The World Is Flat

Great discussion on Ophelia! --missed Susan O. :(
This month we are reading: The World is Flat: A brief history of the 21st century by Thomas L. Friedman and for November: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Get your copies now and get started reading. Walden Books in the mall has them both and the Borders e-coupon is a 25% off any item---

Father Chacour-"Blood Brothers" will be in Charlotte

I just found out thatFather Chacour, author of Blood Brothers, will offer a free lecture at Queens University's Belk Chapel, 1900 Selwyn Ave, Charlotte, on Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. He is coming to Charlotte after the Peace Conference at Lake Junaluska.
Anyone want to go with me to hear this lecture?

Reviving Ophelia

Hi all,
There has been some confusion about who wrote "Reviving Ophelia." Mary Pipher is the author and Ruth Ross is listed as designer (don't know what that means). There are tons of used copies ($.89+) and new copies ($10+) available at amazon. I'm sure there are copies in the library. IF I can find it, I have an extra copy I usually loan out to others--just don't know if I got it back.

What are you reading this month?

Are you reading Blink or Outliers or both?

Choosing October's Book

We need to go ahead and select our book for October. Our list currently contains the following:

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
John Adams by David McCullough
Reviving Ophelia by Ruth Ross

We want to make sure the title gets in the September newsletter.
Any thoughts or anything to add to the list?
Susan

A Case for Studying History

I thought the idea that lack of writing contributed to the fall of the Inca to be fascinating. In Chapter 3 Diamond says that the Incan chief had no experience with previous invaders and no knowledge of invasions from other parts of the world. This included the recent conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico. For this reason, he showed a marked lack of suspicion when meeting Pizarro and was captured. Whereas the spaniards were "heirs to a huge body of knowledge about human behavior and history." Just an awareness of other people's fates might have made the chief more suspicious and saved him.

I passed Founding Mothers on to Doris S. Don't know if she's had a chance to read it, but you could ask her if you see her. Her area of expertise is American History.

Just getting started with the blog. I'm enjoying the book so far. He is an excellent writer with interesting material.

Guns, Germs and Steel

How's the reading going so far? I'm about 1/2 through but can't read a great deal at one setting. I'm looking forward to the last section.