employees sit around a conference table discussing a bookAbove: members of the Booked for Lunch book club discuss "Solito", the September 2023 book.

The Booked for Lunch book club comes together to read, watch, and discuss literature and other materials on diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and professional development.

This group of "diversified thinkers" was founded in 2017 and has more than 100 members from across the University of Maryland, Baltimore community and meets every other month for dialogue, awareness, and collaborative thinking as it reviews literature and other materials.

All are welcome to join.

Join the Club

The club meets in person, and books are provided to members in advance (while supplies last). Lunch will be provided by local women and minority vendors from West Baltimore.


Our Meetings:

The Booked for Lunch book club offers a safe space for honest and organic conversations. An alternative to the conventional diversity and inclusion training typically offered in organizations, the club provides an inclusive and safe space that allows for raw conversations that promote awareness and build rapport while creating opportunities for collaborative thinking through the review and discussion of a variety of diverse reading and media materials.

Upcoming Meetings:

Currently Reading:

Book Cover Book Title and Author
Braiding Sweetgrass book cover

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer

 

To be reviewed in November 2024.

 

Our History:

  • 2020: The book club received a 2020 Inspiring Affinity Group Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine.
  • 2017: The book club was founded by Mishawn Smith, MPA, in the UMSON Office of the Dean and Office of Equity, Diversity ,and Inclusion.

Past Events and Collaborations:

  • July 2021: Hosted author Victoria D. Stubbs for discussion of her book, Untangled: A Black Woman's Journey to Personal, Spiritual, and Sexual Freedom.
  • April 2021: Partnered with UMB's Office of the President to lead a campuswide reading and discussion of Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist. 
  • Feb. and June 2020: Hosted author Chris Wilson for discussions of his book, The Master Plan.
  • Jan. 2020: Private viewing and discussion of the film Just Mercy, based on the book by Brian Stevenson, at The Charles Theatre with University of Maryland School of Law.
  • Feb. and June 2020: Hosted author Chris Wilson for discussions of his book, The Master Plan.
  • April 2021: Partnered with UMB's Office of the President to lead a campuswide reading and discussion of Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist. 

Books We've Read:

Book Cover Book Title and Author
For Brown Girls Book Cover

For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts
Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez

 

Silhouette of a man holding a child with words

Aftershock
(dir.) Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee

 

Saving Stella book cover, Nathan-Pulliam, 150 x 230

Saving Stella: Notes from a Nurse Turned Legislator
Shirley Nathan-Pulliam

 

Book Cover with people on the front in black and white with words

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum
Antonia Hylton

Black Angels Book Cover

The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
Maria Smilios

Algorithms of Oppression Book Cover

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Safiya Noble

Solito Cover

Solito
Javier Zamora

 

Strangers in Their Own Land Book Cover

Strangers in their Own Land
Arlie Russell Hochschild 

 

Revisioning History: An Indigenous People’s History of The United States
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

 

The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson

 

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Eduardo Galeano

 

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Nikole Hannah Jones

Our Kind of People

Our Kind of People
Lawrence Otis Graham

Lead from the Outside

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change
Stacey Abrams

Untangled Book Cover 

Untangled: A Black Woman’s Journey to Personal, Spiritual, and Sexual Freedom

Victoria D. Stubbs
Stubbs is a clinical instructor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

How to Be an Antiracist  How to Be an Antiracist
Ibram X. Kendi
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates  The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Wes Moore
Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria  Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria
Beverly Tatum
Hillbilly Elegy  Hillbilly Elegy
J.D. Vance
  Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s
John Elder Robinson
Born a Crime  Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Not in My Neighborhood  Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City
Antero Pietila
  The Bondwoman’s Narrative
Hannah Crafts
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom  In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom
Yeonmi Park with Maryanne Vollers
Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People  Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People
Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald
I Am Malala  I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
Between the World and Me  Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Good Immigrant  The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America
by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman
Just Mercy  Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Brian Stevenson
The Master Plan  The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose
Chris Wilson
Becoming  Becoming
Michelle Obama