Two questions
What does one gain from independent travel?
What is my reaction to the changes in Z from one who values the collective to one who values individualism?
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The Audacity of Hope
Eat, Pray, Love
Soon I Will be Invincible
August selection
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
June Selection
May Selection
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Be Clever. Join the club. Read on.
Reading List
March Selection
The Audacity of Hope
In his speech addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama said:
“In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!"
“In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!"
January Selection
Eat, Pray, Love
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“If a more likable writer than Gilbert is currently in print, I haven't found him or her...Gilbert's prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in.” by Jennifer Egan
TIME MAGAZINE
“An engaging, intelligent and entertaining memoir…her account of her time in India is beautiful and honest and free of patchouli-scented obscurities.” by Lev Grossman
LOS ANGELES TIMES
“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
“If a more likable writer than Gilbert is currently in print, I haven't found him or her...Gilbert's prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in.” by Jennifer Egan
TIME MAGAZINE
“An engaging, intelligent and entertaining memoir…her account of her time in India is beautiful and honest and free of patchouli-scented obscurities.” by Lev Grossman
LOS ANGELES TIMES
“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
November Selection
Soon I Will be Invincible
“Every comic-book cliché in this witty, stunning debut is lovingly embraced, then turned inside out.” —Wired Magazine
“Imaginative and, at times, achingly real. . . . I mean it as the highest possible compliment when I say that it would make a damn good comic book.” —Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times Book Review
“A page-turning confrontation that's pure super-team suspense.” —The Onion
“It's safe to say, there's nothing in popular fiction quite like it.” —Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“This witty debut novel is sure to please fans of Lethem and Chabon and remind you that smart prose can be as vivid as any graphic concoction.” —Playboy
“Imaginative and, at times, achingly real. . . . I mean it as the highest possible compliment when I say that it would make a damn good comic book.” —Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times Book Review
“A page-turning confrontation that's pure super-team suspense.” —The Onion
“It's safe to say, there's nothing in popular fiction quite like it.” —Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“This witty debut novel is sure to please fans of Lethem and Chabon and remind you that smart prose can be as vivid as any graphic concoction.” —Playboy
August Selection
August selection
Three Cups of Tea
Greg Mortenson, and acclaimed journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia . THREE CUPS OF TEA is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world—one school at a time.
July Selection
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Hank Morgan, a self-reliant New Englander, awakes one morning to find himself in 6th century England. Morgan brings to King Arthur's utopian court the ingenuity and progress of enlightened 19th century America. However, this culture clash produces results that are at once satiric, anarchic, and darkly comic as Twain exposes the flaws of both worlds.
At its heart, "A Connecticut Yankee" is a powerful analysis of issues such as monarchy vs. democracy and free will vs. determinism.
June Selection
June Selection
"I am Ayaan, the daughter of Hirsi, the son of Magan."
In the first scene of Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a child of 5, sitting on a grass mat. Her grandmother is teaching her to recite the names of her ancestors, as all Somali children must learn to do. "Get it right," her grandmother warns. "They are your bloodline. . . . If you dishonor them you will be forsaken. You will be nothing. You will lead a wretched life and die alone."
May Book Selection
May Selection
It’s love with an edge in this sharp tale of would-be urban sophisticates who embark on a mismatched marriage and have a daughter. As the story unfolds, Nissen depicts the relationships and conversations of the well-meaning but slightly neurotic inhabitants of New York with uncanny acumen.
April selection
"Gawande... manages to capture medicine in all of it's complex and chaotic glory, and to put it, still squirming with life, down on the page...with this book Gawande inspires all of us, doctor or not, to be better." Pauline Chen, The New York Times Book Review.
"This is a book about failure: How it happens, how we learn from it, and how we can do better. Although it's focus is medicine, its message is for everybody...it has already been described as a modern masterpiece- and so it it." Jeremy Lawrence, The Independent (UK).
"This is a book about failure: How it happens, how we learn from it, and how we can do better. Although it's focus is medicine, its message is for everybody...it has already been described as a modern masterpiece- and so it it." Jeremy Lawrence, The Independent (UK).
March Book Selection
"A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers" is original, humorous, and wise. Within imperfect language one can find many perfect truths of the human condition. The misunderstandings are really the understandings of the differences of the heart between men and women- Amy Tan (author of The Joy Luck Club)
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