Well, everyone was so eager to vote, I already have the winner: Consequential Strangers, by Melinda Blau & Karen L Fingerman. I heard about this book for the first time on NPR. Hope it doesn't disappoint!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
1. Consequential Strangers by Melinda Blau, Karen L. Fingerman, August 24, 2009, 298 pp
While, as the authors state, practically every article and book, therapist, and relationship guru focus almost exclusively on 'primary relationships,' there is a dearth of attention paid to individuals' secondary—or tertiary—connections: the butcher, the dry cleaner, the proprietor of the bodega where we shop daily. They punctuate our days, but we take them for granted. Yet these are the consequential strangers who bring novelty and new opportunities into our lives. In an unprecedented examination of “people who don’t seem to matter,” psychologist Karen L. Fingerman, who coined the term, collaborates with journalist Melinda Blau to develop an idea sparked by Fingerman and others’ groundbreaking social science research. Transient individuals, friends of friends and their acquaintances play critical roles in our lives, say Blau and Fingerman. These people have access to resources intimates might not and can challenge our belief systems.
This book presents a rich portrait of our social landscape, chronicling the surprising impact consequential strangers have on business, creativity, health, and the strength of our communities. Anecdotes, television, scholarly studies and Blau and Fingerman's own experience—they were consequential strangers who first met via telephone—illustrate the importance of individuals we often take for granted yet who enrich our lives in ways not immediately noticeable but that could prove highly significant.
---
2. Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker, Oct 1999, 368 pp
Pinker builds on his previous successes (How the Mind Works; The Language Instinct) with another book explaining how we learn and deploy word, phrase and utterance. Human languages are capable of expressing a literally endless number of different ideas. How do we manage it--so effortlessly that we scarcely ever stop to think about it? In Words and Rules, renowned neuroscientist and linguist Pinker shows us how, and explains every step of the way with engaging good humor. Each of Pinker's 10 chapters takes up a different field of research, but all 10 concern regular and irregular forms of words.
Pinker's enthusiasm for the subject infects the reader, particularly as he emphasizes the relation between how we communicate and how we think. Pinker shows what scientists learn from children's speech errors (My brother got sick and pukeded); from survey questions (What do you call more than one wug?); from similar rules in varying languages (English, German and Arapesh); from theoretical models and their failings and from brain disorders like jargon anomia (whose victims use complex sentences, but say things like "nose cone" when they mean "phone call"). Is our communication linked inextricably with our thinking? Pinker says yes, and it's hard to disagree.
Words and Rules is an excellent introduction to and overview of current thinking about language, and will greatly reward the careful reader with new ways of thinking about how we think, talk, and write.
---
3. How Philosophy Can Save Your Life: 10 Ideas That Matter Most by Marietta McCarty, Dec 2009, 352 pp
A warmhearted introduction to philosophy that blends Eastern and Western intellectual traditions. This book reveals how the heartbeats of philosophy- clear thinking, quiet reflection, and good conversation- are essential ingredients in a well-lived life. Over the course of 10 topics, and with a decided emphasis on self-improvement, McCarty (Little Big Minds) discusses a variety of philosophers, ranging from such canonical figures as Plato and Sartre to those—like Charlotte Joko-Beck—who sit closer to the New Age end of the spectrum. Throughout, the author emphasizes the ability of active reflection to improve lives, by promoting open-mindedness, awareness of cultural diversity, social understanding and the ability to recognize priorities. Though the book contains little that is not common currency among self-help manuals, its focus on philosophizing as a group activity and on the everyday practice of thinking, supplemented by each chapter's collection of exercises centered around music, poetry and art, taken together provide a pleasantly tangible approach to understanding how notions like tolerance, flexibility and perspective can enrich our busy lives. Full of great discussion ideas and activities you can do with a group, How Philosophy Can Save Your Life is framed around ten "big ideas"-themes that, according to McCarty, are necessary to grasp if one wants to live a truly fulfilling life:
