Everyone is welcome,
but PLEASE come prepared:
but PLEASE come prepared:
- Read the selection for that week.
- Bring three discussion questions. Questions should be open ended and debatable, yet specific enough to foster a focused discussion.
- Discussion starts promptly at 6:15.
| Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka Description: "The story begins when a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Curiously, his condition does not arouse surprise in his family, who merely despise it as an impending burden. As with all of Kafka's works, The Metamorphosis is open to a wide range of interpretations. Most obvious are themes relating to society's treatment of those who are different, the loneliness of isolation, and the absurdity of the human condition. " |
Nov 30 in toto |
| The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb Description: "Bestselling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb continues his exploration of randomness in his fascinating new book, The Black Swan, in which he examines the influence of highly improbable and unpredictable events that have massive impact. Engaging and enlightening, The Black Swan is a book that may change the way you think about the world, a book that Chris Anderson calls, "a delightful romp through history, economics, and the frailties of human nature."" |
Nov 23 Parts 3&4 | Nov 16 Part 2 | Nov 9 Part 1 |
| I am a Strange Loop - Douglas Hoffstadler Description: "Okay, I think, therefore I am. But who gets to play that game? A newborn? A mosquito? A computer? If my thoughts are elsewhere, am I here or there? When I no longer think as I once did, am I the same person? What composes this "I," molecules or memories? Questions about the boundaries, location, continuity and constituents of the self stand at the heart of philosophy, but a mathematician and physicist, Rene Descartes, set the terms of the discussion. Who better to bring us up to date than Douglas Hofstadter? Trained in math and physics, Hofstadter won a 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Godel, Escher, Bach, a bravura performance linking logic, art and music. He returns now to apply a concept from that book, the strange loop, to the definition of self." |
Nov 2 Chap 17-fin | Oct 26 Chap 9-16 | Oct 19 Chap 1-9 |
| Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond Description: "Most of this work deals with non-Europeans, but Diamond's thesis sheds light on why Western civilization became hegemonic: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Those who domesticated plants and animals early got a head start on developing writing, government, technology, weapons of war, and immunity to deadly germs." |
Oct 5 Part 4 | Sept 28 Part 3 | Sept 21 Part 2 | Sept 14 Part 1 |
| Poetry Appreciation Night - Various Description: This is something new. Members will submit a copy of a cherished poem prior to the meeting. I'll compile and collate them . . . creating enough copies for everyone. At the meeting each person will read their submitted poem and we'll have a brief discussion. It should be fun. |
Oct 12 Member Supplied |
| Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino Description: "Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. It may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take." |
Sept 7 Chap 6-fin | Aug 31 Chap 1-5 |
| Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays - Wendell Berry Description: "Eight exhortatory essays by the Kentuckian fiction writer and moral critic. Berry once again carves out a unique position in American social debate: not liberal (he hates big government), not conservative (he hates big corporations), not libertarian (he would balance individual rights with those of the commonweal), but always sharp-tongued and aglow with common sense." |
Aug 24 Chap 7-fin | Aug 17 Chap 1-6 |
| The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon Description: "Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses and even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages brimming with longing and hope." |
Aug 10 Part VI | Aug 3 Parts IV&V | July 27 Part III | July 20 Parts I&II |
| The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction - William Doyle Description: "Beginning with a discussion of familiar images of the French Revolution, garnered from Dickens, Baroness Orczy, and Tolstoy, as well as the legends of let them eat cake, and tricolours, Doyle leads the reader to the realization that we are still living with developments and consequences of the French Revolution such as decimalization, and the whole ideology of human rights." |
July 13 in toto |
| Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor Description: "Flannery O'Connor holds a distinctive place within the canon of American writers, not only as a woman, but as a southerner, who crafted stories of bitter reality encased within humor and horror. Famously known for the violence depicted in her fiction, O'Connor used violence as a means to shock, and never shied away from any means of accomplishing that. She also never shied away from exposing the hypocrisy that existed within people and their beliefs. Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of nine short stories that were published after O'Connor's death." |
July 6 "Comforts of Home" to End | June 29 Through "The Enduring Chill" |
| The Value of Nothing - Raj Patel Description: "With great lucidity and confidence in a dazzling array of fields, Patel reveals how we inflate the cost of things we can (and often should) live without, while assigning absolutely no value to the resources we all need to survive. This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness -- argued with so much humor and humanity that the enormous tasks ahead feel both doable and desirable. This is Raj Patel's great gift: he makes even the most radical ideas seem not only reasonable, but inevitable. A brilliant book."--Naomi Klein, author The Shock Doctrine |
June 22 Part 2 | June 15 Part 1 |
| A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers Description: "You'll likely begin the book thinking the title an amusing and ironic overstatement, but by the time you've finished reading it, you might just decide, as I did, that it is instead an admirable example of truth in packaging." |
Jun 8 Parts X-fin | Jun 1 Parts VII-IX | May 25 Parts V-VI | May 18 Parts I-IV |
| The Red Tent - Anita Diamant Description: "Few stories can evoke a time and place as vividly as Anita Diamant's compelling tale sprung from the pages of the Old Testament. The Red Tent is the story of Jacob's daughter, Dinah, and Jacob's four wives, who all served as Dinah's mother at some point in time. Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah all bring their own unique gifts and influences to bear on Dinah's life. As Diamant explores the trials and triumphs of ancient women, she brings a foreign yet beautiful world to life as seen through the emotional filter of Dinah's eyes. This lush, evocative tale transcends time and brings new life to the Old Testament, lending a feminine touch to the mighty word of God." |
May 11 Part 3 | May 4 Part 2 | Apr 27 Part 1 |
| Communist Manifesto - Marx & Engels Description: The little red book . . . it's time I actually read it . . . how about you? Should make for a good discussion. |
Apr 20 in toto |
| As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner Description: Classic Faulkner . . . you asked for "litature" you got it. "At the heart of this 1930 novel is the Bundren family's bizarre journey to Jefferson to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Faulkner lets each family member--including Addie--and others along the way tell their private responses to Addie's life." |
Apr 13 Pg 141*-fin | Apr 6 Pg 1-140* |
| Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Freire Description: "This text argues that the ignorance and lethargy of the poor are the direct result of the whole economic, social and political domination. The book suggests that in some countries the oppressors use the system to maintain a 'culture of silence'. Through the right kind of education, the book suggests, avoiding authoritarian teacher-pupil models and based on the actual experiences of students and on continual shared investigation, every human being, no matter how impoverished or illiterate, can develop a new awareness of self, and the right to be heard." |
Mar 30 Chap 3&4 | Mar 23 Chap 1&2 |
| American Gods - Neil Gaiman Description: "Shadow dreamed of nothing but leaving prison and starting a new life. But the day before his release, his wife and best friend are killed in an accident. On the plane home to the funeral, he meets Mr. Wednesday - a beguiling stranger who seems to know everything about him. A trickster and rogue, Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard. With nowhere left to go, Shadow accepts, and soon learns that his role in Mr. Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous and dark than he could have ever imagined. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought - and the prize is the very soul of America." |
Mar 16 Chap 15-fin | Mar 9 Chap 11-14 | Mar 3 Chap 7-10 | Feb 23 Chap 1-6 |
| Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe Description: "Tom Wolfe's much-discussed kaleidoscopic non-fiction novel chronicles the tale of novelist Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters. In the 1960s, Kesey led a group of psychedelic sympathizers around the country in a painted bus, presiding over LSD-induced "acid tests" all along the way. Long considered one of the greatest books about the history of the hippies, Wolfe's ability to research like a reporter and simultaneously evoke the hallucinogenic indulgence of the era ensures that this book, written in 1967, will live long in the counter-culture canon of American literature." |
