Why The Not-Our-President Book Club exists
In early 2017, we came together in Victoria, BC, in outrage as a profane and insane national figure to Canada’s south inflicted on the world ramped-up policies that demonized immigrants as criminals and animals, treated women as sex objects, and waged evermore violence against the land, water, climate, domestic animals, and all of humanity around the globe.
We wish we didn’t have to exist and hold onto our good name into 2026, but we are now here to stay, whatever happens next.
The NOP book club is focused on reading and discussing the books, usually by zoom. Occasionally we meet in person, in appreciation of ample food and drink.
We identify with the marginalized, the culturally different, the immigrant, the politically impotent, the second or third class citizens of our world who need people to stand up for them. We deplore government inaction on the climate crisis and the destruction of BC’s old-growth forests.
By reading the books together, we gain courage to challenge stereotypes (including our own), engage in provocative but respectful conversations with each other and with those outside our club, and help to protect the rights of our fellow human beings in a society that may pay lip service to equal rights, but often doesn’t notice these people or tosses them aside.
We read about “the other” to deeply understand that all people are not treated equally in this world, and for us as a group to recognize this truth in our democracy. As Tantoo Cardinal has said, its time to “invite these people into the same room as human beings.”
NOP meets because we need a safe space for our moral outrage, and encouragement from our tribe, whose members support one another in our search for the human spark that binds us all together. We search our books that will enable us to find that spark and start a fire under us.
As of July 2026, we have read:
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Roar, by Cecelia Ahern
Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar
I Will Never See The World Again, by Ahmet Altan
The Boat People, by Sharon Bala
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Hundreds and Thousands, by Emily Carr
Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton
The Skin We’re In, by Desmond Cole
American Dirt, by Jeannine Cummins
Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton
Primary Obsessions, by Charles Demers
White Fragility, by Robin Diangelo
All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Prairie Chicken Dance Tour, by Dawn Dumont
The Monk of Mokha, by Dave Eggers
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
LaRose, by Louise Erdrich
Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo
The Promise, by Damon Galgut
The Signature Of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Five Little Indians, by Michelle Good
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
This Other Eden, by Paul Harding
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
The Story of Us, by Catherine Hernandez
Kiss Of The Fur Queen, by Tomson Highway
Laughing With The Trickster, by Tomson Highway
Permanent Astonishment, by Tomson Highway
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine,
by Gail Honeyman
All About Love, by bell hooks
Chop Suey Nation, by Ann Hui
All The Quiet Places, by Brian Thomas Isaac
All We Can Save, edited by
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson
21 Things You May Not Know About
The Indian Act, by Bob Joseph
The Vegetarian, by Han Kang
Commune, by Des Kennedy
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Radical King, by Martin Luther King
Indians on Vacation, by Thomas King
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
Obasan, by Joy Kogawa
The Headmaster’s Wager, by Vincent Lam
We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies,
by Tsering Yangzom Lama
Maid, by Stephanie Land
Kiss The Red Stairs, by Marsha Lederman
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula LeGuin
Songbirds, by Christy Lefteri
Falter, by Bill McKibben
Radio Free Vermont, by Bill McKibben
Not On My Watch, by Alexandra Morton
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
Nineteen Eighty Four, by George Orwell
The Five Invitations, by Frank Ostaseski
A Tale For The Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters
Endling, by Maria Reva
Ministry For The Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Homes, by Abu Bakr Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung
Forgiveness, by Mark Sakamoto
Noopiming, by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Hope In The Dark, by Rebecca Solnit
No Straight Road Takes You There,
by Rebecca Solnit
Orwell’s Roses, by Rebecca Solnit
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Unbroken, by Angela Sterritt
Seven Fallen Feathers, by Tanya Talaga
In The Upper Country, by Kai Thomas
Ru, by Kim Thuy
Women Talking, by Miriam Toews
Fire Weather, by John Vaillant
Jaguar's Children, by John Vaillant
Real Ones, by Katharina Vermette
Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese
Medicine Walk, by Richard Wagamese
Ragged Company, by Richard Wagamese
We Two Alone, by Jack Wang
Educated, by Tara Westover
Jonny Appleseed, by Joshua Whitehead
Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
This is Happiness by Niall Williams
The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams