Hello Everyone:

Thank you to participants in our discussion last month of "The Great War for Civilization: the conquest of the Middle East" by Robert Fisk. Thanks also to Laura Dean-Sultan for facilitation from an 'insider' perspective and to Laura and Catherine Taylor for discussion questions. Some comments about the meeting:

"thanks so much everyone for the willingness to discuss considered views, that was an awe-inspiring time"
"Loved the passion and sharing."

"A-OK"

See the related reading list below for other books on the subject. Thanks Monika!

The poll for August is up. Note that the meeting is a week earlier than usual, on Wednesday Aug 19. If you think you may attend in August, please vote here. There are two books on the poll, descriptions are below -- if you like them equally, give them both a 10! I'll close the poll on Monday July 13.

Thanks to Mary Lou for doing library lookups for over a year. This has been a big help. We need a new volunteer to look up book suggestions on the library website -- the policy to have our books available in the library is due to popular demand and pre-dates our location at the library. We get about 20 book suggestions every month from new members and sometimes some from existing members. I'm also open to new ways of selecting books ... drop me a line to share your thoughts on that or if you're interested in assisting with lookups.

Cheers
Rose

Upcoming meetings:
July - Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, by ROBERT CIALDINI PHD

Books on the August book poll:
numbers after the author: holds, copies in the library, pages
numbers in brackets [ average rating on Amazon.com, total number of ratings/percentage of 5 ratings]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanence. ROBERT M. PIRSIG 10h,39c, 418 p. Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. This 25th Anniversary Quill Edition features a new introduction by the author; important typographical changes; and a Reader's Guide that includes discussion topics, an interview with the author, and letters and documents detailing how this extraordinary book came to be. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. The narrator's relationship with his son leads to a powerful self-reckoning; the craft of motorcycle maintenance leads to an austerely beautiful process for reconciling science, religion, and humanism. Resonant with the confusions of existence, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a touching and transcendent book of life. [4.1, 1232/59%]

Fools Rule: inside the failed politics of climate change WILLIAM MARSDEN 1,29,336 From the National Business Book Award-winning author of Stupid to the Last Drop, a captivating polemic on the global failure to deal with climate change.nbsp;/Kyoto, 1997. Montreal, 2005. Copenhagen, 2009. Cancun, 2010. In Fools Rule, Marsden illustrates how inefficient and short-sighted political negotiations have become despite mounting scientific evidence that immediate action is essential to curb the effects of climate change. International climate change summits are now widely monitored events, attended by state leaders and crowded with journalists; yet somehow they have never been less productive. Treaties and action plans are smothered by economic self-interest, diplomatic errors and every nation's hungry scramble for its share of the remaining atmospheric space./nbsp;Marsden takes us from inside the bungled negotiations at Copenhagen to the melting glaciers and untapped oil reserves of the Arctic; he shows us the paralyzing effect oil and gas companies have on green legal initiatives in the United States, and therefore on any international climate change treaty; and, with wit and penetrating insight, he asks the toughest question--will we be able to change before it's too late? [5.0, 1/100%]

Non Fiction Book Club Reading List, June 2015

Fisk, Robert. The age of the warrior: selected writings. 2008

A selection of Robert Fisk's finest 'Comment' pieces from the Saturday Independent. He is best known for his writing about the Middle East, its wars, dictators and international relations, but these 'Comment' articles cover an array of topics, from his soldier grandfather to handwriting to the Titanic.

Friedman, Thomas L. From Beirut to Jerusalem. 1995

Winner of the 1989 National Book Award for nonfiction, this extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and now the Foreign Affairs columnist on the op-ed page of the New York Times, drew on his ten years in the Middle East to write a book that The Wall Street Journal called "a sparkling intellectual guidebook... an engrossing journey not to be missed." Now with a new chapter that brings the ever-changing history of the conflict in the Middle East up to date, this seminal historical work reaffirms both its timeliness and its timelessness

Lewis, Bernard . What went wrong? : Western impact and Middle Eastern response. 2002

Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis is one of the West's foremost authorities on Islamic history and culture. In this striking volume, he offers an incisive look at the historical relationship between the Middle East and Europe.

Rohde, David. Beyond war : reimagining American influence in a new Middle East. 2013

"This book distills eleven years of expert reporting for The New York Times, Reuters, and The Atlantic Monthly into a clarion call for change. An incisive look at the evolving nature of war, Rohde exposes how a dysfunctional Washington squandered billions on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, neglected its true allies in the war on terror and failed to employ its most potent nonmilitary weapons: American consumerism, technology, and investment. Rohde then surveys post-Arab Spring Tunisia, Turkey, and Egypt, and finds a yearning for American technology, trade, and education. He argues that only Muslim moderates, not Americans, can eradicate militancy.

Tripathi, Deepak. Imperial designs : war, humiliation & the making of history. 2013

Since the age of Alexander the Great, waves of foreign armies have invaded the Middle East and South Asia to plunder their vast treasures. In Imperial Designs, Deepak Tripathi offers a powerful and unique analysis of how this volatile region has endured the manipulation and humiliation of such wars. He argues that these foreign invasions to gain access to others’ wealth and the consequent ignominy of the defeated peoples of the regions have had far-reaching consequences. Over the centuries, again and again, the conquered peoples have been left helpless, their shame on display. The victims’ collective frustration has strengthened their will to resist and avenge the wrongs done to them—all according to their own values and in their own time. Displaying a keen awareness of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, Tripathi argues that this enduring theme resonates throughout the region’s history and informs the present. Referring to declassified official documents and scholarly works, Imperial Designs offers an authoritative analysis of Middle Eastern history since World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.