LWVBCC Book Group

LWVBCC Book Group

BACKGROUND

The LWVBCC Book Group was formed in 2005 and has been meeting regularly ever since. We currently meet on a Monday morning. These are the only meetings that are convened in member homes.
 
 
Please Read This Book
 
Eight members gathered in Bridgman to discuss "The Complete Guide to Memory" by Dr. Richard Restak. Like many things in life, the book got mixed reviews. Comments ranged from “I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know,”
to “He asked some good questions.” Most agreed that there were nuggets of worthwhile knowledge and some suggestions about the role of memory in life and society that were very perceptive. There were many suggestions for
improving your memory including word and number games, memorizing poetry and developing personalized strategies for remembering faces and names. 
xxxOne of the issues Restak brought up in discussing collective memory focused on how do we as a country deal with the Civil War monuments to the Confederacy found in many towns and cities. Do we remove them completely, put them somewhere inconspicuous and or contextualize them with explanatory material at their sites? How do we make sure that what really happened is passed on to future generations? The discussion moved in many directions but came back to acknowledging that memory is an integral part of living as individuals and as societies.
xxxOur next Book Club meeting is September 26 at Gloria Weberg’s home in St. Joseph. Please let her know if you are planning to attend – glosunshine1751 [at] comcast.net. The book is "Small Great Things" by Judy Picoult.
 

March 2022

If the LWVBCC book group is typical of the world at large, January was a great
month for reading. At its February 28 gathering, members reported on a variety of
books they had read, leading to lively, vigorous discussions. Hoping to continue some
of those discussions, the group decided to focus next on four books:

 “No Justice in Germany: The Breslau Diaries, 1933-1941” by Willy Cohn
 “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across
America” by Clint Smith
 “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy” by
Jamie Raskin and
 “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande.
LWVBCC members are encouraged to read one or more of these books and
share their reflections at the next gathering of the book group: 10:00 a.m. Monday April
11 at the home of Jane Raymond. If you plan to attend, please call or text Jane at 269-
208-4043.

Books Read in 2021

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris
Rage by Bob Woodward 
Children Under Fire by John Woodrow Cox
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
 

Books Read in Previous Years

  • Michele Richardson, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
  • Gail Collins, No Stopping Us Now: a History of Older Women in America
  • Sandy and Larry Feldman, Building Bridges Across the Racial Divide
  • Alex Kotlowitz, The Other Side of the River
  • John Lewis, Across That Bridge
  • Alan Alda, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?
  • Sarah Holland and Beth Silvers, I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening)
  • James Hoggan, I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up
  • Ben Sasse, THEM: Why We Hate Each Other--And How to Heal
  • Claude Steele, Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do
  • Rebecca Traister, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
  • Michelle Obama, Becoming
  • John Meacham, The Soul of America
  • Dan Egan, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
  • Elaine Weiss, The Woman’s Hour
  • Sam Quinones, Dreamland
  • Michael Bloomberg & Carl Pope, Climate of Hope
  • Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land
  • David Sales & Ghada Alatrash, Stripped to the Bone: Portraits of Syrian Women
  • Geoffrey Stone, Sex and the Constitution
  • Azar Natisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

PREVIOUS SELECTIONS

We have read some great books!

Occasionally the members are encouraged to select any book they wish in a subject area, so those individual selections are not listed.

"Climate of Hope" by Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope

"Strangers in Their Own Land" by Arlie Russell Hochschild.

"Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic."by Sam Quinones

"This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate" by Naomi Klein.

"George Washington's Secret Six" by Kilmeade and Yaeger

"Hamilton - The Revolution by Miranda and McCarter

"Alexander Hamilton" by Chernow

"Dark Money" by Mayer

"Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" by Warrick

"ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror" by Weiss and Hassan

"ISIS: The State of Terror" by Stern and Berger.

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Irin Carmona and Shana Knizhnik

"Three Billion New Capitalists: the Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East" by Clyde Prestowicz.

"Critical Condition How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine" by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele

"Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People who Think You're Stupid" by Joe Klein

"The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright. Won 2006 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.

"Deep Economy" by Bill McKibben

"The Appeal" by John Grisham About judicial elections.

"In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan

"The Post American World" by Fareed Zakaria

"The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America" by Jonathan Kozol

"Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture" by Ellen Rupell Shell

"Engaging the Muslim World" by Juan Cole

"The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court" by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong

"Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court" by Jan Crawford Greenburg

"Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy" by Louise W. Knight

"Jane Addams: Spirit in Action" by Louise W. Knight

"Twenty Years at Hull House" by Jane Addams

"Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future" by Robert Reich

"The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equality Will Determine Our Future" by Linda Hammond-Darling

"Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming Our Democracy" by David Mathews

"The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choices Are Undermining Education" by Diane Ravitch

"Why School? Reclaiming Education for All of Us" by Mike Rose

"What is Good for General Motors? Solving America's Industrial Conundrum" by Thomas Crumm

"Confidence Men" by Ron Suskind

"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

"Republic Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It" by Lawrence Lessig

"Drift: the Unmooring of American Military Power" by Rachel Maddow

"My Beloved World" by Sonia Sotomayor

"Catastrophic Health Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father and How We Can Fix It" by David Goldhill.

"County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital" by David Ansell M.D.

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

"The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World's Food Supply" by Marie-Monique Robin

"Foodopoly: the Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America" by Wenonah Hauter

"Food, Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food Is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer--and What We Can Do About It" by Karl Weber

"Reign of Error" by Diane Ravitch

"Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World's Leading Systems" by Marc Tucker and Linda Darling Hammond.

"I am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban" by Yousafzai, Malala and Lamb, Christina (Oct 8, 2013)

"Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution" by Justice John Paul Stevens.

"On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City" by Alice Goffman.

"Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights" by Katha Pollitt

Steven Brill " America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System" 2015

Atul Gwande "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End " 2014.