Welcome
Welcome to the SSW Book Club!
This book club is for people at the School of Social Work to come together over brown bag lunches to discuss relevant books.
Our goal is to expand our knowledge of issues and history surrounding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through reading and through conversation.
We will each read what we can, in whatever format we choose, and will discuss the readings with respect for one another's experience and opinions.
Currently, the club is organized by Betsy Williams, David Pratt, and Joe Galura. We encourage your engagement at all levels.
We have a shared Google Doc which contains suggestions for our future reading. Email one of the organizers to request access.
Previous Books:
What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City by Mona Hanna-Attisha
We discussed this book on Friday September 30, noon - 1, in person in room B760, SSWB.
Links:
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a U-M alum, was our Summer 2022 Commencement speaker. You can view her speech on our commencement website, starting at the 51 minute mark.
This three minute video introduces the book.
Here's a 16 minute video of her 2016 TED MED Talk.
Her 2018 interview with NPR
We have a few copies of the book. If you'd like a copy, to borrow or to keep, contact Betsy.
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
We met on Friday March 25 at noon, via Zoom, to discuss Parable of the Sower
March 20-27 was Octavia Butler Week. Find a variety of events at that website, including a virtual panel on Art and Afrofuturism.
links:
Octavia Butler - short video clips
NPR story (2017) on Octavia Butler
An Interview with Octavia E. Butler - article by Randall Kenan, published in Callaloo, Spring 1991. (U-M login required)
We met on Monday, Feb 7, 2022, noon - 1 PM, via Zoom. (We rescheduled from Tues Jan 25 to Mon Feb 7)
Franchise won multiple awards including the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.
Author Marcia Chatelain will speak online on Th Dec 16 at 1 PM for a virtual book club event hosted by PBC Guru. Registration is required.
View a video interview with Dr. Chatelain about her book. (PBS News Hour, 7 min)
We met Monday, Aug 23, noon-1 PM, via Zoom.
Be sure to use your umich email and SSO Authentication.
(Find info on SSO Sign on at https://documentation.its.umich.edu/zoom-login)
The ebook is available through the U-M Library.
Reviews & interviews with the author:
On Being interview with Krista Tippet (audio)
Interview with National Wellness Institute (video)
Join us to discuss the book which incoming MSW students are reading.
You are welcome to join our conversation, whether or not you have come before, and whether or not you finished the book
Wed, May 26, noon - 1, via Zoom:
Use your umich Zoom account to join. (If needed, contact 4-HELP for help with SSO authentication: 734-764-4357)
You are welcome to join our conversation, whether or not you have come before, and whether or not you finished the book (or the video).
Feel free to bring your lunch.
Book reviews:
Here's an NPR interview of Reuben Miller on Fresh Air with Terry Gross: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/24/980671402/out-of-prison-but-still-trapped-examining-the-afterlife-of-incarceration
Read an excerpt published in TIME Magazine: https://time.com/5938898/reuben-miller-prison-family-life/
View a Feb 2021 book talk with Reuben Miller and others, moderated by Luke Shaefer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKgtxrsErnw
We met on Friday March 26 at noon, via Zoom.
This novel is set in Detroit and has received rave reviews. Here are a few links (with no paywalls):
a review from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/899350683/black-bottom-saints-is-a-gorgeous-swirl-of-fiction-history-and-detroit-motor-oil
an NPR interview: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/903982587/black-bottom-saints-a-love-letter-to-detroits-history
a video book discussion with the author: https://www.bridgemi.com/center-michigan/watch-our-black-bottom-saints-bridge-book-club-chat-author-alice-randall
We will meet on Thursday January 28, 2021, noon - 1, via Zoom:
https://umich.zoom.us/j/94895926160
(Be sure to login to your umich Zoom account first., or login using SSO.)
