Literary Immersion Circle | Books That Transform

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(in the order we've read them, newest (top) to oldest (bottom))

White Women - Regina Jackson, Saira Rao [Top Recommendation]

Abolition. Feminism. Now. - Gina Dent, Angela Y. Davis, Beth Richie

The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen - Sean Sherman with Beth Dooley

The Myth of Race - Robert Sussman

Forty Million Dollar Slaves - William Rhoden

Minor Feelings - Cathy Park Hong

Decolonizing Methodologies - Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Shadow Network - Anne Nelson

Fear of Black Consciousness - Lewis Gordon

Becoming Human - Zakiyyah Iman Jackson

Read This to Get Smarter - Blair Imani

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone - Heather McGhee

How to Do Nothing - Jenny Odell

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

Thunder Rose - Jerdine Nolen

The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree - Nice Leng'ete

While Justice Sleeps - Stacey Abrams

Eloquent Rage - Brittney Cooper

Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer

African Europeans, An Untold History - Olivette Otele
Afro-Vegan - Bryant Terry

Rufus Estes' Good Things to Eat - Chef Rufus Estes

Me and White Supremacy - Layla Saad

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey - Amber Ruffin

Nice Racism - Robin DiAngelo

The Chalice and the Blade - Riane Eisler

A Little History of the World - E. H. Gombrich

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States - Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

White Kids - Margaret A. Hagerman

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro - Henry Louis Gates

Lies My Teacher Told Me - James Loewen

The Lost Eleven - Denise George

L'art de la Simplicité - Dominque Loreau

Hunger - Roxane Gay

The French Revolution in a Nutshell - Neil Wenborn

Negroland - Margo Jefferson

Rising Out of Hatred - Eli Saslow

Citizen, An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine

The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl - Issa Rae

Never Caught - Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Loving - Sheryll Cashin

The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin

You Can't Touch My Hair - Phoebe Robinson

Sister Citizen - Melissa Harris-Perry

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Defining Moments in History, Reading Between the Lies - Dick Gregory

Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay

The New Jim Crow (10th Anniversary Edition) - Michelle Alexander

White Too Long - Robert Jones

Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell

Caste - Isabel Wilkerson (a Must Read)

My Grandmother's Hands - Resmaa Menakem

A Macat Analysis of The Wretched Earth by Frantz Fanon - Riley Quinn

The Will to Change - Bell Hooks

The Water Dancer - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Stamped from the Beginning - Ibram Kendi

Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler

Mind Over Money - Claudia Hammond

How to be Less Stupid About Race - Crystal Fleming

The Meritocracy Trap - Daniel Markovits

How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram Kendi

White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo

Tightrope - Nicholas Kristof

Winners Take All - Anand Giridharadas

This is Service Design Thinking - Marc Stickdorn

This is Service Design Doing - Marc Stickdorn

Unladylike - Cristen Conger

So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo

Weaponized Lies - Daniel Levitin

The Sisters Are Alright - Tamara Winfrey Harris

An Everyone Culture - Robert Kegan

Boys Adrift - Leonard Sax

Silos, Politics and Turf Wars - Patrick Lencioni

Jealousy - Paul Hauck

The Introvert Entrepreneur - Beth Buelow

Pitch Perfect - Bill McGowan

Social Intelligence - Daniel Goleman

King Peggy - Peggielen Bartels

Inferior - Angela Saini

Future Science - Max Brockman

Turn Your Mate into Your Soulmate - Arielle Ford

Life Reimagined - Richard Leider

It! - Paula Froelich

A Spymaster’s Secrets for Learning a Foreign Language

Everydata - Mike Gluck

The Schmuck in My Office - Jody Foster, MD, MBA

Leadership BS - Jeffrey Pfeffer

Callings - David Isay

Anatomy of Love - Helen Fisher

Table Manners - Jeremiah Tower

Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight - Peter Walsh

Suggestions from fellow readers and our own discoveries (in alphabetical order):

American Indians, American Justice - Vine Deloria & Clifford Lytle

Dark Matters - Simone Browne

Designs for the Pluriverse - Arturo Escobar

Disability Visibility - Alice Wong

Equality for Women, Prosperity for All - Augusto Lopez-Claros

Four Hundred Souls - Ibram Kendi

Freedom is a Constant Struggle - Angela Davis

From Here to Equality - William Darity, Jr.

Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

Hood Feminism - Mikki Kendall

How the Word is Passed - Clint Smith

Hundred in the Hand - Joseph Marshall III

In the Wake: On Blackness and Being - Christina Sharpe

Indian Givers - Jack Weatherford

Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann

Mediocre - Ijeoma Oluo

Necropolitics - Achille Mbembe

Neuroscience for Leaders - Nikolaos Dimitriadis

Reckoning with Slavery - Jennifer Morgan

Rez Life - David Treuer

Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde

The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality - Cheikh Anta Diop

The Book of Lost Friends - Lisa Wingate

The Color of Compromise - Jemar Tisby

The Deconstruction of Black Civilization - Chancellor Williams

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding - Robert Hughes

The World We Used To Live In - Vine Deloria, Jr.

When They Call You A Terrorist - Khan-Cullors & Bandele

The World We Used To Live In - Vine Deloria, Jr. | Recommended by Dr. Shannon Beach

"It is a tremendous work identifying the way turtle island was viewed from a spiritual lens before European contact and despite it." -- Dr. Beach

The African Unconscious: Roots of Ancient Mysticism and Modern Psychology - Edward Bynum | Recommended by Adam Greene

"I value--based on my reading of chapter 2 of the book--the way the author centers the study of African spiritual traditions as a means of obtaining insight into deep aspects of the human psyche." -- Adam Greene

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The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel Van Der Kolk* | Recommended by Kayla DeCant

"This book is a great foundation for understanding how trauma impacts our biology, specifically our neurobiology. It breaks down the processes so we can better understand how people's brains and bodies are impacted. It helps us understand how these changes impact their future behavior (neurons that are wired together, fire together). And it shows ways we can heal from trauma, individually and collectivelly." -- Kayla DeCant

*Kayla DeCant's Disclaimer: Dr. Van Der Kolk was fired from the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA in 2014, due to allegations of bullying, harassment, and discrimination. The content of this book is still worth the read, but buy it used or get it from your library so he doesn't get the kickback.

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Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Other - Laura van Dernoot Lipsky & Connie Burk | Recommended by Kayla DeCant

"A great read for self-reflection and self-awareness. Can be useful for ANYONE in any field. Shows how we can be impacted by the trauma of our work and those we work with, and how we can reduce its impact. It is an especially important read for supervisors." -- Kayla DeCant

How the Word is Passed - Clint Smith | Recommended by Shereé Bielecki

This book "illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view." -- Shereé Bielecki

What We Want - Charlotte Fox Weber | Recommended by Dalton

"What We Want is a beautifully written therapy book exploring our underlying longings. Brilliant!" -- Dalton

Have a book to recommend?