1. Simplicity (philosophers include Epicurus and Charlotte Joko Beck)
2. Communication (philosophers include bell hooks and Karl Jaspers)
3. Perspective (philosophers include Bertrand Russell and Mary Wollstonecraft)
4. Flexibility (philosophers include Socrates, Plato and Alan Watts)
5. Empathy (philosophers include the Dalai Lama and Martin Luther King, Jr.)
6. Individuality (philosophers include Jean-Paul Sartre and Elizabeth Spelman)
7. Belonging (philosophers include Albert Camus and Rita Manning)
8. Serenity (philosophers include Epictetus and Lao Tzu)
9. Possibility (philosophers include John Stuart Mill and Simone de Beauvoir)
10. Joy (philosophers include Shunryu Suzuki and Jane Addams)
4. IOU: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay by John Lanchester, Jan 2010, 260 pp
Starred Review. With clarity and a conversational style often (sometimes deliberately) lacking in the financial industry and its coverage, British journalist Lanchester (The Debt to Pleasure) takes readers on a comprehensive global tour of 2008's economic meltdown, focusing on each guilty party’s contributions to-and missed opportunities to halt-the worldwide crisis. Starting with the political buildup and then marching through the field of "banksters," regulators, mortgage companies and everyone else in a position to know better, Lanchester illustrates exactly how loans from predatory and incompetent players wound up being sold as triple-A investments, and how a subsequent housing market dip toppled the financial system. By prioritizing the financial sector and tenets of laissez-faire capitalism (to the point that it "became a kind of secular religion"), those in charge of the markets failed to identify the growing systemic dangers; meanwhile, those responsible to the public acted as if benefits for financial institutions also benefited every economic participant, no matter how small.
Laypeople seeking to understand the crisis, and what it means for their own bank account, will find Lanchester's volume an oasis of understanding in a sea of partisan spin and convoluted financial language.
---
5. Plainsong by Kent Haruf, 301 pages
In the same way that the plains define the American landscape, small-town life in the heartlands is a quintessentially American experience. Holt, Colorado, a tiny prairie community near Denver, is both the setting for and the psychological matrix of Haruf's beautifully executed novel. Alternating chapters focus on eight compassionately imagined characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year. High school teacher Tom Guthrie's depressed wife moves out of their house, leaving him to care for their young sons. Ike, 10, and Bobby, nine, are polite, sensitive boys who mature as they observe the puzzling behavior of adults they love. At school, Guthrie must deal with a vicious student bully whose violent behavior eventually menaces Ike and Bobby, in a scene that will leave readers with palpitating hearts. Meanwhile, pregnant teenager Victoria Roubideaux, evicted by her mother, seeks help from kindhearted, pragmatic teacher Maggie Jones, who convinces the elderly McPheron brothers, Raymond and Harold, to let Victoria live with them in their old farmhouse. After many decades of bachelor existence, these gruff, unpolished cattle farmers must relearn the art of conversation when Victoria enters their lives.
Haruf's descriptions of rural existence are a richly nuanced mixture of stark details and poetic evocations of the natural world. Weather and landscape are integral to tone and mood, serving as backdrop to every scene. Walking a tightrope of restrained design, Haruf steers clear of sentimentality and melodrama while constructing a taut narrative in which revelations of character and rising emotional tensions are held in perfect balance. This is a compelling story of grief, bereavement, loneliness and anger, but also of kindness, benevolence, love and the making of a strange new family.
---
6. Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer, April 14, 1994 464 pp
A whole book about a minor incident? You bet, and a terrific book, at that. Fischer's exhaustive research shows that Revere played an important role in pre-Revolutionary Boston that included, but was by no means limited to, his midnight ride. The author shows how Longfellow's poem deliberately distorted the facts in order to suit the political climate of the times; the real story of Revere's role and the battles of Concord and Lexington is infinitely more interesting because it involves planning, courage, danger, suspense, and national destiny. For the rest of their lives, people remembered where they were when Revere made his famous midnight ride, as readers will remember this fascinating account.
It is rare when a scholarly history will appeal to a general readership, but such is the case with this book. Fischer's ulterior motive is to return contingency to its central importance in the historical process--to restore the "causal power of particular actions and contingent events." In the process he has written a meticulously researched and wonderfully evocative narrative that will be enjoyed by history lovers and scholars alike.
While, as the authors state, practically every article and book, therapist, and relationship guru focus almost exclusively on 'primary relationships,' there is a dearth of attention paid to individuals' secondary—or tertiary—connections: the butcher, the dry cleaner, the proprietor of the bodega where we shop daily. They punctuate our days, but we take them for granted. Yet these are the consequential strangers who bring novelty and new opportunities into our lives. In an unprecedented examination of “people who don’t seem to matter,” psychologist Karen L. Fingerman, who coined the term, collaborates with journalist Melinda Blau to develop an idea sparked by Fingerman and others’ groundbreaking social science research. Transient individuals, friends of friends and their acquaintances play critical roles in our lives, say Blau and Fingerman. These people have access to resources intimates might not and can challenge our belief systems.
