After a year of Zooms run by the Fifth hosts, January 6th 2021 brought not only folks to the capital but also a publicly shared Zoom link into the ether. The rest, as they say, is history. Regular community Zooms, Clubhouse, Twitter DMs, WhatsApp chats, romance, and this very book club spawned. From across the country and around the world, we met to discuss books mentioned on the podcast as well as our personal favorites.
Today, we have a wealth of subscribers to this (not so) humble Substack and about 100 yahoos in our WhatsApp chat meeting on a regular basis to share thoughts, feelings, and experiences on a certain selection, culled from the chaff by multi-stage votes.
If you’d like to join us, please do. We’re currently reading Blood Meridian and having a totally cool, casual time. Our discuss session will be May 5th, around Noon Eastern so the Brits can play along at home and California can get their Cinco started early. Zoom link will be sent a day or two in advance.
Our upcoming selections are as follows (peep this post to see vote tallies):
Zone of Interest (34)
On Liberty (32)
Migrations and Cultures (32)
1948 (30)
Ben B. has done the work and compiled and linked all the books we’ve read so far. What a star.
The Revolt of the Public: And the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium - Martin Gurri
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up A Generation For Failure - Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt
Nutshell - Ian McEwan
Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left - Roger Scruton
Anarchy, State, and Utopia - Robert Nozick
Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought - Jonathan Rauch
Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion - Jonathan Haidt
Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall - Anna Funder
Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World - Tom Holland
Letters to a Young Contrarian - Christopher Hitchens
You Must Remember This - Kat Rosenfield
Stalin's War: A New History of World War II - Sean McMeekin
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, The Ayatollah, and the West - Daniel Pipes
Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict - Oren Kessler
I’m not much of a reader, but I gather that we’re storming the capital on May 5th? I’ll stock up on Blood Meridians, whatever those are.
I'll catch you all on the next read. I have a few serious ones right now - and dammit if I add another. Summertime I can focus on TFC Reading & Crochet Circle.