Each year from Thanksgiving to Christmas, 606 offers up suggestions for books to tide you through the long winter nights. Pick them up at your library, buy them through your local bookstore, give them for a gift, or pick one up for yourself. We think that books are the best gifts. 

Above, Theodoor Rombout’s Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple

Today’s suggestions are from my wishlist of books about economic inequality. Why? Because Jesus wasn’t so much born to die for your sins as for your debts. Radical equality was central to his message, something that sometimes gets lost in the holiday season. 

Rebecca

****

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klingenberg considers how our shared spaces–from churches to bookstores–help us connect to each other.

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, edited by John Freeman is a collection of essays be some of best thinkers and writers about the gap between rich and poor. These are stories (and poems!) about how division feels, not just how it’s measured.

Deep Inequality: Understanding the New Normal and How to Challenge It by Earl Wysong and Robert Perrucci asks the question: How did we come to accept such grotesque wealth income inequality in the US?