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Talisker Literary Society (TLS) - A  book club in the Palo Alto area.

Members: Glenn Carpenter, Jym Clendenin, Kim Cranston,  John Herb (2019), Rick Lenon, Dick Schupbach, Todd Smith (4/2018), Nat Sterling, Arthur Whitney

TLS display at Kepler's (March 10, 2010)

List of Books the Group Has Read

Commentary:

The 10 Best Books Through Time - New York Times

100 Notable Books of 2020 - New York Times

6/3/2019. Here's how to keep a book club together for decades (it involves wine) - by Barbara Lane in San Francisco Chronicle

5/4/2016. Men Have Book Clubs, Too - by Jennifer Miller in NYTimes.

8/11/2015. Straw poll on who would be the Republican nominee: Bush 6, Rubio 2, Walker 1.

          Later: Trump won not only the nomination but also the presidency.

4/22/2014. Really? You're Not in a Book Club? - Commentary by James Atlas in NYTimes.

10/8/2013. Will there be any changes in the Affordable Care Act (Obambacare) in exchange for a government shutdown/debt limit compromise. A poll of members: 8 no, 1 abstention, 1 or 2 yes. Later: There were no changes to the ACA.

10/31/2012. Results of members' considered opinions on who is most likely to win the presidential election. The opinions were collected by email, each member not knowing the opinion of the others.

Results:

Obama 7, Romney 1, not voting (2).

Later: Obama won the election.

6/2012. Kepler's Bookstore has been our main source for books. They have now shut down for the summer with the announced intention of reconfiguring the business to succeed in an era when independent bookstores seem to be almost extinct.

4/18/2012 (Ann Patchett in a NYTimes OP-ED on the Pulitzer non-award). "Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps."

4/18/2012 (NS). The Pulitzer board declined to award a prize for fiction this year — the first time that has happened since 1977 when they took a pass on tA River Runs Through It. This year's nominees were Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell, and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. The Pulitzer board gave no reason for their action.

3/3/2012 (JC). The Reading Revolution. Gutenberg's printing press introduced 1452. By 18th century books published per year shot up, especially noteworthy is the popularity of secular materials (fiction as well as non-fiction).  By early 19th century the majority of Western Europeans were literate. This revolution surely influenced the subsequent dramatic decrease (as a percentage of the total population) in violence in Western Europe. See Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of our Nature (2012), p. 173ff.

2/15/2012. Results of members' vote on current Republican presidential candidate most likely to win the nomination. Results:

Romney 6, Gingrich 1, Santorum 0, None of Above 3, Undecided 1

These results are a little confusing since there were only 10 present and voting. The actual count of "None of Above" was probably "2", i.e., a None of the Above vote was changed to Undecided but the tally for None of the Above wasn't reduced. Later: Romney won the nomination.

3/8/2011. Given that the Mid-Peninsula (Congressional District 14) is the happiest area in the nation (see Happiness link), we took a poll of those in attendance (DC, JC, KC, RL, DS, NS, AW).  On the question of "Are you happy?", all 7 indicated "yes."

11/4/2008. So it happens Obama has been elected the next President of the United States of America.

9/8/2008. DC, JC, KC, PN, NS and AW vote 5 to 1 that they expect Obama to win the Presidential election this November. However, no one expressed much confidence that this will actually be the outcome. Later: Obama won the election.

Links:

The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years: The New York Time's book critics select the most outstanding memoirs published since 1969 (NY Times, 2019)

Every Title Barbara Lane's Book Club Has Read (SF Chronicle Datebook, Jun 3, 2019)

Is Listening to a Book the Same as Reading It? (The New York Times, 12/8/2018) by Daniel T. Willingham

The Biggest Fiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years (The Literary Hub, 11/27/2018) by Emily Temple

Thinking Person's Book Series Also Looks Great on Instagram (The New York Times, April 9, 2018) by Steven Kurutz

Top 12 Books of the Decade, (Delancyplace June 1, 2015)

Discovered: The Happiest Man in America (NY Times, Mar 5, 2011) by Catherine Rampell.

Read 'em and weep: The literary masters of misery who delight in desolation (The Independent, Jan 24, 2010) by James Kidd.

The Book Club With Just One Member (NY Times, Jan 23, 2010) by Motoko Rich.

How Should Fiction Be Read? (Slate, Dec 28, 2009) by Nathan Heller.