8th House Summer Book Club

Guys, don't you miss BOOK IT?

I think about this all the time, because it was so formative for 80's and 90's children. (Did you know it's still running??? This is its 40th year!) You'd set a reading goal and if you achieved it you got a certificate and a COOL BUTTON with GOLD STAR STICKERS and a free Pizza Hut personal pan pizza. We were a Papa Murphy's take-and-bake household, so cashing in our BOOK IT! swag was the only time our family ever went there, and I developed a Pavlovian emotional link between summer reading and Pizza Hut which persists to this day.

I've been thinking since our January inauguration night drop-in Zoom - which was such a great, fun, vibrant group of awesome folks - about how to incorporate more free offerings to help build community through 8th House, and I've had a great idea:

SUMMER BOOK CLUB!

More specifically: let's read some great books together that will engage our hearts, minds and spirits to do the kind of progressive movement-building our communities need from us . . . and let's do it while recreating one of the greatest lost treasures of the 90s, since pizza and gold stars are still pretty potent rewards for anything.

Here's how this will work.

Part I: Zoom Book Club

On the last Saturday of each summer month (June 28, July 26, August 30) we'll gather at noon PST on Zoom to discuss our book. Depending on the size of the group, we might do text Q&A, live Q&A, breakout rooms, or whatever else we feel like. (If I know the author, I'll try to get them to drop by!) I've selected the third book, but you get to vote on the other two. I've linked to each below, primarily via Reparations Club if I could find them there, but you should be able to find them at your library or anywhere you buy books (or e-books, or audiobooks, which are of course also totally fine).

JUNE & JULY CHOICES

How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, Mia Birdsong
Activist, writer and researcher Mia Birdsong shares stories and tools to help us reclaim vulnerability and accountability in the work of collective liberation, reminding us of the importance of community.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad
An Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist explores the rift between "Western values" and how the nations of the West actually rule and govern. The title comes from a viral tweet about Gaza.

The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, Alicia Garza
One of the co-creators of the Black Lives Matter movement shares lessons learned over a lifetime of organizing and activism.

The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther, Jeffrey Haas
A fantastic memoir by Fred Hampton's lawyer, who frequently took cases other white lawyers wouldn't touch, which chronicles his decades-long quest to expose a deadly FBI program targeting activist groups.

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care, Kelly Hayes & Mariam Kaba
Two longtime organizers explore the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, from mutual aid to mass protests, and how we can learn from them in a future where these tools continue to become more important.

Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions, Mattie Kahn
An account of social uprisings and justice movements throughout American history led by teenage girls, from factory walkouts to suffrage to civil rights.

No One Taught Me How to Be a Man: What a Trans Man's Experience Reveals about Masculinity, Shannon T. L. Kearns
You may remember Fr. Shay of the Queer Theology podcast from our 8th House inauguration night gathering! His new memoir explores masculinity from his unique perspective as a trans man raised in evangelical Christianity.

Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, Edited by Michael Lewis
The author of Moneyball curates a group of writers like Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell and W. Kamau Bell to each find and tell the story of a federal employee doing an interesting job most people have never heard about.

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, Alice Wong
Memoir of a groundbreaking Asian American disability rights activist and "self-described disabled oracle," told through art, story, and conversation.

AUGUST BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—And How You Can, Too, Ijeoma Oluo
My brilliant friend Ijeoma's newest book brings together a wide range of activists to share how they're making change in fields like gender justice, abolition, labor, and the arts, with concrete actions the rest of us can take in our own communities.

Part II: The Summer Reading Challenge Which, For Legal Reasons, Is Not Affiliated With Pizza Hut

If you're an overachiever, or you are just really motivated by prizes, the binge reader component will take place at the end of the summer. You'll track your reading between June 1 and August 30. The list of ten books above is just a starting place; any other activism/social justice books also count!

We'll pick a date in September for a "pizza party", a casual Zoom hang where we all sit on our own couches, eat our own pizza, and talk about what we read and learned. Everyone who met their reading goal will get a cute certificate made by me, and I will arrange and pay for whoever read the most books over the summer to have their favorite pizza from their preferred local establishment delivered to their home on a night of their choosing.

(If what you want really is a Pizza Hut one-topping personal pan pizza, because you're that committed to the bit, I'm willing to make that happen; but you can also be as fancy as you want.)

If you think you might be interested and want to get on the email list, please fill out the Google Form and return it to me by April 30, so I can announce the books in the beginning of May and give everyone plenty of time to find them.

So excited to learn and grow together with y'all, and hoping this will become a tradition we can continue every summer!