MSNBC’s Ali Velshi brings you the “Velshi Banned Book Club,” an act of resistance against the epidemic of book banning. In each episode, a different author of a banned book joins Ali—including Margaret Atwood, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Laurie Halse Anderson, and more—to talk about why their work is being targeted and about the literature itself. “Velshi Banned Book Club” is a series rooted in literary and cultural analysis and in the notion of reading as resistance. Read along with Ali and follow now to listen to the first two episodes on August 24th.

Velshi Banned Book Club reading list:“Two Boys Kissing” by David Levithan“Boy Erased” by Garrard Conley“All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely“Dear Martin” by Nic Stone“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood"The Tempest" by William Shakespeare“Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult“Give a Boy a Gun” by Todd Strasser“The 1619 Project” by Nikole Hannah-Jones“Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Saenz“Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson“Ready or Not” by Meg Cabot“Beloved” by Toni Morrison with Dr. Imani Perry and Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr.“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston with Dr. Imani Perry and Ibram X. Kendi