The ACLU of Southern California's reading guide is not just a list of books, but rather a collection of stories, experiences, and thoughts from people with lived experiences, academics, and those imagining the world we want to see.
Our reading guides feature titles that deepen our collective understanding and marshal our shared humanity to inspire a better world.
We’ve selected books that illuminate issues central to our work and uplift underrepresented voices—and that we ourselves enjoyed. We hope these books encourage our readers to spark conversation, debate, and education, as we work and grow together in our respective activist journey.
FIRST AMENDMENT AND DEMOCRACY
After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We’ve Made by Ben Rhodes
From Hungary to Russia to Hong Kong to Los Angeles, the former White House aide and close confidant to Barack Obama examines through memoir and reportage America’s influence on the world through the eyes of those resisting the creeping authoritarianism at home across the globe.
Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity by Tim Wu
By the creator of the term “net neutrality,” this work investigates how the dominant tech platforms of today manipulate attention, extract wealth, and deepen inequality. Wu urges us to recognize their influence and reclaim control to create a balanced economy that works for all.
YOUNG READERS
Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, Latoya Council, and Carolyn Choi
This beautiful picture book by three women-of-color sociologists is a story of nine characters across multiple identities, with messages of inclusion, love, and interconnectedness for our youngest readers.
IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS
Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer
New Yorker staff writer Blitzer reports an epic history of the U.S.-Mexico border weaving together North America, Central America and—most centrally—the lives of the people who risk everything to cross the borders that come between.
The Consequences by Manuel Munoz
Winner of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, this short story collection details the lives of Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers in California’s Central Valley in the 1980s. The stories show us how the realities faced by people 40 years ago—attacks from la migra, thorny human relationships, and moments of loving care—are as relevant today as ever.
Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition by Silky Shah
Longtime organizer Shah dives into the relationship between U.S. immigration policy and mass incarceration—using human stories to connect the dots between immigrant’s rights, racial justice, and prison abolition.
ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing by Rahim Kurwa
Set in the Antelope Valley in L.A. County, this book traces how the area restricted Black migration through policing subsidized housing—and how Black tenants and organizers fought back.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-brenyah
A National Book Award finalist, this heart-bending story features two women gladiators fighting their way to freedom through a private prison system. The book asks the reader how similar this stunning fictional dystopia is to our current corporatized prison reality for millions of people in America.
Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality by Deborah Archer
In this illuminating account, the president of the ACLU reveals how highways, roads, sidewalks—and the decisions behind them in both the 20th and 21st centuries —deeply affect how people living in still-segregated communities in this country can move, live, and thrive.
Liberals with Attitude by Danny Goldberg
Authored by a former chair of the ACLU SoCal, this insider saga catalogues the 16 months surrounding the 1991 LAPD beating of Rodney King and the resignation of LAPD chief Daryl Gates, demonstrating the teamwork necessary for the political left and center to overcome white grievance and unaccountable power.
copaganda: how police and the media manipulate our news by Alec Karakatsanis
Civil rights lawyer Karakatsanis shines light on a media machine that stokes fear of police-recorded crime and shows how the punishment bureaucracy justifies ever greater expansion of itself. The reader is invited to imagine a media environment truly focused on equality and safety for all.
GENDER AND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler
Renowned feminist philosopher Butler draws connections between the authoritarian strongmen waging campaigns against the phantasm of “gender” and transgender people across the world—and beautifully illustrates the reality of our interdependence as the avenue to freedom for us all.
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Masha P. Johnson by Tourmaline
Artist and activist Tourmaline authors the first definitive biography of the revolutionary activist Marsha P. Johnson—one of the most important and remarkable figures in LGBTQ+ history—and how her story and legacy can inspire us today.
Find our reading guide at participating bookstores throughout Southern California including: Chevalier Books, Reparations Club, The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs, Skylight Books and North Figueroa Bookshop.