Book Discussions Fall/Winter 2024 and 2025
Ready for conversation? Most discussions begin at 9:00 am on the third Saturday of each month. Here is a quick preview of the book list for 2024-25.
September 21, 2024: Finding Margaret Fuller: A Novel by Allison Pataki
Facilitator: Rush Rogers
September 28, 2024, Fall Summit Read: Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World by Jen Psaki
Facilitator: Rush Rogers
October 19, 2024: Imagine Freedom: Transforming Pain into Political and Spiritual Power by Rahiel Tesfamariam
Facilitators: John Zibbel and Deborah Wooldridge
November 16, 2024: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
Facilitators: Rush Rogers and Naykishia Darby
January 18, 2024: Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley 2021
Facilitators: Mickey Radkin & Naykishia Darby
February 15, 2025: Israel/Palestine (5th Edition) by Alan Dowty 2023
Facilitators: Carolyn Reams Smith
March 15, 2025: We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood
by Dani McClain 2019
Facilitator: Naykishia Darby
April 19, 2025: All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s
Bodies and Why It Matters Today by Elizabeth Comen 2024
Facilitator: Helen Drake
May 17, 2025: Goodnight Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea 2023
Facilitators: Deborah Wooldridge & Rush Rodgers
June 21, 2025: Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall 2024
Facilitators: Deborah Wooldridge & Rush Rodgers
July 21, 2025: The Women by Kristin Hannah 2024
Facilitator: Janice McCloud
August 16, 2025: Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning &
End Of Suffering (Beyond Suffering) by Joseph Nguyen 2022
Facilitator: John Zibbel & Deborah Wooldridge
Book Discussions 2023-24
September 16, 2023: American Turning Point – Repairing and Restoring Our Constitutional Republic: Becoming One Indivisible Nation in the Era of Divisiveness by Robert Viney
Facilitator: Robert Viney
October 28, 2023: Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boulanger
Facilitator: Rush Rodgers
November 18, 2023: What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by S. Foo
Facilitators: John Zibbel & Deborah Wooldridge
January 20, 2024: Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
Facilitator: Rush Rodgers
February 17, 2024: The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
Facilitator: Naykishia Darby
March16, 2024: Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
Facilitator: Carolyn Reams Smith
May 18, 2024: The Light we Carry: Overcoming Uncertain Times by Michele Obama
Facilitator: Deborah Wooldridge & Rush Rodgers
June 15, 2024: A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan
Facilitator: Rush Rodgers
July 20, 2024: Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence by Anita Hill
Facilitator: Deborah Wooldridge
August 17, 2024: Cyborgs & Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture, & the Posthuman Body by Kim Toffoletti
Facilitators: John Zibbel & Deborah Wooldridge
September 21, 2024: Finding Margaret Fuller: A Novel by Allison Pataki
Facilitator: Rush Rogers
September 28, 2024, Fall Summit Read: Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World by Jen Psaki
Facilitator: Rush Rogers
October 19, 2024: Imagine Freedom: Transforming Pain into Political and Spiritual Power by Rahiel Tesfamariam
Facilitators: John Zibbel and Deborah Wooldridge
November 18, 2024: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
Facilitators: Rush Rogers and Naykishia Darby
Recap
2022-23 Books
9:00 am September 24: 
Limitless Mind: Learn, Live and Lead Without Boundaries by Jo Boaler
Facilitator: Rush Rodgers & Deborah Wooldridge
October 22: Tales of Two Americas, 
edited by John Freeman
Facilitator: Rush Rogers
November 19: The Broken Ladder by Keith Payne
Facilitator: Erin Czerniak
January 21: The Girl Who Wrote in Silk: A Novel of Chinese Immigration to the Pacific Northwest by Kelli Estes
Facilitator: JoAnn Benseler
February 18: Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life without Limits by Emmanuel Acho
Facilitator: Deborah Wooldridge
March18: Highway of Tears: 
A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid
Facilitator: Mickey Radtkin
May 20: Bittersweet by Susan Cain
Facilitator: Rush Rodgers
June 17: 13 Things Mentally Strong Women 
Don’t Do by Amy Morin
Facilitator: Deborah Wooldridge
July 15: Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown
Facilitator: Rush Rogers and Deborah Wooldridge
August 19: Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Facilitator: Naykishia Darby
Did You Miss These?
