ASI Book Club

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ASI Book Club *

In February 2021, the ASI book club was formed to create a venue for members of ASI and the Parent Leadership Institute to come together to read critically for pleasure, obtain information, and socialize. The isolation and angst, caused by the pandemic, were feelings that we hoped the meetings would reduce.

The following lists the books that members selected to read. The member, who recommended the book receiving the highest number of votes, develops the discussion questions and moderates the session.

An asterisk indicates that the author attended the book club meeting.

2025 Book Selections

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

From Superman to Man by J. A. Rogers

Waiting for White Jesus by Cleveland G. Oakes Jr. *

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Past Book Selections

2024

  • Don’t Let Them Bury My Story by Viola Ford Fletcher with Ike Howard

  • The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  • Black AF History by Michael Harriot

  • Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

  • Allow Me to Retort by Elie Mystal

  • White Fear by Roland S. Martin with Leah Lakins

  • Black Folk by Blair LM Kelley

2021

  • Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

  • Black Brooklyn by John Flateau *

  • The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley

  • CRE articles by Gloria Ladson-Billings

  • Fugitive Pedagogy by Jarvis R. Givens *

  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

  • Four Hundred Souls edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

2023

  • My Life in Search of Africa by John Henrik Clarke

  • Read Until You Understand by Farah Jasmine Griffin

  • Emotional Justice by Esther Armah *

  • The Coming by Daniel Black *

2022

  • How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

  • Dreams in a Time of War by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

  • The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  • Recitatif by Toni Morrison

  • From Enslavement to Belovedness by Adelaide Sanford *

  • Brainwashed by Tom Burrell *

  • The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street by Robin Walker