This book presents a rich portrait of our social landscape, chronicling the surprising impact consequential strangers have on business, creativity, health, and the strength of our communities. Anecdotes, television, scholarly studies and Blau and Fingerman's own experience—they were consequential strangers who first met via telephone—illustrate the importance of individuals we often take for granted yet who enrich our lives in ways not immediately noticeable but that could prove highly significant.
---
2. Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker, Oct 1999, 368 pp
Pinker builds on his previous successes (How the Mind Works; The Language Instinct) with another book explaining how we learn and deploy word, phrase and utterance. Human languages are capable of expressing a literally endless number of different ideas. How do we manage it--so effortlessly that we scarcely ever stop to think about it? In Words and Rules, renowned neuroscientist and linguist Pinker shows us how, and explains every step of the way with engaging good humor. Each of Pinker's 10 chapters takes up a different field of research, but all 10 concern regular and irregular forms of words.
Pinker's enthusiasm for the subject infects the reader, particularly as he emphasizes the relation between how we communicate and how we think. Pinker shows what scientists learn from children's speech errors (My brother got sick and pukeded); from survey questions (What do you call more than one wug?); from similar rules in varying languages (English, German and Arapesh); from theoretical models and their failings and from brain disorders like jargon anomia (whose victims use complex sentences, but say things like "nose cone" when they mean "phone call"). Is our communication linked inextricably with our thinking? Pinker says yes, and it's hard to disagree.
Words and Rules is an excellent introduction to and overview of current thinking about language, and will greatly reward the careful reader with new ways of thinking about how we think, talk, and write.
---
3. How Philosophy Can Save Your Life: 10 Ideas That Matter Most by Marietta McCarty, Dec 2009, 352 pp
A warmhearted introduction to philosophy that blends Eastern and Western intellectual traditions. This book reveals how the heartbeats of philosophy- clear thinking, quiet reflection, and good conversation- are essential ingredients in a well-lived life. Over the course of 10 topics, and with a decided emphasis on self-improvement, McCarty (Little Big Minds) discusses a variety of philosophers, ranging from such canonical figures as Plato and Sartre to those—like Charlotte Joko-Beck—who sit closer to the New Age end of the spectrum. Throughout, the author emphasizes the ability of active reflection to improve lives, by promoting open-mindedness, awareness of cultural diversity, social understanding and the ability to recognize priorities. Though the book contains little that is not common currency among self-help manuals, its focus on philosophizing as a group activity and on the everyday practice of thinking, supplemented by each chapter's collection of exercises centered around music, poetry and art, taken together provide a pleasantly tangible approach to understanding how notions like tolerance, flexibility and perspective can enrich our busy lives. Full of great discussion ideas and activities you can do with a group, How Philosophy Can Save Your Life is framed around ten "big ideas"-themes that, according to McCarty, are necessary to grasp if one wants to live a truly fulfilling life:
1. Simplicity (philosophers include Epicurus and Charlotte Joko Beck)
2. Communication (philosophers include bell hooks and Karl Jaspers)
3. Perspective (philosophers include Bertrand Russell and Mary Wollstonecraft)
4. Flexibility (philosophers include Socrates, Plato and Alan Watts)
5. Empathy (philosophers include the Dalai Lama and Martin Luther King, Jr.)
6. Individuality (philosophers include Jean-Paul Sartre and Elizabeth Spelman)
7. Belonging (philosophers include Albert Camus and Rita Manning)
8. Serenity (philosophers include Epictetus and Lao Tzu)
9. Possibility (philosophers include John Stuart Mill and Simone de Beauvoir)
10. Joy (philosophers include Shunryu Suzuki and Jane Addams)
4. IOU: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay by John Lanchester, Jan 2010, 260 pp
Starred Review. With clarity and a conversational style often (sometimes deliberately) lacking in the financial industry and its coverage, British journalist Lanchester (The Debt to Pleasure) takes readers on a comprehensive global tour of 2008's economic meltdown, focusing on each guilty party’s contributions to-and missed opportunities to halt-the worldwide crisis. Starting with the political buildup and then marching through the field of "banksters," regulators, mortgage companies and everyone else in a position to know better, Lanchester illustrates exactly how loans from predatory and incompetent players wound up being sold as triple-A investments, and how a subsequent housing market dip toppled the financial system. By prioritizing the financial sector and tenets of laissez-faire capitalism (to the point that it "became a kind of secular religion"), those in charge of the markets failed to identify the growing systemic dangers; meanwhile, those responsible to the public acted as if benefits for financial institutions also benefited every economic participant, no matter how small.
