two superpowers and how weapons of mass destruction still imperil humankind"

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Title: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Author: William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780007316199

From the publisher: When William Kamkwamba was just 14 years old his parents told him that he must leave school and come and work on the family farm as they could no longer afford to $80 a year tuition fees. This is the story of his refusal to give up on learning and reading. A story of passion, determination and remarkable achievements.

Malawi is a country battling AIDS, drought and famine, and in 2002, a season of floods, followed by the most severe famine in fifty years, brought it to its knees. Like the majority of the population, William's family were farmers. They were totally reliant of the maize crop. By the end of 2001, after many lean and difficult years, there was no more crop. They were running out of food - had nothing to sell - and had months until they would be able to harvest their crop again. Forced to leave school at 14 years old, with no hope of raising the funds to go again, William resorted to borrowing books from the small local library to continue his education. One day, browsing the titles, he picked up a book about energy, with a picture of a wind turbine on the front cover. Fascinated by science and electricity, but knowing little more about the technology, William decided to build his own. Ridiculed by those around him, and exhausted from his work in the fields every day, and using nothing more than bits of scrap metal, old bicycle parts and wood from the blue gum tree, he slowly built his very own windmill.

This windmill has changed the world in which William and his family live. Only 2 per cent of Malawi has electricity; William's windmill now powers the lightbulbs and radio for his compound. He has since built more windmills for his school and his village. When news of William's invention spread, people from across the globe offered to help him. Soon he was re-enrolled in college and travelling to America to visit wind farms. This is his incredible story. William's dream is that other African's will learn to help themselves – one windmill and one light bulb at a time – and that maybe one day they will be able to power their own computers, and use the internet, and see for themselves how his life has changed after picking up that book in the library.

For a BBC News article on William, click here. For a BBC News article on Young Eco Inventors, including William, click here

A Divided Paradise & No Man's Land

Title: A Divided Paradise: An Irishman in the Holy Land
Author: David Lynch
Publisher: New Island
ISBN: 9781848400139

From the publisher: A Divided Paradise: An Irishman in the Holy Land is a vivid account of ordinary life in one of the world’s most contested and volatile regions. Award-winning journalist David Lynch brings to life stories from both the Palestinian and Israeli streets.

From coming under fire in the occupied West Bank, to visiting the ‘First Irish Pub in Palestine’, to talking Armageddon with young dispirited Israelis in Tel Aviv, personal experiences are interwoven with broad historical analysis.

A provocative introduction to the political and personal tragedy suffered by the Palestinian people and the continuing wider Middle Eastern conflict.


Title: No Man's Land - Dispatches from the Middle East
Author: Richard Crowley
Publisher: Liberties Press
ISBN: 978-1-905483-2-66

From the publisher: RTE correspondent's examination on the Israeli - Palestine question and the prospect for its resolution - and the impact on the greater Middle East if it is not resolved.

The creation of a Jewish state in the Holy Lands after World War II and the consequent disappointment and displacement of the Palestine people has had long-term and violent consequences for all parties in the region - it could be argued to be the cause of much of the terrorist activity directed against the countries of the West in the past several years.

No Man's Land draws on Richard Crowley's extensive experience as RTE correspondent in the region since 2003, and his interviews with a broad cross section of people representing the huge diversity of opinions and involvement in this most complex conflict. From Irish Jews who have emigrated to Israel - and even moved into the contentious settlements, to Palestinians who lived in Ireland as well as more high profile protagonists from both sides; the book poses the vexed question, to the residents themselves, of how to solve this long standing dispute for land and the Holy City of Jerusalem - and seeks to imagine the consequences if the issue continues to remain unresolved.

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Title: Mountains Beyond Mountains
Author: Tracy Kidder
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7301-3

From the publisher: At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer—brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti—blasts through convention to get results.

Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb “Beyond mountains there are mountains”: as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.


