Books with a Buzz

We meet at Kaka'ako Waterfront Park usually at picnic area 3 unless it's already taken in which case look for us at picnic area 2.

Fledgling by Octavia Butler is about a young woman who wakes up from an injury and and doesn't know who or what she is. When she is walking down a road a young man stops to give her a lift. By instinct she bites him and drinks his blood. So begins her journey to find out more about herself and her people.

Hi Bee Members! This month we'll be reading "My Sister, the Serial Killer" by Oyinkan Braithwaite. It was short story recommendation that combines both comedy and horror tropes into one! And the best part, Skull-Face Books & Vinyl will be hosting us at their book store in downtown. If you haven't been there, I definitely recommend to visit! They are an independent bookseller right next to the Hawai'i Theatre and they have a vast variety of books mostly on thrillers, mystery, suspense, horror, philosophy and so on! So you may be tempted to leave with a few souvenirs.

You're welcome to attend even if you haven't quite finished the book, as long as you don't mind spoilers being discussed. Attendees should generally expect to order something to eat or drink.

Here's a description of the book:

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other...

My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...

Rated: 3.06 on Goodreads

If you're not interested in being the organizer but you'd like to host a one-time meeting, it's easy! Just pick a book, a date, and a venue, and commit to attending! Message the organizer to find out more. Don't be shy: We have over 2,000+ members, so there are sure to be a few people who want to read whatever book you're excited about. We're always looking for hosts to help keep the book club vibrant!

journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness.

Robert Wright famously explained in The Moral Animal how evolution shaped the human brain. The mind is designed to often delude us, he argued, about ourselves and about the world. And it is designed to make happiness hard to sustain.

But if we know our minds are rigged for anxiety, depression, anger, and greed, what do we do? Wright locates the answer in Buddhism, which figured out thousands of years ago what scientists are only discovering now. Buddhism holds that human suffering is a result of not seeing the world clearly—and proposes that seeing the world more clearly, through meditation, will make us better, happier people.

In Why Buddhism is True, Wright leads readers on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. At once excitingly ambitious and wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. With bracing honesty and fierce wisdom, it will persuade you not just that Buddhism is true—which is to say, a way out of our delusion—but that it can ultimately save us from ourselves, as individuals and as a species.

Hi Bee Members! This month we'll be reading "The Secret of Secrets" by Dan Brown. HIS LATEST NOVEL IN 8 YEARS! I've been a die hard Dan Brown fan ever since Angels and Demons came out on the big screen and been a fanatic of all he has to write. So I'm super looking forward to reading this new novel with you guys! Let's dive into adventure!

You're welcome to attend even if you haven't quite finished the book, as long as you don't mind spoilers being discussed. Attendees should generally expect to order something to eat or drink.

Here's a description of the book:

The thrilling and long-awaited new Robert Langdon novel from globally bestselling author Dan Brown.

Accompanying celebrated academic, Katherine Solomon, to a lecture she’s been invited to give in Prague, Robert Langdon’s world spirals out of control when she disappears without trace from their hotel room. Far from home and well out of his comfort zone, Langdon must pit his wits against forces unknown to recover the woman he loves.

But Prague is an old and dangerous city, steeped in folklore and mystery. For over two thousand years, the tides of history have washed back and forth over it, leaving behind echoes of everything that has gone before. Little can Langdon know that he is being stalked by a specter from that dark past. He must use all of his arcane knowledge to decipher the world around him before he too is consumed by the rings of treachery and deception that have swallowed Katherine.

Against a backdrop of vast castles, towering churches, graveyards buried twelve deep and labyrinthine underground passages, Langdon must navigate a shadow city hiding in plain sight, a city which has successfully kept its secrets for centuries and will not readily deliver them. This is a battlefield unlike any he has previously experienced, one on which he must fight not for his only life, but for the future of humanity itself.

***The Secret of Secrets ***is Dan Brown’s first novel for over eight years and sees the stunning return of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, this time pitting his wits against a conspiracy which will test even his considerable brainpower and take him to the edge of losing all that he holds dear…

Rated: 4.08 on Goodreads

If you're not interested in being the organizer but you'd like to host a one-time meeting, it's easy! Just pick a book, a date, and a venue, and commit to attending! Message the organizer to find out more. Don't be shy: We have over 2,000+ members, so there are sure to be a few people who want to read whatever book you're excited about. We're always looking for hosts to help keep the book club vibrant!