Cold Dog Soup


Stephen Dobyns - 1985
    An innocent abroad in New York City, he has a lot of problems: an anonymous job with Xerox; a childhood that vaguely troubles him; a hot date tonight with lascivious, one-handed Sarah Hughes. Then fate deals Latchmer a joker in the deck, and all his problems come down, apparently, to this: how to get rid of a dead dog. As Latchmer hits the night-time streets, his burden double-bagged in Hefties, little does he know what an incredible journey awaits him.It is an odyssey through hell and hilarity, guided by one Jean-Claude, a philosophically reckless Haitian cab driver who believes, quite rightly , that dogs have a far higher purpose in death than to enrich the soil. As his strange adventure unfolds, Latchmer suffers from a guilty and guileless compulsion to tell curious tales of betrayal. In the end, having sought to bury his shaggy charge in Central Park (all other options having proved unavailing), he finds himself face to face with his own unburied past.

Speak Swahili, Dammit !


James Penhaligon - 2010
    He gained a unique gaze on life, death, sadness and humour. With a family tragically affected by World War Two, and a father who died early because of his injuries, James, his sister and mother were left to the mercy of a gold mine with little use for them. His upbringing was mainly by a tribal ayah and an elderly Swahili man with pretensions beyond his station, but the soul and heart of a lion, who feared nobody, except his wife in Nubian-gin-inspired fury. James learnt to fish with home-made line and hooks, to eat insects, and, to the amusement of the watu, to abuse the European hierarchy on the mine in Swahili they did not understand. At boarding school in Arusha James befriended boys of different nations who were, in their separate ways, also outcasts or non conformers. He presented a dilemma to the teachers - a white boy with a "black spirit." His gang got up to nefarious enterprises, bringing them into a state of permanent conflict with the system. James became imbued with the history of Tanganyika, back to its time as the German Colony of Deutsch Ost Africa, which ended in 1918. The unparalleled courage and brilliance of the massively outnumbered German leader Obestleutnant Paul von Lettow Vorbeck and his schutztruppe in the bush war against the British became a beacon to James of what can be accomplished, even in the most adverse of circumstances.

A Flood of Kindness


Ellen Leventhal - 2021
    Written in spare prose and told from an intimate first-person point of view, the story follows Charlotte, a young girl who watches floodwaters rise in her home and is forced to evacuate to a shelter with her parents. Kind people she doesn't know give her food, socks and shoes to keep her feet warm, and a place to sleep. As Charlotte adjusts to the shelter--a strange, crowded place that is not home--she grapples with feelings of anger and sadness. But as the days go by, Charlotte starts to realize how grateful she is for the things that she does have--her parents, a cot to sleep on, food to eat--and starts looking for ways to help others in the shelter. All children deal with sadness and loss in some way, whether it stems from a natural disaster, the death of a pet, or moving to a new place. A Flood of Kindness acknowledges those difficult feelings and helps readers process them in a healthy way. Children will be encouraged to be kind to those who need a friend and to help others in whatever way they can, no matter how small.

Watch Your Mouth: Understanding the Power of the Tongue


Tony Evans - 2016
    From bestselling author Dr. Tony Evans comes a compelling resource to help you learn to tame your tongue. With life-changing insights shared through engaging lessons and anecdotes, you'll learn what the Bible teaches about talking: Discover the power of the spoken word to bolster your faith when you're doubting. Discern what should or shouldn't be said so that you honor God with your speech. Develop the ability to praise God and voice wisdom even in tough circumstances. Get inspired by Tony's teaching on the tongue and model with your mouth the character of God. Don't let your words bring cursing or destruction to yourself and those you love. Instead, let your words minister to and speak life into the world around you.

A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer


Dietrich Bonhoeffer - 2005
    s/t: Daily Meditations from His Letters, Writings, and SermonsIn time for the 100th anniversary of his birth come daily inspirations from a beloved pastor, theologian, and martyr.

Buzzing Communities: How to Build Bigger, Better, and More Active Online Communities


Richard Millington - 2012
    This book combines a century of proven science, dozens of real-life examples, practical tips, and trusted community-building methods.This step-by-step guide includes a lifecycle for tracking your progress and a framework for managing your organization's community efforts. This Book Will Help You toUnderstand what the members of your community really want.Dramatically increase the number of newcomers that become regulars.Avoid the mistakes most organizations make when they try to build online communities.Develop a fantastic, user-friendly website for your members.Grow your online community to critical mass and beyondKeep members engaged and active in your community.Measure the community's return on investment and explain the benefits to your organization.

Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect


Joseph R. Myers - 2007
    But community can't be forced, controlled, or easily created. The problem, says Joseph R. Myers, is that churches are too focused on developing programs instead of concentrating on environments where community will spontaneously emerge.Organic Community challenges key leaders to become environmentalists--people who create or shape environments. Outlining nine organizational tools for creating a healthy environment, Myers shows readers how to diagnose their current situation and implement patterns that will develop possibilities for healthy communities.

Craic Baby: Dispatches from a Rising Language


Darach Ó Séaghdha - 2018
    While Motherfocloir was steeped in memory and a father-son relationship, Craic Baby hinges on the beginnings of a father-daughter relationship, and how watching a child learn to communicate changes how you think about language.

The Turquoise Table: Finding Community and Connection in Your Own Front Yard


Kristin Schell - 2017
    The Turquoise Table is Kristin Schell's invitation to you to connect with your neighbors and build friendships. Featured in Southern Living, Good Housekeeping, and the TODAY Show, Kristin introduces a new way to look at hospitality. Desperate for a way to slow down and connect, Kristin put an ordinary picnic table in her front yard, painted it turquoise, and began inviting friends and neighbors to join her. Life changed in her community, and it can change in yours too. Alongside personal and heartwarming stories, Kristin gives you:Stress-free ideas for kick-starting your own Turquoise TableSimple recipes to take outside and share with othersStories from people using Turquoise Tables in their neighborhoodsEncouragement to overcome barriers that keep you from connectingThis gorgeous book, with vibrant photography and a ribbon marker, invites you to make a difference right where you live. The beautiful design makes it an ideal book to give to a friend or to keep for yourself. Community and friendship are waiting just outside your front door.