Feb 16 Chap XXI-fin | Feb 9 Chap XI-XX | Feb 2 Chap I-X |
| Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard Feynman Description: "In this phenomenal national bestseller, the Nobel Prize -winning physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts in his inimitable voice his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums and much else of an eyebrow-raising and hilarious nature." |
Jan 26 Part 5 | Jan 19 Parts 3&4 | Jan 12 Parts 1&2 |
| The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac Description: "The Dharma Bums was published one year after On the Road made Jack Kerouac a celebrity and a spokesperson for the Beat Generation. Sparked by his contagious zest for life, the novel relates the adventures of an ebullient group of Beatnik seekers in a freewheeling exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth." |
Jan 5 in toto |
| Extremeely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer Description: "Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey." A couple of people who's opinion I value say this is their favorite book ever. |
Dec 22 to fin | Dec 15 to "The 6th Bourough" | Dec 8 to "Why I'm not..." |
| Four Agreements - Miguel Ruiz Description: "In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best." |
Dec 1 in toto |
| The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood Description: "A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules." |
Nov 24 Chap XII-fin | Nov 17 Chap VII-XI | Nov 10 Chap I-VI |
| Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak Description: Where the Wild Things Are is one of those truly rare books that can be enjoyed equally by a child and a grown-up. If you disagree, then it's been too long since you've attended a wild rumpus. If you want to go on a rumpus you can joint the SRG that Friday and see the movie Where the Wild Things are at Rave Theaters. Details at the meeting. |
Nov 3 in toto |
| Freakonomics - Steven Levitt Description: "Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics, Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections" |
Oct 27 Chap 4-fin | Oct 20 Chap 1-3 |
| Working - Studs Terkel Description: An engaging and broad collection of oral histories compiled by an American Legend. It opens a fascinating door into the personal work lives of everyday Americans. We are reading this one in excerpts because of this book's size and the short essay format lends itself to easily sprinkle it between other reads. |
Oct 13 Book 9 |
| Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel Description: "Take one part Whitney Otto's How To Make an American Quilt, add a smidgen of magical realism a la Garcia Marquez, follow up with several quixotic characters, garnish with love, and you'll have Like Water for Chocolate , a thoroughly enjoyable and quirky first novel by Mexican screenwriter Esquivel" |
Oct 6 Chap 7-fin | Sept 29 Chap 1-6 |
| Working - Studs Terkel Description: An engaging and broad collection of oral histories compiled by an American Legend. It opens a fascinating door into the personal work lives of everyday Americans. We are reading this one in excerpts because of this book's size and the short essay format lends itself to easily sprinkle it between other reads. |
Sept 22 Books 7&8 |
| The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat - Oliver Sacks Description: "Neurologist Sacks presents a series of clinical tales drawn from fascinating and unusual cases encountered during his years of medical practice. Dividing his text into four parts "losses" of neurological function; "excesses"; "transports" involving reminiscence, altered perception, and imagination; and "the simple." Sacks introduces the reader to real people who suffer from a variety of neurological syndromes which include symptoms such as amnesia, uncontrolled movements, and musical hallucinations. Sacks recounts their stories in a riveting, compassionate, and thoughtful manner." |
Sept 15 Parts 3&4 | Sept 8 Parts 1&2 |
| Working - Studs Terkel Description: An engaging and broad collection of oral histories compiled by an American Legend. It opens a fascinating door into the personal work lives of everyday Americans. We are reading this one in excerpts because of this book's size and the short essay format lends itself to easily sprinkle it between other reads. |
Sept 1 Books 5&6 |
| The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin Description: "Genly Ai is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own culture and prejudices and those that he encounters. On a planet where people are of no gender--or both--this is a broad gulf indeed." |
Aug 25 Chap 11-fin | Aug 18 Chap 1-10 |
| Working - Studs Terkel Description: An engaging and broad collection of oral histories compiled by an American Legend. It opens a fascinating door into the personal work lives of everyday Americans. We are reading this one in excerpts because of this book's size and the short essay format lends itself to easily sprinkle it between other reads. |
