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
June 23
The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
Sharon McMahon shows that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people whose lives never made it into textbooks—telephone operators, schoolteachers, poets, and mothers whose courage quietly shaped history. Through meticulous research, she brings to life unsung figures. As these lives unfold—marked by injustice, resilience, surprising fortune, and small acts of heroism—they reveal how ordinary people can challenge cruelty, protect the vulnerable, and illuminate the path toward a more just, peaceful, and free world. In McMahon’s hands, history becomes a chorus of improbable champions whose stories remind us that greatness is found in everyday courage and human dignity.
August 25
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.
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
July - Choose Your Own Adventure
Catch up, read ahead, or select a book that was recommended in one of our book discussions! We’ll see you in August for a discussion of The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall.
The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with the late, great Jane Goodall. Drawing on decades of work that helped expand our understanding of what it means to be human and what we all need to do to help build a better world, The Book of Hope poses vital questions: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? What is the relationship between hope and action?
August 11
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