What are the Best Books for Ruby on Rails

Everyone’s heard of book clubs where the group reads the same thing and gets together to discuss, which is great… if you have time and interest in whatever’s chosen. This is a different type of book club where you bring whatever you’re currently or recently reading (or just a book you’re super excited about) and talk about it with fellow book lovers. We’ll start with people arriving/ordering food between 615-645, then go around and introduce ourselveslves and give a very brief synopsis of what we’re reading and why we’re excited (or not!) about it. Then devolve into informal conversations until people need to head out. The goal Is to create community and connections in a group of strangers - to facilitate this please make sure you have at least a clear first name on your profile. Upside on Moore has a great selection of food you can order from your phone or at the kiosks. There’s also a bar with happy hour, something for everyone! Arrival tips: if you’re taking the metro, it’s the building above the Rosslyn exit. If you’re driving, you can park in the public lot under the food hall (entrance from the one way bus street) and validate parking after 6!

[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“What We Know About Snow,”** a meteorologist’s take on the science of snow and snowstorm prediction, with Jeffrey Halverson, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and author of *An Introduction to Severe Storms and Hazardous Weather.* [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-know-snow](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-know-snow) .] Will the weather outside be frightful? Get answers where it’s delightful. Penn Social is the place to go to learn of snow, learn of snow, learn of snow. Regardless of whether you’re a winter sports enthusiast who welcomes blizzards or someone who spends the season dreaming of an escape to the tropics, you can gain a much deeper understanding of the white stuff with the help of Dr. Jeffrey Halverson, a severe storm expert with the *Washington Post*’s Capital Weather Gang who gave an excellent Profs and Pints talk on hurricanes in November. A seasoned meteorologist and snow forecaster, he’ll discuss how and when snow is formed, describe the different types of snow out there, and tell you what determines whether the atmosphere generates snow as opposed to sleet or freezing rain. You’ll learn the difference between a nuisance “Alberta Clipper” snow event and a blockbuster East Coast snowstorm, and why some winter seasons feature memorable—if not historical—snowstorms while others have just small snow events or experience “snow drought.” You’ll gain an appreciation of how the science of snowfall is nuanced and differs markedly in the Mid Atlantic compared to other notoriously snowy regions such as the Great Lakes “snowbelt” or the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. You’ll learn the pitfalls and common traps that people fall into in trying to predict snowfall using the data from numerical weather prediction models readily available today to casual users. Dr. Halverson will tackle the debate over whether the American or European weather prediction models do a better job and discuss Artificial Intelligence’s entry into the forecast game. Accounts of the Washington D.C. region’s most historic snowstorms will be sprinkled in for good measure. (Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: A bright moment in the aftermath of D.C.’s infamous 1922 Knickerbocker Snowstorm (Library of Congress photo).

No sign\-ups required \| All levels welcome \| 21\+ If you're looking for a casual game of chess in a fun atmosphere, this event is for you! Members range from beginner to master level, and games are played both with and without time controls. This event is held at a bar, the Board Room, in Washington, DC, and is intended for 21+ players. We meet upstairs, on the mezzanine. Upon arrival, fill out a name tag and indicate your relative skill, to facilitate match-ups. Chess sets and boards are provided. We don't have club clocks, but most people use the Chess Clock app from Chess.com to play timed games.

Hello again! After a long hiatus, the Monday meet up at Nanny O’Briens is back! We’ll have some games to play, but feel free to bring your favorites as well. Stop by for a game and a drink, and say hello! We’ll be in the back room. Other info: Nanny O'Brien's is allowing us to use their back room for some board game socializing. Please reciprocate their generosity by purchasing food and drinks. Free street parking starts at 6:30 in most areas (make sure to read the signs). If you're taking the metro, take the red line to Cleveland Park and walk two blocks southwest on Connecticut (we are located next to CVS).

📚 Do you love reading, but wish you had a structure and a community to share your insights with? Join our small circle of curious minds (just 4 members per gathering) as we come together for an hour of focused reading—in the calm setting of a library or the cozy atmosphere of a café. Here’s how it works: First part: Quiet reading on your own—bring a book you’re exploring, whether it’s philosophy, history, psychology, literature, or anything meaningful to you. Second part: We regroup and each person shares key takeaways, insights, or questions sparked by their reading. This sparks a structured yet free-flowing conversation around ideas, perspectives, and personal reflections. Why join? Add structure to your reading habit. Discover new books, authors, and ideas through others’ choices. Build real connections by sharing and listening deeply. Socialize around something meaningful instead of small talk.

We'll be doing the Harris Teeter/NIH loop only through winter.

Join us for a thoughtful, spoiler-respectful book club discussion of **Wind and Truth** by Brandon Sanderson, where we’ll explore the novel’s biggest ideas—truth, leadership, oaths, mercy, and the personal cost of conviction. This meetup is designed for engaged readers who want to slow down, reflect, and dig into key scenes and character decisions in a respectful, curious environment. Whether you come with questions, strong interpretations, or just a desire to listen and learn, the goal is shared insight, lively discussion, and a deeper appreciation of one of the most ambitious entries in the Stormlight Archive. This event will cover book 5 wind and truth and will contain spoilers. For books 1-4; recommend this recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU9QZD6dyss Event hosted at Board Room in Clarendon. Please be prepared to buy and/or tip wait staff on your own.

**Hi everyone!** ❄️ I hope you’re all enjoying the winter season. Our next meeting will be in the new year on **Saturday, January 10th**. We’ll be reading ***Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil* by V.E. Schwab**. We’ll be meeting at **Busboys and Poets - 450 K St NW**. Looking forward to seeing you all!

Join us for a casual, engaging book talk with **Dr. Laura Kahn**, a core member and organizer of our Bethesda meetup group, Using an interdisciplinary One Health approach, Dr. Laura Kahn will draw upon material from her book, "One Health and the Politics of Covid-19," to talk about the history, science, research, and politics of coronaviruses. One Health is the concept that human, animal, plant, environmental, and ecosystem health are linked. This is a relatively new term, but an ancient concept recognized by indigenous peoples around the world. * Location: Connie Morella Library 7400 Arlington Road, Bethesda, MD * To learn more about the book talk event, visit: [https://www.ncas.org/2025/12/coming-on-january-10-2026.html](https://www.ncas.org/2025/12/coming-on-january-10-2026.html) * To learn more about Laura's book, visit: [https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12713/one-health-and-politics-covid-19](https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12713/one-health-and-politics-covid-19)

New (old) location - La Madeleine at 500 King St! Hope to see you there

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36739755-convenience-store-woman "The English-language debut of one of Japan's most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, *Convenience Store Woman* is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action… A brilliant depiction of a world hidden from view, *Convenience Store Woman* is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures we all feel to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine."

8/3/2025: setting the date. We can adjust as needed.

The temperature is supposed to be in the 50s next Wednesday. Let’s take advantage and go on at walk at Brookside Gardens. It is half price burger day at Stained Glass Pub if anyone wants to go to lunch afterwards. We will meet to the right facing the visitors center.

**\*\*\* We've Moved! Bold Penguin - 6555 Longshore St, Dublin, OH 43017 \*\*\*** (Ignore the pinned map on meetup) **AGENDA:** * Doors open at 5:30, feel free to come and hang out before! * Official start of the meeting is at 6:30pm * After the meeting is done, we will go hang out at a nearby space in Bridge Park! If you can, please sign up via meetup by noon the day of the meeting so we can have an estimate headcount for food :) We always order extra, so feel free to join us even if you don't get signed up! Thank you to Bold Penguin for providing the location! **Parking & Arrival:** **Parking:** Parking in Bridge Park is free. The closest lots are the Mooney Garage and the Hotel/Endres Garage. **Entry:** The doors to the office are to the right of PINS. The street level door and elevators lock at 6pm. If you arrive after that, someone should be there to let you in, else call the number posted. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor. Once you exit the elevator, turn right. \*\*\* We are a bunch of professionals, students, and geeks who are excited about Ruby programming language ([http://ruby-lang.org/](http://ruby-lang.org/)) and Rails framework ([http://rubyonrails.com/](http://rubyonrails.com/)) and the joy they have brought back to web development. Our main goal is to share the love of the Ruby and Rails ecosystems with anyone that is interested. We cater to everyone, whether a non-programmer through advanced Rubyists. We give lectures on programming topics We freely provide decades worth of experience For full details of this month's meeting please visit [http://columbusrb.com](http://columbusrb.com)

