If you’re a reader, a book lover, and take an interest in human rights, then Amnesty International has a book club for you! Launched in 2014, the Amnesty International Book Club engages readers, libraries and book clubs in reading beyond the book.
What does that mean? Our book club not only features excellent literature, but we produce great discussion guides which provide background information and an action readers can take to protect human rights. Awareness plus action makes this a different kind of book club.
Did we mention that it’s all free? The Book Club has more than 6,500 members from coast to coast to coast, and ages range from people in their teens to some in their nineties. Everyone is welcome to join!
Here`s how you can get involved:
1. JOIN THE BOOK CLUB
Sign up at www.amnestybookclub.ca, or by calling us toll-free at 1-800-266-3789.
It is completely free and everybody is welcome to join!
The beauty of this virtual community is that you have it all at your fingertips — you can discuss the books online on the Goodreads discussion group, read the guide to delve deeper into the books, learn more about current human rights issues, and take an action if you choose to, all from the comfort of your home. You can also choose to use the attractive discussion guides in your own book club if you already belong to one!
2. ORGANIZE A LOCAL BOOK CLUB
You could start holding regular book club night, or have one or two a year to invite new people to come out and find out more about Amnesty International, using our book selections and discussion guides to facilitate the discussion.
Six times a year, a Canadian author selects a book by another Canadian author for Amnesty book club members to read. The free discussion guides (available on-line) contain an essay by the guest reader, explaining why they chose this particular book, discussion questions from the guest reader and/or author, background on Amnesty International’s work related to the issues in the book, and a current action. In the past, we’ve also done some podcasts with the guest readers and selected book authors.
3. SPREAD THE WORD
The Amnesty International Book Club is a great way for local groups and members to engage their communities in human rights. . It’s also a great way to promote Amnesty International’s work through your local library and independent bookstores. We have free bookmarks they can distribute, and some have started book clubs with our reading list.
What are we reading?
The reading list for 2018 includes: Brother by David Chariandy, Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkins, Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga, Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez, The Break by Katherena Vermette, and a Readers’ Choice book at the end the year chosen by the book club’s own readers through on-line voting.
Our bookshelf of previous selections includes The Illegal and The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Indian Horse and Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese, The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King, Laughing All the Way to the Mosque by Zarqa Nawaz, Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai and many more! You can choose any of the bookshelf books and discussion guides for your meeting, instead of the current book, if you prefer.
The book club is a great way to engage with Amnesty’s work and likeminded people for enriching and educational discussions.
To learn more or join the book club, visit: www.AmnestyBookClub.ca or call us toll-free at 1-800-266-3789 and leave a message for the book club. We’d love to hear from you!
