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Book Group: Past books
Book Group Information
Tue, 01/15/2013 - 5:34pm — Sandra.CoynerA list of books selected and read by this book group from 2008 to 2013 can be found here. For recent books, see below.
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| 01/19/2015 - 2:00pm | Book Grp: Carol Tavris "Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)" |
Carol Tavris will be visiting Ashland as the spring featured speaker in our Thomas Jefferson Lecture Series. She wrote this book in 2007. Full title: Mistakes were made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. She addresses cognitive dissonance and why it is not in itself sufficient to challenge pre-set interpretations already inside our minds. |
| 12/15/2014 - 2:00pm | Book Group Discussion: "Nonsense on Stilts" by Massimo Pigliucci |
Nonsense on Stilts: How to tell Science from Bunk by Massimo Pigliucci (2010) distinguishes between science, hard science, soft science, almost science, and pseudoscience, and presents a few case studies about current controversies over the nature and uses of science. Note change of date to third Monday at 2 pm |
| 11/17/2014 - 2:00pm | Book Group Discussion: "Age of Insight" by Eric Kandel (2012). second half |
Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present, by Eric Kandel (2012). We will discuss the first half (up to p. 225) in October and the second half in November. Vienna in about 1900 fostered unusual cross-disciplinary interaction between artists and scientists, leading to the first real thinking about the importance of the unconscious. Kandel traces these beginnings through to the present and the new neuroscience, including discussion of the arts. |
| 10/20/2014 - 2:00pm | Book Group Discussion: "Age of Insight" by Eric Kandel (2012). first half |
Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present Vienna in about 1900 fostered unusual cross-disciplinary interaction between artists and scientists, leading to the first real thinking about the importance of the unconscious. Kandel traces these beginnings through to the present and the new neuroscience, including important discussions of the arts. |
| 09/17/2014 - 1:30pm | Book Grp discussion: Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham (2012) |
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power won the Pulitzer prize. It's about our center's namesake. Of so many books about Jefferson, this one focuses on his uses of power. |
| 08/20/2014 - 3:30pm | Book Group CANCELLED for August 2014 |
switching to 1:30 start time beginning Sept. 2014 |
| 07/16/2014 - 3:30pm | Book Group: On Being Certain, by Robert Burton (2008) |
On Being Certain: Believing you are Right Even When You're Not by Robert Burton (2008): challenges conventional ideas about "knowledge" and "belief," using findings and frameworks from recent research about how humans actually reason and the structure of the brain. Should change readers' answers to the question "how do we know what we know?" Gives us more tools for being more skeptical about some of our own cherished "knowledge" and some new ways of thinking about our own biases and heuristics. |
| 06/11/2014 - 3:30pm | DATE CHANGE Jeff Ctr Book Grp: "The Black Swan" by N. N. Taleb |
For June 2014 we have switched our date from the third Wednesday to the second Wednesday. On June 11, we will discuss The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This much-cited book explores why and how humans get blind-sided by rare events. Our brains focus on specifics instead of generalities, and overvalue what we already know and don't consider what we don't. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, and are vulnerable to large events that in fact shape our world. |
| 05/21/2014 - 3:30pm | Book group - "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else" |
Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland (2013). We know that income inequality is increasing in America, but how much? How rich are these new super-rich? How do they justify their privilege? Do they spend their money creating jobs, or perhaps making charitable contributions? What is their politics? Why do they profess to experience so much stress? Should we by sympathetic? Apathetic? Or what? |
| 04/16/2014 - 3:30pm | Book Group Discussion -- "A Manual for Creating Atheists" |
Peter Boghossian is the author of A Manual for Creating Atheists (2013), advocating that we challenge religion for its reliance on faith rather than evidence. |
Pages
December 3, 2024 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom (not November 18)
Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt (2023 about 420 pp.). Traces origins, success of, and challenges to the American Dream from the Depression to the present. Ends with discussable ideas about what political “compromise” might mean.
January 7, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth by Ingrid Robeyns, 2024, 230 pp. Why would reducing extreme wealth be a good idea? And how much wealth is too much? Then, how can greater wealth equality actually be achieved? This book is written by an ethicist and endorsed by data-using scholars including Piketty and other economists. The review says "This provocative consideration of extreme wealth accumulation asks how society might improve if the phenomenon were eliminated. Robeyns, a philosopher, uses the term 'limitarianism' to describe an economic framework that would impose a cap on how much money any single individual can amass."
February 4, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend them Back by Bruce Schneier, 2023, 252 pp. The concept of “hacking” comes to us from the computer world, and this book first helps us understand its meaning and practice, including how to defend against it. Then Schneier suggests that a hacking mentality underlies much of our social inequality, with whole professions (tax accountants and attorneys, for example) devoted to allowing the wealthy to escape and twist the rules. Includes legal, financial, political, cognitive, and AI hacks.
