Library Loot ~ three today

Go Set a Watchman ~ by Harper Lee, 2015, fiction (Alabama)

Twenty years after the trial of Tom Robinson,  Jean Louise Finch — Scout — returns home to Maycomb to visit her father and struggles with personal and political issues as her small Alabama town adjusts to the turbulent events beginning to transform the United States in the mid-1950s.  Originally written in the 1950s, this was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird, which I re-read last month.

It Can't Happen Here ~ by Sinclair Lewis, 1935

A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.  Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.

Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence ~ by Jonathan Sacks, 2015

Rabbi Sacks tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God.  If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, he argues, then it must also form part of the solution.  Through an exploration of the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, he shows that religiously inspired violence has as its source misreadings of biblical texts at the heart of all three Abrahamic faiths.  By looking anew at the book of Genesis, with its foundational stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rabbi Sacks offers a radical rereading of many of the Bible’s seminal stories of sibling rivalry:  Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Rachel and Leah.  "Abraham himself sought to be a blessing to others regardless of their faith.  That idea, ignored for many of the intervening centuries, remains the simplest definition of Abrahamic faith.  It is not our task to conquer or convert the world or enforce uniformity of belief.  It is our task to be a blessing to the world.  The use of religion for political ends is not righteousness but idolatry ... To invoke God to justify violence against the innocent is not an act of sanctity but of sacrilege."

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  See what others got this week.