AAUW Ohio Book Discussions 2021-22
January 19, 2022, THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY by Sonia Renee Taylor (2018)
The Body Is Not an Apology is essential reading for those of us who crave understanding and those who are already on the path to learning how beautiful and complex our bodies are. It will empower you with the tools to navigate a world that is often unkind to those of us who whether by choice or design don’t adhere to society’s standard of beauty. https://aauwohiojan2022.eventbrite.com
March 19, 2022 AFTERLIFE by Julia Alvarez (2020)
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words. https://aauwohiomar2022.eventbrite.com
May 21, 2022 HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY by Roxane Gay (2017)
In her brutally honest and brave memoir Hunger, Gay recounts a childhood sexual assault that led her to purposely gain weight to be unseen and therefore “safe.” Gay warns at the beginning of the book that if you’re looking for a triumphant weight-loss memoir, this is not it. But Hunger is a triumph nonetheless. It’s a story not easily told, but the telling set her free.
AAUW Ohio Coffee and Convos Book Discussions 2020/2021 –Fall
June 19, 2021, SMALL GREAT THINGS by Jodi Picoult (2016)
The story concentrates on an African-American labor/delivery nurse, Ruth Jefferson, in charge of newborns at a Connecticut hospital. Ruth is ordered not to touch or go near the baby of a white supremacist couple. After the baby dies in her care, Ruth is charged with murder, and taken to court. https://aauwohiojune.eventbrite.com
July 17, 2021, STRANGE BIRDS by Celia Perez (2019)
From the award-winning author of The First Rule of Punk comes the story of four kids who form an alternative Scout troop that shakes up their sleepy Florida town. Relates to AAUW issues and values. https://aauwohiojuly.eventbrite.com
September 18, 2021 NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead (2019)
The novel is loosely based around a real-life true case of systemic abuse at a borstal-type facility in 1960s America. Whilst the novel deals with themes of physical/emotional/sexual abuse, it does so in a sensitive manner. https://aauwohiosept.eventbrite.com
November 20, 2021, THE MOMENT OF LIFT by Melinda Gates (2019)
“In her book, Melinda tells the stories of the inspiring people she’s met through her work all over the world, digs into the data, and powerfully illustrates issues that need our attention—from child marriage to gender inequity in the workplace.” — President Barack Obama “The Moment of Lift is an urgent call to courage. It changed how I think about myself, my family, my work, and what’s possible in the world. https://aauwohionov.eventbrite.com
AAUW Ohio Coffee and Convos Book Discussions 2020/2021 – Fall/Spring
November 2020 – Racism
Saturday, November 14th
Time: 10:00am to 11:00 am via Zoom
The Vanishing Half: A Novel Brit Bennett, 2020
The approximate book cost $16
Lead discussion: Marlene De La Cruz and Naykishia Head
January 2021 – The ways that race, class, motherhood, and belonging intersect to shape each individual.
Saturday, January 16th
Time: 10:00am to 11:00 am via Zoom
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng 2019
Approximate Book Cost $10
Lead discussion: Linda Lehman and Diane Ahlers
February 2021 – Women and Leadership
Saturday, February 20th
Time: 10:00am to 11:00 am via Zoom
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado Perez 2019 Approximate Book cost $16
Lead discussion: Deborah Wooldridge and Rush Rodgers
March 2021 – Working across the generations
Saturday, March 20th
Time: 10:00am to 11:00 am via Zoom
OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind, Jill Filipovic 2020
Approximate Book cost $15
Lead discussion: Adriene Knight and Deborah Wooldridge