Unlimited Book Club

The Unlimited Book Club is a joint venture of the Coos History Museum, Coos Bay Library, and North Bend Library. We formed to encourage awareness and foster community discussions on equity, diversity, and inclusion through reading and thoughtful conversation. 

The club will meet every second Thursday at 6:00 PM. The meetings will be an opportunity for members to discuss the month’s book as well as vote on book titles for future meetings and connect with fellow community members. Our next meeting will be on December 10th and we will be discussing the book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. 

To sign up for the book club and to receive a link to the zoom meeting, please click here: Unlimited Book Club sign-up. 

You may also find information about the Unlimited Book Club on our Facebook page, our Events page, or by contacting Ariel Peasley at education@cooshistory.org or at 541-756-6320 x216.

View more information below!

Resources and Discussion Questions

2017 TED talk with Isabel Wilkerson: The Great Migration and the Power of a Single Decision

Dec 1st at 5:00 PM – Oregon Humanities: Can We Get Along? 

Questions by Hosts

An interview with Ibram X. Kendi hosted by The Aspen Institute: How to Be an Antiracist

TED talk with Ibram X. Kendi: The Difference Between Being “Not Racist” and Antiracist 

Questions by Hosts

“On page 180, Kendi says “To be antiracist is to equate and nurture difference among racial groups.” We often talk about celebrating diversity and differences, but do we need to concentrate harder on equating differences? How do we do this?”

“In my own interpretation, Kendi says that if we make things equal, fair, and just for Black people, especially for Black transgender women, that we will ultimately make the world, or at least our country, better for everyone. Conversely, he says that groups such as white supremacists and the policies and ideas they promote, are making the world worse for everyone, including White people. What do you think about these ideas?”  

“How does Kendi make you examine your own situation, your own biases?”

A talk presented by PEN America and Summit: Patrisse Cullors and Joshua Wong in Conversation with Baratunde Thurston 

Interview with Patrisse Cullors hosted by Trevor Noah on The Daily Social Distancing Show: How to Phase Out the Police 

NYTimes article: Some Protests Against Police Brutality Take a More Confrontational Approach – (question for discussion: “How does the BLM movement fit into what is currently happening in Portland?”)

Questions by Hosts

“If you had to use one word to describe a major theme running through this book that holds the author together and provides her much needed comfort, what would that word be?”

“Now having read this book, in a sentence or so, what do you believe is the main purpose and goal of the Black Lives Matter movement?” 

“I want to discuss her beautiful writing style, and her influences, but I think it might be more important to look forward instead, and (borrowing and wrecking a line from Hamilton) discuss her book as a moment in a movement.”

Book Titles

December 10, 2020: Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson 

January 14, 2021: Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

February 11, 2021: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. 

 

 

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Made in Japan, Settled in Oregon by Mitzi Asai Loftus

Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940 by Elizabeth McLagan

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes wWhat We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Apeirogon: A Novel by Colum McCann

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

The Morning the Sun Went Down: A Memoir by Darryl Babe Wilson

The First Oregonians by Laura Berg

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

Oregon Democracy: Asahel Bush, Slavery, and the Statehood Debate by Barbara Mahoney (academic article)

From a Native Son: Selected Essays on Indigenism, 1985-1995 by Ward Churchill

See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Men we Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

The Overstory by Richard Powers

What You Should Know about Politics…but Don’t: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues that Matter by Jessamyn Conrad

Muslim Women Are Everything by Seema Yasmin and Fahmida Azim 

November 12, 2020: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

October 8, 2020: When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele