New Books

It’s always interesting to know what someone is reading. You can learn a lot about someone by perusing their books, looking at what they fill their minds with, browsing what’s on their bookshelves.

If their TV takes up more room than their books – that tells me something too. TV is junk food for the mind. Read. Read. Read. The most important ideas take time and space to explain. Magazine or internet articles won’t do it. It takes books.

As a voracious reader I am always looking for new books that offer insight and new perspectives, especially in the areas of alleviating hunger or solving the complex problem of poverty.

As an author and theologian I read in order to process, understand and ultimately to write. Books that go deeper help me to do this.

As a professor I keep an eye out for inspirational books for my students, books that will change how they view the world.

Here are some new books that I’m reading now, recommended by my friend L., a librarian –

Enough: Why the Word’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, PublicAffairs: 2010.

A Thousand Sisters: My Journey Into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman by Lisa J. Shannon, Seal Press: 2011.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Willam Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, New Harper: 2010.

Exodus From Hunger: We Are Called To Change the Politics of Hunger by David Beckmann, Westminster John Knox: 2010.

29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker, Brightside Communications: 2009.

I haven’t finished these yet – but they promise to be good.

You may also like Six Word Novel, Exercise Your Mind, Cry of the Poor and What Can You and I Do?