Suggested Books 2024 

• Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule.  The Lost Cause myth argued that white southerners fought the Civil War for many reasons — protective tariffs, state’s rights, freedom, the agrarian dream, defense — all except slavery.  

• Evicted - Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. In the poorest neighborhood of Milwaukee, the author tells the story of eight families on the  edge. Today most poor families who rent spend more than half their income on housing.  

• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. This book centers around two women, a Black slave and a southern woman. Both are seeking  freedom in surprisingly similar ways. 

• How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. The author discusses various places with links to slavery across the US.  

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. The book is based on the life of the author’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and  carried the fight against Native American dispossession from rural North Dakota to Washington,  DC.  

• Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown. Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. It is about  “both standing alone in your personal beliefs and values and connecting to others in theirs. It’s about how to share your most authentic self: to stand both alone and together as part of a  community.”  

• Fascism A Warning, by Madeleine Albright. A fascist, observes Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for the whole nation or group, is  utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other  means are necessary to achieve the goal.”