The VINE Book Club meets monthly to discuss books of interest to animal advocates who work within an ecological awareness of the linkages between animal exploitation and other forms of injustice.
Most months, we all read the same book and then meet together to discuss it, often with the author or another expert in attendance.
Some months, we all read different books on the same theme, and then meet to teach each other what we learned.
Everyone is welcome to every meeting! Sign up for notifications to receive a monthly message letting you know the book or theme as well as the date and time for that month’s Zoom meeting.
Upcoming Books
| DATE | BOOK | GUEST(s) | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 28 | The Truth Book OR Family Trouble OR One Brilliant Flame | Joy Castro | This special book club session on reading to write is also the first of a new series of VINE events intended to amplify animal advocacy by enhancing the writing of activists and scholars. Read one or more of the recommended books, and then join author and writing instructor Joy Castro to discuss how to apply what you learned to your own work. Choose One Brilliant Flame as an example of intersectional and ecological story-telling, Family Trouble to think through the ethical quandaries that arise when writing narratives in which real people appear, and/or The Truth Book for aid in writing about unspeakable violence. Register here. Find the date/time in your own zone here. |
| May 26 | Birding While Indian: A Mixed-Blood Memoir by Thomas C. Gannon | Thomas C. Gannon | Birding While Indian spans more than fifty years of childhood walks and adult road trips to deliver, via a compendium of birds recorded and revered, the author’s life as a part-Lakota inhabitant of the Great Plains. We will read this important new book in conjunction with our spring Bird-a-thon |
| June 30 | Novel-in-progress by A. Breeze Harper | Breeze Harper | Stay tuned for details of this opportunity to get a first glimpse of a forthcoming queer-themed novel by the editor of Sistah Vegan |
| July | Disabled Ecologies by Sunaura Taylor | TBA | An original and deeply personal reflection on what disability means in an era of increasing multispecies disablement, Disabled Ecologies is a powerful call to reflect on the kinds of care, treatment, and assistance this age of disability requires. |
| TBA | Wild and Wilful by Neha Sinha | Neha Sinha | The author has agreed to join us, but we have not yet set a date. |
| TBA | Walking with the Gorillas by Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka | Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka | In Walking with the Gorillas, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian, tells the remarkable story from her animal-loving childhood to her career protecting endangered mountain gorillas and other wild animals. The author has agreed to join us for a meeting, but we have not yet set a date. |
Past Books
| MONTH | BOOK |
|---|---|
| July 2020 | The Oxen at the Intersection by pattrice jones |
| August 2020 | Entangled Empathy by Lori Gruen |
| September 2020 | The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 by Katie Gillespie |
| November 2020 | Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation by Sunara Taylor |
| February 2021 | The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams |
| March 2021 | Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs |
| June 2021 | Let the Record Show by Sarah Schulman |
| July 2021 | Saving Animals by Elan Abrell |
| August 2021 | Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question by Bénédicte Boisseron |
| November 2021 | Anti-Racism in Animal Advocacy |
| February 2022 | The Nation of Plants by Stefano Mancuso |
| March 2022 | Ecofeminism edited by Carol J. Adams and Lori Gruen |
| April 2022 | Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer |
| May 2022 | Animal Languages by Eva Meijer |
| June 2022 | High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez |
| July 2022 | Shimmer: Flying Fox Exuberance in Worlds of Peril by Deborah Bird Rose |
| September 2022 | The Animals In That Country by Laura Jean McKay |
| November 2022 | Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future by Dany Celermajer |
| January 2023 | Tending Sanctuary (PDF) by Rebecca Shen |
| February 2023 | Staging Tourism (PDF) by Jane Desmond |
| March 2023 | The Good It Promises, The Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism edited by Carol J. Adams, Alice Crary, and Lori Gruen |
| April 2023 | If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals about Human Stupidity by Justin Gregg |
| May 2023 | Mother Cow, Mother India: A Multispecies Politics of Dairy in India by Yamini Narayanan |
| June 2023 | Charlotte and the Chickenman by Aina Hunter |
| July 2023 | Disability and Animality: Crip Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies edited by Stephanie Jenkins, Chloë Taylor, and Kelly Struthers Montford |
| August 2023 | The Creative Lives of Animals by Carol Gigliotti |
| January 2024 | Bird’s-Eye Views: Queer Queries About Activism, Animals, and Identity by pattrice jones |
| February 2024 | The Ethics of Captivity edited by Lori Gruen |
| March 2024 | The Most Costly Journey |
Past Choose-Your-Own-Book Themes
| MONTH | BOOK |
|---|---|
| April 2021 | Novels with animal protagonists |
| May 2021 | Book Pile Challenge (read the introduction and first chapter of one book that’s been on your to-read pile for too long) |
| September 2021 | Learn about Animals |
| December 2021 | Wonders of the Wider-than-Human World |
| August 2022 | Return of the Book Pile Challenge |
| October 2022 | Books authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited by ecofeminist philosopher and animal liberation activist Lori Gruen, in honor of her 60th birthday |
| December 2022 | Special no-reading-required session on tuning into the larger-than-human world with special guest LoriKim Alexander |
| September 2023 | Return of the Book Pile Challenge |
| November 2023 | Catch Up on Your Reading |