The following books were suggested by members of the Adult Education Class that was held for five Sundays in September/October 2008 at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Wooster, Ohio. The book selections were made based on discussions of the book “Rethinking Justice: Restoring Our Humanity” (Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2007) with the author, Richard H. Bell.

The specific topic that generated this list came from a class focus on what Philip Hallie called the “Mysterious Virtues -- the virtues of compassion and generosity”. Each of the following books lift up these virtues [and others] through interesting stories and episodes from both fiction and real life.

       We welcome further suggestions/additions to this list in the weeks ahead, and hope these books might provide provocative thought and action toward our “rethinking justice”!

Dow, Unity. Far and Beyond.  San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2000. 

Danticat, Edwidge. Brother, I’m Dying. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.  

Fall, Aminita Sow. La Greve Des Battu. The Beggar’s Strike; Or, The Dregs Of Society. Translated by Dorothy S. Blair. Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1986.

Glover, Jonathan, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2001.

Hallie, Philip P. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.

Hallie, Philip P. In the Eye of the Hurricane: Tales of Good and Evil, Help and Harm. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.

Havel, Václav. Letters to Olga: June 1979-September 1982. New York: H. Holt, 1989.

Havel, Václav. Václav Havel,  Living in Truth : Twenty-two Essays Published on the Occasion of the Award of the Erasmus Prize to Václav Havel. London; Boston : Faber & Faber, 1989, c1986. 

Head, Bessie. Tales of Tenderness and Power. Oxford: Heinemann International, 1990. 

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c1998. 

Kane, Cheikh Hamidou. Ambiguous Adventure. Translated from the French by Katherine Woods. New York : Walker 1963. 

Magone, Sindiwe. Mother to Mother. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. 

Mortenson, Greg. Three cups of tea : one man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations-- one school at a time. New York : Viking, 2006. 

Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto: A Novel. New York : HarperCollins, c2001. 

Sacks, Jonathan, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. London, New York: Continuum, 2003.

Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom, New York: Knopf, 1999.

Waldmeir, Patti, Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid & the Birth of the New South Africa, New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 1997.

Updated: 1/8/09

Westminster Presbyterian Church
353 East Pine Street  330-263-2398
Carroll Meyer, Pastor  263-2208 [cmeyer@wooster.edu]
Website: www3.wooster.edu/westminster