Laypeople seeking to understand the crisis, and what it means for their own bank account, will find Lanchester's volume an oasis of understanding in a sea of partisan spin and convoluted financial language.
---
5. Plainsong by Kent Haruf, 301 pages
In the same way that the plains define the American landscape, small-town life in the heartlands is a quintessentially American experience. Holt, Colorado, a tiny prairie community near Denver, is both the setting for and the psychological matrix of Haruf's beautifully executed novel. Alternating chapters focus on eight compassionately imagined characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year. High school teacher Tom Guthrie's depressed wife moves out of their house, leaving him to care for their young sons. Ike, 10, and Bobby, nine, are polite, sensitive boys who mature as they observe the puzzling behavior of adults they love. At school, Guthrie must deal with a vicious student bully whose violent behavior eventually menaces Ike and Bobby, in a scene that will leave readers with palpitating hearts. Meanwhile, pregnant teenager Victoria Roubideaux, evicted by her mother, seeks help from kindhearted, pragmatic teacher Maggie Jones, who convinces the elderly McPheron brothers, Raymond and Harold, to let Victoria live with them in their old farmhouse. After many decades of bachelor existence, these gruff, unpolished cattle farmers must relearn the art of conversation when Victoria enters their lives.
Haruf's descriptions of rural existence are a richly nuanced mixture of stark details and poetic evocations of the natural world. Weather and landscape are integral to tone and mood, serving as backdrop to every scene. Walking a tightrope of restrained design, Haruf steers clear of sentimentality and melodrama while constructing a taut narrative in which revelations of character and rising emotional tensions are held in perfect balance. This is a compelling story of grief, bereavement, loneliness and anger, but also of kindness, benevolence, love and the making of a strange new family.
---
6. Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer, April 14, 1994 464 pp
A whole book about a minor incident? You bet, and a terrific book, at that. Fischer's exhaustive research shows that Revere played an important role in pre-Revolutionary Boston that included, but was by no means limited to, his midnight ride. The author shows how Longfellow's poem deliberately distorted the facts in order to suit the political climate of the times; the real story of Revere's role and the battles of Concord and Lexington is infinitely more interesting because it involves planning, courage, danger, suspense, and national destiny. For the rest of their lives, people remembered where they were when Revere made his famous midnight ride, as readers will remember this fascinating account.
It is rare when a scholarly history will appeal to a general readership, but such is the case with this book. Fischer's ulterior motive is to return contingency to its central importance in the historical process--to restore the "causal power of particular actions and contingent events." In the process he has written a meticulously researched and wonderfully evocative narrative that will be enjoyed by history lovers and scholars alike.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
7 for 7 at Gaslight on Monday 23 August...
I have:
cat, kathy, sara, aaron, erin, kelly, leigh... let me know if anyone else can/can't make it!
can't wait to see and discuss tomorrow - i'll admit this one has put a bit of a spin in my head...
see you tomorrow!
I have:
cat, kathy, sara, aaron, erin, kelly, leigh... let me know if anyone else can/can't make it!
can't wait to see and discuss tomorrow - i'll admit this one has put a bit of a spin in my head...
see you tomorrow!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Let's try for Gaslight (because I've been wanting to re-visit the South End for a while ;) for Monday 23rd at 7. Only tricky thing may be restaurant week, so maybe we'll keep Les Zyg as a backup?
Headcount? I have me, Kathy, Cat, Sara, Aaron, Erin, Leigh... no Mags as stuck among boxes (no envy there, Mags! but let me know if you decide you want a bookclub-break!). Am I wrong? Sari? I shall shake you down over the weekend ;) And sorry Wendy is stuck in Jersey... but we know you'll be based back in New England soon enough!
