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This page was last updated on September 14, 2004
Berkeley-Oakland Book Discussion Group Seeks New Members
A book discussion group, meeting every 2nd Sunday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, is seeking new members. In existence for about three years, we read both fiction and non-fiction. We select books by rotation - when it is your turn, you select the book. Our sole requirement is that the book be available in paper.
We meet in members' apartments, homes, or offices in Berkeley and Oakland. Typically 6 to 10 members come to each meeting. We are both male and female, ranging in age from ~35-60. We only very rarely do pot-lucks. We insist upon no smoking, colognes, perfumes, or fragrances. We don't take attendance; exams are multiple-choice open-book.
Here is what we are reading and discussing next:
October 10 - Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul. November 14 - Better Together by Robert Putnam December 12 - Moths and Men by Judith Hooper
In no particular order, here are some of the books we've read in the past: --Galileo's Daughter, D Sobel --December 6: A Novel, M C Smith --John Adams, D McCullough -- Blue Latitudes..., T Horwitz --The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, M Haddon --Death and the King's Horseman, W Soyinka --My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk --Theodore Rex,Edmund Morris --The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, M Pollan --Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, H Gardner --Foolscap: Or, The Stages of Love, M Malone --When We Were Orphans, K Ishiguro --Consolations of Philosophy, A De Botton --Carter Beats the Devil, G D Gold --Grapes of Wrath, J Steinbeck --Stupid White Men..., M Moore --Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, O Hijuelos --White Oleander, J Fitch --Bee Season, M Goldberg --A Primate's Memoir, R Sapolsky --American Gods, N Gaiman --Lonesome Dove, L McMurtry --The Sparrow, M D Russel --Einstein's Dreams, A Lightman --A House for Mr. Biswas, V S Naipaul --Waiting, Ha Jin --Washington Square, H James --White Teeth, Z Smith --Guns, Germs and Steel, J Diamond --The Hand, F Wilson --The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, H Murakami --Girl With a Pearl Earring, T Chevalier --The Emigrants, W.G. Sebald --The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat..., O Sacks --The Whereabouts of Eneas Macnulty, S Barry --The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, M Chabon
If you've read some of these titles and hated them, you'll be in good company. If you've read some of these titles and loved them, you'll be in good company.
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at bjprice@itsa.ucsf.edu. If you'd like to join us, please call me (Bennett) at 510 482 3390 between 7 and 9 PM.
Hope you are interested.