Amnesty Book Club
Join the Amnesty Book Club, the largest free book club in Canada. Get free signed books, invitations to exclusive author events, and discussion guides to deepen your conversations and inspire you to take action for human rights.
How does it work?
Subscribe to get updates and discussion guides.
Joining the Amnesty Book Club is simple. Subscribe to our monthly Book Club newsletter, and you’ll be a member!
Win books and join free author events.
Members enjoy lots of perks, including free signed books, invitations to author events, and free merchandise.
Choose how you want to be involved.
Read and join events, share the books with your own book club, or start a local Book Club Chapter. It’s your choice!
Take action to defend human rights.
After reading and discussing the books, take action to defend human rights. Review the Discussion Guide for ideas.
STORIES TO INSPIRE CHANGE
Meet new people who love books.
We are a welcoming community that believes storytelling can change the world.
Learn about human rights.
Each of the books we choose features themes and characters that highlight current and urgent human rights issues.
Make a difference in the world.
We don’t just read and talk about books. We also take action together to fight injustice and make the world a better place.
What we’re reading now
Nov / Dec
The Immortal King Rao
Vauhini Vara
Discussion Guide coming in January 2025
THIS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE BOOK CLUB
Amnesty Book Club is an online and in-person community that believes in the power of storytelling to change the world. Join now to get exclusive invites to free author events, free discussion guides and opportunities to win free books and merchandise.
What Authors are saying
“Stories are one of our few sites of equal meeting, a place to nurture compassion and to understand one another better. I’m grateful to play a small part in Amnesty’s efforts to bring people together to share our stories.”
OMAR EL AKKAD
American War & What Strange Paradise
“It is an honour to have The Story of Us in Amnesty’s Book Club’s lineup. I look forward to discussing the book’s themes of building meaningful bridges between seemingly disparate communities and inspiring others to do the same.”
CATHERINE HERNANDEZ
Scarborough & The Story of Us
What members are saying
Frequently Asked Questions
- Amnesty’s Book Club has more than 13,000 members across Canada and around the world. You can join and attend online events, join a local Book Club Chapter, and/or start your own Chapter. You can also share the Amnesty book selections with your own local book club or group of reading friends.
- Once you’ve read and discussed the books, consider how you can defend human rights. Each Discussion Guide features ideas for taking action and learning more about the themes and campaigns featured in the book.
- After you’ve finished discussing the book and taking action, tell us about it. By sharing your experience, you will inspire more good deeds across the country and around the world!
- Exclusive invitations to online and in-person events that bring readers and the authors together
- Free Discussion Guides where we explore themes and how they apply to the real world
- Ideas for taking action and getting involved with Amnesty’s human rights campaigns
- Printed copies of the Discussion Guides are also available if requested.
- Volunteer opportunities on the Book Club Committee
- An active online and in-person community to share stories, ideas, and experiences
Everyone can join! Amnesty Book Club can take many different forms and sizes. Here are a few examples of where you might find members to make up your Amnesty Book Club Chapter:
- Existing book clubs
- School classrooms
- Sports teams
- Family
- Friends
- Coworkers
- Religious groups
- Civic groups
- Neighbours
Amnesty Book Club is perfect for existing book clubs! By becoming members and taking action to defend human rights, the Amnesty Book Club will add another layer of meaning to your club and make a difference in your community.
There are several different ways to get books for your Amnesty Book Club:
- Talk to your local public or school librarian about requesting enough copies for your group
- Get an online version of the book, if possible
- Ask your local independent bookstore if they would be willing to donate books to your group or offer a bulk order discount.
- Check out used books sold online
- Share a few copies of the book among the members of your group
- Buy one copy and meet to read it aloud. This works beautifully in school classrooms!
We can’t wait to hear about your Amnesty Book Club adventures. Please share your Amnesty Book Club story with us at bookclub@amnesty.ca. Using the information you provide, we will highlight Amnesty Book Club activities on our website, social media and by email.
In addition, you can contact your local newspaper, radio stations, and TV stations to share your Amnesty Book Club experience. They may want to talk to your group—and you may start a chain reaction of human rights action.
Don’t worry if you don’t have time to read the books. That shouldn’t stop you from joining the Amnesty Book Club. We can’t promise there won’t be spoilers revealed during our events or Discussion Guides, but we promise you’ll find them interesting and engaging. Above all, Amnesty Book Club is a community of readers who are passionate about human rights. If it’s not possible to read the whole book, read what you can and attend our free online author event to learn more about the book, enjoy the discussion, and take part in defending human rights.
No, you don’t need to read the books in order. We select six books per year (one book every two months). If our current selections don’t resonate with your local book club, please feel free to pick and choose from the list as you’d like. You can also check out our Book Club archives for an extensive list of previous Book Club selections with their accompanying Discussion Guides and recorded author events.
