Book Club
In partnership with the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, this community book club creates space for anti-racist learning, conversation, and connection.
Monthly book club picks feature books written by Black, Indigenous, and people of color. All are invited to participate in monthly meetings to discuss the books and relevant social issues within our community. Discussions will be guided Lissa Staley, Community Connections Librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library.
In 2024, our book club meets online on the fourth Tuesday of every month from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. Stay updated about Racial Justice Book Club information, including receiving the meeting details and monthly Zoom link by clicking on the button below.
NOTE: Racial Justice Book Club will not meet in the months of June, July, and August 2024. For May, please mark your calendars to attend the Community Forum on Racial Justice, currently being rescheduled for May after the original event was canceled due to severe weather.
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What we’re reading:
In May, please attend the community forum!
The annual forum in conjunction with the YWCA Racial Justice Challenge will be rescheduled after the original date was canceled due to severe weather.
We hope you can still join us on the new date, to be announced soon! Check back for updates.
Questions? Email Kristin Hammer, YWCA Community Engagement Coordinator.
Quick Links and Further Reading
Click below for more information on the topics that will be discussed in this year’s Racial Justice forum.
Previous Reads:
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Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng (January)
The Learning Tree, by Gordon Parks February)
Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang (March)
Racial Justice Challenge (April)
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My Grandmother's Hands, by Resmaa Menakem (January & February)
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, by Dr. Joy DeGruy (March)
Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese (April)
The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee (May)
The YWCA Racial Justice Challenge (June)
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum (July)
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, Ed. by Viet Thanh Nguyen (August)
Three Girls from Bronzeville, by Dawn Turner (September)
Once I Was You, by Maria Hinojosa (October)
There, There, by Tommy Orange (November)
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Stamped from the Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi (January)
How the Word is Passed, by Clint Smith (February)
First and Only, by Jennifer Farmer (March)
Stand Against Racism Challenge (April)
The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett (May)
The Distance Between Us, by Reyna Grande (June)
The Pride of Park Avenue, by Toriano Porter (July)
Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah (August)
Dear White Woman: Please Come Home, by Kimberlee Yolanda Williams (September)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika Sanchez (October)
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (November)
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"Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?" by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum (January)
"Mediocre, The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America" by Ijeoma Oluo (February)
"Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent" by Isabel Wilkerson (April)
"The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives" edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen (May)
"As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock" by Dina Gilio-Whitaker (June)
"The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together" by Heather McGhee (July)
"Rising Out of Hatred" by Eli Saslow (August)
"The Whiteness of Wealth:" by Dorothy Brown (September)
"Say It Louder: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving our Democracy" by Tiffany Cross (October)
"Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America" by Maria Hinojosa (November/December)
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"White Fragility" by Robin DeAngelo
"How to Be Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi
"Chokehold: Policing Black Men" by Paul Butler
"When They Call You a Terrorist: a Black Lives Matter Memoir" by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
"An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Healing Politics" by Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
"The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
"Stamped from the Beginning" by Ibram X. Kendi
"A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law" by Sherrilyn Ifill, Loretta Lynch, Bryan Stevenson, and Anthony C. Thompson
"Citizen" by Claudia Rankine
"We Were Eight Years in Power" by Ta-Nehisi Coates