A Huffington Post interview: folklorist, historian and social commentator Mark Klempner in conversation with Tracy Kidder, "The problem with describing a contemporary as a saint is that it can be a way of dismissing a person. If you're set apart by God, you really aren't like us, and so we can just stand apart and admire you..." read more

Journey Into America

Title: Journey Into America: The Challenge of Islam
Author: Akbar Ahmed
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
ISBN: 978-0-8157-0387-7

From the publisher: Nearly seven million Muslims live in the United States today, and their relations with non-Muslims are strained. Many Americans associate Islam with figures such as Osama bin Laden, and they worry about “homegrown terrorists.” To shed light on this increasingly important religious group and counter mutual distrust, renowned scholar Akbar Ahmed conducted the most comprehensive study to date of the American Muslim community. Journey into America explores and documents how Muslims are fitting into U.S. society, placing their experience within the larger context of American identity. This eye-opening book also offers a fresh and insightful perspective on American history and society.

Following up on his critically acclaimed Journey Into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization (Brookings, 2007), Ahmed and his team of young researchers traveled for a year through more than seventy-five cities across the United States—from New York City to Salt Lake City; from Las Vegas to Miami; from the large Muslim enclave in Dearborn, Michigan, to small, predominantly white towns like Arab, Alabama. They visited homes, schools, and over one hundred mosques to discover what Muslims are thinking and how they are living every day in America.

In this unprecedented exploration of American Muslim communities, Ahmed asked challenging questions: Can we expect an increase in homegrown terrorism? How do American Muslims of Arab descent differ from those of other origins (for example, Somalia or South Asia)? Why are so many white women converting to Islam? How can a Muslim become accepted fully as an “American”, and what does that mean? He also delves into the potentially sticky area of relations with other religions. For example, is there truly a deep divide between Muslims and Jews in America? And how well do Muslims get along with other religious groups, such as Mormons in Utah?

Journey into America is equal parts anthropological research, listening tour, and travelogue. Whereas Ahmed's previous book took the reader into homes, schools, and mosques in the Muslim world, his new quest takes us into the heart of America and its Muslim communities. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of America today.

Louisa says: This video of the author talking to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show may not play outside of North America

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Akbar Ahmed
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor

A Quaker Book of Wisdom

Title: A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons In Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense
Author: Robert Lawrence Smith
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780688172336

From the publisher: "The most valuable aspect of religion," writes Robert Lawrence Smith, "is that it provides us with a framework for living. I have always felt that the beauty and power of Quakerism is that it exhorts us to live more simply, more truthfully, more charitably."

Taking his inspiration from the teaching of the first Quaker, George Fox, and from his own nine generations of Quaker forebears, Smith speaks to all of us who are seeking a way to make our lives simpler, more meaningful, and more useful. Beginning with the Quaker belief that "There is that of God in every person," Smith explores the ways in which we can harness the inner light of God that dwells in each of us to guide the personal choices and challenges we face every day. How to live and speak truthfully. How to listen for, trust, and act on our conscience. How to make our work an expression of the best that is in us.

Using vivid examples from his own life, Smith writes eloquently of Quaker Meeting, his decision to fight in World War II, and later to oppose the Vietnam War. From his work as an educator and headmaster to his role as a husband and father, Smith quietly convinces that the lofty ideals of Quakerism offer all of us practical tools for leading a more meaningful life. His book culminates with a moving letter to his grandchildren which imparts ten lessons for "letting your life speak."

Six Myths of Our Time

Title: Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More
Author: Marina Warner
Publisher: Random HOuse
ISBN: 978-0-679-75924-9

From the publisher:Is Jurassic Park a work of covert misogynist propaganda? Does romanticizing childhood lead to abusing children? What secret correspondence links Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to video games and Shakespeare's Caliban to Hannibal Lecter? in what ways do our culture's most hallowed legends inform the current debates over single mothers, the men's movement, and animal rights?

In these six dazzlingly intelligent and provocative essays, the distinguished English novelist and critic Marina Warner weaves classical mythology, pop culture, and today's headlines into a potent work of cultural criticism that is both unsettling and entertaining. Ranging from Medea to Thelma and Louise and from myths of cannibalism to the politics of rape, Six Myths of Our Time is at once a celebration of the enduring power of fable and a welcome antidote to its more virulent manifestations in our public life.

The Gift

Title: The Gift
Author: Marcel Mauss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 978-0-415-26749-6

From the publisher:In this, his most famous work, Marcel Mauss presented to the world a book which revolutionized our understanding of some of the basic structures of society. By identifying the complex web of exchange and obligation involved in the act of giving, Mauss called into question many of our social conventions and economic systems. In a world rife with runaway consumption, The Gift continues to excite and challenge.

