NAI Book Club

Book Club is a member benefit, which allows participants to share thoughts and insights on books, podcasts, or videos that are relevant to the field of interpretation. Members are encouraged to register in advance to participate in the online discussion and earn CE hours.

Our April 2024 Selection

A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories

by Alia Malek

April 19, 2024
9:00am Pacific / 12:00pm Eastern

Among the surfeit of narratives about Arabs that have been published in recent years, surprisingly little has been reported on Arabs in America -- an increasingly relevant issue. This book is the most powerful approach imaginable: it is the story of the last forty-plus years of American history, told through the eyes of Arab Americans. It begins in 1963, before major federal legislative changes seismically transformed the course of American immigration forever. Each chapter describes an event in U.S. history -- which may already be familiar to us -- and invites us to live that moment in time in the skin of one Arab American. The chapters follow a timeline from 1963 to the present, and the characters live in every corner of this country.

These are dramatic narratives, describing the very human experiences of love, friendship, family, courage, hate, and success. There are the timeless tales of an immigrant community becoming American, the nostalgia for home, the alienation from a society sometimes as intolerant as its laws are generous. A Country Called Amreeka's snapshots allow us the complexity of its characters' lives with an impassioned narrative normally found in fiction.

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Thus far, the book club has enjoyed these selections. Click the title to purchase on Amazon:

The Art of Access: A Practical Guide for Museum Accessibility
Heather Pressman (February 2024)

The Storytelling Craze
Decoder Ring Podcast (August 2023)

The Feedback Fix
Joe Hirsch (June 2023)

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Heather McGhee (April 2023)

I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times
Mónica Guzmán (February 2023)

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
Priya Parker (December 2022)

Why Learn History (When It's Already On Your Phone)
Sam Wineburg (September 2022)

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative 
Florence Williams (July 2022)

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle 
Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski (April 2022)

An African American and Latinx History of the United States 
Paul Ortiz (November 2021)

When I Was Puerto Rican 
A Memoir by Esmeralda Santiago (September 2021)

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States 
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (June 2021)

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer (February 2021)

Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors 
Dr. Carolyn Finney (December 2020)

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature
J. Drew Lanham (July 2020)

Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World
Larry Beck, Ted Cable, and Doug Knudson (June 2020)*
Listen here.

Interpretive Theme Writer's Field Guide
Jon Kohl (March 2020)*
Listen here.

The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That will Get you Everything You Want
Dave Kerpen (October 2019)

So You Want to Talk About Race
Ijeoma Oluo (August 2019)

The Non-Designers Design Book
Robin Williams (June 2019)

Coaching Interpreters
Margaret Repath Styles (March 2019)*
Listen here.

Interpreting Difficult History
Julia Rose (January 2019)

American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation
Eric Rutkow (September 2018)

Electric Lemons: Interpretation and the Art of Writing. Judy Fort Brenneman 
By Judy Fort Brenneman (June 2018)*
Listen here.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
By Seth Godin (March 2018)

Don't Be Such a Scientist
By Randy Olson (November 2017)

A Natural History of the Senses
By Diane Ackerman (September 2017)

Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World
Edited by Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski (June 2017)

Verbal Judo: the Gentle Art of Persuasion
by George J. Thompson, Jerry B. Jenkins (April 2017)

Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want
by Pine and Gilmore (January 2017)

The Art of Relevance
by Nina Simon (October 2016)

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
by Susan Cain (July 2016)

The Interpreter’s Guidebook, 4th edition
by Jim Buchholz, Brenda Lackey, Michael Gross and Ron Zimmerman (April 2016)*

Feedback Revolution
by Peter McLaughlin (February 2016)

Adventures of a Nature Guide
by Enos Mills (September 2015)

The Story Factor
by Annette Simmons (June 2015)

The Thank You Economy
by Gary Vaynerchuk (April 2015)

Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change
by George Marshall (February 2015)

Crucial Conversations
by Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny (September 2014)

Interpretation: Making a Difference on Purpose
by Sam Ham (May, 2014)*
Listen here.

Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
by Gary Vaynerchuk (February 2014)

Made to Stick
by Dan and Chip Heath (December 2013)

Thriving in the New Knowledge Age
by John Falk, Ph. D (August 2013)*

Brain Rules
by John Medina (June 2013)

Meaningful Interpretation
by David Larsen (April 2013)

Telling Ain’t Training
by Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps (January 2013)

*Author joined group for conference call discussion