Human Rights Book Clubs
Spark Curiosity. Stretch Perspective. Ignite Dialogue.
Reading together may be one of the most hopeful practices we have. Book clubs keep our shared humanity awake. When it’s tempting to retreat into our corners, these spaces invite us to lean in — to let stories unsettle us and conversations reshape us. A more just and joyful world can begin with a room full of readers willing to imagine better together.
The Wassmuth Center hosts two book clubs each month.
Generations for Justice Book Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30 – 8:00 PM.
Hope & Humanity Book Club meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 12:00 – 1:00 PM and 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Hope & Humanity
Hope & Humanity Book Club is a welcoming space for lively conversations about books that explore human rights across all genres — stories that spark empathy, deepen understanding, and inspire meaningful action.
We gather on the fourth Tuesday of each month at both 12:00 PM and 6:30 PM.
Register below for the current month or for all upcoming sessions in 2026.
Upcoming Selections
August 25
After deciding not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, open their home to the foster care system, knowing they may one day have to give their child back. Through years of
evaluations, bureaucracy, and the quiet injustices of a system designed to prioritize reunification, they are finally entrusted with a three-day-old baby girl named Coco. In caring for her, Sarah discovers what it means to mother not only a vulnerable infant but also honor the love of the birth mother, learning that family can take many forms. With fearless, lyrical prose, Stranger Care becomes a meditation on
love, responsibility, and our shared duty to protect one another—reminding us that belonging, care, and connection are the foundations of a more just and hopeful world.
September 22
The Lion Women of Tehran
Marjan Kamali
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie’s comfortable life is upended by her father’s death, forcing her and her mother into a small downtown home. Lonely and adrift, she finds a kindred spirit in Homa, a brave and irrepressible girl who becomes her first true friend. Together, they navigate the streets and
markets of Tehran, share dreams of becoming “lion women,” and learn to claim agency and courage in a world that often limits girls’ voices and choices. When Ellie returns to a life of privilege, their paths diverge, yet Homa’s sudden reappearance years later confronts both with the inequalities and injustices shaping their society. Against the backdrop of political upheaval, they must face betrayal, moral compromise, and the struggle to protect dignity and freedom—revealing how friendship and resilience can become acts of resistance.
2026 Hope & Humanity Selections
- January: Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo
- February: Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
- March: Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
- April: Soft as Bones by Chyana Marie Sage
- May: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
- June: The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
- July: Choose your own adventure – no meeting this month
- August: Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours by Sarah Sentilles
- September: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
- October: Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by Beth Macy
- November: Written in the Waters by Tara Roberts
- December: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (We will join Generations for Justice Book Club for this discussion.)
Generations for Justice
Generations for Justice is an intergenerational book club that brings together community members of all ages, offering a shared refuge to step away from the rush, open a text together, and rediscover how dignity grows when we make space to think, question, and listen deeply.
This book club is held on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30 PM.
Register below for the current month or for all upcoming sessions in 2026.
Upcoming Selections
September 8
The Last Cuentista
Donna Barba Higuera
How do we carry the human story forward in challenging times?
Winner of the Newbery Medal, our September selection is an allegory of the times we live in – a brilliant journey through choices that can illuminate or erase human dignity. When a comet veers off course, Petra and her family are chosen to help ensure the human race. After hundreds of years, Petra wakes to a new planet — and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. Petra alone now carries the stories of our shared past, and with them, any hope for our future.
October 13
Everything We Never Had
Randy Ribay
Everything We Never Had follows four genertaions of Filipino American boys – Francisco, Emil, Chris, and Enzo Maghabol – each grappling with identity, masculinity, and father-son relationships. Ecah boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation. Finally, it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands of human connection together.
2026 Generations for Justice Selections
- January: We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
- February: Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo
- March: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
- April: The Lilac People by Milo Todd
- May: The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
- June: You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson
- July: Choose your own adventure – no meeting this month!
- August: The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall
- September: The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuero
- October: Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
- November: Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
- December: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Hope & Humanity Book Club will also read this book in December and join our discussion.)
Previous Selections
Generations for Justice Book Club
2026 Selections
- January: We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
- February: Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo
- March: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
- April: The Lilac People by Milo Todd
- May: The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
- June: You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson
- July: Choose your own adventure – no meeting this month!
- August: The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall
- September: The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuero
- October: Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
- November: Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
- December: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Hope & Humanity Book Club will also read this book in December and join our discussion.)
2025 Selections
- January: Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
- February: Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
- March: Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez.
- April: Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
- May: The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
- June: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- July: Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
- August: Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth
- September: Finding Eve: Raising a Transgender Teen in Idaho by Michael and Angie Devitt
- October: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
- November: The Collectors: Stories edited by A.S. King
- December: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall
2024 Selections
- July: Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- August: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- September: This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
- October: We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib
- November: Borderless by Jennifer De Leon
- December: The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Hope & Humanity
Book Club
2026 Selections
- January: Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo
- February: Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
- March: Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
- April: Soft as Bones by Chyana Marie Sage
- May: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
- June: The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
- July: Choose your own adventure – no meeting this month
- August: Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours by Sarah Sentilles
- September: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
- October: Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by Beth Macy
- November: Written in the Waters by Tara Roberts
- December: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (We will join Generations for Justice Book Club for this discussion.)
2025 Selections
- January: The Bones of the World by Betsy L. Ross
- February: Decent Exposure by Edna Shochat
- March: The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek
- April: The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
- May: Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
- June: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
- July: By the Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle
- August: After Auschwitz by Eva Schloss
- September: Memories in Focus by Pinchas Gutter
- October: I Still See Her Haunting Eyes by Aaron Elster
- November: Inherit the Truth by Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
- December: No gathering this month
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
-JAMES BALDWIN, AMERICAN WRITER