Books for 2017: Cultivating Understanding and Wise Strategies

For those of you who've heard the call to deepen your commitment to justice this year, here are some of inSpirit's recommended books to help you answer that call with confidence! Educating ourselves through diverse sources and supporting the work of seasoned movement leaders and authors are some of the ways we live out our Unitarian Universalist values.

Our UU values also uphold that our own learning, growth, and search for truth are sharpened through deepened relationships in our communities. Please consider using these books in your book circles, as discussion starters, and gifts for those you mentor in our faith and beyond.

Movement Building & Resources

Criminal Justice

Economic Justice

Immigration

Interfaith Lens

LGBTQIA

Racial Justice

A Time to Break Silence The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students

From Beacon Press

The first collection of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s essential writings for high school students and young people—with eighteen selections including "I Have a Dream," "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?"...

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Between the World and Me

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

"A work of rare beauty . . . a love letter written in a moral emergency, one that Coates exposes with the precision of an autopsy and the force of an exorcism."-Slate

Between the World and Me

Ferguson and Faith Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community

By Leah Gunning Francis, Jim Wallis

Ferguson and Faith

The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

By Michelle Alexander

The 2012-2013 UUA Common Read.

The New Jim Crow

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation

By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

"Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's searching examination of the social, political and economic dimensions of the prevailing racial order offers important context for understanding the necessity of the emerging movement for black liberation." -Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation

Towards the "Other America" Anti-Racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter

A call to action to end white silence and a manual on how to do it.

Towards the "Other America"

All the Real Indians Died Off And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans

By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Dina Gilio-Whitaker

From Beacon Press

Unpacks the twenty-one most common myths and misconceptions about Native Americans...

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An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

From Beacon Press

The 2019-2020 UUA Common Read The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples.

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The Third Reconstruction

By William J. Barber II, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

From Beacon Press

The 2016-17 UUA Common Read A modern-day civil rights champion tells the stirring story of how he helped start a movement to bridge America’s racial divide.

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Household Workers Unite

Telling the stories of African American domestic workers, this book resurrects a little-known history of domestic worker activism in the 1960s and 1970s, offering new perspectives on race, labor, feminism, and organizing.

Household Workers Unite

Be the Change

By Stephen M. Shick

From Skinner House Books

This collection is designed to inspire and sustain activists and others who are working for a better world. Brimming with poignant and inspirational quotations and verse from Jesus to Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay, Rachel Carson and Maya Angelou.

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Just Mercy

By Bryan Stevenson

From inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop

The 2015-2016 UUA Common Read A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

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Billionaires' Ball

Through vivid profiles of billionaires, Stephen Schwarzman debunks the notion that they "deserve" their grand fortunes, when such wealth is really a by-product of a legal and economic system that's become deeply flawed.

Billionaires' Ball

Expand Social Security Now!

By Steven Hill

From Beacon Press

Why Social Security is not only sustainable but should be substantially expanded...

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Detained and Deported

By Margaret Regan

From Beacon Press

An intimate look at the people ensnared by the US detention and deportation system, the largest in the world...

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Dreamers

By Eileen Truax

From Beacon Press

Dreamers is a movement book for the generation brought to the United States as children—and now fighting to live here legally...

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Undocumented

By Aviva Chomsky

From Beacon Press

Explores what it means to be undocumented in a legal, social, economic and historical context.

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Acts of Faith

A remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States.

Acts of Faith

Children of the Same God

By Susan J. Ritchie

From Skinner House Books

Groundbreaking research shows that Unitarianism was inherently multifaith from its beginnings, with clear affinities for Judaism and Islam. Re-examines Unitarian history in the light of its interfaith context.

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Interfaith Leadership

By Eboo Patel, Eboo Patel

From Beacon Press

A guide for students, groups, and organizations seeking to foster interfaith dialogue and promote understanding across religious lines...

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Beyond Magenta

A 2015 Stonewall Honor Book A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens.

Beyond Magenta