We have also branched out in some groups to read long articles. Sometimes everyone in the group may read the same article, but most often each person chooses a different article. Sources are varied and include all media we now have available to us. Magazines we have found to be most helpful include The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.  The discussion stems from the readings and never fails to range widely. 

Book groups typically meet each month, with each meeting lasting 1½ to 2 hours. If this sounds like something that would interest you, please see our website or call 573-6014.  We would love to have you join us.

Our Book Groups now take two months off for leisure reading during the summer.  Our only formal activity during that time is the book sale held during the Annual Picnic. This year we had the pleasure of having the event at the Burbank Art and Garden Center on Yulupa Ave. The facility has a lovely patio area for dining, so the event was indoor/outdoor. The book sale provides a major attraction for those attending, with time before and after dinner to peruse the titles and make purchases. All of the proceeds go directly into the treasury to help fund our exciting programs. Again, we thank our generous donors for providing an abundant inventory! And, we thank long time volunteers Dorothy Aver and Pat Mai for making the book sale a success year after year!

Book Group 3  was fascinated by the view of human nature, rooted in current brain research that David Brooks depicted in his new book The Social Animal.  He studied the topic because of personal interest, and struggled with how to bring it together into a book.  He chose to illustrate concepts through characters, a method many of us found artificial -- but how else it could have been done?  A main idea is that much of our “higher faculties” are rooted in the unconscious, the area where most of the brain’s work gets done.  This changes how we see ourselves and how we operate in the world.  The title refers to the conclusion that “we emerge out of relationships and live to bond with each other and connect to larger ideas.”

The next book continued the exploration of human nature, as Hannah Holmes described the latest research in modeling human personality in her new book Quirk.  She explores the Five Factor Model of personality, examining each factor through lab visits with researchers and personal examples in an easy book to read. 

David McCullough’s new book The Greater Journey tells about a group of “pioneers” who did not “go west,” but went East to Paris during the years 1830 and 1900.  These were adventurous souls in fields as diverse as art, literature, medicine (including the first American woman doctor), architecture, and politics.  Paris was the ideal.  They were surrounded by excellence in these fields and strove to meet these standards, breathing in inspiration by just being there, and taking advantage of the excellent schooling offered in the fields.  It is an absorbing read, but be prepared for more detail and information than you thought possible to recreate from the period. 

Book Group 4 also read The Social Animal and continued with Robert Kaplan’s The Arabists, a timely read. 

To join a book group, see www.wacsc.org or call 573-6014, leave your name and number.