Reading Liberally Book Club

By Judity Heumann with Kristen Joiner

Genre: Non-Fiction/Memoir

Judith Heumann is one of the most influential disability rights activists in American history and she bares it all in her funny, caustic, touching memoir. Paralyzed at 18 months from polio, Judith had to fight to attend grade school, where she was deemed a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis.

Her voice and her words led to the direct creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and she speaks up yet again to tell us all how she got to be the amazing woman she still is now.

By Alice Wong

Genre: Memoir / Mixed Media

Finding and cultivating culture can be hard, but Alice Wong is a fighter just like the Tiger she draws so much inspiration from. Year of the Tiger is a cutting memoir that pulls from Wong’s essays, photography, art, and speeches and refuses to be boxed in to a singular genre just like the outstanding woman behind the art. She speaks out about her love of good food, pop culture, mortality, and the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic on those most vulnerable. A self described disabled oracle, she calls upon her joy, her rage, and her strength to urge people to find their inner tiger and fight.

By Carley Moore

Genre: American Literature/Fiction

It is the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown has just been called and a queer, disable woman desperately bikes across the locking down New York City to see the Ex-Girlfriend who broke her heart.

First published as an online serial in the spring of 2020, this book follows the question of where will one person go for the sake of love. In a time when everything is being shut down and locked away, touch is more important than ever and Carley Moore puts everything out on the page about the pain, agony, and loneliness of being disabled and alone when the world refuses to see you on a good day, let alone the end of the world.