We will discuss two nonfiction books:
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist
discussion guide from publisher
Tawana Petty, Towards Humanity: Shifting the Culture of Anti-racism Organizing
Links to videos by both authors:
Ibram X. Kendi - The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist
Tawana Petty (for ENGAGE SSW) - Shifting the culture of anti-racist organizing
This document will help shape our discussion. You are welcome to join our conversation, whether or not you have come before, and whether or not you finished the book (or the video).
Feel free to bring your lunch.
We met on Friday December 11, from noon-1, via Zoom to discuss this novel, which won the Booker Prize.
Read reviews:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/books/review-girl-woman-other-bernardine-evaristo.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/08/girl-woman-other-by-bernardine-evaristo-review
U-M Library has an ebook.(login required)
The book is also available from local bookstores and online booksellers.
We met on Friday November 13, from noon -1, via Zoom.
This YA novel received multiple awards including a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Author Award.
NPR Interview with Watson about this book
list of Watson's other books
Renée Watson is both author and activist. She founded the I, Too, Arts Collective to preserve the Harlem home of Langston Hughes as an active artistic space for the community.
CBS News coverage of I, Too, Arts Collective
We met Friday, September 25, noon -1, via Zoom:
This book won multiple awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. Learn more:
Here's an NPR interview with the author.
In this article, Whitehead talks about writing The Underground Railroad, and about his life as an author.
Thursday August 13, at noon, via Zoom: https://umich.zoom.us/j/92405231883
Here's a 2018 NPR interview with the author.
Here's a review from the New Yorker:
Waldman, K. (n.d.). A Sociologist Examines the “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans from Confronting Racism. The New Yorker. Retrieved August 6, 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-sociologist-examines-the-white-fragility-that-prevents-white-americans-from-confronting-racism
These reviews are more critical of the book:
Lozada, C. (n.d.). Review | White fragility is real. But ‘White Fragility’ is flawed. Washington Post. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/18/white-fragility-is-real-white-fragility-is-flawed/
McWhorter, J. (2020, July 15). The Dehumanizing Condescension of “White Fragility.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/dehumanizing-condescension-white-fragility/614146/
And, here's a reading guide from the author's website, which provides a quick overview of the book.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
We met Wed, July 8, noon - 1, via Zoom
This young adult novel draws on the author's life. Here are a few links:
The book is available at local bookstores. Or you can email Joe to request an online version.
Any discussion of this book needs to start from an acknowledgment of Alexie's harassment of women, particularly of Native women.
This 2018 open letter by Dr. Debbie Reese summarizes the issues.
Tues May 19, noon - 1
(online via Zoom; contact one of the organizers to request the meeting link.)
This book examines immigration law enforcement, focusing on one raid in Washtenaw County.
Here's an NPR interview with William Lopez.
And a Q&A with the publisher, JHU Press.
Last fall, Dr. Lopez spoke at SSW about the book. Here's the video.
He joined us for the discussion on May 19.
Louise Erdrich, The Birchbark House
April 8, 2020, noon - 1, online via Zoom.
This book is a short novel for young readers, telling the story of a seven year old Ojibwa girl and her family, in 1847-1848, on the shores of Lake Superior.
The Birchbark House is the first in a series of novels which have been described as a Native American answer to the Little House books. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, among other honors.
Read reviews:
Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir
Wed, March 4, noon - 1, in 2733 SSWB
Saeed Jones is an acclaimed queer Black poet who recently published his coming of age memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir. You can read an excerpt at the publisher's website.
Here's an interview with NPR and reviews from:
Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz
Wed, Jan 29, noon - 1, in 2733 SSWB.
Here's a description of Ordinary Girls from the author's website:
Ordinary Girls is a fierce, beautiful, and unflinching memoir from a wildly talented debut author. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Jaquira Díaz found herself caught between extremes: as her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was surrounded by the love of her friends; as she longed for a family and home, she found instead a life upended by violence. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz triumphantly maps a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be.
