Our Books

The Book of Joy.   The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

What I love about this book is that it captures the spirit of two amazing human beings who also happen to be among the most important spiritual teachers of our time.  This book lays out the premise that Joy is a choice we make each day by how we live and how we see ourselves and the world around us.  The book does not deny pain and suffering rather incorporates it into an approach to life that is neither rationalization or avoidance, but rather honest and hopeful.  It is so persuasive because it manages not just to catch the truth of the words, but the spirit and experience that lay beneath them.  I find that on the days I read this book, how I approach myself and others changes for the better.   – Brent Damrow 2/3/2021    Status: 4/15/2021 –  0 copies available.
I don’t know which brought me more joy: reading about the 8 Pillars that contribute to joy, according to the authors Archbishop Desmond Tutu & His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or immersing in the incredible antics, back-slapping & joy that these two spiritual leaders engaged in during their interviews with Doug Abrams. This book helps us access joy on all levels–human, spiritual & divine! 
–Jo Ann Levitt  2/22/2021

Having our Say: the Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years, by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth.

This charming memoir/biography was published in 1993, at which time the two sisters were 101 and 103 years old, with memory still firmly intact. Their reminiscences of growing up in a large family and pursuing education and professional careers when it was rare for black women are a gentle introduction for those of us with a different background of the difficult experiences of black folk in America. I came to love these women, their divergent personalities, humor and compassion. Please keep this book in circulation! – Terry Wise 2/5/2021

Status: 4/15/2021 – 1 copy available

 

The Second Mountain     This popular author and columnist distinguishes 2 life journeys—that of the 1st Mountain, establishing ourselves in life, creating work, family and wealth and the 2nd Mountain, in which we turn more toward our spiritual journey. He calls the 1st mountain “self-centered,” and the 2nd mountain “other-centered,” and shows how family life, vocation, faith and community inter-weave with the potential for spiritual evolution in the 2nd life journey.  –  Jo Ann Levitt          Status: 4/15/2021 – 1 copy available

 

Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr      Noted author and spiritual guide, Rohr devises this work as a “Search for the True Self,” and then walks us through various phases of our faith journey, distinguishing between the True Self and the False Self, emphasizing the role that Love plays in our unfolding & reminding us that “All who love are born of God…” – Jo Ann Levitt

Status: 4/15/2021 – 0 copy available

 

 

Spiritual Formation by Henri Nouwen     Published posthumously, this work is gathered and formulated from Nouwen’s prolific teachings by authors Christensen and Laird, who call it a “Primer for how to live a spiritual life.” Bringing forth some of the most salient of Nouwen’s teachings, there are chapters on how the Mind and the Heart both contribute to our formation as well as the role of  prayer and silence.  – Jo Ann Levitt

Status 4/15/2021 – 1 copy available

 

Summary from publisher:  Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.   Recommended by Board of Christian Education   Status 3/19/2021 – 1 copy available

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.   Summary from publisher: Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned.

Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.  Recommended by Board of Christian Education

Status 4/15/2021 – 0 copy available