Open your calendars.

Our next gathering is on Monday, June 16th at 7pm. If the weather behaves we will meet outside (more details to follow).

We are reading The River Why by David James Duncan. It is a Pacific NW classic.

I have at least one extra copy to lend out. Let me know if you are interested.

What we are reading next...

It is still up in the air about who is choosing the next book, but just in case I am the responsible individual, here is what I am considering:

"The River Why" by David James Duncan
Written by a NW writer. Funny, philosophical, Oregon-oriented.

"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers
The author is the founder of lit-comedy-mag "McSweeneys" and a series of writing/reading outreach centers for kids around the country. This was his first book. Autobiographical, maybe.

"Blindess" by Jose Saramango
Won the Pulitzer and other prizes several years ago. Has always intrigued me.

"The Shell Collector" by Anthony Doerr (this is a book of short stories - how does everyone feel about short stories?)
Beautiful, creative, surreal stories.

"St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell (another book of short stories)
Ditto. But different.

If you have any particular thoughts on these, please let me know.

George

I think the relationship between Dr. Kellogg and George is integral to the plot of the entire book. Dr. Kellogg views the way George turned out as his one failure in life & constantly fights his fear of being discovered in that failure.

So, here are a few questions to think about:

1. What do you think about the "nature vs. nurture" question - can the right environment and influences overcome genetics?
2. What do you think of Dr. Kellogg's approach to disciplining George and George's response to it?
3. How does Dr. Kellogg's obsession/need to be seen as successful in every realm of his life influence the way things end up?

Per-Fo

So I read "The Road to Wellness" this weekend thinking that we have Book Group this coming Wednesday (because that is what is says below), but Paige's calendar says next meeting is May 14 (which actually makes more sense).

Anyway. Whichever it is, I am prepared.  Here are some thoughts/questions about the book (it is just a start, I will think of more later:

1. Who invented peanut butter? Was it Dr. Kellogg (as stated in the book) or George Washington Carver (as stated by Paige)?

2. When did the USDA require packaged foods to provide lists of ingredients and nutritional values?

3. The health food movements of Battle Creek remind me of today's Slow Food Movement. Are there any modern food lessons to be learned from life at the Sanitarium?

4. I think the discussion of advertising in this book is really interesting - and reminds me of Al Gore's upcoming advertising campaign to fight global warming via pop culture. Brings up question: how to motivate a large group of people to collectively change their behavior? In the case of global warming that means reducing your footprint. In the case of diet, that means eating smarter, eating local, eating healthy, etc.  Many experts write books extolling all kinds of different lifestyles/decisions. Do you think they hope readers will change their lifestyles, pass along the book, inspiring others to change their lifestyles, etc. etc?  

I guess my big question is HOW DO YOU START A SOCIAL MOVEMENT?

Next book club

Our next read is The Road to Wellville by T. C. Boyle. We'll meet on April 16 at 7:00 pm at my house.

The contenders for next time

Here are a couple ideas for the next book:

The Road to Wellville by T.C. Boyle (connection: health as social capital???)
Red River by Lalita Tademy (connection: family ties, survival)
Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Merinissi (connection: unconventional childhood memoir)

Some seemingly random choices, perhaps, but they're all on my list to read. I'm 100% open to comments about which one seems most interesting to you.

Virtual journal.

This site is intended as a venue for commenting on our monthly book choice, linking to other sites related to our reading, brainstorming future books, and whatever else strikes our fancy. This is also a great place to jot down questions to be discussed at our next meeting.

For the record, here are the books we have read to date:
The Samarai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama (August07)
Molokai by Alan Brennert (September)
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (October)
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (November)
The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (January08)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (February)
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam (March)