Voting List

 

title and author	description	proposed by	rank	pages
Moral Freedom by Alan Wolfe	ventures into the minds and hearts of Americans to determine how we really think about morality in today's age, focusing on traditional values of loyalty, self-restraint, honesty, and forgiveness	Kevin	3	224
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana	Written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. With his writing I can almost feel I am on a sailing ship trying to make it around Cape Horn or anchored off a very early California. I know I will read this book a couple more times before I depart this planet.	Kevin	6	420
Emma's War by Deborah Scroggins	once a disturbing love story and an up-close look at Sudan: a world where international aid fuels armies as well as the starving population	Kevin	7	416
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit	radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history	Kevin	2	184
Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt	a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem’s vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and—in the hands of Thomas Jefferson—leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence.	Kathy	4	377
AI 2041: TEN VISIONS OF OUR FUTURE by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan	imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In ten gripping short stories, they introduce readers to an array of eye-opening 2041	Doug	1	452
The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson	How did humanity originate and why does a species like ours exist on this planet? Do we have a special place, even a destiny in the universe? Where are we going, and perhaps, the most difficult question of all, "Why?"	Doug	5	219

On April 17 we start How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

 On April 17 we start How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

up until the following the following chapters and pages

	chp	pg
4/17/22	4	64
4/24/22	7	123
5/1/22	10	182
5/8/22	14	227
5/15/22	16	274
5/22/22	end	end

On Feb 27 we start Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

 On Feb 27 we start Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

	chp	pg
2/27/22	brief history of lawns	59
3/6/22	equation of life	111
3/13/22	but it works	174
3/20/22	follow the yellow	237
3/27/22	who are i	292
4/3/22	oracle to sovereign	346
4/10/22	end	end

On Jan 30 we start Body of Work by Christine Montross

 On Jan 30 we start Body of Work by Christine Montross

	chp	pg
1/30/21	5	61
2/6/21	8	135
2/13/21	11	209
2/20/21	end	end

On Dec 5 we start an end to suffering by Pankaj Mishra

On Dec 5 we start an end to suffering by Pankaj Mishra 

	chp	pg
12/5/21	world of buddha	84
12/12/21	long way to middle	153
12/19/21	science mind	214
1/2/21	spiritual politics	280
1/9/22	western dharmas	345
1/16/22	end	404

On Oct 17 we start The American Way Of Poverty by Sasha Abramsky

On Oct 17 we start The American Way Of Poverty by Sasha Abramsky.  We skip Thanksgiving, Nov 28.

	chp	pg
10/17/21	part 1 #3	63
10/24/21	part 1 #5	123
11/7/21	part 2	193
11/14/21	part 2 #2	235
11/21/21	end	end

Voting List

title and author	description	proposed	rank	pg
Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte	Into our trash cans go dead batteries, dirty diapers, bygone burritos, broken toys, tattered socks, eight-track cassettes, scratched CDs, banana peels.... But where do these things go next? In a country that consumes and then casts off more and more, what actually happens to the things we throw away?	kevin	11	337
Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson by David S. Reynolds	insightful history of America during its bumptious adolescence	kevin	6	484
An End to Suffering: by Pankaj Mishra	he reflects on his travels and on his own past, Mishra ultimately reaches an enlightenment of his own by discovering the living meaning of the Buddha's teaching, in this "unusually discerning, beautifully written, and deeply affecting reflection on Buddhism	kevin	2	422
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard	book details an unnamed narrator's explorations near her home, and various contemplations on nature and life.	Marcella	9	304
Body of Work by Christine Montross	examination of the mysteries of the human body, and a remarkable look at our relationship with both the living and the dead	Kathy	3	304
109 East Palace : Robert Oppenheimer by Jennet Conant	see how, for all his flaws, he developed into an inspiring leader and motivated all those involved in the Los Alamos project	Kathy	10	448
Shadow Network by Anne Nelson	group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net.	Sharon	7	448
Woke, Inc. by Vivek Ramaswamy	The modern woke-industrial complex divides us as a people. By mixing morality with consumerism, America’s elites prey on our innermost insecurities about who we really are	Sharon	8	368
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari	explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life.	Marcella	4	455
How to Live by Sarah Bakewell	This book, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of Montainge's life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored	Marcella	5	523
Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America by Stephen L. Klineberg	Sociologist Stephen Klineberg presents fascinating and groundbreaking research that shows how the city of Houston has emerged as a microcosm for America’s future—based on an unprecedented thirty-eight-year study of its changing economic, demographic, and cultural landscapes.	doug	1	336

The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson  

proposed by Doug

219 pages