**Our January novel is: Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan** **This month's featured novel is a 20th-century biographical fiction, coming-of-age, historical romance, women’s fiction, world literature, student biography, heartfelt, magic, and feel-good novel. The book is 311 pages in print and 7 hours and 8 minutes on audiobook.** 1950: Margaret Devonshire (Megs) is a seventeen-year-old student of mathematics and physics at Oxford University. When her beloved eight-year-old brother asks Megs if Narnia is real, logical Megs tells him it's just a book for children, and certainly not true. Homebound due to his illness, and remaining fixated on his favorite books, George presses her to ask the author of the recently released novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a question: "Where did Narnia come from?" Despite her fear about approaching the famous author, who is a professor at her school, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with C. S. Lewis and his own brother Warnie, begging them for answers. Rather than directly telling her where Narnia came from, Lewis encourages Megs to form her own conclusion as he shares the little-known stories from his own life that led to his inspiration. As she takes these stories home to George, the little boy travels farther in his imagination than he ever could in real life. After holding so tightly to logic and reason, her brother's request leads Megs to absorb a more profound truth: "The way stories change us can't be explained. It can only be felt. Like love."

Join us for Slow Horses and a Book Exchange! In addition to our usual chat about the book, we’ll be exchanging books. Bring two books you’re willing to part with and we’ll exhange books. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves. This special tenth-anniversary deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses. London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they're called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can't be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle-not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there-even if it means having to collaborate with one another. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?

We’ll be reading Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldtree this month! We recommend readingading “Bookshops and Bonedust” and “Legends and Lattes” before reading Brigands and Breadknives.

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 **Abstract** GitHub Copilot is rapidly changing how developers write, understand, and maintain code. Powered by generative AI and deeply integrated into modern development environments, Copilot acts as an intelligent coding assistant, helping developers move faster while maintaining quality and focus. In this session, we’ll explore what GitHub Copilot is, how it works, and where it fits into a real-world developer workflow. We’ll break down what Copilot can (and cannot) do, where it can be used, and how licensing differs for individuals and organizations. Most importantly, this talk goes beyond theory with a live, hands-on demo showcasing Copilot inside the IDE and on GitHub, demonstrating how it can assist with code generation, refactoring, learning new APIs, and accelerating day-to-day development tasks. Designed for developers, technical leads, and engineering managers, this session provides a practical introduction to AI-assisted development, highlights best practices for getting value from Copilot, and closes with guidance on how to continue learning and evolving alongside this rapidly advancing tool. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how GitHub Copilot can enhance productivity, improve developer experience, and fit into modern software teams today, not someday. **YouTube Link** TBA

I don't usually pick romance but I really wanted to do a Hanukkah book. It's a bit on the longer side but hopefully a quick read. The library only has 5 audiobooks so please try to remember to "release it" when you're done. Columbus libraries: [https://cml.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S105C3503238](https://cml.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S105C3503238) Location: The Goat Riversouth [219 South High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215](https://www.google.com/maps?q=219%20South%20High%20Street%2C%20Columbus%2C%20Ohio%2043215%2C%20United%20States) [Menu](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/686d3ed16745133042482c5f/t/68ff654dbb03b96875430bde/1761568077220/all_brunch-20250311.pdf) Book summary: Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not *Christmas*. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg. Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: Nothing yet. (You should volunteer). What is Cocoaheads (http://cocoaheads.org/)? CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on MacOS X and iOS (including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch). During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. What is BuckeyeCocoa (http://buckeyecocoa.org/)? BuckeyeCocoa is a group of Objective-C/Swift developers/enthusiasts. We host monthly Cocoaheads and near-weekly NSCoder meetings in Columbus, Ohio. The meetings are free to attend. Presentations! Presenters welcome! We are always in need of people willing to present material. Any Swift and/or Objective-C related topic is welcome. Times can be 5 minutes (i.e. lightning talks) to a maximum of 2 hours. Interested? Contact info is on the BuckeyeCocoa website. To volunteer for a presentation contact us at @BuckeyeCocoa on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! @BuckeyeCocoa (https://twitter.com/#!/Buckeyecocoa/) For more information: http://buckeyecocoa.org/