Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center for Sustainability - San Francisco

New Books in the New Year

Thanks to the Northern California Directory of Independent Booksellers, the Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center for Sustainability has received more than a score of books in the areas of Nonprofit Sector Resources, Social Issues, Policy Economics and Philosophy plus a few works of fiction. Here is a sampling of the new books now in the collection.

Kwame Anthony Appiah. The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. (2010)

The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen is the latest book from the New York Times best-selling author and Princeton University Professor of Philosophy Kwame Anthony Appiah. The book examines how moral progress happens and how societies come to repudiate long-standing social practices that murderous and dehumanizing. Appiah, born in Ghana and educated in Britain, examines the sudden end of the centuries-old practice of dueling in Britain, the demise of foot binding in China and the struggle to ban the trans-Atlantic slave trade and he writes convincingly that in each case the evolving concept of honor played a critical role in terminating these practices. But this book is not just about past moral revolutions. Appiah also looks at how honor might led to demise of honor killings in Pakistan.

Pavithra Mehta & Suchitra Shenoy. Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the World's Greatest Business Case for Compassion. (2011)

Infinite Vision is the story of Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy and the Aravind Eye Clinic. Founded in 1976 as a 11-bed facility in the old temple city of Madruai in Tamil Nadu, Aravind today boasts eight eye hospitals with over 4,000 beds treating over 1.7 million patients each year making it the largest and most productive eye care institution in the world. With a business model based on compassion, two-third of Aravind's patients receive free treatment and yet the eye clinics are self-sustaining teaching and research facilities. A core principle of the Aravind System is that the hospital must provide services to the rich and poor alike, while remaining financially self-supporting. This principle is achieved through high quality, large volume care and a well-organized system.This timely book is co-authored by Pavithra Metha, an award-winning Indian writer and filmmaker, and Suchitra Shenoy, a founding member of the Inclusive Markets team at The Monitor Group.


Linda Stout. Collective Visioning: How Groups Can Work Together for a Just and Sustainable Future. (2011)

Collective Visioning: How Groups Can Work Together for a Just and Sustainable Future is the latest work from the Massachusetts-based social activist and founder of Spirit in Action, a non-profit organization that catalyzes broad-based movement building to support deep and lasting social change. In this book aimed at the nonprofit community, Stout provides guidelines on how to bring diverse interests together to form a cohesive group built on trust that ensures that each and every voice is heard with a goal of creating a positive vision and developing an action plan that leverages each member's unique abilities to bring that vision to fruition. Stout focuses on the important need to get our own storytelling right. She writes that "our own stories ground us in the present while empowering us" and notes that "unless we connect with our stories and truly listen to those of others, we won't be able to vision collectively into the future."

Dianna Booher. Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader. (2011)

Dianna Booher is the founder of the Booher Consultants, a global communication training firm in Dallas, and the author of several books on communication and public speaking. In this book, Booher provides scores of practical tips on the physical qualities, communication techniques, thought processes, and attitudes that underlie powerful personal presence. Personal presence is one of those qualities that is difficult to define but easy to recognize.This comprehensive guide will enable readers to become compelling leaders with a commanding presence no matter what their current position.

Joan Steinau Lester. Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong. (2011)

Joan Steinau Lester, Ed.D. is an award-winning commentator, columnist, and author of four critically praised books. Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong is Lester's first novel and looks at the issues faced by a fast growing segment of the US populations, biracial kids, through the eyes of a 15 year old girl named Nina Armstrong as she faces the challenges of her parents' divorce. Nina lives with her mother Maggie, a leftie whose family roots are in union organizing; her little brother, Jimi, lives with their father Silas who is busy rediscovering his African-American roots, which include an enslaved great-grandmother Sarah, whose story Silas is writing. Nina is emotionally, socially, and historically conflicted: who is she, and whose is she? She’s got white friends and black friends who inhabit different peer worlds, and the family tension shapes everything.