Our Mission

Respect others, enjoy our journey together, find the good in each book selection, enjoy and enhance our fellowship while we sharpen our intellects.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

9/6/2012 we discuss "The Dress Lodger" by Sheri Holman

Thursday, September 6, 2012, we'll meet at Jessica's to discuss the "The Dress Lodger" by Sheri Holman. This is the second choice on the topic of "medicine."


Sunday, July 15, 2012


On Wednesday, 8/1/12 we'll meet to discuss this first selection in the topic "Medicine." The book is "Breakthrough!: How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World" by Jon Queijo (pronounced "kee-zho") selected by Louis Latimer Hemmi meet where: John's

Bilinguals see the world in a different way, study suggests

Bilinguals see the world in a different way, study suggests

Saturday, June 2, 2012

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy

We will meet on June 21 at Louis's house in Westchase to discuss David E Hoffman's book "The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy "

We held May's meeting in the new house in the Heights that Drew just bought. It's a very old neighborhood that has undergone gentrification. The house deserves a post all its own :) 
 
Dinner was a good offering of standard Texas barbecue.
 
Our discussion of "The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them" was not particularly spirited because the book is not controversial, and we generally enjoyed the writing. The book is more a travel log than anything else, and it did give us some minimal exposure to Russian authors and a little about their literature.
This was most definitely a good selection, Sylvia.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

We will meet on May 10, 2012 at Drew's bungalow in the Heights to discuss The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, and is another selection in our series of books  on the topic of "Russia."

We held April's meeting at Sylvia's home in the clouds, in the fashionable Kirby district. The Norwegian beauty demonstrated the superlative graciousness that comes so naturally to her. Dinner was resplendent with a salmon that could easily feed about ten people or so. I found the creamy salmon sauce with its subtle hint of citrus flavoring especially inspired.

We all liked Lawrence Scott Sheets book "8 Pieces of Empire" which chronicles the twenty years following the breakup of the Soviet Union. I think most of us found his writing to be very good, and his courage in the conduct of his job was praiseworthy. This was most definitely a great selection. John R. opined that it was one of the best selections that we've ever had. 

Spasibo, y'all!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

April 3 meeting to be at Sylvia's - Discuss 8 Pieces of Empire by Sheets

February's meeting at Linda's swankyienda was especially good with premium victuals of the Indian variety. Shelby the Fierce was subdued, since she was recovering from a surgical procedure.

We discussed Ivan Turgenev's "Spring Torrents" and Jessica and I found that we both had downloaded our copies from Project Gutenberg. The book was well liked by most, so once again, there wasn't a lot of controversy. We discussed possible future topics including "psychology, medicine, self help (motivational, the Middle East, Islam), but we did not take a vote on any topic, so we'll probably spend some time at the next meeting discussing this. 

Drew is still in Colorado, but says he'll be here for the next meeting which will be at Sylvia's new highrise digs in a fashionable district.

This month's book is by Lawrence Scott Sheets, and is called "8 Pieces of Empire." We're still on the topic of "Russia" and this book deals with the 20 years that have elapsed since the collapse of the USSR, presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev.

I'm atingle with anticipation!

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Lots more of our history, pictures and books on

Our WEB Page - all books we've read since 1991

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Feb 23,2012 - Discuss "Spring Torrents" by Ivan Turgenev

January's meeting at the lovely home of Barbara B featured catering by El Tiempo, and was enjoyed by all (especially Louis). She's getting ready to remodel, so we had to meet a bit early.

We discussed "Tent Life in Siberia" by George Kennan. We all liked the book, so the discussion was fairly brief. It's when there is controversy and disagreement that we  have longer spirited discussions.

We briefly discussed the Facebook page, and I recommended we open it up to whoever wants to join. Right now, it's a closed group. I think the Facebook page might let people find reading groups, or get people connected with others who like the same kinds of reading they do.

The new book is pretty short, and looks like an easy read. The story is about a young Russian man of 22 who falls in love with a girl who lives in Frankfurt. He falls for her in an extreme way, and even moves to be near her.

The author, Ivan Turgenev, was born in Russia in 1818. Barbara chose this book.