Week of Compassion Reading List
Become more informed on the issues and places that Week of Compassion responds to in the world. Start a book club! Start a giving club!
AFGHANISTAN:
The Kite Runner (2005)
Hosseini, Khaled
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
Hosseini, Khaled
A Bed of Red Flowers (2005)
Pazira, Nelofer
The Bookseller of Kabul (2004)
Seierstad, Asne
The Storyteller’s Daughter (2004)
Shah, Saira
The Places in Between (2004)
Stewart, Rory
AFRICA:
Acts of Faith (2005)
Caputo, Philip
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa (2006)
Godwin, Peter
The Shackled Continent (2004)
Guest, Robert
Do They Hear You When You Cry (1998)
Kassindja, Fauziya
Dead Aid (2009)
Moyo, Dambisa
A Bend in the River (1989)
Naipaul, V.S.
AIDS in Africa: How the Poor are Dying (2005)
Poku, Nana K.
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters (2011)
Stearns, Jason K.
BOSNIA:
Why Bosnia: Writings on the Balkan War (1993)
Ali, Rabia and Lawrence Lifschultz, eds.
Good People in an Evil Time (2005)
Broz, Svetlana
Fools Rush In (2005)
Carter, Bill
Sarajevo: A War Journal (1993)
Dizdarevic, Zlatko
Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Tradition Betrayed (1994)
Donia, Robert J. and John V.A. Fine, Jr.
The Bosnian Muslims: Denial of a Nation (1996)
Friedman, Francine
Love Thy Neighbor (1997)
Maass, Peter
BOSNIA, EL SALVADOR, ISRAEL:
War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2003)
Hedges, Chris
BOSNIA, CROATIA, SERBIA:
Balkan Ghosts (2005)
Kaplan, Robert D.
BOSNIA, RWANDA:
The Key to My Neighbor’s House (2002)
Neuffer, Elizabeth
BOSNIA, SERBIA:
Pretty Birds (2006)
Simon, Scott
BURMA:
Undaunted: My Struggle for Freedom and Survival in Burma (2009)
Phan, Zoya
BURUNDI/RWANDA:
Strength in What Remains (2009)
Kidder, Tracy
CAMBODIA:
First They Killed My Father (2006)
Ung, Loung
CENTRAL AMERICA:
Vultures and Butterflies: Living the Contradictions (1992)
Classen, Susan
CROATIA:
The Balkans Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War (1993)
Drakulic, Slavenka
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO:
Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart (2008)
Butcher, Tim
King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998)
Hochshild, Adam
The Poisonwood Bible (1998)
Kingsolver, Barbara
A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman (2010)
Shannon, Lisa
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
A Cafecito Story (2004)
Alvarez, Julia
EL SALVADOR:
The Weight of All Things (2001)
Benitez, Sandra
HAITI:
The Uses of Haiti (2005)
Farmer, Paul
Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer (2003)
Kidder, Tracy
INDIA:
The Inheritance of Loss (2006)
Desai, Kiran
Wise and Otherwise (2006)
Murty, Sudha
IRAN:
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Nafisi, Azar
IRAQ:
The Princes of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq (2006)
Stewart, Rory
KENYA:
Unbowed (2006)
Maathai, Wangari
It's Our Turn to Eat (2009)
Wrong, Michela
LIBERIA:
Mississippi in Africa (2005)
Huffman, Alan
NIGERIA:
Little Bee (2008)
Cleave, Chris
PAKISTAN:
In the Name of Honor: a Memoir (2006)
Mai, Mukhtar
PAKISTAN/ AFGHANISTAN:
Three Cups of Tea (2007)
Mortenson, Greg and David Oliver Relin
Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books (2009)
Mortenson, Greg
PALESTINE:
Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks (2008)
Zaru, Jean
REFUGEES AND IMMIGRATION:
Climate Refugees (2010)
Argos, Collctif
Nobodies: Modern Amercan Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy (2007)
Bowe, John
"They Take Our Jobs!": and 20 Other Myths about Immigration (2007)
Chomsky, Aviva
Neighbor: Christian Encounters with "Illegal" Immigration (2010)
Daniel, Ben
Deporting Our Souls: Values, Morality, and Immigration Policy (2006)
Hing, Bill Ong
Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History (2010)
Kanstroom, Daniel
Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees (2005)
Moorehead, Caroline
Enrique's Journey (2006)
Nazario, Sonia
The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community (2002)
Pipher, Mary
RWANDA:
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (1998)
Gourevitch, Peter
SERBIA:
With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia (2004)
Seierstad, Asne
SIERRA LEONE:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007)
Beah, Ishmael
SOMALIA:
Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival (2004)
Korn, Fadumo
SOUTH AFRICA:
Letting Them Die (2003)
Campbell, Catherine
Life and Times of Michael K (1983)
Coetzee, J.M.