Reminiscent of Tara Westover’s Educated, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, and Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries, Jaquira Díaz’s memoir provides a vivid portrait of a life lived in (and beyond) the borders of Puerto Rico and its complicated history—and reads as electrically as a novel.
Here's a review from the New York Times, another review from Kirkus, and an interview with the Paris Review.
The Bluest Eye
Wed, Nov 20, noon - 1, in 1804 SSWB
Our last book for 2019, was Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye.
Rising Out of Hatred
Tuesday, October 22, noon -1, in 2733 SSWB
We discussed Rising out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist, by Eli Saslow.
Fracturing the Founding
Tuesday, August 20, noon -1, 1804 SSWB
We discussed Fracturing the Founding: How the Alt-Right Corrupts the Constitution by John E. Finn.
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
Tuesday June 18, noon- 1, 1804 SSWB.
We discussed In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, by Diane Guerrero.
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
Monday, May 13, noon -1, 1804 SSWB.
We discussed Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, by Jose Antonio Vargas.
He wrote a shorter version of his story, which appeared in the New York Times in 2011.
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age - by Kevin Boyle
Wednesday, March 27, noon -1, 1804 SSWB. (rescheduled from previous date)
We discussed Arc of Justice, by Kevin Boyle. Local libraries (including U-M) and bookstores have copies of the book.
On Nov 7, 2018, Jamon Jordan of the Black Scroll Network spoke at SSW. He provided an excellent overview of history and structural racism, and then told the story of Ossian and Gladys Sweet. His presentation inspired our choice of this book.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 - by Christopher Paul Curtis
Friday, November 30, noon -1, 2733 SSWB
Our November meeting discussed the award-winning novel by Christopher Paul Curtis: The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963.
Local libraries and bookstores have copies of the book.
Read about the book or read a chapter from the author's website.
The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
Thursday, October 25, noon - 1, room 2629 SSWB
Our October meeting continued our discussion of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness.
Read an excerpt from the book's website or view the book trailer.
Local bookstores and libraries have the book, and Betsy had a few copies in her office, to loan.
The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
Friday, September 21, noon - 1, in SSWB room B798
Our third book is The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness. From the book's website:
Jim Crow laws were wiped off the books decades ago, but today an extraordinary percentage of the African American community is warehoused in prisons or trapped in a parallel social universe, denied basic civil and human rights—including the right to vote; the right to serve on juries; and the right to be free of legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits. Today, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet as civil-rights-lawyer-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander demonstrates, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once labeled a felon, even for a minor drug crime, the old forms of discrimination are suddenly legal again. In her words, “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”
Read an excerpt from the book's website .
Local bookstores and libraries have the book, and Betsy had a few copies in her office, to loan.
Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
Thursday, August 9, noon -1, in SSWB 2752
Our second book is Just Mercy. Here's a description from the author's website:
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machinations, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
JUST MERCY is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.
Here are a few links:
New York Times Book Review of Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson TED Talk
Local bookstores and libraries have the book, and Betsy had a few copies in her office, to loan.
March, by John Lewis
Thursday, May 17, noon-1, in SSWB 1804
Our first title is March, the three volume graphic novel by John Lewis, with Andrew Ayden and Nate Powell.
March tells the inside story of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of one of its most iconic figures. This award-winning #1 bestselling graphic novel trilogy recounts Congressman John Lewis' life in the movement.
Here are two links to video of the authors' Nov 2017 talk at Hill Auditorium:
from the U-M Stamps School: https://youtu.be/ri1zSBZdftE
John Lewis speaks starting at about the 20 minute mark, followed by Ayden and Powell.
from Detroit Public TV: https://youtu.be/kXhYUXEuNco
In the DPTV video, John Lewis speaks starting at about the 6 minute mark, followed by Ayden and Powell.
Here's the publisher's website about the books:
You can find the books on reserve at the U-M library:
Local public libraries also have copies, and Betsy had a few copies you can borrow.