The Leo Library is now open for all Burnett bibliophiles

Among the myriad of changes the past year has brought, the Leo Burnett community has remained connected. One of the best ways to escape the outside world or your home office? A new book.

Earlier this year, Leo Burnett launched a program to connect Burnetters and provide a jolt of inspiration: the Leo Library.

This all-agency book club features monthly selections from Leo leaders as they share what books bring them escape, insight, or even revelation.

Agency employees will be able to reflect on their new reads and commune with other Burnetters about the most impactful takeaways.

The first 25 people who respond to the announcement emails will receive a copy of that month’s featured book, shipped from a locally-owned bookstore.

See below for this month’s recommendations:

June is a month that holds significance to many, with important events such as Juneteenth and Pride. In honor of this, we are focusing on identity and intersectionality with a list of books that educate and inspire. Deirdra Donahue, VP Director Equity & Inclusion and Melissa Healy, SVP Employee Belonging and Participation Lead, offered a few of their must-reads – a selection of novels that require us to ask hard questions and self-reflect on who we are:

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. Since its publication in 2010, the book has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

This story of identity is engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise. The novel is a multi-generational family saga set between the 1940s to the 1990s and centers on identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella Vignes. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper

Far too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. Brittney Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one’s own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.

How to Be Less Stupid About Race by Crystal M. Fleming

How to Be Less Stupid About Race is your essential guide to breaking through the half-truths and ridiculous misconceptions that have thoroughly corrupted the way race is represented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics. Drawing upon critical race theory, as well as her own experiences as a queer black millennial college professor and researcher, Crystal Fleming unveils how systemic racism exposes us all to racial ignorance—and provides a road map for transforming our knowledge into concrete social change.

Check back next month for another addition to our Leo Library.