Non-Fiction Book Club

From Amazon:
“In The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author Ryan Holiday made ancient wisdom wildly popular with a new generation of leaders in sports, politics, and technology. In his new book, Stillness Is the Key, Holiday draws on timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy to show why slowing down is the secret weapon for those charging ahead.

All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness–to be steady while the world spins around you. “

Come meet with us via Zoom
In December we meet one time only on Dec. 10 at 2 PM
https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub1

If you are a member, you will also receive the Zoom link in the week of the meeting. If you are a new member, contact Julie to get on the email list. We look forward to welcoming new members.

From Amazon:
“In Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer quickens our instinct to seek the common good and gives us the tools to do it. This timely, courageous and practical work—intensely personal as well as political—is not about them, “those people” in Washington D.C., or in our state capitals, on whom we blame our political problems. It’s about us, “We the People,” and what we can do in everyday settings like families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations and workplaces to resist divide-and-conquer politics and restore a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

In the same compelling, inspiring prose that has made him a bestselling author, Palmer explores five “habits of the heart” that can help us restore democracy’s foundations as we nurture them in ourselves and each other:

• An understanding that we are all in this together
• An appreciation of the value of “otherness”
• An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways
• A sense of personal voice and agency
• A capacity to create community

Healing the Heart of Democracy is an eloquent and empowering call for “We the People” to reclaim our democracy. The online journal Democracy & Education called it “one of the most important books of the early 21st Century.” And Publishers Weekly, in a Starred Review, said “This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it.”

Come meet with us via Zoom. We meet twice a month.
Thursday Nov 12, 2pm: https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub1
Thursday Nov 26, 2pm: https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub2

If you are a member, you will also receive the Zoom link in the week of the meeting. If you are a new member, contact Julie to get on the emai list. We look forward to welcoming new members.

From Chapters indigo:
“A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a Best Essay Collection of the Decade” by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings – asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass – offer us gifts and lessons, even if we”ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.”

Come meet with us via Zoom. We meet twice a month.
Thursday Oct 8, 2pm: https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub1
Thursday Oct 22, 2pm: https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub2

If you are a member, you will also receive the Zoom link in the week of the meeting. If you are a new member, contact Julie to get on the emai list. We look forward to welcoming new members.

From Amazon: “A bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada’s most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. The Skin We’re In will spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists.

In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.

Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. “

Come meet with us via Zoom. Two opportunities, both at 2 pm.
Thursday Sept 10  https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub1
Thursday Sept 25  https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub2

If you are a member, you will also receive the Zoom link in the week of the meeting. If you are a new member, contact Julie to get on the emai list. We look forward to welcoming new members.

This month is a documentary about a book, rather than the book itself. Both are called Assholes: A Theory. The book is by Aaron James; the documentary is by directory John Walker

The CBC writes, “With philistine politics and toxic tweets trashing civilization as we know it, the time has come for Assholes: A Theory.”

The documentary is here: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/documentary-specials/episode-98/38e815a-01292c4ead3

We’re meeting once this month, on June 11th, 2pm-4pm, here: https://tinyurl.com/UFPbookclub1

If you are a member, you will also receive the Zoom link in the week of the meeting. If you are a new member, contact Julie to get on the emai list. We look forward to welcoming new members.