ALUMNI BOOK CLUB
Alumni of the Institute for Social Concerns are invited to join us for engaging conversation on books that have captured our imagination regarding questions of justice and the common good. Register below!
All meetings are 7:00-8:15 p.m. ET via Zoom. Brain Lair Books, an independent bookstore in South Bend, sends a free book to the first 15 people who sign up each month on behalf of the ISC.
Fall 2026
Tuesday, August 18 | David Toole, Love Made Me An Inventor: The Story of Maggy Barankitse – Humanitarian, Genocide Survivor, Citizen without Borders
On October 25, 1993, Maggy Barankitse buried seventy-two bodies in a mass grave on the grounds of the bishop’s house in Burundi, a day after she was made to watch as they were murdered in a fit of ethnic violence. What happened next would save tens of thousands of children from death and despair during a protracted civil war
Love Made Me an Inventor is how Marguerite (Maggy) Barankitse describes how she has been able to accomplish her life-saving work. In this first-ever authorized biography in English, readers will encounter her extraordinary journey from survivor to founder of Maison Shalom and the name “Angel of Burundi.”
For twenty-two years Maison Shalom provided care for mothers and children devastated by war and ethnic violence in Burundi. Then, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt in 2015, Maggy’s work shifted to helping Burundian refugees in Rwanda through education, healthcare, and community services.
David Toole is Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University, where he holds a joint appointment as associate professor of the practice of theology, ethics, and global health in the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke Divinity School. He is author of Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo and founder of Love’s Inventions, a non-profit dedicated to spreading Maggy’s message to the world and supporting her ongoing work in Africa. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Durham, NC.
Wednesday, October 28 | Book TBA
Thursday, December 10 | Book TBA
Spring 2027
More information to come!
Previous Books
2026
- Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (June)
- The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer; Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next) by Dean Spade (April)
- The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (February)
- You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue (December)
2025
- Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times by Elizabeth Oldfield (October), MVP Fridays speaker
- Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis by Norman Wirzba (August), Senior Send-Off book
- Everything is Tuberculosis by John Greene (May)
- Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy (January)
2024
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Bernie Clark speaker; The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton (October)
- James by Percival Everett (August)
- There There by Tommy Orange (June)
- Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (April)
- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (January)
2023
- Solito by Javier Zamora (November)
- Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri (September), MVP Fridays speaker
- Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (June), Senior Send-Off book
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (2023)