UWF Reading Program

New books in the UWF 2025 Reading Program are on the book cart in the Fellowship Hall. The cart only has some of the books on the list. Feel free to borrow any that you’d like to read. Please return the books to the cart in a timely manner, so others can enjoy reading too! Here are a few recommended titles:

• “Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thurman (who “became a spiritual adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.”) - “First published in 1949, this is a compassionate look at God’s work in our lives…Thurman’s discerning reading of the message of renewal through self-love as in the life of Jesus resonates powerfully once again.” (SG)
• “The Girl with the Louding Voice”, by Abi Daré - “chosen by Jenna Bush Hager on the “Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club” pick; Oprah’s Book Club pick; “the inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village, who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself”…she “shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams...even change the world.” (EM)
• “Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng - NY Times Notable Book, Best Book of 2022 by People, Time, Washington Post, NPR, and more - inspiring novel about a mother’s unshakeable love…Bird Gardner lives a quiet life with his loving father…mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was 9…He receives a mysterious letter with only a cryptic drawing, and soon he’s pulled…to find her…ways civilized communities can ignore injustice.. and lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, the power of art to create change.” (SA)
• “Before We Were Yours” (novel) by Lisa Wingate - “tells the story of a family torn apart in the 1930s, when their children are taken by a corrupt orphanage that kidnapped poor children and sold them to wealthy families…based on the real-life crimes of Georgia Tann, the orphanage director”. (NC)
• “Victory, Stand!: Raising my Fist for Justice” - by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, Dawud Anyabwile - A National Book Award Finalist. “Oct. 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medalist, and John Carlos, the bronze medalist, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice”…Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas…it paints a stirring portrait of an iconic moment in Olympic history”.… This comic/graphic novel is “a powerful celebration of resistance”. Note: San Jose State unveiled a statue celebrating the two former students on Oct. 16, 2024, the 56th anniversary of the protest at the Olympics, and attended by Dr. Tommie Smith. (SA)

Our El Camino District Program Resources Chair, Carolyn Bircher, prepared wonderful PDF lists of the books on the 2020-2025 lists; she has the new list for 2025, including the number of copies at local libraries. Please click on the following link for the 2020-2025 PDF lists: <https://elcaminorealumw.org/educate/reading-program/#2024-reading-program> Contact Mary Chafey if you have questions or need help finding the books.