• Hours
    • Monday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
      Tuesday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
      Wednesday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
      Thursday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
      Friday9:30 am - 4:30 pm
      Saturday9:30 am - 4:30 pm
      Sunday1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
  • Location
    • 550 East Broad Street
      Westfield, NJ 07090
  • Call Us
    • (908) 789-4090
  • Language
    • English
    • Español
    • Polish

Westfield Memorial Library

The Westfield Memorial Library connects and engages all residents to make our community a better place to live.

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  • About Us
    • About Westfield
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    • Holiday Closings 2023
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    • Positions Available
    • Publications
    • Solar Energy Production
  • Circulation
      • Catalog Resources
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          • Get A Card
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          • Pay Fines
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        • What to Read Next (Novelist)
      • Teen Services
        • Book Genie
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        • Brainfuse: Help Now
        • DMV Practice Test
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        • 1000 Books Before Kindergarten
        • Book Genie
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        • Brainfuse: Help Now
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Courageous Conversations Book Discussion

Our Courageous Conversations Book Discussion brings together Westfield residents to build community across differences, increase awareness of our own blind spots, and help align our behavior with intentions.

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (2021)
By Heather McGhee

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: the benefits we gain when people come together across race to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. The Sum of Us is not only a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here but also a heartfelt message, delivered with startling empathy, from a black woman to a multiracial America. It leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.

Group size is limited. Coming in 2023!

2023 Schedule
•    February 9 at 7pm
•    May 11 at 7pm
•    August 10 at 7pm
•    November 9 at 7pm

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    Westfield Memorial Library

    550 East Broad Street, Westfield, NJ 07090
    (908) 789-4090
    Director | Allen McGinley

    Hours

    Monday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
    Tuesday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
    Wednesday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
    Thursday9:30 am - 8:30 pm
    Friday9:30 am - 4:30 pm
    Saturday9:30 am - 4:30 pm
    Sunday1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

    Catalog Resources

    • Library Catalog
    • My Account | Renew Books
    • Pay Fines
    • Get A Card
    • Loan Periods 

    Frequently Accessed

    • Remote Printing
    • Library Tutorials
    • Research Databases
    • Ask a Librarian
    • Library Policies
    • Mobile Hot Spots
    • Social Media Tutorials

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    Copyright © 2023 · Westfield Memorial Library · Developed by Renaissance Web Solutions

    • About Us
      • About Westfield
      • History of the Library
      • Holiday Closings 2023
      • Library Board of Trustees
      • Library Curbside
      • Library Policies
      • Mission Statement
      • Positions Available
      • Publications
      • Solar Energy Production
      • Back
    • Circulation
      • Catalog Resources
        • Borrowing
          • Get A Card
          • Loan Periods
          • Pay Fines
          • Books From Other Libraries
          • Health Literacy Tote Kits
          • Museum Passes
          • Books on Wheels
          • Back
        • Reserve & Renew Items
        • Search The Catalog
        • Back
      • Devices
        • Book Clubs in a Bag
          • Adult Book Clubs
          • Children’s Book Clubs
          • Back
        • Kill-A-Watt Devices
        • Mobile Hot Spots
        • Back
      • Back
    • Books & Media
      • Book Recommendations
      • Downloadable Audiobooks
      • Downloadable eBooks
      • Digital Magazines
      • Digital Music
      • Library Apps
      • Local History
      • Movies and Videos
      • Museum Passes
      • Online Book Club
      • Back
    • Events
    • Library Services
      • Adult Services
        • Adult Book Club Kits
        • Adult Events
        • Ask a Librarian
        • Book Match for Adults
        • Book Recommendations
        • Books on Wheels
        • Health Literacy Tote Kits
        • Meeting Room Policy
        • Museum Passes
        • Online Book Club
        • Remote Printing
        • What to Read Next (Novelist)
        • Back
      • Teen Services
        • Book Genie
        • Booklists for Teens
        • Brainfuse: Help Now
        • DMV Practice Test
        • Online Book Club
        • Teen Volunteering
        • Back
      • Youth Services
        • 1000 Books Before Kindergarten
        • Book Genie
        • Booklists for Kids
        • Brainfuse: Help Now
        • Children’s Events
        • Tumblebooks
        • Back
      • Back
    • Research
      • Library Tutorials
      • Local History
      • Recommended Websites
      • Research Databases
      • Social Media Tutorials
      • Back
    • Support
      • Foundation
      • Friends of the Library
      • Gifts and Memorials Program
      • Back
    • Connect
      • Ask a Librarian
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      • Take Note Newsletter
      • Town of Westfield Code
      • Wowbrary
      • Back