Category: Book Recommendations Page 3 of 6

Read These Books

On January 21, 2022

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This book is part biography, part historical, part scientific, and part memoir. It weaves together medical ethics, race in America, the science behind cell lines, and the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks. It’s an award winner and I wasn’t sure I would like it because I’m not really a science person, but I was entranced.

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

Deeply moving, and the most practical book on prayer I’ve come across. Months after reading it, still it has stuck with me.

Back When I Took Scissors on a Plane

By Amy Medina

On August 27, 2021

In Book Recommendations, How Americans Think

20 years ago this month, Gil and I were boarding our first flight to Tanzania.

As we went through security, my carry-on bag got pulled aside. I watched patiently as the agent unzipped my black roller bag, poked around, and pulled out a full-sized pair of Fiskars scissors.

I was mortified. “I’m so sorry,” I fumbled. “I was using those for cutting tape for boxes and I meant to take them out before we left for the airport. You can confiscate them.”

He shrugged, put the scissors back into my bag, and waved me through.

I was taken aback. I recall telling Gil, “Fiskars scissors are really sharp. I’m surprised they are allowing me to take them on the plane.”

I don’t remember anything else about that journey. But that memory stayed with me because it was just a few weeks later when 19 terrorists with knives about as big as my scissors forever changed air travel, America, and the world.

To the 68% Who Aren’t Thrilled About Refugees

By Amy Medina

On May 11, 2021

In Book Recommendations, How Americans Think, Living Like a Missionary

So I’m still trying to figure out why people pay money for ripped jeans and why cauliflower has become a pizza crust so I guess you could say that there are a lot of things that still really confuse me around here.

But there’s one thing that has me especially perplexed: American Christians’ aversion to refugees.

A couple of years ago, a Pew Research Center Study reported this: “By more than two-to-one (68% to 25%), white evangelical Protestants say the U.S. does not have a responsibility to accept refugees. Other religious groups are more likely to say the U.S. does have this responsibility. And opinions among religiously unaffiliated adults are nearly the reverse of those of white evangelical Protestants: 65% say the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees into the country, while just 31% say it does not.”

Seriously, I don’t get it. Help me out here; I need to understand. What is it about being a “white evangelical protestant” in particular that makes a person so averse to America accepting refugees? Now, I get that saying “the U.S. does not have a responsibility to accept refugees” isn’t the same thing as saying, “We don’t want them here.” But the sentiment is related. Right?

I Don’t Want to Waste This Emptiness

By Amy Medina

On November 7, 2020

In Book Recommendations, Leaving Tanzania, Re-Entry to America

Every morning I would step out under the East African sun onto the piece of heaven called Haven of Peace Academy. I could look out past the palm trees onto the expanse of the Indian Ocean, enveloped in that beauty. Everywhere I walked I was surrounded by children; everywhere I turned there was someone to talk to, a parent, a teacher, a bouncing, dancing first grader. I ate lunch with a Brit and a Dane and a Zimbabwean; every conversation was alive with culture and rich diversity and perspective. My days were full of problems to solve and noise and laughter and light.

Now every day I wake up in my small apartment and take the kids to school. I sit on my couch and am bombarded by the silence. I face the computer all day and my only interactions with other people are through that screen. I fix myself lunch and eat with a magazine. I go to the grocery store and never recognize anyone. I go to church and few know my name. I am alone, and I am unknown. And inside is a yawning emptiness.

The deaths in my life this year line up like tombstones. The death of my self-respect; being forced to leave Tanzania early engulfed my head in shame. The death of feeling competent, knowledgeable, relevant; starting a new job is like becoming a toddler again. The death of being known; the wealth of my relationships in Tanzania took twenty years to build. I lift my weary eyes to climbing that mountain over again and it feels insurmountable.

Read These Books

By Amy Medina

On December 27, 2019

In Book Recommendations

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

Whoa! This was an excellent book and I highly recommend it–for Americans especially. It is extremely well written and has a page-turning story line with engaging characters. Deals sensitively, intelligently, and with nuance on issues of racism and police brutality in America. This is an important book! Technically it is young adult fiction, but unfortunately I wouldn’t give it to my young teens. Not necessarily because of the profanity (which is on pretty much every page), but because a couple of scenes are more sexually explicit than I want my teenager exposed to. But adults? Please read this book.

Misunderstood: The Impact of Growing Up Overseas in the 21st Century

by Tanya Crossman

This book is the result of hundreds of conversations with third-culture kids. It’s eye-opening and enlightening for any of us who are raising them, teaching them, or loving them.

Stronger Than Death: How Annalena Tonelli Defied Terror and Tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa

by Rachel Pieh Jones

This is a well-researched, well-written biography of Annalena Tonelli, an Italian Catholic who gave up everything to help the poor and sick in the Horn of Africa. It’s a thought-provoking, disturbing but compelling book, especially for anyone who is involved in cross-cultural humanitarian work. Read it with a friend, because it provokes a lot of important questions without necessarily providing answers.

Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

by Caroline Fraser

I spent a good portion of my childhood pretending I was Laura Ingalls, so I had to read this book. It is a fascinating account of what pioneer life really was like–and therefore shattered my life-long fantasy of wishing I was born in the 19th century. Despite it’s dream-smashing quality, it was a worthwhile read. And after I finished it, I went back and read (most of) Laura’s books again–and still enjoyed them!

Love Me, Feed Me: The Adoptive Parent’s Guide to Ending the Worry About Weight, Picky Eating, Power Struggles and More

by Katja Rowell

A must-read on food issues for anyone raising adopted children.

Suffering is Never for Nothing

by Elisabeth Elliot

A new book by Elisabeth Elliot?!? I’m there! This is a transcription of a series of talks that Elisabeth gave on suffering. As always, it is full of grace, wisdom, and humor, reinforcing my opinion that I chose a worthy hero.

All You Can Ever Know

by Nicole Chung

This is a memoir written by a Korean-American adoptee who was raised in a white family. I highly recommend this book for adoptive parents, and I will certainly encourage Grace to read it in the next year or two. Though parts of it were so painful to read as an adoptive mom, it ultimately was a story of beauty from ashes.

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terrorism and Heroism in Colonial Africa

by Adam Hochschild

It’s hard to recommend a book that is full of so much of the depravity of man, but it’s also necessary–especially for anyone who has any interest in Africa. This book is the account of the history of what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, and how King Leopold of Belgium decided that he had the right to own it and rape its resources for his own personal profit (though he never even stepped foot on the continent). I read history like this and am not surprised when some Africans are intent on purging Americans and Europeans from their countries.