OBAMA BOOK GROUP
Markers For Democracy formed our Obama Book Group in 2018 to read the books on President Obama's year-end favorite book lists. As we often said back then "We once had a President who read books, and we will again." And so it began that we took up reading as a form of resistance. Initially we met in our members’ homes and worked our way sequentially through the 2018 list. Later we met virtually and selected a subset of the recommended books, to ensure we read a mix of genres. The books have included: Becoming by Michelle Obama, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, American Prison by Shane Bauer, Arthur Ashe: A Biography by Raymond Arsenault, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, and The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Whether meeting in person or virtually, we often have a speaker, as well as group members facilitating the discussion. When President Obama released his memoir in 2020, we broke from the traditional list of book recommendations to read and discuss A Promised Land, and invited alumni from President Obama’s campaign and administration to speak to us. Our most recent book was The Candy House by Jennifer Egan.