From Wikipedia:In his classic work The Gift, Mauss argued that gifts are never "free". Rather, human history is full of examples that gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange. The famous question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of the gift was: "What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?" (1990:3). The answer is simple: the gift is a "total prestation", imbued with "spiritual mechanisms", engaging the honour of both giver and receiver (the term "total prestation" or "total social fact" (fait social total) was coined by his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheim's social fact). Such transactions transcend the divisions between the spiritual and the material in a way that according to Mauss is almost "magical". The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver: "the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them" (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift, the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. To not reciprocate means to lose honour and status, but the spiritual implications can be even worse: in Polynesia, failure to reciprocate means to lose mana, one's spiritual source of authority and wealth. Mauss distinguished between three obligations: giving - the necessary initial step for the creation and maintenance of social relationships; receiving, for to refuse to receive is to reject the social bond; and reciprocating in order to demonstrate one's own liberality, honour and wealth.

An important notion in Mauss' conceptualisation of gift exchange is what Gregory (1982, 1997) refers to as "inalienability". In a commodity economy there is a strong distinction between objects and persons through the notion of private property. Objects are sold, meaning that the ownership rights are fully transferred to the new owner. The object has thereby become "alienated" from its original owner. In a gift economy, however, the objects that are given are inalienated from the givers; they are "loaned rather than sold and ceded". It is the fact that the identity of the giver is invariably bound up with the object given that causes the gift to have a power which compels the recipient to reciprocate. Because gifts are inalienable they must be returned; the act of giving creates a gift-debt that has to be repaid. Gift exchange therefore leads to a mutual interdependence between giver and receiver. According to Mauss, the "free" gift that is not returned is a contradiction because it cannot create social ties. Following the Durkheimian quest for understanding social cohesion through the concept of solidarity, Mauss's argument is that solidarity is achieved through the social bonds created by gift exchange.

The True Believer

Title: The True Believer
Author: Eric Hoffer
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780060505912

Social psychologist Eric Hoffer was born in New York City in 1902 to German-Jewish immigrants. The first of his ten books, The True Believer (1951), received critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, becoming widely recognized as a classic. It discussed mass movements - religious, social and political - stating that such movements are interchangeable: fanatical Nazis later became fanatical Communists; fanatical Communists later became fanatical anti-Communists; Saul, fanatical persecutor of Christians, became Paul, fanatical Christian. He argued that the motivations and behaviors of mass movements were interchangeable even when their stated goals or values were diametrically opposed.

Hoffer suggested that it was possible to quell the rise of an undesirable mass movement by introducing a benign mass movement, giving those prone to joining movements an outlet for their insecurities. He recognized the fundamental importance of self-esteem to psychological well-being, and postulated that fanaticism and self-righteousness were rooted in self-hatred and self-doubt. He believed that a passionate obsession with the outside world or the lives of others was merely a craven attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one's own life. Hoffer didn't take an exclusively negative view of true believers and gave positive examples such as Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi.

A Human Eye

Title: A Human Eye
Author: Adrienne Rich
Publisher: W.W. Norton
ISBN: 978-0-393-33830-0

From the publisher: Across more than three decades Adrienne Rich’s essays have been praised for their lucidity, courage, and range of concerns. In A Human Eye, Rich examines a diverse selection of writings and their place in past and present social disorders and transformations. Beyond literary theories, she explores from many angles how the arts of language have acted on and been shaped by their creators’ worlds.

“Rich continues to refuse to separate the artistic from the political, and she articulates in powerful ways how a truly radical political agenda can draw upon an aesthetic vision . . . a vision both unsparing and full of hope.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“Only Rich can write essays that blend politics and poetry so effortlessly.” — Library Journal

“For all Rich’s shepherding us toward compassion and solidarity with those who suffer violence and injustice, she never ceases to praise the mystery intrinsic to poetry and art.” — Booklist

War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning

Title: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning
Author: Chris Hedges
Publisher: Anchor Books
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3463-5

From the publisher: As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.”

Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.

Louisa says: A challenging book that gave me a whole new perspective and greater understanding of the psychology of war for individuals, societies and nations. A fascinating study on the human need for meaning in life, and what we will do to create it.