Headcount? I have me, Kathy, Cat, Sara, Aaron, Erin, Leigh... no Mags as stuck among boxes (no envy there, Mags! but let me know if you decide you want a bookclub-break!). Am I wrong? Sari? I shall shake you down over the weekend ;) And sorry Wendy is stuck in Jersey... but we know you'll be based back in New England soon enough!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
I am not particular on the food....I'll go with what the majority votes....Gas Light, Hungry mother I sound like interesting choices too, for me.
hello Ladies,
I can make it for the 23rd but not the 30th. As per restaurant choice Lumiere sounds great to me but not sure how I'd get there....if anyone could give me a lift I can meet them at a place that is convenient and T accessible :-)!
Sara
I'm available for the 23rd and have finished the book.
Erin, Thanks for researching restuarants! I'd vote for Gaslight.
Have to respectively disagree with Lumiere in West Newton - I was underwhelmed.
Erin, Thanks for researching restuarants! I'd vote for Gaslight.
Have to respectively disagree with Lumiere in West Newton - I was underwhelmed.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I have the list this time! Probably the 23rd works better for me, but I will send the list along if I can't make the 30th.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
I am game for either date.
As a note...next week is restaurant week. So, if we go for the 23rd we could snag a bargain at someplace expensive (note, still a fixed price of about $33 for a 3 course meal). In any case we should def. make a reservation.
So restaurant week has caught my interest and I did a bit of research. If we chose to got the RW route, here are some places that could work:
The Hungry I-Beacon Hill-It is all about his ego...
Artu - North end...has the word art.
Pazzo-Back Bay...he is crazy
French Restaurants on the List...since he spends a bunch of time in France.
Lumiere-Newton (I went to this restaurant last restaurant week and it was amazing! Highly recommend since it is a bit pricey, but this made it much more reasonable.)
Some other french restuarants that could be good
Gaslight Brassiere du Coin-South End
La Voile-Back Bay
Les Zygomates-Downtown
Pierrot Bistrot Francais-Beacon Hill....we know this place is good.
Here is a site that has the restuarants and the menu's...I know need to go eat dinner...everything sounds amazing!
http://www.restaurantweekboston.com/?neighborhood=all&meal=any&view=all
Later,
Erin
As a note...next week is restaurant week. So, if we go for the 23rd we could snag a bargain at someplace expensive (note, still a fixed price of about $33 for a 3 course meal). In any case we should def. make a reservation.
So restaurant week has caught my interest and I did a bit of research. If we chose to got the RW route, here are some places that could work:
The Hungry I-Beacon Hill-It is all about his ego...
Artu - North end...has the word art.
Pazzo-Back Bay...he is crazy
French Restaurants on the List...since he spends a bunch of time in France.
Lumiere-Newton (I went to this restaurant last restaurant week and it was amazing! Highly recommend since it is a bit pricey, but this made it much more reasonable.)
Some other french restuarants that could be good
Gaslight Brassiere du Coin-South End
La Voile-Back Bay
Les Zygomates-Downtown
Pierrot Bistrot Francais-Beacon Hill....we know this place is good.
Here is a site that has the restuarants and the menu's...I know need to go eat dinner...everything sounds amazing!
http://www.restaurantweekboston.com/?neighborhood=all&meal=any&view=all
Later,
Erin
Hi Guys, I am going to bow out of this one due to the fact that I'm moving the week of the 30th and am quite stressed about getting it all done. Enjoy dinner and I will be there next time!
Who's doing the list next, Leigh, right?
Who's doing the list next, Leigh, right?
Hey guys, I'm going to bow out of this one especially if we meet the week of the 30th. I'm going to be moving that week and am quite stressed out :)
Who is doing the next list, Leigh?
Who is doing the next list, Leigh?
Monday, August 16, 2010
Since Wendy isn't 100% certain for the 30th, looks like the 23rd can accomodate more... (as in Sara :). Scarily, this is now about a week away! So, if a plurality think they can be ready by the 23rd, we can do that (next Monday!) or, if not, the 30th is still good. My potential West Coast biz trip is now postponed due to I'm tired of travelling (on a bus now even :(
Where did the summer go?!
Not sure about restaurants, but maybe something with 'Luna' in the name, for Moon? ;)
Where did the summer go?!
Not sure about restaurants, but maybe something with 'Luna' in the name, for Moon? ;)
