Anti-Racist Book Club

Welcome to our Anti-Racist Book Club—a vibrant community committed to fostering awareness and understanding in the pursuit of racial justice. In this space, we delve into literature that challenges, educates, and inspires dialogue around racism and its impact on individuals and communities.

Our monthly meetings provide a platform for open and respectful discussions, encouraging members to share perspectives and learn from diverse experiences. We believe in the transformative power of literature to illuminate the complexities of race and racism, fostering empathy and inspiring positive change.
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This group meets the first Thursday of the month on Zoom. For more information, please reach out to Nicole at [email protected] or 315-789-5303 ext. 113.

2025 Book Club Selections:

• Jan 2 – It’s Not All Downhill From Here – Terry McMillan – fiction
• Feb 6 – Be a Revolution: How Every Day People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World – Ijeoma Oluo – non-ficiton
• Mar 6 – Kindred – Octovia Butler – fiction
• April 3 – Poetry Month – everyone submits a poem or two and we read and discuss them together
• May 1 – The Last Story of Mina Lee – Nancy Jooyoun Kim – fiction
• June 5 – Nice racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm – Robin DiAngelo – non-fiction
• July 3 – Transcendent Kingdom – Yaa Gyasi – fiction
• Aug 7 – The Yellow House – Sarah Broom – memoir
• Sept 4 – The Last White Man – Hohsin Hamid – fiction
• Oct 2 – The Rediscovery of America – Ned Blackhawk – non-fiction
• Nov 6 – A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry – fiction
• Dec 4 – Just As I Am: A Memoir – Cicely Tyson – memoir

2024 Book Club Selections:

• January 4 – Becoming – Michelle Obama – memoir
• February 1 – Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson – novel
• March 7 – Make a Way Somehow – Kathryn Glover – history – This discussion will take place in partnership with Historic Geneva at the Geneva History Museum at 6 pm.
• April 4 – Poetry – for National Poetry Month, we will all submit a poem or two by an author of color ahead of our meeting then read and discuss them when we meet.
• May 2 – A Place for Us – Fatima Farheen Mirza – fiction
• June 6 – How the Word Is Passed: a Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America – Clint Smith – historic
• July 11 (note date change) –  Reader’s Choice – Since this will take place outside of our normal time and during a time when many are traveling, it seemed like a great chance for Reader’s Choice, where everyone brings a book they’ve read to talk about.
• August 1 – Afterlife – Julia Alvarez – fiction
• September 5 – Solito – Javier Zamora – memoir
• October 3 – The Seed Keeper – Diana Wilson – fiction
• November 7 – Finding Me – Viola Davis
• MOVED TO JANUARY 2, 2024 – It’s Not All Downhill From Here – Terry McMillan – fiction

2023 Book Club Selections:

• The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen Carter
• The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
• Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
• Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami
• The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
• There There by Tommy Orange
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Good Lord Bird by James McBride

2022 Book Club Selections:

• My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• The Black Friend by Frederick Joseph
• Recitatif by Toni Morrison
• The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

2021 Book Club Selections:

• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Rising Out of Hatred by Eli Saslow
• Deacon King Kong by James McBride
• Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams
• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
• My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem

2020 Book Club Selections:

• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson