Central Dallas Ministries hosting Urban Engagement Book Club

by Larry James of Urban Daily

The meeting is a 75-minute encounter with some of the most important books on the issues that we care most about in our work among our inner city neighbors.

At noon on the first Thursday of each month, Central Dallas Ministries hosts a 75-minute encounter with some of the most important books on the issues that we care most about in our work among our inner city neighbors. We call the experience "Urban Engagement Book Club."

Here's what we deliver each month:

* An outline of the book's contents that forms the basis of an in-depth synopsis

* A couple of pages of the key quotes from the book

* A feeling, when you leave, that you've read the book

* A simple lunch

* Great camaraderie and new connections

* An extremely diverse crowd that is growing

* New ideas, perspectives and hope

We meet at the Highland Park United Methodist Church (Room 386) on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

This year we will be investigating the following books together:

The Foundation: A Great American Secret: How Private Wealth is Changing the World, Joel Fleishman.

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Incite! Women of Color Against Violence.

Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, Dowell Myers.

Same Kind of Different as Me, Ron Hall and Denver Moore.

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Bill Clinton.

Poverty and Place: Ghettos, Barrios, and the American City, Paul Jargowsky.

Letters to a Young Teacher, Jonathan Kozol.

Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood, Jay MacLeod.

Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class, Robert Frank.

Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint.

Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great, Jim Collins.

White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001, Michael Phillips.

Our Day to End Poverty, Shannon Daley-Harris, Jeffrey Keenan, and Karen Speerstra.

On the Move, Bono.

Plan now to join us for the first meeting of 2008 on Thursday, January 3 (that's tomorrow!). For more information visit our website at http://www.centraldallasministries.org/uebc/index.htm.