Global Issues, Local Responses Book Club February Meeting

Bookends is launching a new book club, and you are invited! Global Issues, Local Responses is a book club curated for readers of books that create connections by linking pressing global issues to particular local contexts. We’ll meet 4 times during 2026 to discuss media and authoritarianism, our environments, food systems, and more.

We focus on books that address some of the most important subjects of our time and their everyday manifestations in particular places. We read across genres and invite readers who seek to learn, listen, and laugh. (And we will have popcorn).

For our first meeting on Thursday, February 5, we'll be reading How to Stand up to a Dictator by renowned international journalist Maria Ressa.

About the book:

Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is an urgent cry for Western readers to recognize and understand the dangers to our freedoms before it is too late. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. In telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous story about reporting prior to and under the Duterte regime in the Philippines, Ressa forces readers to ask themselves the same question she and her colleagues ask every day: What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?

About the host:

This inaugural book club discussion is hosted by Rachel Ruttenberg, a civil rights champion, a healthcare and gun violence prevention advocate, and an economic policy expert. Her 20 years of legal and policy experience include being the Executive Director of a legal aid non-profit that served hundreds of Illinois families and worked on child welfare reform. She grew up in the northern suburbs and has lived in Evanston for the last 10 years. Rachel is the mom of two girls that go to Dewey Elementary School and is a candidate for the Illinois State Senate, 9th District.

Doors and minibar open at 4:30PM. The ticket covers the cost of the book (tax included). If you are able to contribute to a ticket for a scholarship participant, please select that ticketing option. Bring your ticket in to pick up your book. (We will set aside the copies for scholarship readers). If you've already purchased the book, your ticket will cover the cost of an equal or higher value in-store purchase.

Scholarship tickets: If you would like to be considered for a scholarship ticket, please send a brief email with your name and why you are eligible for a scholarship to [email protected] with "Global Local Book Club" as the subject heading. To be considered for a scholarship we must receive your email no later than Friday, February 16.

Getting here: We are located at 1620 Orrington Avenue, in downtown Evanston, just one block east of the Davis Street Metra, CTA, and PACE public transit stops. There is metered street parking as well as numerous parking garages nearby.

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