Diversity Beyond Lip Service: A Coaching Guide for Challenging Bias


La'wana Harris - 2019
    Please read this book and help create workplaces with honest engagement and access for all." --Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach and two-time #1 Leadership Thinker in the worldThe ugly truth about diversity is that some people worry they must give up their power for others to have a chance. La'Wana Harris's Inclusion Coaching method helps people realize that sharing power isn't the same as losing it.The elephant in the room with diversity work is that people with privilege must use it to allow others equal access to power. This is often why diversity efforts falter--people believe in diversity until they feel that they have to give something up. How do we talk them through this shift?La'Wana Harris introduces Inclusion Coaching, a new tool based on cutting-edge research that identifies the stages of preparation, implementation, and "self-work" necessary to help individuals, teams, and organizations build a sustainable culture of inclusion. Harris's six-stage COMMIT model--Commit to courageous action, Open your eyes and ears, Move beyond lip service, Make room for controversy and conflict, Invite new perspectives, and Tell the truth even when it hurts--provides a proven process for making people aware of their own conscious and unconscious biases and concrete steps to make inclusion an embedded reality.Harris offers managers and diversity coaches new models to empower everyone from employees to CEOs to "do" inclusion and address deep-rooted biases that are often invisible. She addresses the growing need to challenge bias and build authentic cultures where everyone can feel a sense of belonging.

I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People


Terence Lester - 2019
    Countless people are invisible to us. We overlook the poor and homeless, partly because we don't share much space with them. More seriously, we often choose not to see the realities around us. We hold misconceptions about who is deserving or not, or make false assumptions about people's poverty being their own fault. Terence Lester calls us to see the invisible people around us. His personal encounters and real-life stories challenge Christians to become more informed about poverty and homelessness, and to see the poor as Jesus does. When we see people through God's eyes and hear their stories, we restore their dignity and help them flourish. And when we recognize our own inner spiritual poverty, we have greater empathy for others, no matter their circumstances. Let love open your eyes. Discover how seeing leads us to act with compassion and justice--as God intends.

Having Nothing, Possessing Everything: Finding Abundant Communities in Unexpected Places


Michael Mather - 2018
    But after his church’s community lost nine young men to violence in a few short months, Mather came to see that the poor didn’t need his help—he needed theirs.This is the story of how one church found abundance in a com-munity of material poverty. Viewing people—not programs, finances, or service models—as their most valuable resource moved church members beyond their own walls and out into the streets, where they discovered folks rich in strength, talents, determination, and love.Mather’s Having Nothing, Possessing Everything will inspire readers to seek justice in their own local communities and to find abundance and hope all around them.

The Gritterman


Orlando Weeks - 2017
    People might find that a lonely thought. Not me...' As the rest of the world sleeps, the Gritterman goes out to work. Through the wind and the snow. Through the blue-black hours when time slips away, he grits the paths and the pavements and the roads. For him, a life without gritting is no life at all...A song for the unsung hero, this is a story about stoicism, dignity and a man leaving behind the work that he loves. It is accompanied by the author's own illustrations.**Listen to or download The Gritterman's companion album featuring 10 new tracks by Orlando Weeks. Available now on all digital and streaming platforms.**

Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community


Max DePree - 1997
    The best-selling author of Leadership Is an Art and Leadership Jazz, he has done no less than revolutionize leadership thinking and practice. Now, in Leading Without Power, De Pree finds that the most successful organizations of the Information Age operate not as controlled collections of human resources, but as dynamic communities of free people. And in order to mobilize these communities, leaders must know how to lead without power, because free people follow willingly or not at all. This is a book to be read, reread, shared widely within any organization. Every chapter has pictures for our mind that will remain vivid long after the book is closed. A vibrant testament to human potential, the why of work. --Frances Hesselbein, president and CEO, Leader to Leader Institute formerly the Drucker FoundationDe Pree holds up nonprofits as mirrors of our greatest aspirations places where people work for the opportunity to contribute to the common good, and for the chance to realize their full human potential. He calls such organizations movements and challenges others to follow their example. Movements, De Pree maintains, transcAnd ?the deceptive simplicity of a single bottom line? and set standards for leadership and service all organizations should reach for. They lead not with the power of the paycheck or with bureaucratic carrots-and-sticks, but with the promise of meaningful work and lives fulfilled. For that reason, nonprofit or otherwise, they are the most successful organizations of all. Brimming with rich, warm, and wise advice, Leading Without Power takes an enlightened look at the forces that drive selfless accomplishment. It offers encouragement and hope for creating organizations that inspire the very best in people. And it provides leaders at every level with a new context for effecting positive change. Table of Contents:Places of Realized Potential What's a Movement? A Context for Service What Shall We Measure? The Language of Potential Service Has Its Roots Attributes of Vital Organizations Vision Trust Me Why Risk It? The Function of Hope Elements of a Legacy Moral Purpose and Active Virtue

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods


Wardeh Harmon - 2012
    Research is proving that live-culture foods can help reduce high cholesterol, strengthen and support digestive and immune systems, and help fight and prevent chronic diseases. The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Fermenting Foods will cover the amazing health benefits of fermented or "living" foods and the techniques for safely fermenting food at home. It will contain over 100 unique and delicious recipes for ferments of all types, from beer to tempeh to yogurt, with detailed recipes to guide the way.