March 4, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Amil Zaki 2024, 225 pp. People on both sides of today’s political divide doubt the goodness of the people on the other side. But research shows that people consistently that people’s goodness is consistently higher—often a lot higher—than people give credit for. Why? What can be done about it? This book has suggestions for decreasing one’s own cynicism and for structuring societies in ways that reduce cynicism more generally. Based on social science studies by the author and others. Be sure to read pp 213-215 (or better, to p.224), Appendix B, in which the author assesses the evidence for and validity of the book's main claims.
April 1, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
I Heard There was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel Levitin, 2024, 325 pp. Much of the book reviews ideas, stories, theory and evidence about the therapeutic power of “music as medicine.” The book also contains a great deal of up-do-date information about brain function, emphasizing but not limited to how humans process music.
May 6, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhty , get paperback updated to 2021. About 360 pp. This book starts in the time of the ancient Greeks and goes up to almost today, so it’s a broad scope. This book appeared on all the lists when I looked up recommended books on history of Ukraine. Does Putin have any justification for claiming Ukraine is part of Russia? How did Ukrainian identity develop over time? What main events were determinative?
June 3, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Of Boys and Men: Why the modern male is struggling, why it matters, and what to do about it. Richard V. Reeves. 2022. $17 in paperback. Rec. Ronnie, who says: Evan Osnos of the New Yorker calls it "provocative, timely, and rich with real-world solutions." It's a Barack Obama 2024 Summer Reading Selection. We've been reading a lot of books about women's issues. This would provide a good balance. Sandra Says: I am suspicious of analyses that have a strong grounding in the idea that males are oppressed as males, but willing to read it. Our discussion could be lively.
July 1, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Stolen Pride: Rise of the Resentful Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild (New Press, 2024, 267pp.). rec Ronnie. Another careful scholarly study from Arlie Hochschild of people in an area that strongly supports Trumpian populism. Read this and you will understand a lot more.
August 5, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit our Biases—and What We Can Do About It by Alex Edmans (2024, U. California Press, 300 pp.). “A Statement is not a Fact … A Fact is not Data … Data is not Evidence … ., After identifying flawed thinking referred to by these three statements, this book stresses examining the relationships among e.g. statistics and other sorts of facts. Includes strategies for improving both individuals and societies. Yes, this is about critical thinking, and helps some of our frustration about the current divides in our society. [A lie is easily accepted as “fact” if it resonates with preexisting beliefs. Organization of material seems different from other books on this topic—a good thing, probably a somewhat new perspective on a problem that has troubled us for a long time.]
September 2, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and how to Bring it Back Again by Marc J. Dunkelman (2025, Public Affairs/Hachette 335pp). America was once a country that built big things, but today progress seems stifled. Conservatives deserve some of the blame, but progressives/democrats do too, because inherent fears of “The Establishment” persist, as “speaking truth to power” has become more important than building a better America. We can learn from the progressives of a century ago to restore the power of democracy to do good and also restore confidence in democracy.
October 7, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Life of Leibniz in Seven Pivotal Days by Michael Kempe, 2022. The man who, in parallel with Newton, invented calculus, was clearly able to think outside at least some boxes. Why? How?
December 2, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom [Postponed from November 4]
Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination and Group Identity by Neil Van Leeuwen, 2023, 238 pp. Argues that “belief“ (he calls it “credence”) in religion is not the same as “belief” in ordinary factual issues. It functions more like the creative imaginings that guide make-believe play—with major social functions.
January 6, 2026 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom [NOT December ]
Latinoland: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority by Marie Arana, 2024, 400 pp. Goes beyond the usual conventional-style histories of Latinos in America discussing the subgroups with reference mainly to their countries of origin. This book is clearly 21st century and sees Latinoland as composed of diverse groups that nevertheless have some similarities—including politics shifting to the right. Based on interviews, personal experience, research into existing scholarship and some journalism.
March 3, 2026 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappell, 2024, 296 pp. Ideas about aging have been reframed several times in our culture in ways that affect not only the infrastructure, but also the experience. Clear writing and organizing in this book..
April 7, 2026 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom (check your calendar; has been rescheduled)
We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi, 2024, 311 pp. An unusual critique of a “new elite” of the college-educated and professional, who profess wokeness but protect their own privileges. I could hardly put this book down and I am eager to discuss with others, if you are game.
December 3, 2024 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom (not November 18)
Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt (2023 about 420 pp.). Traces origins, success of, and challenges to the American Dream from the Depression to the present. Ends with discussable ideas about what political “compromise” might mean.
January 7, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth by Ingrid Robeyns, 2024, 230 pp. Why would reducing extreme wealth be a good idea? And how much wealth is too much? Then, how can greater wealth equality actually be achieved? This book is written by an ethicist and endorsed by data-using scholars including Piketty and other economists. The review says "This provocative consideration of extreme wealth accumulation asks how society might improve if the phenomenon were eliminated. Robeyns, a philosopher, uses the term 'limitarianism' to describe an economic framework that would impose a cap on how much money any single individual can amass."
