Welcome to NJHN’s Book Club on Zoom! Each month on the 4th Thursday at 7:30 pm, we’ll be reading and discussing books that are of interest to our Humanist group members, which will include a wide variety of topics.

We’ll select 4 books at a time to read for the next 4 months. Members can suggest books for the next  books and we’ll vote on those.

Books will be evaluated for their availability in most NJ public libraries and in print, ebook and audiobook formats. We’ll be using bookshop.org, an online bookstore using independent booksellers, for links to the book’s description and reviews; you can check other sites for more info. You can check your local libraries, streaming services, buy the book or borrow it.

In order to participate and add meaningful comments during our discussions, it will help to have some familiarity with each month’s book.

To join (no registration), click this recurring link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81619245436?pwd=T1NoOXNGMms3VXZBRWR2aklRenJOUT09

2024:

Dec 26 (one book for Nov & Dec): Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013, 408 pages, 16 hrs, 44 mins). A poll for next four selections will be available to Book Club members prior to this meeting.

Last updated: 11/9/24
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Previous books:

2024:

Oct 24: Why Does Everything Have to Be about Race?: 25 Arguments That Won’t Go Away by Keith Boykin (2024, 288 pages, 8 hrs, 59 mins)
Sep 26: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle (2024, 368 pages, 10 hrs, 26 mins)
Aug 22: We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too) by Kate Cohen (2023, 248 pages, 8 hrs, 7 mins). The author will be joining us for a Q&A at 8:30 PM.
Jul 25: The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel (2020, 273 pages, 11 hrs, 17 mins). Please bring suggestions for September and October selections this month (we’ll be reading Braiding Sweetgrass for November and December).
Jun 27: Off the Edge: Flat Earthers Conspiracy Culture and Why People Will Believe Anything by Kelly Weill (2022, 245 pages, 7 hrs, 13 mins)
May 23: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil (2016, 259 pages, 6 hrs, 23 mins)
Apr 25: The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy (2019, 216 pages, 8 hrs, 13 mins). A poll for next four selections will be available to Book Club members prior to this meeting.
Mar 21 (date changed): Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert (2021, 256 pages, 6 hrs, 21 mins). Please bring suggestions for next four selections this month.
Feb 22: The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore (1999, 288 pages, 11 hrs, 32 mins)
Jan 25: A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves by Walter Alvarez (2016, 256 pages, 6 hrs, 5 mins)

2023:
Dec 28 (one book for Nov & Dec): Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora (2022, 400 pgs. hardcover, 17 hrs, 8 mins) (Spanish version available). We’ll choose the next books to read in January-April 2024 at this meeting, so bring your suggestions!
Oct 26: The Good-Enough Life by Avram Alpert (2022, 336 pgs. hardcover, 9 hrs, 14 mins) 
Sep 28: Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America by Katie Worth (2021, 184 pgs. paperback, 4 hrs, 51 mins)
Aug 24: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee (2021, 448 pgs. hardcover, 11 hrs, 8 mins). We’ll choose the next books to read in September-December at this meeting.
Jul 27: From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction, by Mary Beth O’Connor (2023, 336 pgs. paperback, 9 hrs, 23 mins). Please bring future book recommendations to this meeting. The author will be joining us for a Q&A at 8 PM.
Jun 22: How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question, by Michael Schur (2022, 304 pgs. hardcover, 9 hrs, 13 mins)
May 25: Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, by Annalee Newitz (2021, 320 pgs. hardcover, 8 hrs, 14 mins)
Apr 27: Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy by Whitney Goodman (2022, 304 pgs, 6h 8m). We’ll choose the next 4 books to read at this meeting.
Mar 23: Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical by Sikivu Hutchinson (2020, 135 pgs, 4h 36m). Please bring future book recommendations to this meeting.
Feb 23: The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America by Carol Anderson (2021, 272 pgs, 6h 30m).
Jan 26: Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas (2018, 256 pgs, 5h 45m).

2022:
Dec 22: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder (2017, 128 pgs).
NOTE: Look for “Expanded Audio Edition” released on 4/19/22 that includes Trump years and Russia’s War on Ukraine (8 additional hours of content).
Dec 1: (Nov date changed due to holiday): Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism, by Elsa Sjunneson (2021, 288 pgs).
Oct 27: Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church, co-edited by Chrissy Stroop and Lauren O’Neal (2019, 284 pgs).
Sep 22 (during Banned Books Week): Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi  (2020, 320 pgs).
Aug 25: For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World, by Sasha Sagan (2019, 288 pgs).
Jul 28: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (2015, 320 pgs).
Jun 23: The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes by David Robson (2019, 336 pgs).
May 26: The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates by Frans de Waal (2013, 304 pgs).
Apr 28: Sex, Power, and Partisanship: How Evolutionary Science Makes Sense of Our Political Divide by Hector A. Garcia (2019, 254 pgs). Dr. Garcia will also be our program speaker on April 24 to discuss this topic.
Mar 24: Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas (2018, 304 pgs).
Feb 24: Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (or Don’t) by Alex Bezzerides (2021, 384 pgs).
Jan 27: Night Thoughts: An Essay by Wallace Shawn (2017, 92 pgs).

2021:
Dec 30: (Dec date changed due to holiday: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (2015, 368 pgs).
Dec 2: (Nov date changed due to holiday): Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (2020, 480 pgs).
Oct 28: White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad (2020, 304 pgs).
Sep 23: Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions by Phil Zuckerman (2014, 288 pgs).
Aug 26: Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe by Greg Epstein (2009, 272 pgs).
Jul 22: The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Christian Nationalism by Katherine Stewart (2020, 352 pgs).