Readin' Vegans -- "Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters"
Details
Our March 24 online book discussion will be on Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters, by Brian Klaas (2024). You need not have attended a previous discussion to join us for this one. We'll discuss the book until about 8:00, followed by open conversation.
The Zoom link to the discussion is posted on the right, visible to those who RSVP. PLEASE NOTE: THIS LINK DISAPPEARS AT THE MEETUP START TIME, THAT IS, 7:00 PM. We'll be available from 6:50 on to help anyone who might need extra time to connect. If you can't get on, call us at 303-300-2368.
We hope you can join us!
If you'd like to read ahead:
April 28 - The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans, by Sharon McMahon
May 26 - Crying in H Mart: a Memoir, by Michelle Zauner
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About Fluke:
If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself? And would you remain blind to the radically different possible world you unknowingly left behind?
In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas dives deeply into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, taking aim at most people’s neat and tidy storybook version of reality. The book’s argument is that we willfully ignore a bewildering but for a few small changes, our lives—and our societies—could be radically different.
Offering an entirely new lens, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and apparently random events. How did one couple’s vacation cause 100,000 people to die? Does our decision to hit the snooze button in the morning radically alter the trajectory of our lives? And has the evolution of humans been inevitable, or are we simply the product of a series of freak accidents?
Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Klaas provides a brilliantly fresh look at why things happen—all while providing mind-bending lessons on how we can live smarter, be happier, and lead more fulfilling lives.
