Next books

On Jan 22 we will read an essay, the Hedgehog and the Fox.  On Jan 29 we will start the book Black Flag, the Rise of ISIS.

We start the death and life of great american cities on 10/22/16

We start Jane Jacob's the death and life of great american cities on 10/22/16.  See you there.


Date                 Chp
10/23/2016 1-2
10/30/2016 no meeting
11/6/2016 3-5
11/13/2016 6-8
11/20/2016 No Meeting
11/27/2016 9-11
12/4/2016 12-14
12/11/2016 15-16
12/18/2016 17-18
12/25/2016 No Meeting
1/1/2017 No Meeting
1/8/2017 Finish book

Houston book clubs

The following webpage has an index of book clubs in Houston.  The two non-fiction book clubs it mentions is ours and one on meetup.

http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman on 8/21/16

We start Thinking, Fast and Slow on 8/21/16 with the following schedule

date		chp
8/21/2016
8/28/2016
9/4/2016
9/11/2016		16-17
9/18/2016		18-21
9/25/2016		22-26
10/2/2016		27-31
10/9/2016		32-35
10/16/2016		36-38

Will in the World Reading

On 6/26/16 we start Will in the World by Greenblatt.  See you Sunday,

6/26/2016 Intro & 1
7/3/2016    2 & 3
7/10/2016 4 & 5
7/17/2016 Movie
7/24/2016 6 & 7
7/31/2016 8 & 9
8/7/2016         10 & 11
8/14/2016 12 & end

Stone of Hope Schedule

5/28/2016		intro -  2
6/4/2016		chp 3 - 4
6/11/2016		5 - 6
6/18/2016		7 - 8

See you Sunday

Voting results

On 5/29/16 we will start with the first two chapters of a Stone of Hope.  Below are the voting results.

1. A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow by David L. Chappell
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback by Daniel Kahneman
3. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare Paperback by Stephen Greenblatt Ph.D.
4. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by June Jacobs

See you Sunday

Voting List

On 5/15/16 we will vote on the next three books from the following list

Jim Cummings

The Light Between Us: Stories from Heaven. Lessons for the Living by Laura Lynne Jackson

The Light Between Us provides guideposts for living a rich and fulfilling life. In her beautiful worldview, Laura Lynne Jackson reminds us that our relationship to those we love endures across space and time; that we are all connected and invested in one another’s lives; and that we are here to give and receive love selflessly. Her story offers a new understanding of the vast reach of our consciousness and enlarges our view of the human experience.

Doug

West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson

A sweeping history of the United States from the era of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, this engaging book stretches the boundaries of our understanding of Reconstruction. Historian Heather Cox Richardson ties the North and West into the post–Civil War story that usually focuses narrowly on the South, encompassing the significant people and events of this profoundly important era.

By weaving together the experiences of real individuals—from a plantation mistress, a Native American warrior, and a labor organizer to Andrew Carnegie, Julia Ward Howe, Booker T. Washington, and Sitting Bull—who lived during the decades following the Civil War and who left records in their own words, Richardson tells a story about the creation of modern America.

Jim Gordon

Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback by Daniel Kahneman

In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Doug

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare Paperback by Stephen Greenblatt Ph.D.

A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world's greatest playwright. A Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Finalist.

Sharon

The New Case for Gold by Jim Rickerts

Global political instability and market volatility are on the rise. Gold, always a prudent asset to own, has become the single most important wealth preserva­tion tool for banks and individuals alike. Rickards draws on historical case studies, monetary theory, and personal experience as an investor to make that case,

Sharon

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by June Jacobs

A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs's monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.

Doug

A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow by David L. Chappell

Chappell reconsiders the intellectual roots of civil rights reform, showing how northern liberals' faith in the power of human reason to overcome prejudice was at odds with the movement's goal of immediate change. Even when liberals sincerely wanted change, they recognized that they could not necessarily inspire others to unite and fight for it. But the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament--sometimes translated into secular language--drove African American activists to unprecedented solidarity and self-sacrifice. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, James Lawson, Modjeska Simkins, and other black leaders believed, as the Hebrew prophets believed, that they had to stand apart from society and instigate dramatic changes to force an unwilling world to abandon its sinful ways. Their impassioned campaign to stamp out "the sin of segregation" brought the vitality of a religious revival to their cause. Meanwhile, segregationists found little support within their white southern religious denominations. Although segregationists outvoted and outgunned black integrationists, the segregationists lost, Chappell concludes, largely because they did not have a religious commitment to their cause.

Reading Schedule for The Road to Character

4/24/2016 1-2
5/1/2016 3-4
5/8/2016 5-6
5/15/2016 7-8
5/22/2016 9-end

Next Book

On 4/24/16 Jim Gordon will lead us through the first two chapters of the following book

The road to character by David Brooks

Brooks tells us in his introduction that his book is about "how some people have cultivated strong character. It's about one mindset that people through the centuries have adopted to put iron in their core and to cultivate a wise heart. I wrote it to save my soul."

On 3/20/16 We Start The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

On 3/20/16 we will start The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.

We look forward to seeing you there!

		read until
date		chp		pg
3/20/2016		3		47
3/27/2016		5		92
4/3/2016		8		148
4/10/2016		11		217
4/17/2016		end		end

Schedule for Empire of the Summer Moon by SC Gwynne

We will start Gwynne's book next week, see you there!

date	chapters
2/7/2015	1-4
2/14/2015	5-8
2/21/2015	9-10
2/28/2015	11-14
3/7/2015	15-19
3/14/2015	20-22

Voting Results

On 2/7/16 we will start, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by SC Gwynne

Following that book we will read

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The road to character by David Brooks

next time we will include the following book in our voting

The Light Between Us: Stories from Heaven. Lessons for the Living. by Laura Jackson

See you at 9 am on Sunday!

Move to 9 am

We have decided to move our group time we will now start at 9 instead of 8.30 am.  If you wish to attend the service please let us know and you will be able to speak first.