Sunday, August 9, 2020

Joe’s Shelter-in-Place Book Club

March 13th - ???

3.13.20:  My 2020 New Year’s Resolution was simply to “Read more. Eat less.”  By the end of February, I could report that my reality was exactly the opposite. :-(

Enter “social distancing” and its harsher cousin, “self-isolation”.  While arguably making it harder to “eat less”, it has given me the kick-start I needed to “read more”.

In this space, I will update the list of books as I finish them...
  1. Thanks a Lot, Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story - by Roger Daltrey
  2. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 : Volume 1- by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
  3. Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations - by Amy Chua
  4. To Save a City: The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949 - by Roger G. Miller
  5. The Who: 50 Years - The Official History - by Ben Marshall with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey
  6. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel - by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
  7. The Ox: The Authorized Biography of The Who's John Entwistle - by Paul Rees
  8. Great Society: A New History - by Amity Shlaes
  9. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't - by Malcolm Gladwell
  10. The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom - by Thomas G. West
  11. How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy, and the Saving of Time - by Matt Ridley
  12. Aristotle's Revenge:  The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science - by Edward Feser (Don't ask me about this one - it kicked my butt!)
  13. Coolidge - by Amity Shlaes
  14. Liberty:  Life, Billy, and the Pursuit of Happiness - by Liberty DeVitto
6.25.20 Update:  Well, we are well over three months into this whole COVID-19 thing.  While I still long for the day that I can attend a professional or college sporting event, or sit indoors at a restaurant or bar and be served, things are loosening up a bit.  My family and I recently got back from the beach.  My son's baseball team is starting to play tournaments again. Not normal, to be sure - but getting better.

So, for the purposes of this "book club", when does it end?  Well, as I mentioned originally, "Read more" was to be half of my New Year's Resolution.  So, I'm trying to keep the reading going ad infinitum.  But, I've decided that this published diary will end on the date that my two sons go back to full-time, in-person classes at their respective schools.

That seems logical since I chose the March 13th date because it was the date in-person classes were cancelled. As of this writing, plans have not been finalized in our school district; but, one option is a "middle ground" of a half-and-half hybrid between in-class and in-home learning.  THIS WILL NOT COUNT!  I will only consider this odyssey to be over when they are back at school full time!  (I think the parents out there can sympathize.)

8.9.20 Update:  Currently Reading:

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