Welcome to the Reproductive Rights Activist Book Club
We are an online community of Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund (PPMEAF) supporters and volunteers. We wanted to create a space where we can grow our passion for this movement by connecting through books! Every other month, we vote on a book to read and discuss it together online via Zoom. We try to choose books that challenge our thinking and that are also accessible to everyone. You ready to join?
Sign up for our next book club!
November book: A Spark of Light by Jodi Piccoult
Join us Tuesday, November 9th at 6 p.m. to discuss Jodi Piccoult's novel A Spark of Light
Content Warnings: gun violence, death, medical content, blood, abuse, assault. You can find more here on The Story Graph.
Previous books
Check out our previous books below.
Women, Race & Class
What did we read? We read "Women, Race & Class" by Angela Davis, a deep dive into the history of the U.S. women's movement and the influence of whiteness, elitism, and classism on its development.
What did we talk about? Discussion questions guided our conversation and sparked some thoughtful contributions. For example, we talked about the following: 'If this book was to be updated in 2021, what do you think would be added? Should anything be added?' and 'How does “Women, Race & Class” address the complexities of certain intersectionalities while ignoring others (ie supporting the gender binary specifically)?’ We discussed whiteness, erasure of history, privilege, and gendered work, among other topics.
Beyond the Gender Binary
By Alok Vaid-Menon
Parable of the Sower
Thursday, March 18, was our second PPMEAF Book Club meeting! Thank you to everyone who joined us, we had about twenty folx including the Book Club Committee!
What did we read? This time we read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Set in a somewhat post-apocalyptic America, the story follows Lauren Olamina, a teen with hyper-empathy (an ability that allows her to quite literally feel the pain of others). She seeks to challenge the current way of life of her family and friends, and find out how to survive beyond the walls of her community. The book asks us to consider the nature of change, with all the uncertainty that comes with it, in a world ever evolving due to the results of global warming.
Hood Feminism
Thursday, January 7th was the first meeting of the PPMEAF Book Club! Thank you to everyone who joined us, we had about twenty-five folx including the Book Club Committee!
What did we read? We started the club off by reading Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall. For those unfamiliar with the book, its main goal is to critique white feminism by discussing often overlooked issues faced by women of color and women with a lack of resources (ie. housing, food, income). It states that any issue impacting women should be considered a feminist issue.
RESOURCES
Book Directory
Looking for ways to access and/or purchase a book? We want to encourage folks to purchase books ethically when possible or borrow books from sources like the Library, so we created a directory.
Suggest a Book
Each month, the book club collectively votes and chooses the next month's pick. Our book club committee helps find picks that align with the PPMEAF mission and group's interests. Have a book in mind? Suggest it below and add it to our list!
Book Club Committee
Join a group of book club participants helping to make book club more accessible and fun. Here is some stuff we do:
- Help facilitate the small group discussions
- Create a shortlist of books we will eventually vote on
- Make sure books are accessible (not too pricey, audio versions, available at the Library, etc.)
- Much more!