Book Club

We’ll take a break for December & the holidays.
The next meeting of the CUMC Book Club will be
Monday, January 23rd at 12:30pm in the Fireside Room.
(Bring your lunch along if you like!)

At the January meeting, we’ll discuss Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Dr. Yuval Noah Harari. A NYT best-seller, from a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

The Book Club meets every 4th Monday 12:30 – 2:00pm from September through June
on the Campbell UMC Campus – in the Fireside Room. 
We can also zoom you in to the meeting if you’d like and are unable to attend in person!

  ——————————  Upcoming Months’ Selections  ——————————

(Upcoming Titles fall under this section, then move to previous selections after the meetings.)

_______________________________________________________

December 2024 – NO MEETING – Enjoy the holidays and your families – start the next book!   😉

_______________________________________________________

January 2025 – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Dr. Yuval Noah Harari

Meeting:  January 27th, 2025 – in the Fireside Room

#1 New York Times & Int’l Bestseller & NYT Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

_______________________________________________________

February 2025 – The Mountain in the Sea  by Ray Nayler (Silicon Valley Reads Book)

Meeting:  February 24th, 2025 – in the Fireside Room

Each February, we read one of the Silicon Valley Reads books. The 2025 theme is “Empowering Humanity: Technology for a Better World.” 

Of the three SVR books, the Book Club selected, “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler. The Washington Post called Mountain a “poignant, mind-expanding debut” and Slate called it “(a) wondrous novel.” The book was also a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury Awards. 

Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.
The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed off the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where a species of octopus has been discovered that may have developed its own language and culture. The marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them. She travels to the islands to join DIANIMA’s team: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first (and possibly last) android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. As Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.
But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. Or what they might do about it…

Silicon Valley Reads is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic.  The goals are to encourage the love of reading and learning and to have a welcoming forum where our diverse community can come together to share different perspectives.  Books for the year’s selected theme can be easily found at local library systems such as Santa Clara Cty Library and San Jose Public Library.
(Audio and eBooks are readily available now too via the Libby app).

______________________________________________________

March 2025 – White Robes & Broken Badges: Infiltrating the KKK and Exposing the Evil Among Us by Joe Moore

Meeting:  March 24th, 2025 – in the Fireside Room

In this shocking memoir, a former FBI informant reveals what he learned from successfully infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the backwoods of the Sunshine State, uncovering details about the hate group’s structure and its modern far-right spinoffs which are operating to achieve the same goal: inciting a second civil war by whatever violent means necessary.

“We need you back.” It was a call FBI informant and former Army sniper Joe Moore never expected to get. He’d already infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan once before, and his contributions prevented an assassination attempt targeting then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Moore nearly lost his life in the process. But now, the FBI needed Moore’s help once again.

In White Robes and Broken Badges, Moore reveals the astounding true story of how he became one of the most entrenched and valuable undercover agents in the FBI’s history. Gripping, told with astonishing detail, this heart pounding and darkly propulsive memoir vividly recounts how he infiltrated the “Invisible Empire” at the highest levels—not once, but twice—becoming a Grand Knighthawk, overseeing security, defense, and internal communications for the domestic terrorist group across Florida and Georgia.

______________________________________________________

April 2025 – The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact & the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Bonnie Garmus

Meeting:  April 28th, 2025 – in the Fireside Room

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. 

Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration during the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, his dedication to science,  and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. His first landing in Hawaii was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to a fatal encounter.

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.

_______________________________________________________

May 2025 – The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou

Meeting:  3rd Monday, May 19th, 2025 – in the Fireside Room

In The Heart of a Woman, Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to move to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers, reads her work at the Harlem Writers Guild, and begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world.
In the meantime, her personal life takes an unexpected turn. She leaves the bail bondsman she was intending to marry after falling in love with a South African freedom fighter, travels with him to London and Cairo, where she discovers new opportunities.

The Heart of a Woman is filled with unforgettable vignettes of such renowned people as Billie Holiday and Malcom X, but perhaps most importantly chronicles the joys and the burdens of a black mother in America and how the son she has cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.

_______________________________________________________

June 2025 – Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakaur

Meeting:  June 23rd, 2025 – in the Fireside Room

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities.
(*Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU.)

Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. 

At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

_______________________________________________________

——————————— Previous Months’ Selections ——————————— 

(Titles fall under this section as we meet & complete the books.)

_______________________________________________________

November 2024 – Believe Me: A memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard

Meeting:  November 25th, 2024 – in the Fireside Room

The critically acclaimed, award-winning British comedian and actor details his childhood, his first performances on the streets of London, his ascent to worldwide success on stage and screen, and his comedy shows, which have won over audiences around the world.

Over the course of a 30-year career, Eddie Izzard has proven himself to be a creative chameleon, inhabiting the stage and film and television screens with an unbelievable fervor. Born in Yemen and raised in Ireland, Wales, and postwar England, the self-proclaimed “executive transvestite,” broke the mold performing in full makeup and heels and has become as famous for his advocacy for LGBT rights as he has for his art. In Believe Me, he recounts the dizzying rise he made from street busking to London’s West End to Wembley Stadium and New York’s Madison Square Garden. Honest and generous, Izzard’s Believe Me is an inspired account of a very singular life thus far.

_______________________________________________________

October 2024 – The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning by A.J. Jacobs

Meeting:  October 28th, 2024 – in the Fireside Room

The New York Times bestselling author chronicles his hilarious adventures in attempting to follow the original meaning of the Constitution, as he searches for answers to one of the most pressing issues of our time: How should we interpret America’s foundational document? 

The book blends unforgettable adventures—delivering a handwritten petition to Congress, applying for a Letter of Marque to become a legal pirate for the government, and battling redcoats as part of a Revolutionary War reenactment group—with dozens of interviews from constitutional experts from both sides. Jacobs dives deep into Originalism and Living Constitutionalism, the two rival ways of interpreting the document.   Audible available    302 pages

_______________________________________________________

*Book selections from the 2023-2024 session have moved here.

See more of previous years’ book selections.