New MVCC Book Club

I'm looking forward to the first meeting of the new MVCC book club, which will have its first meeting next week. We've agreed to have a mixture of fiction and nonfiction books; books that can be old or new; and generally something books that "speak to us." Most importantly, as far as I'm concerned, we're planning to have our discussion range broadly to include how an individual book relates to other topics, history, controversies, philosophy, etc.--not just be limited to the structure, content, and style of the book itself.

The very conversation in which we decided how we might operate was informative about the different approaches used by various book groups, the reasons that people like and don't like certain forms of analysis and discussion, and how wide-ranging are the talents and interests of the group's members.

Our first book will be Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. I'm particularly fascinated by Pollan's focus on the role of humans as agents of (un)natural selection, and how the intrinsic properties of certain plant species primed them for interaction with humans.

MVCC at the TrailBlazers' walk/run September 2010

A warm September morning… ten members turned out in their new emblematic T-shirts to staff the MVCC info table near the finish line

and to join in the walk down the trail to near our future home and back, or in the 5km run through Shoreline Park.

Lots more pix at MVCC at Stevens Creek Trail Race 100926