September 27th

by Paul Tough

That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the

lives of poor children--not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in

big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the

Harlem Children's Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and

sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America.

This book is a tour de force of reporting, an

inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but also of the parents and children in Harlem who are

struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is

a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.
Nonfiction

Discussion Leaders: TBD

Snacks: TBD
 

The Book Thief  
by Marcus Zusak

Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age

nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids,

acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. Zusak not only

creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate

over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward.
Fiction

by Eboo Patel

Patel, is the founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that unites young people of different

religions to perform community service and explore their common values. Patel argues that such work

is essential, manifesting the faith line that will define the 21st century. This autobiography of a young

activist captures how an angry youth can be transformed—by faith, by the community and, most of all, by

himself—into a profound leader for the cause of peace.

Nonfiction

Discussion Leaders: TBD

Snacks: TBD
 

Book Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, Canadian novelist Hill spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in

Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. Kidnapped at the age of 11 by British slavers, Aminata survives the Middle

Passage and is reunited in South Carolina with Chekura, a boy from a village near hers. Her story

gets entwined with his, and with those of her owners. Hill handles the pacing and tension masterfully,

particularly during the beginnings of the American Revolution, when the British promise to free Blacks

who fight for the British. 
Fiction

Discussion Leaders: TBD

Snacks: TBD

 

Book A Hole In Our Gospel
by Richard Stearns

It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story of an

orphaned child in Rakai, Uganda.  His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United

States to Africa.  It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of his presidential

corner office at Lenox-America's finest tableware company-to this humble corner of Uganda.  This is a

story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate

call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith.  Using his own journey as an

example, Stearns explores the hole that exists in our understanding of the Gospel.
Snacks: TBD
 

 

Book A Skeleton In God’s Closet
by Paul Maier

From the author of Pontius Pilate comes a fascinating novel of archaeological adventure. The evidence

seems incontestable: bones unearthed in an Israeli tomb are those of Jesus of Nazareth. But which is the

hoax . . . the archaeological find or the Resurrection itself? Dr. Paul Maier is a professor of ancient history

at Western Michigan University. He holds degrees from Harvard University and Concordia Seminary.