May Not Fiction Book Discussion

Jenny Odell, author of last month's book, How to Do Nothing, acknowledges the influence of this month's book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, to her own thinking about the power of our attention. Kimmerer, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, brings together these two points of view, the scientific and the reverential, to awaken our ecological consciousness. With a lyrical blend of precise detail and engaging storytelling, Kimmerer helps us to see the world around us with new eyes.

We hope you will join the discussion:

When? Tuesday, May 4, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? We will meet virtually on CCPL's Zoom server. Here is a link to register for the May meeting: 

Hi there, 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 

When: May 4, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqceisqjkvGdQlXPa0Wx5dyNGMbiuz9u5K 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Readalikes: If you liked April's selection . . .

 If you liked How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell, then you might also enjoy these books suggested by our discussion group members:

• World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
• Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
• Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross
• Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• The Overstory by Richard Powers
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
• The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff

If you enjoyed Nomadland by Jessica Bruder . . .

If you enjoyed Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder, which we read together in 2018, then you might enjoy this interview with Bruder from Esquire that a discussion group member shared: Nomadland Is a Real Human Story That's Not Over Yet by Adrienne Westenfeld. Bruder tells us how some of the people she featured in her book are doing, what life on the road is like during the pandemic, and what it was like for her book to be made into an award-winning film by Chloé Zhao featuring some of the actual nomads she profiles.