February 4, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend them Back by Bruce Schneier, 2023, 252 pp. The concept of “hacking” comes to us from the computer world, and this book first helps us understand its meaning and practice, including how to defend against it. Then Schneier suggests that a hacking mentality underlies much of our social inequality, with whole professions (tax accountants and attorneys, for example) devoted to allowing the wealthy to escape and twist the rules. Includes legal, financial, political, cognitive, and AI hacks.
March 4, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Amil Zaki 2024, 225 pp. People on both sides of today’s political divide doubt the goodness of the people on the other side. But research shows that people consistently that people’s goodness is consistently higher—often a lot higher—than people give credit for. Why? What can be done about it? This book has suggestions for decreasing one’s own cynicism and for structuring societies in ways that reduce cynicism more generally. Based on social science studies by the author and others. Be sure to read pp 213-215 (or better, to p.224), Appendix B, in which the author assesses the evidence for and validity of the book's main claims.
April 1, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
I Heard There was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel Levitin, 2024, 325 pp. Much of the book reviews ideas, stories, theory and evidence about the therapeutic power of “music as medicine.” The book also contains a great deal of up-do-date information about brain function, emphasizing but not limited to how humans process music.
May 6, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhty , get paperback updated to 2021. About 360 pp. This book starts in the time of the ancient Greeks and goes up to almost today, so it’s a broad scope. This book appeared on all the lists when I looked up recommended books on history of Ukraine. Does Putin have any justification for claiming Ukraine is part of Russia? How did Ukrainian identity develop over time? What main events were determinative?
June 3, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Of Boys and Men: Why the modern male is struggling, why it matters, and what to do about it. Richard V. Reeves. 2022. $17 in paperback. Rec. Ronnie, who says: Evan Osnos of the New Yorker calls it "provocative, timely, and rich with real-world solutions." It's a Barack Obama 2024 Summer Reading Selection. We've been reading a lot of books about women's issues. This would provide a good balance. Sandra Says: I am suspicious of analyses that have a strong grounding in the idea that males are oppressed as males, but willing to read it. Our discussion could be lively.
July 1, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Stolen Pride: Rise of the Resentful Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild (New Press, 2024, 267pp.). rec Ronnie. Another careful scholarly study from Arlie Hochschild of people in an area that strongly supports Trumpian populism. Read this and you will understand a lot more.
August 5, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit our Biases—and What We Can Do About It by Alex Edmans (2024, U. California Press, 300 pp.). “A Statement is not a Fact … A Fact is not Data … Data is not Evidence … ., After identifying flawed thinking referred to by these three statements, this book stresses examining the relationships among e.g. statistics and other sorts of facts. Includes strategies for improving both individuals and societies. Yes, this is about critical thinking, and helps some of our frustration about the current divides in our society. [A lie is easily accepted as “fact” if it resonates with preexisting beliefs. Organization of material seems different from other books on this topic—a good thing, probably a somewhat new perspective on a problem that has troubled us for a long time.]
September 2, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and how to Bring it Back Again by Marc J. Dunkelman (2025, Public Affairs/Hachette 335pp). America was once a country that built big things, but today progress seems stifled. Conservatives deserve some of the blame, but progressives/democrats do too, because inherent fears of “The Establishment” persist, as “speaking truth to power” has become more important than building a better America. We can learn from the progressives of a century ago to restore the power of democracy to do good and also restore confidence in democracy.
October 7, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Life of Leibniz in Seven Pivotal Days by Michael Kempe, 2022. The man who, in parallel with Newton, invented calculus, was clearly able to think outside at least some boxes. Why? How?
December 2, 2025 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom [Postponed from November 4]
Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination and Group Identity by Neil Van Leeuwen, 2023, 238 pp. Argues that “belief“ (he calls it “credence”) in religion is not the same as “belief” in ordinary factual issues. It functions more like the creative imaginings that guide make-believe play—with major social functions.
January 6, 2026 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom [NOT December ]
Latinoland: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority by Marie Arana, 2024, 400 pp. Goes beyond the usual conventional-style histories of Latinos in America discussing the subgroups with reference mainly to their countries of origin. This book is clearly 21st century and sees Latinoland as composed of diverse groups that nevertheless have some similarities—including politics shifting to the right. Based on interviews, personal experience, research into existing scholarship and some journalism.
March 3, 2026 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom
Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappell, 2024, 296 pp. Ideas about aging have been reframed several times in our culture in ways that affect not only the infrastructure, but also the experience. Clear writing and organizing in this book..
April 7, 2026 at 2 pm Pacific Time on Zoom (check your calendar; has been rescheduled)
We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi, 2024, 311 pp. An unusual critique of a “new elite” of the college-educated and professional, who profess wokeness but protect their own privileges. I could hardly put this book down and I am eager to discuss with others, if you are game.