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.
Unless otherwise noted, monthly meetings will be in a hybrid format. Join facilitator Lissa and others in-person at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, or on Zoom by registering below.
What we’re reading:
In April, we’re taking the Challenge.
Each year, YWCA Northeast Kansas and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library join YWCA USA for the Racial Justice Challenge. This is a four-week, virtual program designed to help participants build daily social justice habits.
Instead of our normal book discussion in April, we will participate in the Challenge and attend the Community Wrap-Up Event on April 30. There are also weekly Zoom discussions and lunch chats at a local cafe. Click below to get registered and learn more about how this virtual program works!
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 Challenge.
Planning ahead?
For April, book club will be participating in the YWCA Racial Justice Challenge, a four-week virtual program that includes several opportunities to join in the conversation with other Topeka area Challenge participants. Learn more here, and get ready to begin on April 1st!
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