EFJ Summer Reading List

The new selection on the Education for Justice (EFJ) summer reading list is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What a title! The Catholic Social Teaching themes and connections in this novel include the sanctity of human life, hope in the midst of war, nonviolent resistance, and full humanity in community.

Book description from EFJ: In London, in 1946, author Juliet Ashton is looking for her next project after the war. Her letters to her publisher and her best friend describe her life, and her search for an idea. When she receives a charming letter from a resident of Guernsey, she's intrigued. This marvelous epistolary novel reveals the horrors of the occupation, but also the kindnesses during the war. The shadow of Elizabeth McKenna hangs over the book, the wise young woman who is missing from the island, and whose story haunts the residents and Juliet. Readers will care deeply about the islanders and their stories, just as Juliet does.

Caritas in Veritate

A 12-page Resource Guide on Caritas in Veritate, written by Jim Hug, SJ and provided by Education for Justice, is available on the Social Justice page of the SCC East web site, available by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

EFJ Summer Reading List

In its continuing quest to provide suggestions for summer reading that contains Catholic Social Teaching (CST) themes, Education for Justice (EFJ) suggests The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The sanctity of human life and nonviolent resistance play a role in this work of literary fiction.

Book Description by EFJ: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a novel of cruelty, poverty, and hope. Liesel Meminger is a young girl who has been placed in foster care by her mother. Liesel's brother dies en route to their new home and this leaves Liesel traumatized, causing her to have terrible nightmares in the middle of the night. Liesel's foster father begins teaching her to read on these nights to distract her from her pain. Liesel learns to turn to books for comfort. When the war begins, comfort becomes a rare state of mind, so Liesel finds ways to seek it out. Liesel begins to steal books in her efforts to deal with the cruelty of the world around her. The Book Thief is a complicated story of survival that will encourage its readers to think.

EFJ Summer Reading List

The third recommendation from Education for Justice (EFJ) is one that is quite familiar to our blog readers, but one that bears mentioning again and again -- Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. The themes of solidarity and commitment, peace-building, the rights of the girl, and education are prominent in this work of non-fiction.

Book description from EFJ: The war-torn mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan appear in the news as the breeding grounds of terrorist training camps, Al Qaeda hide-outs, and fierce religious extremism. In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson and Relin take readers behind the headlines to reveal the true heart and soul of this explosive region and to show how one man's promise might be enough to change the world.