Want to know what books Roger Thurow recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Roger Thurow's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
Struggling to mask his tears, Tony Hall followed a doctor through a mass of dying Ethiopians crying out for food and medicine—help that could not possibly arrive soon enough or in sufficient quantities to keep them alive. From that painful scene of hopelessness, Hall returned home with a new focus for his faith.
Both as a U.S. Congressman and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome, he has been a man with a mission. Tony used his passion, faith, and political skills to solicit the aid of those able to help. And as he worked with liberals and... more Struggling to mask his tears, Tony Hall followed a doctor through a mass of dying Ethiopians crying out for food and medicine—help that could not possibly arrive soon enough or in sufficient quantities to keep them alive. From that painful scene of hopelessness, Hall returned home with a new focus for his faith.
Both as a U.S. Congressman and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome, he has been a man with a mission. Tony used his passion, faith, and political skills to solicit the aid of those able to help. And as he worked with liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, and people of very different faiths, he stumbled into a remarkable discovery. He found that people who regularly live at odds often are willing to join forces in helping those who are abjectly poor and hungry.
“I’ve learned not only that people can work together across differences . . . but our diversity gives us strength." Let Tony capture your heart with his dream that we may put aside differences and join hands to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and discover the importance of life.
. less 
Roger ThurowTony was a long time Congressman from Ohio and, again, it’s an individual setting sail against the forces of political indifference and ignorance about the hunger problem. It’s about the importance of focusing on the need for raising agricultural productivity in all parts of the world, of not ignoring the potential of places like Africa to help feed the world. Tony represents the story of how in... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
2
For over 50 years students, professors, clergy, and general readers have relied on The New Oxford Annotated Bible as an unparalleled authority in Study Bibles. This fifth edition of the Annotated remains the best way to study and understand the Bible at home or in the classroom. This thoroughly revised and substantially updated edition contains the best scholarship informed by recent discoveries and anchored in the solid Study Bible tradition.
- Introductions and extensive annotations for each book by acknowledged experts in the field provide context and guidance.... more For over 50 years students, professors, clergy, and general readers have relied on The New Oxford Annotated Bible as an unparalleled authority in Study Bibles. This fifth edition of the Annotated remains the best way to study and understand the Bible at home or in the classroom. This thoroughly revised and substantially updated edition contains the best scholarship informed by recent discoveries and anchored in the solid Study Bible tradition.
- Introductions and extensive annotations for each book by acknowledged experts in the field provide context and guidance.
- Introductory essays on major groups of biblical writings - Pentateuch, Prophets, Gospels, and other sections - give readers an overview that guides more intensive study.
- General essays on history, translation matters, different canons in use today, and issues of daily life in biblical times inform the reader of important aspects of biblical study.
- Maps and diagrams within the text contextualize where events took place and how to understand them.
- Color maps give readers the geographical orientation they need for understanding historical accounts throughout the Bible.
- Timelines, parallel texts, weights and measures, calendars, and other helpful tables help navigate the biblical world.
- An extensive glossary of technical terms demystifies the language of biblical scholarship.
- An index to the study materials eases the way to the quick location of information.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, with twenty new essays and introductions and others--as well as annotations--fully revised, offers the reader flexibility for any learning style. Beginning with a specific passage or a significant concept, finding information for meditation, sermon preparation, or academic study is straightforward and intuitive.
A volume that users will want to keep for continued reference, The New Oxford Annotated Bible continues the Oxford University Press tradition of providing excellence in scholarship for the general reader. Generations of users attest to its status as the best one-volume Bible reference tool for any home, library, or classroom.
less 
Timothy BealI teach biblical studies at a secular university and I use this version a lot. It’s the standard critical edition for academic study, but many people use it for personal reasons. It uses the New Revised Standard Version translation, which I think is among the best. (Source)
Roger ThurowFeed the hungry is a central command of all religions great and small. But the question is, if that’s the case, and it is, how have we come into the 21st century with one billion chronically hungry people? (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
3
Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank.The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A... more Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank.The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A second transformation of agriculture is now required--specifically, Gordon Conway argues, a "doubly green" revolution that stresses conservation as well as productivity. He calls for researchers and farmers to forge genuine partnerships in an effort to design better plants and animals. He also urges them to develop (or rediscover) alternatives to inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, improve soil and water management, and enhance earning opportunities for the poor, especially women. less Roger ThurowGordon was the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and earlier the Rockefeller Foundation had been one of the backers of the original green revolution, started by Norman Borlaug, a plant breeder from Iowa. This book basically takes a look beyond the green revolution and at what needs to happen next in terms of securing food supplies and ending hunger. So, it explores the next stage of the... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
4
This powerful and inspiring book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story... more This powerful and inspiring book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer—brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti—blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity"—a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners in Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it." less 
Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)
Roger ThurowYes, and I have chosen this is in connection with social entrepreneurship and what Yunus does with social business. So, this is on the medical and health side, and poverty and hunger and malnourishment are distinctly a part of that. Mountains Beyond Mountains looks at the work of Dr Paul Farmer setting sail against the inequities in the healthcare world. It’s practical and inspirational. It’s... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
5
Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world. In 1983, against the advice of banking and government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to more than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus's clients are women, and repayment rates are near 100 percent.... more Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world. In 1983, against the advice of banking and government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to more than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus's clients are women, and repayment rates are near 100 percent. Around the world, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen are blossoming, with more than three hundred programs established in the United States alone.
Banker to the Poor is Muhammad Yunus's memoir of how he decided to change his life in order to help the world's poor. In it he traces the intellectual and spiritual journey that led him to fundamentally rethink the economic relationship between rich and poor, and the challenges he and his colleagues faced in founding Grameen. He also provides wise, hopeful guidance for anyone who would like to join him in "putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long." The definitive history of micro-credit direct from the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poor is necessary and inspirational reading for anyone interested in economics, public policy, philanthropy, social history, and business.
Muhammad Yunus was born in Bangladesh and earned his Ph.D. in economics in the United States at Vanderbilt University, where he was deeply influenced by the civil rights movement. He still lives in Bangladesh, and travels widely around the world on behalf of Grameen Bank and the concept of micro-credit. less Roger ThurowI chose this book for the power of the story that he tells – the founding of Grameen Bank and the success that it has had. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
Don't have time to read Roger Thurow's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
