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“JUST” BOOKS is a book discussion group focusing on social justice themes and spirituality based on the successful “Seattle Reads” or “Oprah’s Book Club”, where large numbers of people read the same book at the same time, followed by optional one-time group discussions. CPJ has started its own similar club to get a large number of folks reading a peace/justice related book in order to raise consciousness on the topic.
Our hope is that these discussions will offer all of us an avenue to share and learn from each other and in the process be re-energized for our mission.
Our current book is Letters from Abu Ghraib by Joshua Casteel Flyer
Letters from Abu Ghraib, a collection of email messages sent by Joshua Casteel to his friends and family during his service as a US Army interrogator and Arabic linguist in the 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion, is the raw and intimate record of a soldier in moral conflict with his duties. Once a cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point and raised in an Evangelical Christian home, Casteel finds himself stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal. He is troubled by what he is asked to do there, although it is, as he writes, miles within the bounds of what CNN and the BBC care about. Forced to confront the nature of fundamentalism, both religious and political, Casteel asks himself a fundamental question: How should I then live?
CPJ invites you to join us in reading. . . An astounding insider's look at the war in Iraq. Joshua Casteel is an astute observer, a superb writer and a man of deeply held moral and religious conviction. Letters from Abu Ghraib gives us entry into his personal journey from dedicated soldier and interrogator to determined conscientious objector. Emily Mann, McCarter Theatre Artistic Director and Resident Playwright
Letters from Abu Ghraib shows us that good and evil are not absolutes, but rather points along the spectrum of decisions that we, as individuals and participants in institutions, all must face. Kelly Dougherty, Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War
What Joshua Casteel interrogates in Letters from Abu Ghraib is the very idea of liberty. For every enduring work of literature is an epistle from the prison of silence to the possibility of freedom. From the foreword by Christopher Merrill.
Check back for information on group discussion sessions or watch the Catholics for Peace and Justice Newsletter for announcement of days and times.
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