February Nominations

Happy Valentine's Day!

For the month of love, we're reading a book with a "Romance" theme. 

Here are your nominations for this month's book!

Movie night this Friday! "John Dies At The End"

Hi guys,

So our social committee has put together a movie night for us this Friday (25th). The movie is "John Dies At The End", based on the book we read last October.

The film was released a while ago in limited capacity, so this is an exciting opportunity to see the movie you might not get a chance to see otherwise! 

The details are below:

What: John Dies At The End movie screening

When: Friday, Jan 25th at 4pm sharp!

Where: Media Commons in Robarts 3rd Floor, Room #1

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my9Pr-W92SM]

Many thanks to Anoo from the social committee who will be on hand to set up!

See you guys there!

Book of January 2013!

I'd like to thank everyone for voting.

It was close, but the votes are in and the book of January is....

January Nominations + meeting!

Hi everyone, 

The January nominations are in! Here are the 3 books nominated for this month are: 

1) "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel H. Pink

The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't.

Drawing on research from around the world, Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others) outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment--and reveals how to master them. A Whole New Mind takes readers to a daring new place, and a provocative and necessary new way of thinking about a future that's already here.

2) "Imagine: how creativity works" by Jonah Lehrer

Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?

From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.

Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.

3) "Sex at Dawn" by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science--as well as religious and cultural institutions--has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing. Fewer and fewer couples are getting married, and divorce rates keep climbing as adultery and flagging libido drag down even seemingly solid marriages.

Ryan and Jethá's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. The authors expose the ancient roots of human sexuality while pointing toward a more optimistic future illuminated by our innate capacities for love, cooperation, and generosity.

Vote for the books here:

December 2012 Meeting

Hi guys!

I hope everyone's exams are going well. Now that we're into December and exams will be over before you know it, we would like to plan this month's meeting and/or movie night!

But in order to plan that, we need to know how many people can make it this month!

Please take the time to vote in the poll below. If you don't see a date you like, feel free to comment with your preferred date/time below!

December 2012 Meeting
	Dec 21, 2012
	Dec 22, 2012
	Dec 23, 2012
	Other (please specify in comment below)
pollcode.com free polls

http://poll.pollcode.com/b43dmy

Thanks!

Books of November & December!

It's a double whammy!

Because of upcoming exams, we've decided to announce books of November and December at once, so you guys can read through these books when you get the time, and don't have to worry about picking a new book for December, when all you really want to do is eat chocolate and memorize those enzyme names :P

November: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

I chose this book for November because it is an extremely easy and fun read, which makes it a great distraction from all the school work that will no doubt pile up for you guys around this time. The book is well written and if you haven't already seen/read any of Kaling's work, this is a great introduction!

About the book:

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” 
 
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

 

December: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

This is a book we've heard a lot about this year as the film adaptation was released just recently, so when one of our group members submitted this as a nomination, I was delighted at the opportunity to read this novel. I've watched the movie and it was great, so I'm looking forward to digging into this book over Chrismas break!

About the book:

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation—the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

In his captivating third novel, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of language, genre and time to offer a meditation on humanity’s dangerous will to power, and where it may lead us.

 

I hope you guys enjoy these books. Our next meeting will be December after exams, and we will be discussing the Kaling book. Cloud Atlas will be discussed in our January meeting.

Good luck!

-Aditi.

November meeting and nominations!

Hi guys!

It's mid-November already! The leaves have almost all fallen off, the weather is getting cold, and Bookends is ready for another meeting ;)

This month, due to previous commitments on my part, I will not be able to host an in person meeting. However, I WILL be hosting an online meeting - chatroom discussion for those of you who would like to discuss our October novel "John Dies At The End". If you are unable to make it to our online meeting, we will also create a forum thread for you to contribute your thoughts to.

Also, we are looking for nominations for our November book. The theme is: Holidays! I know it's not Christmas yet, but this way, we can read ahead and watch a Holiday-themed movie at our December meeting. Preferrably, we are looking for books that have been turned into movies or classics. Something like A Christmas Carol, though more modern books are of course also welcome. 

Please submit your nominations by commenting on this posting or emailing us at bookends06@gmail.com.

And now, please vote for the time you would like our online meeting to be!

November Online Meeting

Looking forward to chatting with you!

-Aditi.