Beacon Buzz: Holiday Sale, Great TEDx talks
December 07, 2012
Order any book at Beacon.org (including the ones featured in our Buzz Report below) by December 31st and receive 20% off your order and free standard shipping.* And orders of $75 or more will receive a free King Legacy Series tote bag.
Plus, Beacon Press will donate 15% of total sales to the Teachers College Literacy Lifeboats Initiative. Use Promo Code GIFT20 at checkout.
*Due to the increased volume of mail shipping during the holiday season, we cannot guarantee orders submitted after December 13 will arrive by December 24. If you would like to ensure your package arrives by that date, we offer paid shipping options via UPS. A 15% donation from each sale using promo code GIFT20 will be given to the Teacher's College Literacy Lifeboats Initiative to aid those affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Must Watch
Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America by Eboo Patel
Eboo Patel spoke at TEDx Women in Washington DC about his grandmother, Dorothy Day, and his growth as an interfaith activist.
Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, by Stacy Mitchell
Stacy Mitchell spoke at TEDx Dirigo on “Why We Can’t Shop Our Way to a Better Economy.”
I Told You So, by Kate Clinton
Kate Clinton talks about her job as a lesbian feminist comic and how humor gets us through the most discouraging of times at TEDx Women.
Notable Mentions
The $60,000 Dog: My Life With Animals, by Lauren
Slater
Wisconsin Public Radio's Joy Cardin Show, Nov. 30, live by phone.
ELLE magazine’s December issue: “A thoughtful memoir unravels the depth of our animal attachments.”
Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, by Chris Stedman
Minneapolis Star Tribune review: “ [an] enlightening and engaging memoir.”
Skeptic blog write-up:
Atheism is actually not a duopoly of firebrands and diplomats. These two types of evangelists no more describe “both kinds” of atheist than “country and western” describes “both kinds” of music.
Stedman explicitly rejects “the demise of religion”—that is not a goal he shares. He also rejects the firebrands versus diplomats dichotomy. “I believe how pushy should we be? is the wrong question,” he writes. The better question is how do we make the world a better place?
Before They’re Gone: A Family's Year-Long Quest to Explore America's Most Endangered National Parks, by Michael Lanza
2012 National Outdoor Book Awards NOBA Honorable Mention for Outdoor Literature.
A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings, by Martin Luther King, Jr, Coretta Scott King, and Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock
Beliefnet ran an excerpt, “Loving Your Enemies.”
Upheaval after upheaval has reminded us that modern man is traveling along a road called hate, in a journey that will bring us to destruction and damnation. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist: he is the practical realist.
Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War, by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini
Two great radio interviews with Rita Brock: Northern Spirit Radio and KPCC Take Two (interview highlights and book excerpt online at KPCC)
Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis, by Cynthia Barnett
Barnett was interviewed for a Marketplace story on a water desalination plan for San Diego.
Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush on Public Education, by Mara Sapon-Shevin and Nancy Schniedewind
Poughkeepsie Journal: “In “Educational Courage,” veteran educators and activists Schniedewind and Mara Sapon-Shevin bring together the voices of those resisting market-driven initiatives such as high-stakes testing, charter schools, mayoral control and merit pay.”
Coming Soon
Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, by Rashid Khalidi (March 12, 2013)
Foreign Policy post by Khalidi, Nov. 29: “Obama’s Three Options”
Advance praise for Brokers of Deceit:
"Khalidi has combined history, common sense and his first-hand understanding of arab-israeli peace talks, as brokered by Washington, to make the case that American national security interests would be best served by a just peace in the Middle East. Instead, he write with great sadness, Washington's efforts to be a honest broker fall "somewhere between high irony and farce" --and puts democratic America, with its avowed commitment to freedom for all, in the position of enabling the continued subjugation of the Palestine people. This is an important book." --Seymour M. Hersh, the New Yorker; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize