Reading: Social Justice

Two teen males—one black, one white—grapple with the aftermath of a police officer who has brutally beaten the black teen. A powerful story about what it means to you a young man in America across the lines of race. Young Adult Fiction. 316 pages.

Poverty in America is made up of both the long-term chronically poor and new working poor--the tens of millions of victims of a broken economy and an ever more dysfunctional political system. Sasha Abramsky brings the effects of economic inequality out of the shadows and, ultimately, suggests ways for moving toward a fairer and more equitable social contract. Nonfiction. 355 pages.

A memoir of growing up in the tough world of Baltimore in the 1980s chronicles the relationship between the author and his father, a Vietnam vet and Black Panther affiliate, and his campaign to keep his sons from falling victim to the temptations of the streets. Nonfiction. 227 pages. Available as ebook

The winner of the National Book Award, this book is a powerful letter to an adolescent son about what is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it.. Nonfiction. 152 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has witnessed some of the worst crimes peopel can inflict on others. So wherever he goes, he inevitably gets asked, How do I forgive? This book is his answer. Nonfiction. 229 pages, Available as ebook

The novel explores the experiences of characters who have immigrated to the United States from a number of Latin American nations through differing first-person perspectives. Fiction. 285 pages. Available as ebook Disponible en español.

In this powerful memoir, Nicole Mason tells her story, navigating between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. While showing us her own path out of poverty, Mason examines the conditions that make it nearly impossible to escape poverty and exposes the presumption harbored by many--that the poor don't help themselves enough. Nonfiction. 242 pages.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi indigenous woman, she considers plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together. Nonfiction. 390 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Shortened version of the popular book about the scientific and indigenous view of the natural world. . Young adult nonfiction. 303 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Justyce McAllister is top of his class at Braselton Prep, captain of the debate team, and set for an Ivy League school next year- but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Young adult fiction. 204 pages. Available as audiobook

Through personal stories of the working poor, single parents, landlords and tenants, Matthew Desmond traces the very real consequences of the housing crisis that is plaguing many large cities. Nonfiction. 418 pages. Available as ebook

As violence and unrest looms over their country, Nadia and Saeed embark on a furtive love affair.. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed leave their homeland and begin their life as refugees. Described as "spellbinding" and "all too relevant." Fiction. 231 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

In this extraordinary collection of short stories, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah explores urgent instances of racism and social unrest. Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope. Fiction. 194 pages.

Bringing to light the inner lives of migrant workers, this collection of short stories set in a work camp in California gives voice to a marginalized generation of migrant workers. Fiction. 226 pages.

In this riveting tale of twenty-first century forced labor in an Indian migrant work camp in Mississippi, we learn about the lives of the immigrant workers who the United States increasingly relies on to rebuild after climate disasters. Nonfiction. 352 pages.

Two Pulitzer Prize winners address our era's worst human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. They show that a little help can transform lives, and that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. Nonfiction. 294 pages.

This runaway best seller tells the story of 16-year-old Starr Carter, who is drawn to activism after she witnesses the police shooting of her unarmed friend. Winner of the Coretta Scott King award. Young Adult Fiction. 444 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

In this engaging personal narrative, Kendi weaves together ethics, history, law, and science, and asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. Nonfiction. 305 pages Available as ebook and audiobook.

Heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting, this stirring memoir chronicles one Asian-American immigrant's struggle to find himself--and to transcend the dangers of gang life in Los Angeles. Nonfiction. 249 pages.

Facebook CEO Cheryl Sandberg examines why women's progress in achieving leadership positions has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. Nonfiction. 228 pages.

Traveling from Senegal to the American South to Palestine, Coates exposes the destructive myths that shape our world and calls on us to embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths. Nonfiction. 235 pages. Available as audiobook

Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control. Nonfiction. 312 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that exposes the harrowing truths of a segregated reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida through the intertwined stories of two boys who endure its brutal injustices.Fiction. 213pages. Available as audiobook

A raw, electifying novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system. Fiction. 271 pages. Available as audiobook.

Snyder writes, "Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience"Nonfiction. 126 pages. Available as audiobook

In this landmark book, sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor.Nonfiction. 288 pages. Available as ebook

Many people in the U.S. believe that the dangerous world of human trafficking is something that happens to foreign women, men and children -- not something that happens to their own children and neighbors. They could not be more wrong. Nonfiction. 183 pages. Available as ebook

Tommy Orange's wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Fiction. 294 pages . Available as ebook

One of the first African American students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 tells her story about the threats and emotional abuse she endured on the path to integration. Nonfiction. 312 pages.