Country of My Skull (1999)
Krog, Antjie
SUDAN:
Where Mercy Fails: Darfur’s Struggle to Survive (2009)
Herlinger, Chris and Paul Jeffrey
God Grew Tired of Us: a Memoir (2005)
Dau, John Bul
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: the True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan (2005)
Deng A., Deng B., Ajak, and Bernstein
What is the What (2006)
Eggers, Dave
Throwing the Stick Forward: The Impact of War on Southern Sudanese Women (2003)
Fitzgerald, Mary Anne
Why Haven’t You Left? (2006)
Nikkel, Marc
Emma’s War (2002)
Scroggins, Deborah
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:
Free People: A Christian Response to Global Economics (2005)
Brown, Tricia Gates
Two Ears of Corn : A Guide to People-Centered Agricultural Improvement (1995)
Bunch, Roland
World Hunger: Twelve Myths (1998)
Collins, Lappe and Rosset
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Ourselves (2010)
Corbett, Steve and Fikkert, Brian
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (1989)
Daly, Herman and John Cobb, Jr.
Earth-Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues (2007)
DeWitt, Calvin B.
Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies (1997)
Diamond, Jared
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000)
Freire, Paulo
Pedagogy of Hope (2004)
Freire, Paulo
Cities: Missions’ New Frontier (2000)
Greenway, Roger S. and Timothy M. Monsma
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007)
Kingsolver, Barbara
The Journey Toward Reconciliation (1999)
Lederach, John Paul
Walking with the Poor (1999)
Myers, Bryant
In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto (2008)
Pollan, Michael
When Charity Destroys Dignity: Overcoming Unhealthy Dependency in the Christian Movement (2007)
Schwartz, Glenn
Development as Freedom (2000)
Sen, Amartya
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (2005)
Sider, Ronald J.
Harvest in the Balance: Food, Justice and Biotechnology (2002)
Siemens, Mark
Mustard Seed Versus McWorld: Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future (1999)
Sine,Tom
Communities First (series) – www.urbansermons.org/f/jay-van-groningen
Van Groningen, Jay
UNITED STATES:
Rising Tide (1998)
Barry, John
The Long Loneliness (1952)
Day, Dorothy
Zeitoun (2009)
Eggers, Dave
Split Ticket: Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics (2010)
Gopp, Amy, Christian Piatt and Brandon Gilvin, eds.
Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
Lahiri, Jhumpa
Bridges Out of Poverty (2006)
Payne, Ruby K., Philip E. DeVol and Terie Dreussi Smith
Bayou Farewell (2004)
Tidwell, Mike
Blood Done Sign My Name (2005)
Tyson, Timothy
UNIVERSAL:
Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace – or War (1999)
Anderson, Mary B.
Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads (1996)
Bailie, Gil
Dear Church: Intimate Letters from Women in Ministry (2010)
France, Dorothy D., Ed.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (2009)
Kristof, Nicholas
A Mile in My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion (2005)
Hudson, Trevor
A Billion Bootstraps (2007)
Smith, Phil and Eric Thurman
Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty (2009)
Thurow, Roger and Scott Kilman
VIETNAM:
The Sorrow of War (1996)
Ninh, Bao
YUGOSLAVIA:
The Impossible Country: A Journey through the Last Days of Yugoslavia (1994)
Hall, Brian
The Serbs: History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (1997)
Judah, Tim
ZIMBABWE:
The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe (2010)
Godwin, Peter
Love in the Driest Season (2005)
Tucker, Neely
