Tools for Understanding, Endurance, & Action
This year's reading series is structured with intention.
This is a space to:
- Understand what is happening
- Recognize patterns across history and the present
- Think together about meaningful action
- Stay grounded without burning out
The Arc of the Year
This year follows a deliberate progression and asks questions: What are the systems and guardrails? How does belief intersect with policy and power? How does propaganda and authoritarianism function? What do we do now and what does effective civic action actually look like? How do we stay engaged without burning out?
Each book builds on the last — intellectually and emotionally.
How to Participate
You are welcome to join at any point in the year. If a particular book speaks to you, start there. And if reading a full book feels like too much, read what you can and come anyway. This group is about building literacy & strength together and we want your voice at the table.
- 📅 Wednesday, May 27 at 7:00 PM ET
Examines the rhetoric and strategies that underpin authoritarian movements. Stanley breaks down how propaganda, fear, and division are used to shape public perception and normalize anti-democratic ideas — offering a clear framework for recognizing these patterns in both historical and contemporary contexts.
- 📅 Wednesday, June 24 at 7:00 PM ET
Explores how social change actually happens — often slowly, unpredictably, and outside the spotlight. Solnit challenges the idea that progress must be immediate or visible to matter, offering a way of thinking about hope grounded in action, persistence, and collective effort.
- 📅 Wednesday, July 29 at 7:00 PM ET
- 📅 Wednesday, August 26 at 7:00 PM ET
Examines how democratic systems erode from within. Drawing on historical and modern examples, the authors outline the warning signs of democratic backsliding — including the weakening of institutional norms, increased polarization, and challenges to electoral legitimacy.
- 📅 Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 PM ET
- 📅 Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 PM ET
Examines mass incarceration as a system of racialized social control. Alexander traces how legal structures and policies have created and sustained inequality within the criminal justice system — a critical lens for understanding how systems can function in ways that are technically lawful while producing deeply unequal outcomes.
- 📅 Wednesday, November 25 at 7:00 PM ET
Explores how democratic norms are challenged and reshaped under authoritarian pressure. Gessen looks closely at language, truth, and the role of institutions in maintaining — or failing to maintain — democratic stability, and how political reality can shift when shared assumptions begin to erode.
- 📅 Wednesday, December 30 at 7:00 PM ET
Reflects on human resilience, purpose, and dignity in the face of extreme suffering. Frankl explores how meaning can be constructed even under the most difficult circumstances — a deeply personal and philosophical perspective on endurance and the human capacity to persist.
From Dictatorship to Democracy
A concise and practical guide to nonviolent resistance, exploring how power operates — and how it can shift when people act strategically. Originally written for activists under authoritarian regimes, this book offers a clear framework for understanding effective civic action and the role ordinary people play in shaping political outcomes.
Separation of Church and Hate
A deeply researched takedown of far-right Christian nationalism, examining how Christianity has been weaponized for political power — using scripture, common sense, and sharp humor. A rallying cry for compassion and clarity.
The Constitution of the United States of America
A welcoming two-part discussion reading the Constitution together, reflecting on what we notice, what we question, and how its words are being invoked in today's America.
Black Skin, White Masks
An unsurpassed study of the Black psyche in a white world. A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and Black consciousness movements around the world — hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace since its first publication in 1952.
Orientalism
A groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East — entrenched views that continue to shape Western ideas today.
Democracy Awakening
Acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of authoritarian tendencies to the earliest days of the republic. More than a history book — a call to action.
Under the Skin
A landmark book revealing the toll racism takes on individual health and the health of our nation. Villarosa lays bare the forces in American health care and society that cause Black people to "live sicker and die quicker."
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
A grassroots theory of mutual aid offering concrete tools for organizing: how to work in groups, foster collective decision-making, prevent and address conflict, and deal with burnout.
The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen
A work of extraordinary range tracing the global history of written constitutions from the 1750s to the twentieth century — and the close connections between the making of constitutions and the making of war.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
A call to arms presented as twenty instructions on how to combat the rise of tyranny — "Defend institutions," "Remember professional ethics," "Believe in truth." Short, urgent, and invaluable.
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution
A sweeping revision of human history — and an urgent corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long.
New York: The Novel
A rich, engrossing saga celebrating America's greatest city, weaving together tales of families rich and poor, native-born and immigrant across four centuries.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America, linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany.
There There
A wondrous and shattering novel following twelve characters from Native communities, all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow — a chorus of voices grappling with a complex and painful history.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging fundamental assumptions about social evolution from the development of agriculture to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality.
A People's History of the United States
A foundational text that tells American history from the perspective of ordinary people — workers, women, indigenous peoples, enslaved people, and immigrants.
The End of Policing
A rigorous examination of the role of police in American society and a challenge to the assumption that policing and prisons are the only answer to social problems.
Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation
A bold call for a new American Buddhism fully integrated with the social liberation movements of our time.
The Color of Law
A definitive account of how federal, state, and local governments imposed residential segregation on American cities through explicit policy — not mere private prejudice.