This Book is available for you to borrow from our Lobby Book & Bumper Sticker Library.  Look for it next time you’re in the shop, and our Service Advisors will tell you how to check it out.  If you want to pick up a copy for yourself, our hyperlinks go to Powell’s Bookstore.  If you want to shop even more locally, Sellwood’s own Julie Wallace would love to see you at Wallace Books.

Tom’s Tidbits this month was about the things that unite us as we celebrate independence.  Our Book Spotlight offers another take on diversity and unity, or, as our national motto puts it, “E Plurbus Unum”.

“Don’t Label Me”- An Incredible Conversation for Divided Times

by Irshad Manji

From the editor-  “A unique conversation about diversity, bigotry, and our common humanity, by the New York Times bestselling author, Oprah “Chutzpah” award-winner, and founder of the Moral Courage Project

In these United States, discord has hit emergency levels. Civility isn’t the reason to repair our caustic chasms. Diversity is.

Don’t Label Me shows that America’s founding genius is diversity of thought. Which is why social justice activists won’t win by labeling those who disagree with them. At a time when minorities are fast becoming the majority, a truly new America requires a new way to tribe out.

Enter Irshad Manji and her dog, Lily. Raised to believe that dogs are evil, Manji overcame her fear of the “other” to adopt Lily. She got more than she bargained for. Defying her labels as an old, blind dog, Lily engages Manji in a taboo-busting conversation about identity, power, and politics. They’re feisty. They’re funny. And in working through their challenges to one another, they reveal how to open the hearts of opponents for the sake of enduring progress. Readers who crave concrete tips will be delighted.

Studded with insights from epigenetics and epistemology, layered with the lessons of Bruce Lee, Ben Franklin, and Audre Lorde, punctuated with stories about Manji’s own experiences as a refugee from Africa, a Muslim immigrant to the U.S., and a professor of moral courage, Don’t Label Me makes diversity great again.”

Digging Deeper…

We discovered this book, as we discover so many things, in a recommendation from Thom Hartmann.  If you’d like to watch his “Conversations With Great Minds” interview with Irshad, find it here.