rising

Book Club: August 8th

Book Club to discuss Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

For August's Book Club, the host has selected Elizabeth Rush's Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore.

 

A new book this year, Rising addresses the issue of climate change from the standpoint of how gradually rising seas affect both nature and people, connecting science with the feelings of human experience. This is a finely observed and gorgeously written account from a genre called "creative nonfiction," which the author teaches at Brown University. Think of it as straight-ahead nonfiction composed to be sung by a soulful soprano accompanying herself on the dulcimer.   

Climate change is increasingly regarded as the most critical existential challenge that human beings have faced in recorded history, and California will be host to an international conference on the issue during the month of September. This seems an appropriate moment to turn to the subject, but in a literary fashion suitable for the book club.

If anybody wants a general and more comprehensive introduction to the whole broad and complicated topic of climate change, easy to read and without literary pretensions, obtain Climate Change: What Everyone Should Know, by Joseph Romm.   It is available in paperback, in a newly-updated, second edition.

 

The local Harvard Club book club, which has been in existence for ten years, normally meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 6:30 pm for a potluck dinner and to discuss a wide-ranging selection of books -- fiction, poetry, biography, history, etc. They always enjoy having other interested people attend and participate.

The Book Club will meet  this month at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, August 8th at at the home of Bill and Nancy Myers, 10300 Sheldon Rd, Elk Grove.

The Myers will furnish wine and dessert, and will welcome any and all types of cold dishes that attendees wish to share.  Please contact Bill Myers for more information and to RSVP.