Aug 11 Books 3&4 |
| Proust was a Neuroscientist - Jonah Lehrer Description: "With impressively clear prose, Lehrer explores the oft-overlooked places in literary history where novelists, poets and the occasional cookbook writer predicted scientific breakthroughs with their artistic insights." |
Aug 4 Chap 5-fin | July 28 Chap 1-4 |
| Working - Studs Terkel Description: An engaging and broad collection of oral histories compiled by an American Legend. It opens a fascinating door into the personal work lives of everyday Americans. We are reading this one in excerpts because of this book's size and the short essay format lends itself to easily sprinkle it between other reads. |
July 21 Books 1&2 |
| Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan Description: "In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan writes about how our food is grown -- what it is, in fact, that we are eating. The book is really three in one: The first section discusses industrial farming; the second, organic food, both as big business and on a relatively small farm; and the third, what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself. And each section culminates in a meal -- a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; and grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate souffle (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild." |
July 14 Part III | July 7 Part II | June 30 Part I |
| Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson Description: "The book's central theme, derived from a Baltistan proverb, rings loud and clear. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger," a villager tells Greg Mortenson. "The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family." An inspirational story of one man's efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides, Three Cups, which won the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction, reveals the enormous obstacles inherent in becoming such "family."" |
June 23 Chap 17-fin | June 16 Chap 10-16 | June 9 Chap 1-9 |
| Self-Reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson Description: One of the classic transendental essays of all time. A treasure trove of valuable life-changing jewels condensed into words. IMHO |
June 2 in toto |
| Language in Thought and Action - S.I. Hayakawa Description: "Lift the veil of word-hypnosis. Open your mind to understand how words really describe, distort and motivate for better and for worse. This book will challenge your view of the world, of communication, of people, prejudices and perception." |
May 26 Book 2 | May 19 Book 1 |
| The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell Description: "Campbell's words carry extraordinary weight, not only among scholars but among a wide range of other people who find his search down mythological pathways relevant to their lives today. . . . The book for which he is most famous, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, [is] a brilliant examination, through ancient hero myths, of man's eternal struggle for identity." |
May 12 Pt2 Ch II - fin | May 5 Pt1 Ch III & IV Pt2 Ch I | April 28 Pt1 Ch I & II |
| The Road - Cormac McCarthy Description: ""The Road" is a work of stunning, savage, heartbreaking beauty. Set in the post-apocalyptic hell of an unending nuclear winter, Cormac McCarthy writes about a nameless man and his young son, wandering through a world gone crazy; bleak, cold, dark, where the snow falls down gray; moving south toward the coast, looking somewhere, anywhere, for life and warmth." |
April 21 pgs 138-fin | April 14 pgs 0-137 |
| Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert Description: "Gilbert's journey is full of mystical dreams, visions and uncanny coincidences . . . Yet for every ounce of self-absorption her classical New-Age journey demands, Gilbert is ready with an equal measure of intelligence, humor and self-deprecation . . . Gilbert's wry, unfettered account of her extraordinary journey makes even the most cynical reader dare to dream of someday finding God deep within a meditation cave in India, or perhaps over a transcendent slice of pizza." by Erika Schickel |
April 7 Book 3 | Mar 31 Book 2 | Mar 24 Book 1 |
| Thinking in Pictures - Temple Grandin Description: "In this uprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from the country of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country is experieinced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach its boundaries to function in the outside world." |
Mar 17 Chap 6-fin | Mar 10 Chap 1-5 |
| The Giver - Lois Lowery Description: "In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy" |
Mar 3 Chap 11-fin | Feb 24 Chap 1-10 |
| The Art of War - Sun Tzu Description: Twenty-Five Hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and cilivzation have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike. Should also apply to Valentines Day. |
