Summer Reading with ADORE

The ADORE (A Dialogue on Race and Ethnicity) team is PUUC’s multiculturally diverse team aspiring to bring awareness and cultural competency to our congregation through dialogue, human story, worship, education and relationship. One of our summer activities will be a three session book discussion. We’ll have a short meeting on June 8th, following the first service, to decide which one of the following books we’ll read and discuss. Contact Eva Dew Danner or David Parker for additional information.

The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry (poet, essayist, novelist, farmer, cultural critic, and descendent of slave holders). Through Berry’s personal experience, he explains how remaining passive in the face of the struggle of racism further corrodes America’s potential. In a quiet and observant manner, Berry opens up about how his attempt to discuss racism is rooted in the hope that someday the historical wound will begin to heal.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (science writer, editor, media correspondent, biographer). Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer, but scientists know her as HeLa. Her cells - taken without her knowledge in 1951 - were vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown. Skloot tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine.

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride (journalist, musician and author). McBride’s mother was a self-declared light-skinned woman who would not admit she was white and Jewish, yet was steadfast in her love for her 12 black children. McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and recreates her remarkable story: daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in Poland, whose family emigrated to America and settled in a small Virginia town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high; marriage to a black minister and co-founder of an all-black Baptist church in NYC.