REALLY SERIOUS BOOK CLUB Our January book is the 600 page Presidents of War: The Epic Story from 1807 to Modern Times by Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian who is often featured on PBS or other television channels. An excellent writer, Beschloss presents personal details and background that yield a different view on … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Norton Schwartz and reviewed Secret Empires by investigative reporter Peter Schweizer wherein he reveals how politicians like Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump use their office to entice foreign investors for their personal gain, relying on their family or close associates as front people to … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Norton Schwartz and discussed the world of spies and conflicting national agendas in the context of the greatest secret agent for the British as recorded in The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre. Real life, in this case the stories of Oleg Gordievsky and Aldrich Ames, matched the fictional … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Mike Harrod and reviewed The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks. History and geology of the variety strata revealed in the analysis of rock formations, the ages of humans and dinosaurs, the shifting of earth plates leading to earthquakes, and the stability of civilization in our lifetime were subjects … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Norton Schwartz to discuss 1776 by Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, which read like a high stakes drama about our fight for liberation from England. Despite incredible opening disadvantages and lost battles, lost enlistments, inadequate arms and supplies, and fighting against highly … [Read more...]

Mary Crowl hosted the Really Serious Book Club meeting in July. We reviewed Nathaniel Philbrick’s Sea of Glory about one of the world’s most ambitious voyages of discovery—the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, which set off to map the entire Pacific Ocean, dwarfing the Lewis and Clark expedition.The flora and fauna brought back from the … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Bill and Susan Imbriale to discuss The Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian, one of the originators of the “Big History” notion. This book addresses the origins of the universe, of humankind, of civilizations, of science and culture and, toward the end, what many of the … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Lakshman Sehgal and discussed The Case against the Supreme Court by Erwin Chemerinsky, wherein he cited some really, really terrible decisions made by the court, but he didn’t cite any of the many good decisions. Chemerinsky had recommendations to improve the court, like increasing the size, limiting … [Read more...]

REALLY SERIOUS BOOK CLUBThe Really Serious Book Club met March 20 at the home of Norton Schwartz to discuss The Common Good by Robert Reich. The decline of politicians and business executives in concern for the common good has been evident since the Nixon years to Newt Gingrich down through Donald Trump. We discussed how this trend might be … [Read more...]

The Really Serious Book Club met at the home of Mike Harrod and discussed Political Tribes—Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, by Amy Chua. The author examines our continued failure to recognize the sub-cultural differences and subtleties of the nations and areas we have invaded in the past, such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran and Syria that … [Read more...]