I keep notes here. Most of these are related to travel, work, or books.
The BotMASS Book Club
booksgangA book club that meets on the third Sunday each month.
Voting for our next ten books #
Send to Evan before July 25, following these instructions.
Instructions:
- Copy the List of Nominees
- Paste into a text message (Signal or email or SMS)
- Eliminate titles until your list is down to ten or fewer books.
- Please text or email it to Evan. Sending as a direct text might be better than annoying everyone with a group blast.
- Results, top ten titles, will be online July 27
List of nominees #
The Arrival By Shaun Tan
The Best American Short Stories 2024 by (editor) Lauren Groff
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
Heartwood by Amity Gage
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (Translator)
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Semiosis (Semiosis #1) by Sue Burke
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Silk by Alessandro Baricco, Guido Waldman (Translator )
When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams
++ - Signal is preferred because of Tr*mp, et cetera)
A description of each book #
Kitchen
by Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (Translator)
160 pages
LINK
The Arrival
By Shaun Tan
132 pages - graphic novel
LINK
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
560 pages
LINK
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
528 pages - non fiction
LINK
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
195 pages
LINK
The Best American Short Stories 2024
by (editor) Lauren Groff
400 pages, short stories
LINK
Martyr!
by Kaveh Akbar
331 pages
LINK
Heartwood
by Amity Gage
320 pages
LINK
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
by Sarah Wynn-Williams
382 pages, non fiction
LINK
Semiosis (Semiosis #1)
by Sue Burke
333 pages, science fiction
LINK
Shroud
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
436 pages, science fiction
LINK
When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
by Terry Tempest Williams
208 pages, non fiction
LINK
Enrique's Journey
by Sonia Nazario
294 pages, non fiction
LINK
Upcoming book discussions #
Sunday, April 20
Raymond Carver: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, 159 pages
Sunday, May 18
Percival Everett: James, 302 pages
Sunday June 15
Samantha Harvey: Orbital, 207 pages
Sunday, July 20
Postponed to
Sunday August 3
Richard Powers: The Overstory 502 pages
Sunday, August 17
Alessandro Baricco: Silk 91 pages
Day and time #
We meet the third Sunday of each month.
Time Netherlands: 7pm**, Detroit: 2pm, Chicago: 1pm, Pacific: 11am
Call link for all meetings #
You don't need to install or sign in to anything. The link opens in any web browser. It is a free, opensource, encrypted platform called Brave Talk.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE CALL
You can check your tech: click the above link now. It works on phone or desktop.
✏️ Runners up #
In no particular order, here are books which have been nominated in the past and for one reason or another, were not chosen. Consider them for the future.
- Cixin Liu: Hold up the Sky
- Barbara Kingsolver: Demon Copperhead
- Scot Thomas eastham: The biotech timebomb
- Emily St John Mandel: Station Eleven
- Helene Wecker: The Golem and the Jinni
- Tara Westover: educated
- Neal Stephenson: Polostan
- Keith Houston: Shady Characters (non fiction)
- Scott Thomas Eastham: the radix (philosophy)
- Scott Thomas Eastham: the biotech timebomb
- Raimon panikkar: cultural disarmament
- Raimon Panikkar: dwelling place for wisdom
- Amanda Gefter: trespassing on Einsteins Lawn
- Martin Heidegger: Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Studies in Continental Thought)
- Peter Raine: who guards the guardians
- Miriam lancewood: wild at heart
- Miriam lancewood: woman in the wilderness
- Christopher McDougall: Born to Run (memoir)
The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing
Adam Moss
LINK
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Yuval Noah Harari
LINK
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Michelle Alexander
LINK
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl
Stacey O'Brien
LINK
City of Thieves
David Benioff
LINK
Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World
Tom Farley
LINK
Past Meetings #
December 2024
Raymond Carver: Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes
Lauren Groff: The Midnight Zone
January 2025
The Hermit's Story, by Rick Bass
The Last Thing We Need, by Claire Vaye Watkins
February 2025
The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
The Fix by Percival Everett
March 2025
Ursula K Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Welcome #
Bring friends and guests: they are welcome and appreciated.