ESLC Speakeasy
One way for fluent English speakers/readers to practice two-way mutual integration is through the ESLC Speakeasy (i.e., book club). The ESLC Speakeasy was designed to create a space to "speak easily" about complex topics. We read and discuss books surrounding the experiences of individuals who experience leaving their homes as immigrants and refugees, including the experiences of second generation individuals.
Meetings are held virtually on the last Friday of each month at 11am, unless otherwise specified. Please reach out to info@eslcenter.org for more information on how to join.
Below you will find past and current books for the Speakeasy. Purchase links are included in the photo descriptions.
If you are interested in submitting book suggestions, please use this link: Book Suggestions Form. While everyone is welcome to make book suggestions, only active members will be included in the voting process.
A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs
What My Bones Know
The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change
The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Sonia Shah
Somewhere We are Human
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
Refugee Tales IV by a collection of authors
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri (repeat read!)
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
Nice White Ladies by Jessie Daniels
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an America Life by Lauren Markham
Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American by Wajahat Ali
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