Books to Change Your Life NYC Book Club

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. (Please read all of it, prior to the meeting.)

Per the publisher, "Set in the west Yorkshire moors, Wuthering Heights is the story of two gentry families -- the Earnshaws and the Lintons -- and their turbulent relationships with Earnshaw's adopted son, Heathcliff. Now considered to be a timeless classic, it was a polarizing and controversial work in its own day, with its frank depictions of mental and physical cruelty and ahead-of-its-time challenges to Victorian conventions and mores.

Emily Brontë's only published novel, it has established her as one of the most significant and most beloved novelists of the nineteenth century, and Wuthering Heights is often listed among the greatest novels of all time by critics and readers alike. "

You can get the book on kindle or paperback here:
https://www.amazon.com/Wuthering-Heights-Penguin-Classics-Bront%C3%AB/dp/0141439556/

All are welcome!

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of Extreme Economies by Richard Davies. (Meeting 2 of 2; Please read all of the second half, chapters 6 through the end, prior to the meeting.)

Per the publisher: "To understand how humans react and adapt to economic change we need to study people who live in harsh environments. From war zones, natural disasters and failed states, to aging societies and the challenges of technological advancement, every life in this book has been hit by a seismic shock, violently broken or changed in some way.

People living in these odd and marginal places are ignored by number crunching economists and political pollsters alike. Science suggests this is a mistake. This book tells the personal stories of humans living in extreme situations, and of the financial infrastructure they create. Here, economies are not concerned with the familiar stock market crashes, housing crises, or banking scandals of the financial pages.

In his quest for a purer view of how economies succeed and fail, Richard Davies takes the reader off the beaten path to places where part of the economy has been repressed, removed, destroyed or turbocharged. By travelling to each of them and discovering what life is really like, Extreme Economies tells small stories that shed light on today’s biggest economic questions, with vital lessons for our future."

We will split the reading and meetings into two per the below schedule:
Tue June 30, 2026: Chapters 1 through 5
Tue August 11, 2026: Chapters 6 through end

You can get the book in paperback or kindle here:
https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Economies-Lessons-Worlds-Limits/dp/1787631990

All are welcome!

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of Ravenna by Judith Herrin. (Meeting 1 of 2; Please read all of the first half, chapters 1 through 18, about 200 pages, prior to the meeting.)

Per the publisher: "A riveting history of the city that led the West out of the ruins of the Roman Empire.

At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. For three centuries, the city attracted scholars, lawyers, craftsmen, and religious luminaries, becoming a true cultural and political capital. Bringing this extraordinary history marvelously to life, Judith Herrin rewrites the history of East and West in the Mediterranean world before the rise of Islam and shows how, thanks to Byzantine influence, Ravenna played a crucial role in the development of medieval Christendom.

Drawing on deep, original research, Herrin tells the personal stories of Ravenna while setting them in a sweeping synthesis of Mediterranean and Christian history. She narrates the lives of the Empress Galla Placidia and the Gothic king Theoderic and describes the achievements of an amazing cosmographer and a doctor who revived Greek medical knowledge in Italy, demolishing the idea that the West just descended into the medieval "Dark Ages."

Beautifully illustrated and drawing on the latest archaeological findings, this monumental book provides a bold new interpretation of Ravenna's lasting influence on the culture of Europe and the West."

We will split the reading and meetings into two per the below schedule:
Sat, September 5, 2026: Chapters 1 through 18
Sat, October 17, 2026: Chapters 19 through 37 and Conclusion

You can get the book in paperback or kindle here:
https://a.co/d/0cKg7zZM

All are welcome!

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of High Output Management by Andy Grove. (Please read all of it, prior to the meeting.)

Per the publisher, "In this legendary business book and Silicon Valley staple, the former chairman and CEO of Intel shares his perspective on how to build and run a company. A practical handbook for navigating real-life business scenarios and a powerful management manifesto with the ability to revolutionize the way we work.

The essential skill of creating and maintaining new businesses—the art of the entrepreneur—can be summed up in a single word: managing. Born of Grove’s experiences at one of America’s leading technology companies (as CEO and employee number three at Intel), High Output Management is equally appropriate for sales managers, accountants, consultants, and teachers, as well as CEOs and startup founders. Grove covers techniques for creating highly productive teams, demonstrating methods of motivation that lead to peak performance."

You can get the book on kindle or paperback here:
https://a.co/d/0ewsW57k

All are welcome!