August title - Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Our August selection is Say Nothing: A True Story of  Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe.  Our discussion will be on Tuesday August 27 at 7:00 PM.  If you'd like to start or continue our discussion, please continue in the comments below.  Despite being non-fiction, this book definitely has elements of  mystery and suspense so spoilers are possible.  If you haven't finished the book yet, proceed at your own risk!

Accepting Nominations for our September Book

The theme for September is summer vacation.  It turns out that the vacation is mine and not yours. I'm taking a vacation from curating our choices, and I'm leaving it up to members.  Here's how we'll have members give me choices from which to create this month's ballot.

• The period for nominations opens when the email is sent out
• There is nothing mandatory about participation - I will put no more than 8 books on the ballot for this month.  I
• Use blog comments below to nominate one in-print non-fiction title. You may also email me your nomination and I can post it for you.  You will be identified by your first name and the initial letter of your last name.
• To nominate a book, you should have attended the non-fiction book club at least once in the last year (strictly honor system)
• The first nomination received is guaranteed a spot on the ballot (nominations from my immediate family or {pages} employees/owners are welcome but not eligible for this guaranteed spot)
• If you like someone else's choice you may second it instead of nominating
• Seconded books are guaranteed a spot on the ballot
• You may withdraw your nomination if you later decide to second someone else's book instead (making my job that much easier)
• If I have to cull the list, it will be to balance the list or to favor people who have attended the club fairly regularly. In the two years we've been doing this, I've been able to put every nominated book on the list.
• Nominations close Friday night August 9 at midnight.  I'll try and get a ballot out sometime Saturday.

Thanks for your help. 

July Recap and Reading Ideas Inspired by Rocket Men

Thirteen of us showed up to discuss Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson.  In general, we found the book really transported us to 1968, and reminded about how much uncertainty there was over the outcome - effectively creating suspense, despite our knowledge of the ending.

There was some discussion about learning more about the sixties. Unlike other decades, there never has really been a nostalgia wave for the sixties.  One could argue that boomers have been nostalgic for the sixties since about 1971, and their nostalgia has never waned.

Here are a few fun reading ideas.

1968: The Year That Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky

Annette suggested this title by Mark Kurlansky who has written excellent books about cod and salt (both of which I've read). 1968 wasn't just an terrible year in the United States; among other events there were uprisings in Paris and Mexico City, a Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, and major carnage in Vietnam. 

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Either you're on the bus, or you're off the bus. If you don't know what I'm referring to, you simply have to read this book - which is probably more fun than actually hanging out with Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters.  Also this is essential reading for Grateful Dead fans.

Four Books of the 1960s by Norman Mailer

There are plenty of journalistic and historical accounts of the events of the sixties, but none of them have the bombast of these contemporaneous books by Norman Mailer.  To quote from jacket copy: "In a way uniquely his own, he merged the public and the private, the personal and the political, taking risks with every sentence". I'd start with Armies of the Night.

Bonus Reads:  Both Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer wrote about the space program.  Wolfe very famously in The Right Stuff, and Mailer more obscurely in Of a Fire on the Moon. Check out this recent Atlantic article about the Mailer book