Hi everyone -
This is a reminder that we will NOT meet during the month of March.
Our schedule has changed and beginning next month with the month of
April, we will meet every three months and discuss an entire book at
each of our discussions. Next month will be a very current book on
the subject of education. You will have a full month to read the book.
Hope you can join us.
--Alice
http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/HoustonNonfiction/
http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/Nonfiction/
====UPCOMING DISCUSSIONS============
April 16
REIGN OF ERROR: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger
to America's Public Schools by Diane Ravitch [pub 2013] 325 pages
Author is a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education.
Questions addressed: 1--Is American education in crisis? 2--Is
American education failing and declining? 3--What is the evidence for
the reforms now being promoted by the federal government and adopted
in many states? 4--What should we do to improve our schools and the
lives of children?"
--Deborah leading the discussion
July 16
THE REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: Death and the American Civil War by Drew
Gilpin Faust [pub 2009] 346 pages
Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award finalist. Author is President
of Harvard Univ.
Book documents the social, religious, and psychological coping
mechanisms adopted by Civil War America. More than a book about the
Civil War, it's also a meditation on the meaning of war and the human
need to somehow infuse meaning into an enterprise that often seems so
bleakly wasteful and tragically brutal.
--Anne leading the discussion
Oct 15
WILD SWANS:Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. [pub 2003] 538 pages
Bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million
copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century
China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual
window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring
tale of courage.
--Kathy leading the discussion
Jan 21
THE UNWINDING: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
[publ 2013] 430 pages
2013 National Book Award Winner
Focuses on the ways that America changed in the years 1978-2012. The
book achieves this mainly by tracing the lives of various individuals
from different backgrounds through the years. Interspersed are capsule
biographies of influential figures of the time such as Colin Powell,
Elizabeth Warren, Jay-Z and Raymond Carver.
--Deborah leading the discussion