The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, Jemar Tisby ’02 (Zondervan). In the history of American racial progress, religion has not always been the moral leader it should have been in fulfilling biblical teaching about human dignity. Tisby explores the failures of American religious leaders and groups in promoting racial justice, examining ways Christians have actively worked against the advance of equality contrary to the tenets of their faith. The writer, podcaster and doctoral student in history at the University of Mississippi also offers a way forward, outlining ways to make faith communities more inclusive.
Deep Dark Blue: A Memoir of Survival, Polo Tate ’03 (Feiwel & Friends). When she was 11 years old, Tate carved her dream into a set of junior dog tags: “I want to be in the Air Force someday.” An appointment to the Air Force Academy, where she would play on the volleyball team, set her on course to fulfill that ambition, but her path took a traumatic turn when she experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse with little recourse through superiors or support from peers. Now an actor and comedian, Tate recounts her struggle to survive and heal in the aftermath of what she suffered.
The Future of Tech is Female: How to Achieve Gender Diversity, Douglas M. Branson ’65, ’74LL.M. (NYU Press). As the technology business booms, led by giants like Apple and Google, women represent only about five percent of the industry’s senior executives. An expert on corporate gender diversity writing his third book on the subject, Branson, the W. Edward Sell Chair in Law at the University of Pittsburgh, explains the causes of female underrepresentation while examining attempts to address it in IT board rooms and corporate suites. His critique of industry practices identifies those with potential to make the tech sector “one in which women thrive.”
Monk’s Musings: Faith, Life, Notre Dame, Edward A. Malloy, CSC, ’63, ’67M.A., ’69M.A. (Corby Books). As priest, professor and president, Monk Malloy has drawn on his wide-ranging interests and intellect to lead and enlighten. In this collection, Malloy’s reflections span penance and prayer, conscience and grace, sin and civility, pacifism and nuclear war, helicopter parents and roommates, gambling and air travel among many other topics that occupy the mind of one of Notre Dame’s most thoughtful sons.
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Grieving Together: A Couple’s Journey through Miscarriage, Laura Kelly Fanucci ’03 and Franco David Fanucci ’03 (Our Sunday Visitor). After losing three children to miscarriage as well as twin daughters who lived only a few days after their premature birth, Laura and Franco Fanucci have experienced the deepest parental suffering. They offer couples struggling to have children an empathetic guide through the grief and loneliness that accompanies such a searing personal loss. “We are fellow travelers on the road,” the Fanuccis write, helping others find their way through prayer and practical advice.
The Any Person Mindset: Be Accountable to the Difference You Can Make, Dan Coughlin ’85 and Lee Renz (HCC Publications). Regardless of your position in an organization, you may have the ability to make an impact, but find that the traits required to realize that influence are not necessarily innate. A management consultant with hundreds of major corporate clients, Coughlin and his coauthor offer insights into clarifying your purpose, and suggest how to use those insights to sustainably improve yourself, your team and the overall organization.
Multiple Modernities: Carmen de Burgos, Author and Activist, Edited by Anja Louis and Michelle M. Sharp ’98, ’99M.A. (Routledge). International scholars provide new insights into the work of the Spanish journalist and author that reaffirms her contributions to feminism in her native country. In hundreds of articles, dozens of short stories and novels, and social treatises on issues such as marriage and divorce, women’s suffrage and the death penalty — work spanning the first three decades of the 20th century — “Burgos embodied the tensions between tradition and modernity, depicting multiple representations of womanhood,” encouraging the assertion and realization of feminine desires in all facets of life.
Little Ways to Little Sanctity: Walk the Way of Christ with Littleness and Simplicity . . . One Step at a Time, Daniel J. Thompson ’87 (Oshee Publishing). The humility and simplicity of St. Therese of Lisieux provides a thread for others to string their version of the good-deed beads that she once used to count the acts that brought her closer to Jesus. Thompson modeled his book, which includes a forward by Msgr. Thomas Powers ’87, the vicar general of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, on St. Therese’s example, focusing on practices everyone can implement in their daily lives to grow in faith.
Jason Kelly is an associate editor of this magazine.