A guiding tenet that we hold at the English Skills Learning Center is the importance of two-way mutual integration. Our students integrate into the community at larger, however we also have to remember that our receiving community also changes as it welcomes New Americans into it. One way for the receiving community to practice this interaction of integration is through our Bookclub. The ESLC Speakeasy was designed to give a space where we can learn and discuss about the experiences of immigrant and refugee experiences as they become New Americans.
Meetings are held virtually on the last Friday of each month at 11am, unless otherwise specified. Please reach out to Katie at k.donoviel@eslcenter.org for more information on how to join.
Below you will find a listing of our past and current books for the Speakeasy. Purchase links are included in the photo descriptions. If you do decide to purchase past books and/or read along with the current ones we ask that you through Amazon Smile and select "English Skills Learning Center". Amazon will gift us proceeds from purchases made through Smile.
A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez
Call Me American by Adbi Nor Iftin
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
What We Carry by Maya Shanbhag Lang
We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled by Wendy Pearlman
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman
This is What America Looks Like by Ilhan Omar
So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
All They Will Call You by Tim Hernandez
When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami
Let Her Fly by Ziauddin Yousafzai
Daring to Drive by Manal Al-Sharif
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
Migrating to Prison by Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez
The Displaced Edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
The Middle of Everywhere by Mary Pipher
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal by Aviva Chomsky
How to Make White People Laugh by Negin Farsad
Daughters of Juarez by Teresa Rodriguez
What the What by Dave Eggers
City of Thorns by Ben Rawlence
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming