Book Reviews

This anthology, edited by Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, president of the UUA, provides a pathway to a spiritual deepening that can advance the growth and development of UUs in our understanding of love’s centrality to UUism and illuminate how the guiding light of love is reflected in UU principles.

Danielle J. Buhuro, the editor of this amazing collection of essays, maintains that society does not make room for a quality of life for activists that provides a level of sustainable self-care. …Buhuro suggests that if we are to be healthy and continue to advance a culture of resistance…

by Sofia Betancourt, a Unitarian Universalist minister, represents a significant scholarly contribution to ecofeminism and environmental justice. The book documents the building of the Panama Canal that was accomplished by the labor of men and women from the African diaspora.…

Dr. Sharon Welch is a Unitarian Universalist feminist liberation theologian, who self-identifies as white, female, and owning class. Just as she is transparent about her social location, she candidly claims her double identity of oppressed and oppressor, a dual identity many of us share—if we are honest.

is a historical fiction set in the 1960s in Selma, Alabama during the nation’s civil rights struggles. While it is told through the innocent eyes of the eleven-year-old protagonist, it centers the larger issue of justice, and the struggles of Black southerners facing centuries-old oppressions. The reader follows Olivia (Oli) and her best friend, Bartholomew (Mo), on their journey to find their fathers.

The author, Feminista Jones, adopted her name in homage to Cleopatra Jones, the female character in Black exploitation movies portrayed as a “hard-hitting-no-nonsense” ass kicking-karate-chopping-take-care-of-business Black woman….

Rev. Dr. Kristen L. Harper demonstrates her mastery of prose and poetry in the 126 pages that include questions after each section. She skillfully takes the reader into some hard places and topics, and with equal aplomb delivers riveting poetry that reinforces her powerful prose.

A brief overview of several books by and about Rosa Parks including I Am Rosa Parks; Rosa Parks: My Story; The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Adapted for Young People); and At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. 

After reading Reverend Xolani Kacela’s book, The Black Unitarian Universalist Survival Guide: 10 Steps for Surviving as a Black Unitarian Universalist and How Allies Can Keep It 100, I recommend that it should be included in every Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregation’s New Member Orientation…

Cicely Tyson’s book, Just as I Am, represents her final words to the world and her fans, her closing act. Cicely Tyson died January 28, 2021, at 96 years old. She died the same year her book was published. So it is her finale–her tribute. I am happy that she was able to narrate and take control of her parting story and message.

Adam Hochschild’s skillful research and writing reveal a compelling chronicle of King Leopold’s “death toll of holocaust dimensions” that galvanized the first great international human rights movement of the twentieth century.…