Feb 17 in toto |
| Life of Pi - Yann Martel Description: "A perusal of online booksellers reveals that this book can be categorized as a survival story, a tall tale, an action piece, a work about human/animal relationships, and a fiction about (1) India, (2) adolescence, (3) zoos and zoology, and (4) the Pacific Ocean, which indicates to this reviewer that book dealers are grasping at anything they can find to define what essentially defies definition. The book is about all of these things -- and about none of these things, really." |
Feb 10 Chap 71-fin | Feb 3 Chap 37-70 | Jan 27 Chap 1-36 |
| Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole Description: "This book is quite simply a comic masterpiece, a novel brimming with original characters, absurd situations, and at its heart a blustery, vulnerable mama's boy named Ignatius J. Reilly. He is one of the most startlingly original characters in modern fiction, and his efforts at hitting the job market after his mother smashes their car will leave you in stitches." |
Jan 20 Chap 11-fin | Jan 13 Chap 6-10 | Jan 6 Chap 1-5 |
| Small is Beautiful - E.F. Schumacher Description: "Small is Beautiful created a humanistic economics movement. It's a holistic approach containing ethical, ecological, and metaphysical components that are missing from the statistical models that solely measure GNP. Schumacher sounded the alarm regarding globalization when asking "how much further 'growth' will be possible, since infinite growth in a finite environment is an obvious impossibility". He was critical of a society that generates unbounded materialism, and motivated by greed and envy." |
Dec 16 Part 3&4 | Dec 9 Part 1&2 |
| The History of God - Karen Armstrong Description: ""Armstrong, a British journalist and former nun, guides us along one of the most elusive and fascinating quests of all time--the search for God. Armstrong also shows us how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have overlapped and influenced one another, gently challenging the secularist history of each of these religions." |
Dec 2 Chap 6-fin | Nov 25 Chap 5-7 | Nov 18 Chap 1-4 |
| Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein Description: "Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you." |
Nov 11 Chap 16-fin | Nov 4 Chap 12-15 | Oct 28 Chap 6-11 | Oct 21 Chap 1-5 |
| The Unfolding of Language - Guy Deutscher Description: "As entertaining as it is erudite, The Unfolding of Language moves nimbly from ancient Babylonian to American idiom, from the central role of metaphor to the staggering triumph of design that is the Semitic verb, to tell the dramatic story and explain the genius behind a uniquely human faculty." |
Oct 14 Chap 7-fin | Oct 7 Chap 4-6 | Sept 30 Chap 1-3 |
| Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein Description: "This is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions . . . Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians." This book nearly started a movement. |
Sept 23 Parts 4&5 | Sept 16 Part 3 | Sept 9 Part 2 | Sept 2 Part 1 |
| Man's Search For Meaning - Victor Frankl Description: "Based on his own experience wihtin Nazi deathcamps and the stories of his many patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory holds that our primary drive in life the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful." This book could change your life. |
Aug 26 Part 2 | Aug 19 Part 1 |
| The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Description: The charming tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who sets out to discover his "personal legend". This book will help put you back in touch with your personal legend. Very stirring. |
Aug 12 Chap 1-fin |
| The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell Description: "The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate." |
Aug 5 Chap 6-fin | July 29 Chap 3-5 | July 22 Chap 1-2 |
| Still Life with Woodpecker - Tom Robbins Description: "a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads." |
July 15 Chap 46-fin | July 8 Chap 1-45 |
| Collapse - Jared Diamond Description: "How Societies choose to Fail or Succeed." Collapse deals with "societal collapses involving an environmental component, and in some cases also contributions of climate change, hostile neighbors, and trade partners, plus questions of societal responses." Fascinating stuff. |
July 1 Chap 13-16 | June 24 Chap 9-12 | June 17 Chap 4-8 | June 10 Chap 1-3 |
| Emergence - Steven Johnson Description: A truly captivating description of the nature and behavior of self-organizing organisms. How order emerges from chaos; bottom-up style. "The connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software." |
June 3 Chap 4-7 | May 27 Chap 1-3 |
| 1984 - George Orwell Description: Timeless classic of life in the authoritarian state; chillingly relevant. As a society we are all due for a re-read. |
May 20 Part 3 | May 13 Part 2 | May 6 Part 1 |