UWF Book Club

2026 UNITED WOMEN IN FAITH READING PROGRAM

UWF Book Club Meetings 2026
Email umwchristumc@gmail.com for location information

March 14th at 10:30am - Leadership Development
THE BOOK OF HOPE: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR TRYING TIMES -JANE GOODALL & DOUGLAS ABRAMS WITH GAIL HUDSON 
Looking at the headlines—the worsening climate crisis, a global pandemic, loss of biodiversity, political upheaval—it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed. In this New York Times bestseller, Jane Goodall, the world’s most famous living naturalist, and Douglas Abrams, the international bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy, explore one of the most sought-after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. Drawing on decades of work, The Book of Hope touches on vital questions, including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? What is the relationship between hope and action? 272 p. 4.2

May 30th at 10:30am - Nurturing For Community
THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN - MARIE BENEDICT VICTORIA CHRISTOPHER MURRAY
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, this historical novel explores the life of J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, a Black American forced to hide her identity and pass as White. In her twenties, Belle was hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. She became a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world. But Belle has a secret; she is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. 352 p. 4.0

July 18th at 10:30 - Education For Mission
THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH: THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE OF AN AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR - EDDIE JAKU
In this riveting New York Times bestseller, Eddie Jaku shares his powerful memoir as a Holocaust survivor, paying tribute to those lost as he offers inspiring wisdom on living one’s best possible life despite the most horrible circumstances. Jaku was a teenager when Nazi soldiers sent him to a concentration camp with thousands of other Jews across Germany. He spent seven years in Buchenwald and then Auschwitz, finally enduring a forced death march during the Third Reich’s final days. Somehow, he found the will to survive and made himself a promise to smile every day in gratitude and to honor the six million Jews murdered by Hitler. 208 pgs. 4.7

September 19th at 10:30 - Spiritual Growth
GOD’S GHOSTWRITERS: ENSLAVED CHRISTIANS AND THE MAKING OF THE BIBLE - CANDIDA MOSS GOD’S
Christian tradition and scholarship have credited the authorship of the New Testament to a select group of men: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. But hidden behind these men is a cluster of unnamed, enslaved coauthors and collaborators, essential workers responsible for producing the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament. These workers made the parchment on which the texts were written, took dictation, and refined the words of the apostles. And as the Christian message grew in influence, it was enslaved missionaries who undertook the arduous journey across the Mediterranean and along dusty roads to move Christianity to Rome, Spain, and North Africa—and into the pages of history. God’s Ghostwriters is a rigorously researched book about how enslaved people shaped the Bible and with it all of Christianity 336 p. 3.9

November 13th, Time TBD - SOCIAL ACTION
HIGHWAY OF TEARS: A TRUE STORY OF RACISM, INDIFFERENCE, AND THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE FOR MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS -JESSICA MCDIARMID, ATRIA BOOKS (2019) For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia. The corridor is known as the Highway of Tears, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. In this book, journalist Jessica McDiarmid meticulously investigates the devastating effect these tragedies have had on the families of the victims and their communities, and how systemic racism and indifference have created a climate in which Indigenous women and girls are overpoliced yet under-protected. McDiarmid interviews those closest to the victims and provides an intimate, firsthand account of their loss and unflagging fight for justice. (V) 352 p. 4.1