President and author Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” A read or re-read of Obama’s books may give some insight into what about the man,
President and author Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” A read or re-read of Obama’s books may give some insight into what about the man, his actions, or what he stands for has interested the Norwegian awards committee enough to award him the prize.
In honor of all Nobel Peace laureates, this week’s Book Buzz brings you titles written by or about winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. From Albert Schweitzer to Martin Luther King Jr., from Dag Hammarskjold to Mother Teresa, pick up a read about our quest for peace from your neighborhood library.
Happy reading.
The Assault on Reason (2007)
By Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Drawing on the great political philosophers of history and his lengthy career in government, the one-time presidential candidate contends that the loss of a genuine public forum in the age of radio and television has led to the decay of democracy. He delivers a serious critique of the United States tempered by hope and faith in the restoration of checks and balances. This treatise is as scathing as it is meticulous. See also Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can So About It (2006) and Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992).
Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2008)
By Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Responding to the poverty around him, economics professor Yunus stopped teaching elegant theories and began lending small amounts of money, $40 or less, without collateral, to the poorest women in the world. Thirty-three years later, his Grameen Bank has helped millions live better lives building businesses to serve the poor. The bank, solidly profitable with a 98.6% repayment rate, inspired the micro-credit movement, which has helped 100 million of the poorest people in the world escape poverty and earned Yunus a Nobel Peace prize. This book recounts the story of microcredit, then discusses Social Business, organizations designed to help people while turning profits. It is an inspiring read, full of practical information for people who are motivated to try out his ideas. Also look for Yunus’s Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against Poverty (2003) and Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Mohammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World (2008) by Alex Counts.
Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (2004)
By Barack Obama, 2009 Nobel Prize Winner
Elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama was offered a book contract which resulted in this poignant, probing memoir of an unusual life. Born to a white American woman and a black Kenyan student, Obama was reared in Hawaii by his mother and her parents, his father having left for further study and a return home to Africa. Obama’s not-unhappy youth is also a lonely voyage to racial identity. After college, Obama became a community organizer in Chicago where he slowly found place and purpose among folks of similar hue but different memory. Eventually he finds community and authenticity with “honest, decent men and women who have attainable ambitions and the determination to see them through.” Obama is candid about racism, poverty and corruption in this lively autobiographical conversation. See also the president’s The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006), or Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise (2008).
Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope (2006)
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By Shirin Ibadi, 2003 Nobel Prize Winner
Once Iran’s foremost woman jurist, Ibadi was stripped of her judgeship in 1980 by Ayatollah Khomeini’s theocracy. She lost her profession, her friends, and her country but was determined to stay and speak out against oppression. She eventually returned to public life as a human-rights lawyer taking on the defense of women, children, and dissidents. Her battle for justice in Iran’s revolutionary courts won her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. This memoir is a riveting account of a brave, lonely struggle to take Islamist jurists to task for betraying the promises of their own revolution. Ibadi’s tale is told from the perspective of an ordinary mother and an extraordinary lawyer determined, despite the ruthless reign of the ayatollahs, to do what is right.
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (1995)
By Nelson Mandela, 1993 Nobel Peace Prize Winner with F.W. de Klerk
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Here is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and the ultimate triumph of one of the outstanding moral and political leaders of our time told with clarity and eloquence. Mandela re-creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape his destiny. His book is emotive, compelling and uplifting, with the luminosity of faith in the invincible nature of human hope and dignity. It is a tale of anger and sorrow, love and joy, grace and elegance…one of the most life- affirming books you’ll read. See also Mandela’s In His Own Words (2003) and A Prisoner in the Garden: The Nelson Mandela Foundation (2006).
A Mad Desire to Dance: A Novel (2009)
By Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Wiesel grapples with questions of madness, sadness and memory in this difficult but powerful new novel about Doriel Waldman, a Polish Jew born in 1936 who survived the occupation in hiding with his father while his mother made a reputation for herself in the Polish resistance. But Doriel did not escape tragedy as he loses his siblings and his parents. Most of the novel unfolds in the office of Doriel’s shrink, Dr. Thérèse Goldschmidt. As she draws Doriel out, a multilayered narrative emerges: the journey through sadness and toward redemption; a meditation on the hand dealt to Holocaust survivors; and a valuable parable on the wages of human trauma. Also look for the author’s Night (1960), Dawn(1982), The Judges (2002), and The Time of the Uprooted (2005).
My Land and My People (1962)
By His Holiness, The Dalai Lama of Tibet, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Written by the Dalai Lama as a young man in exile, this dignified testament re-creates the miraculous search that identified him as the reincarnated leader of his country. It paints a rare, intimate portrait of Tibetan Buddhism—a way of life that would end with a terrifying foreign invasion surpassing sanity and reason. And it reveals the evolution of a man from gentle monk to a world leader, one struggling to this day to free his country…yet able to touch hearts with the goodness that makes him one of the most beloved men of our time. See also The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer (2008), In My Own Words: An Introduction to My Teaching and Philosophy (2008) and Becoming Enlightened (2009).
The Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Prisoner of Conscience (2007)
By Justin Wintle
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Burma’s nightmare of tyranny and genocidal violence grinds on and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. This biography chronicles Suu Kyi’s exemplary life in the context of totalitarian Burma’s bloody history. The author delineates the political legacies of her martyred father and her accomplished mother. After attending Oxford, marrying British Tibetologist Michael Aris, and having two sons, Suu Kyi returns to Burma in 1988 and commits herself to leading the nonviolent fight for democracy. The book reveals a penetrating respect for this tenacious and composed prisoner of conscience, detailing her genius for connecting with people, the threats against her life, and her devotion to peace. See also Aung San Suu Kyi’s Freedom From Fear and Other Writings (1991).
Unbowed: A Memoir
By Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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The mother of three, the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate, and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Maathai, a Kikuyu of Kenya understands how the good earth sustains life. She describes the paradise she knew as a child in the 1940s, when Kenya was a “lush, green, fertile” land of plenty, and the deforested nightmare it became. Discriminated against as a female university professor, Maathai has fought hard for women’s rights.
We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (2009)
By Jimmy Carter, 2002 Nobel Prize Winner
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For the last three decades, as president of the United States and as founder of The Carter Center, the Nobel Laureate has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region’s conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them. He knows the leaders of factions in the region who will need to play key roles, and he sees encouraging signs among them. In this passionate book Carter describes the history of previous Middle East peace efforts and why they fell short.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
