Reading Groups

Each semester, University faculty and staff members gather in the Wendt Center for Character Education to discuss books related to character. These reading groups serve as opportunities to grow in character, but also to meet people from other disciplines and talk among friends.

This spring we discussed Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance, and America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, by Jim Wallis.

Past Reading Groups

• Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, by Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh
• The Business Ethics Field Guide, by Brad Agle, Aaron Miller, and Bill O'Rourke
  
• An Essential Guide to Interpersonal Communication: Building Great Relationships with Faith, Skill, and Virtue in the Age of Social Media, by Quentin J. Schultze and Diane M. Badzinski
• Excellent Sheep: the Miseducation of the American Elite & the Way to a Meaningful Life, by William Deresiewicz
• Tattoos on the Heart,  by Father Greg Boyle
• The Road to Character, by New York Times columnist David Brooks
• Who are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities by Jean Bethke Elshtain
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• Made for Goodness and Why This Makes All the Difference by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• Dead Man Walking by Sr. Helen Prejean
• Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty by James M. Lang
• Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World by Richard Mouw
• The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
• Shaping Character: Moral Education in the Christian College by Arthur Holmes 
• The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior by Steven Garber
• Make Your Job a Calling: How the Psychology of Vocation Can Change your Life at Work by Bryan Dik and Ryan Duffy