Book Club to Meet Wednesday, August 8, at 6:30 p.m.
Book Selection: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Harvard literature professor Stephen Greenblatt, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) by Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius was lost for 1000 years. When Renaissance thinkers discovered it, the world changed. The poem has inspired poets, philosophers and scientists from Galileo to Einstein. Reknowned Harvard literature and humanities professor Stephen Greenblatt took the poem's discovery, translation, and explosive impact on Western thought as the core of his 2012 Pulitzer prize-winning book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. This engrossing, idea-packed book is anything but pedantic. New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner, one of the book's many fans, calls it, "...well-brewed coffee with lots of milk and sugar stirred in; it's a latte, not an espresso."
Bill Myers has chosen The Swerve as the August Book Club selection. Club members will discuss the book at Bill's house in East Elk Grove over a potluck supper. Bill will provide a main dish and wine to go with it. Attendees can pick heirloom tomatoes in his garden to put in their salad. RSVP to Bill wemyers@cal.net to say you are coming and what you will bring. He'll provide the address and directions when you call. It should be a lot of fun.