Currently Reading

“The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go.”

Theodor Geisel,
(aka Dr. Seuss)

A Prisoner in the Garden, The Nelson Mandela Foundation
In 1977 the South African prison authorities allowed a number
of journalists to visit the notorious Robben Island.
The intention was to persuade the outside world that
the conditions there were not as bad as widely believed.
On their tour of the island the journalists encountered a tall, thin man dressed neatly in prison clothes and leaning on a spade. The expression on his face was one of intense hostility, and his bearing was more that of prince than prisoner.

The man was Nelson Mandela, in his 13th year of incarceration on Robben Island.

Today the photograph, captioned ‘A Prisoner Working in the Garden’ by the prison authorities, forms the centrepiece of the Mandela Prison Archive, which when viewed as a whole constitutes a living record of Mandela’s 27 years in prison. It includes rare photographs and video footage, Mandela’s handwritten letters to family, friends and the authorities, his personal diaries and notes, official records, medical records and legal documents. Together they form an extraordinary picture of prison life but, even more remarkably, of a man who, together with his close comrades, never gave up the fight for freedom and the vision of a liberated country.

This book is bursting with story. The records of Mandela’s confinement are widely scattered – in conventional archives and some surprising personal collections. Readers will learn about chance discoveries and dead ends, crossing paths and painful reminders. The struggle against oppression can be seen as the pitting of remembering against forgetting. A Prisoner in the Garden documents one part of that struggle.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituallity: Unleash the Power of Authentic Life in Christ,
Peter Scazzero
The Christian faith is supposed to produce deep, positive change. So why doesn't it seem to work in "real life"? That question screamed at Pastor Peter Scazzero when his church and marriage hit bottom and every Christian remedy produced nothing but anger and fatigue. As he began digging under the "good Christian" veneer, he discovered entire emotional layers of his life that God had not yet touched. And that emotional immaturity had fed his spiritual immaturity. In this book, he unveils what's wrong with our conventional means of "spiritual growth" and offers not only a model of spirituality that actually works, but seven steps to transformation that will help readers experience a faith charged with authenticity, contemplation and a hunger for God.

You’ve Got to Read This Book!: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life,
Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks

Canfield, the co-creator and editor of the Chicken Soup for the Soulseries, and psychologist and author Hendricks surveyed 55 leaders or a visionaries in their respective fields. Each leader introduces a simple sketch of the most influential book and how it has impacted their life. Contributors include Stephen Covey, Lou Holtz, Dave Barry, Bernie Siegal, Kenny Loggins, and a multitude of others from the fields of athletics, business, art, and politics.

The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem,
Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan

Scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. Using the Gospel of Mark as their guide they present a day-to-day account of Jesus’ final week of life. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is a moral hero, and more dangerous than the one enshrined in the Church’s traditional teachings.
(Adapted from the flyleaf)

In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq,
Nir Rosen

Rosen minutely charts the course of Iraq's rapidly metastasizing sectarian conflict, which he observed up close from the immediate aftermath of Baghdad's fall in 2003 to the elections of January 2005. A fluent speaker of Iraqi Arabic and a freelance journalist, Rosen gained an impressive measure of access to both the Sunni and Shia resistance, dissidents and ordinary Iraqis, attending sermons at mosques and visiting tribal meeting halls across Iraq—from Baghdad to Tikrit, Najaf and Falluja to Kirkuk. The title is a reference to the Islamic idea that martyrs' souls are flown to heaven in the belly of a green bird, the book serves as a window onto the rhetoric, ambitions, strategies and historical context of the numerous violent groups struggling for power.
From Publishers Weekly