Five Talents Fall Reading Picks Are Here!

Since today marks the first full day of fall (it officially started late yesterday morning), it's time for us to announce our picks for your fall reading list.

(Remember by purchasing these books through GoodShop and selecting Five Talents as your preferred charity, a percentage of your purchase price will be donated to the work of Five Talents!)

So, grab a cup of hot cider, throw on a sweatshirt, enjoy the crisp air and crack open a book ... Happy reading!

A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty
By Phil Smith and Eric Thurman

A bold manifesto by two business leaders, A Billion Bootstraps shows why microcredit is the world's most powerful poverty-fighting movement-and an unbeatable investment for your charitable donations.

A Billion Bootstraps unearths the roots of the microcredit revolution, revealing how the pioneering work of people such as Dr. Muhammad Yunus-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-is giving hope to billions. Philanthropist and self-made millionaire Phil Smith and microcredit expert and consultant Eric Thurman provide a riveting narrative that explores how these small loans, arranged by “barefoot bankers,” enable impoverished people to start small businesses, support their families, and improve local economies. By paying back their loans instead of simply accepting handouts, men and women around the world are continually giving others the same opportunity to change their futures.

Smith and Thurman also examine why traditional charity programs, while providing short-term relief, often perpetuate the problems they are trying to alleviate, and how applying investment principles to philanthropy is the key to reversing poverty permanently.

A Billion Bootstraps explains how ordinary people can accelerate the microcredit movement by investing charitable donations in specific programs and then leveraging those contributions so the net cost to lift one person out of poverty is remarkably low. You'll discover how to get more for your money by donating with the mind-set of an investor and calculating measurable returns-returns that will change lives and societies forever.

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity By Ronald J. Sider

Do you want to make a true difference in the world? Dr. Ron Sider does. He has, since before he first published Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger in 1978. Despite a dramatic reduction in world hunger since then, 34,000 children still die daily of starvation and preventable disease, and 1.3 billion people, worldwide, remain in abject poverty. So, the professor of theology went back to re-examine the issues by twenty-first century standards. Finding that Conservatives blame morally reprehensible individual choices, and Liberals blame constrictive social and economic policy, Dr. Sider finds himself agreeing with both sides.

In this new look at an age-old problem, he offers not only a detailed explanation of the causes, but also a comprehensive series of practical solutions, in the hopes that Christians like him will choose to make a difference. Christianity Today calls it “One of the Top 100 Religious Books of the Century.”

Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development
By Bryant L. Myers

Theology, spirituality, and social science are synthesized in the definitive book on how Christian mission can contribute to overcoming poverty and dismantling systematic social evil. Myers explores Christian views of poverty, its causes, and how it is experienced differently in different cultures. Especially designed for use in classes or in field education, Walking with the Poor contains a unique series of charts that can be made into overheads as well as a bibliography and a scriptural index.