Welcome to the page for the NAACP San Diego Branch Members’ Book Club. No reading is needed! Feel free to join the conversation whether you have read the book or not.
To join the club, or if you have questions, please send an email to bookclub@sandiegonaacp.org
We meet on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. Each month, after we discuss that month’s book one of our members is chosen at random to nominate three books, and we vote among those three for the next book we read.
Current book: How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
- May 11: How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view - December 8: The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty
A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. - November 10: A Little Piece of Light by Donna Hylton
Random Family meets Orange Is the New Black in A Little Piece of Light, a memoir of survival, redemption, hope, and sisterhood from a bold new voice on the front lines of the criminal justice reform movement. - October 13: Stamped by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. - Author Drops In to Branch Members’ Book Club!
At our August 9th book club meeting, author Charles M. Blow joined - September 8: The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy–and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out? - August 11: The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto by Charles Blow
The Book Club is reading The Devil You Know, about the potential for Black power in the South. - Author Event & Book signing-Dr. E. Faye Williams
Join us on Friday, June 25th from 6:00-8:00 pm for an in-person author book-signing and Q&A with Dr. E. Faye Williams on her book “Wake Up and Stay Woke, Running for Life” about activist Dick Gregory. This special event is not to be missed! Dr. Williams is the […] - July 13 Book Club: Assata-The Autobiography of Assata Shakur
With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portray the strengths, weaknesses and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. - June 9 Book Club: The New Jim Crow-Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community–and all of us–to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America. - May 12 Book Club: Crusade for Justice-The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was one of the foremost crusaders against black oppression. This engaging memoir tells of her private life as a mother of a growing family as well as her public activities as a teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight against attitudes and laws oppressing blacks. - Local Author Collaboration
The Branch is inviting local authors to present their work to Branch members, to give sales a boost and keep the membership informed. - April 14th Book Club: Black Political Organizations in the Post Civil Rights Era
Members’ Book Club Book of the Month: The April book club book is Black Political Organizations in the Post-Civil Rights Era by Ollie Johnson and Karin Stanford. We know a great deal about civil rights organizations during the 1960s, but relatively little about black political organizations since that […] - March 10: The Water Dancer
Members’ Book Club Book of the Month: The March book club book is The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating […] - February 10 Book Club: The House on the Cerulean Sea
Members’ Book Club Book of the Month: The February book club book is The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a […] - January 14: The Vanishing Half
Members’ Book Club Book of the Month: Our first book club book of 2021 is The Vanishing Half by San Diego writer Brit Bennett. Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces […] - December 9: The Fire Next Time
Members’ Book Club Book of the Month: Our next book club book is The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful […] - November 11: The Underground Railroad
Members’ Book Club Book of the Month: The alternate history novel tells the story of Cora and Caesar, two slaves in the southeastern United States during the 19th century, who make a bid for freedom from their Georgia plantations by following the Underground Railroad, which the novel depicts as primarily a rail transport system in addition […]
All are welcome! E mail bookclub@sandiegonaacp.org for details.