The Bookseller of Kabul, 288 pages
An intimate portrait of a multigenerational (and polygamist) Afghan household results from the unique and surprising access given to a Norwegian journalist in 2002. Liberal and conservative beliefs, public and personal behaviors, religious, cultural, and factional attitudes are all on candid and conflicting display.
Additional discussion themes: generations raised in conflict, men’s and women’s roles, lives and challenges, identity, principle, Islam, Afghanistan. |
Eat Pray Love, 334 pages
Wallowing in loss from her divorce the author travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia in a quest for balance and focus.
Additional discussion themes: self-realization, self-absorption, ashrams, culture. |
A Girl Named Zippy, 282 pages
Post war, rural Indiana narrated by a child who reflects on siblings, parents, neighbors in a tale at times humorous, quirky, and unsettling.
Additional discussion themes: 1950’s America, family dynamics, pride |
The Glass Castle, 288 pages
A highly personal, yet objective, look at an American family with deep dysfunction as they move - from Arizona to W.Va. to NY - to reshape and continually regroup.
Additional discussion themes: alcoholism, homelessness, parenting, survival, the 60’s and 70’s, memoir writing. |
Left to Tell, 215 pages.
A harrowing firsthand account of survival during and after the 1994 Hutu-Tutsi conflict in Rwanda.
Additional discussion themes: evil, faith, ethnic violence and war, genocide |
The Lemon Tree, 264 pages
Exploration and perspective on the Paletinian—Israeli conflict from he lives and 35 year friendship of an Arab and a Jew.
Additional discussion themes: repatriation, refugees, justice and human right.
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Mountains Beyond Mountains, 322 pages
Profile of the dynamic and dedicated Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist who specializes in infectious disease, and his Partners in Health Foundation which started medical mission clinics in rural Haiti in 1987.
Additional discussion themes: human rights and social justice, medical missionaries, community building, Haitian life and culture. |
Nickel and Dimed, 230 pages
This 2000 study remains incredible timely. The author goes underground and tries to find and successfully hold jobs and support herself (food, shelter, transportation, extras??) working in a restaurant, at a Walmart, and with a house cleaning service.
Additional discussion themes: poverty, unskilled labor, working poor, job searches |
Night, 120 pages
Autobiographical account of life in the Nazi death camps. Vivid, factual detail of treatment, challenges and personalities.
Additional discussion themes: faith, loss, The Holocaust |
Outcasts United, 300 pages
A small southern town changes dramatically in the 1990’s when it becomes a designated settlement center and ‘home’ for refugees from war-torn African and Asia. The issues for all are explored in the context of the newly formed refugee youth soccer league.
Additional discussion themes: refugee resettlement policies and challenges, culture clash and integration, community dynamics, ‘game changing’ people and ideas. |
Reading Lolita in Tehran, 421 pages
Part memoir, literary criticism, and political analysis. Amidst suppression and subrogation a women’s book group explores fiction and opens avenues to reality and dreams.
Additional discussion themes: function of literature, expression, intellectualism, Iran |
Same Kind of Different as Me, 245 pages
A wealthy art dealer and his wife won’t take no from individuals in a Texas homeless shelter. A story of faith, trial and error, patience.
Additional discussion themes: rural and urban poverty, safety nets, volunteering, family, entrepreneurs, personal challenge and change. |
Three Cups of Tea, 421 pages
An American mountain climber wants to repay his Himalayan lifesavers and eventually builds a foundation to create schools in some of the remote mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Detailed descriptions of physical, emotional, cultural, political challenges.
Additional discussion themes: patience, persistence, cultural negotiation and change, non-profit management. |
