Big Idea Reading List
Start a conversation and create change in your community with a book club. Our resources and ideas are here to support you.
It's Time to Tell the Stories of African American Entrepreneurs
by Robert E. Weems, Jr., Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History, Wichita State University
- The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship, by Juliet E. K. Walker
- An Economic Detour: A History of Insurance in the Lives of American Negroes, by Merah S. Stuart
Images from the Mind of a Bi-Racial Black Woman
by Ann Dean, professional photographer
- "The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History the United States" by Walter Johnson
- "A Choice of Weapons" by Gordon Parks
- "Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience"
- "More Than Enough" by Elaine Welteroth
- "Freedom is a Constant Struggle" by Angela Davis
- "I Am Not Your Negro" by James Baldwin
- "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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"Klan-destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan" by Daryl Davis
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
It's Time to Reconnect with Nature
by Leslie VonHolten, writer and executive director of Symphony in the Flint Hills
- Wendell Berry, The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry (Counterpoint, 2017).
- Jim Harrison, The Essential Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2019).
- J. Drew Lanham, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature (Milkweed Editions, 2016).
- Barry Lopez, Horizon (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019).
- Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Vintage, 1992).
Changing How We Talk About the Civil Rights Movement
by Clarence Lang, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Penn State University
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
It's Time to Change How We Talk About Immigrants
by Kandace Creel Falcón, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead
- A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez
- The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
- I'm Not Your Perfect American Daughter by Erika Sanchez
- Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
We Need to Elevate Black Women's Stories
by Donna Rae Pearson, Local History Librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
- How to be Less Stupid about Race by Crystal M. Fleming
- Sister Citizen: Shame Stereotypes and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry
- The Sisters are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America by Tamara Winfrey Harris
It's Time for More Representation in STEM
by Sarah Lamm, Colby native and doctoral student in planetary science at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff
- Ed Dwight Was Set the Be the First Black Astronaut. Here's Why that Never Happened. (New York Times, July 16, 2019)
- Follow the Mars Curiosity rover (Twitter)
- This is What a Scientist Looks Like (Tumblr)
- LGBTQ Scientists are Still Left Out (Nature)
- Science in Kansas 150 Years and Counting (Ad Astra-KS)
- 500 Queer Scientists
- It's Time to Stop Excluding People with Disabilities from Science (Massive Science)
- Why the Universe Needs More Black and Latino Astronomers (Smithsonian Magazine)
- How Ashley Walker Shined a Necessary Light on Black Junior Astronomers (Astronomy in Color)
- The Native Astronomer (News Maven)
- Disabilities Don't Stop These Experts in Science (Science News for Students)
It's Time to Change the Way We Talk About Poverty
by Jason Wesco, Executive Vice-President of the Community Health Care Center
- Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh. HK's Instagram Book Club is reading and discussing "Heartland" in September 2019. Join us!
- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
- A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
- Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol
How Should We Honor Someone's Military Experience?
by Tai S. Edwards, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Kansas Studies Institute at Johnson County Community College
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James M. Dubik, “Foreword: Expanding Our Understanding of the Moral Dimension of War,” in Nancy Sherman Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers (Oxford University Press, 2015).
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Robert Emmet Meagher and Douglas A. Pryer, eds., War and Moral Injury: A Reader (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018).
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Matt Richtel, “Please Don’t Thank Me for My Service,” The New York Times, February 21, 2015.
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Phillip Carter, “For veterans, is ‘thank you for your service’ enough?” The Washington Post, November 4, 2011.
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Max Fisher, “Why Some Veterans Hate it When You Say ‘Thank You,’” The Atlantic, December 11, 2010.