BIG Book Club

The BIG Book Club meets every other month and discusses a selected fiction or non-fiction text featuring experiences and perspectives from around the world or that are under-represented in the United States. We intend to broaden our collective understanding while also connecting with colleagues with shared interests in global engagement and internationalization. Those that are interested have the opportunity to suggest and select future reads and the direction of the book club. 

September 1, 2026: BIG Book Club | The Lion Women of Tehran (in-person)

Please join us on Tuesday, September 1 from 12:10-1 p.m. for our first 2026-2027 meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss The Lion Women of Tehranby Marjan Kamali.

~ ~ Bonus! ~ ~ For those who want to get started reading over the summer, a limited number of new copies of ...

May 12, 2026: BIG Book Club | Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani (in-person)

Please join us on Tuesday, May 12 from 12:10-1 p.m. for the final 2025-20026 meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani by Queen Liliuokalani

Hannah Fisher, Associate Director of the Evening and Weekend MBA Program at Haas School of Business, will start our May meeting. Hannah will tell us a little about...

March 18, 2026: BIG Book Club | The Undocumented Americans (in-person)

Please join us on Wednesday, March 18 from 12:10-1 p.m. at 420 Social Sciences Building (map) for our March meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Part memoir,...

November 19, 2025: BIG Book Club | The Best We Could Do [in-person]

Please join us on Wednesday, November 19 from 12:10-1 p.m. for our next meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do. A graphic novel, this American Book Award winning novel details the family’s escape following the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the subsequent difficulties they faced building new lives. This is the second book in our...

January 28, 2026: BIG Book Club | The End of the Myth - From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (in-person)

Please join us on Wednesday, January 28 from 12:10-1 p.m. at the Golden Bear Center (map) for our next meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss The End of the Myth - From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin

...

September 30, 2025: BIG Book Club | The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America [in-person]

Please join us on Tuesday, September 30 from 12:10-1 p.m. for our September 2025 meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America, edited by Shukla & Suleyman. This meeting is the first in a series exploring immigration.

The meeting will take place at...

May 14, 2025: BIG Book Club | My Invented Country [in-person]

Please join us on Wednesday, May 14 from 12:10-1 p.m. for the final 2024-2025 meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss My Invented Countryby Isabel Allende

Hannah Fisher, Associate Director of the Evening and Weekend MBA Program at Haas School of Business, will start our May meeting. Hannah will tell us a little about their...

March 19, 2025: BIG Book Club | Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen (in-person)

Please join BIG on Wednesday, March 19 from 12:10-1 p.m. for the next meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas. The memoir details Vargas moving from his native Philippines to the US and only realizing later that he was undocumented. Vargas went on to become an acclaimed journalist–including winning a Pulitzer Prize–before publicly disclosing that he was undocumented. He has said, “This book is the closest thing I...

January 28, 2025: BIG Book Club|Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (in person)

Please join BIG on Tuesday, January 28 from 12:10-1 p.m. for the next meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo, translated by Jamie Chang. The novel, set in Seoul, is heralded as the book that ignited the 4B Movement, a feminist movement in South Korea that has received considerable attention in the U.S. following November’s presidential election.

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September 17, 2024: BIG Book Club | Solito: A Memoir (in-person)

Please join BIG on Tuesday, September 17 from 12-1 p.m. for the first meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll gather and informally discuss Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora. (Participants are responsible for securing and reading the book in advance) We will meet in person and in a location on or near campus. We’ll announce the location in the weeks before the meeting.

The Berkeley International Group is a recognized Staff Organization ...