You are here
Book Group: Past books
Book Group Information
Tue, 01/15/2013 - 5:34pm — Sandra.CoynerA list of books selected and read by this book group from 2008 to 2013 can be found here. For recent books, see below.
- Log in to post comments
| 03/19/2014 - 3:30pm | Book Group -- "The Art Instinct" |
The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, by Denis Dutton (2009) argues that human proclivities for art are evolutionary traits, shaped by natural selection--inborn and in some ways universal. This approach to art challenges purely cultural explanations of human variety in artistic expression, and takes issue with many familiar aesthetic arguments over such questions as "what is art?" and the role of interpretation. Dutton incorporates scholarship from a variety of disciplines, and is readable for general audiences. |
| 02/19/2014 - 3:30pm | Book Group Discussion -- "Quiet" by Susan Cain |
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking (2012) by Susan Cain celebrates the virtues of introverts, challenging what she calls the "extrovert ideal." She wants introverts to be empowered, recommending that introverts learn how to "act" more extroverted than they really are. |
| 01/15/2014 - 3:30pm | Book Group - Wired for Culture, by Pagel |
Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist, is the author of Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind (2012). He argues that humans have an innate propensity to contribute and conform to the culture of our birth that not only enabled human survival and progress in the past, but continues to influence our behavior today. |
| 12/18/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Group - Krause, Universe From Nothing |
In this 2012 book, Lawrence Krause explores A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing. |
| 11/20/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Group: The Price of Inequality, by Joseph Stiglitz (2012) |
paperback April 2013. Nobel-winning economist. How America has become the most unequal advanced country, how such inequality is damaging us, and what we can do about it. Serious analysis written in an accessible style. |
| 10/16/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Discussion Group--Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story, by Jim Holt (2012) |
Discusses "why is there something rather than nothing," exploring views of e.g. Aristotle, Leibniz, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, as he journeys to visit a number of contemporary philosophers and cosmologists. |
| 09/18/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Discussion Group--The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge (2007) |
The brain should not be viewed as strictly "hard-wired"; neuroplasticity is real. This book discusses both the current scientific findings about neuroplasticity and includes stories of personal transformations. |
| 08/21/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Group Discussion for August is CANCELLED |
Several members will not be available for August, and "don't want to miss anything." The rest of us "don't want to miss" those members. So we push everything forward one month. |
| 07/17/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Discussion Group--Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (1999) |
Using letters written to Galileo by his daughter, and other sources, Dava Sobel illuminates a loving personal relationship and some of the events of Galileo's life. |
| 06/19/2013 - 3:30pm | Book Group Discussion -- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond (2011) NOTE NEW DAY AND TIME |
Examining selected societies around the world and through time, Jared Diamond identifies a pattern of collapse involving environmental damage, population change, and political choices. Diamond helps us see why some societies fell apart, while others avoided collapse. We might extrapolate some of this information to our own current environmental challenges. This book followed Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel, which our book group read in April 2012. |