Subject: UUCPA announce: Brown Bag Books

From: "Janet S. Buelow" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 13:52:55 -0800

Brown Bag Books

The next Brown Bag Book Group will be on April 5th at Noon in the Fireside
Room. Bring your lunch. We will be discussing: The Full Cupboard of Life:
More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency  by Alexander McCall Smith 
Precious Ramotswe is on the case again in this delightful fifth installment
in the bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, this time
assisting the self-made founder of a chain of hairdressing salons who wants
to unearth the real intentions of her four suitors, each possibly more
interested in her money than her heart. As fans know, though, sleuthing
takes second place to folksy storytelling in McCall Smith's wry novels. This
time around, Mma Ramotswe is distracted by her long-prolonged engagement to
Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, Gaborone's best mechanic; it seems she will never be
married, despite her fiancé's honorable intentions. He installs an extra
large seatbelt in her car to keep her safe (she is quite comfortable with
her "traditional build," despite the new, slender fashion of modern woman),
but an altercation with another mechanic and the prospect of a charity
parachute jump keep his mind off matrimony. A drive for decency motivates
Mma Ramotswe and her friends-among them Mma Potokwani, the imperious matron
of the local orphan farm, and Mma Makutsi, assistant at the Ladies'
Detective Agency and founder of the Kalahari Typing School for Men-and
Smith's talent is in portraying this moral code in a manner that is always
engaging. As readers will appreciate, Mma Ramotswe solves her cases-more
questions of character, really, than of criminal behavior-in good time.
Traditionally built ladies living in the African heat don't tend to hurry,
and, at the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, there's always time for another
cup of tea. 

 Our May book is “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference  by Malcolm Gladwell. This book is available in paperback and in
the local libraries.
>From the Amazon Review: "The best way to understand the dramatic
transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage
smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other
mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to
think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors
spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of
memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite
a few interesting twists on the subject.

"Why did crime in New York drop so suddenly in the mid-90s? How does an
unknown novelist end up a bestselling author? Why is teenage smoking out of
control, when everyone knows smoking kills? What makes TV shows like Sesame
Street so good at teaching kids how to read? Why did Paul Revere succeed
with his famous warning? In this brilliant and groundbreaking book, New
Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so
often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and
products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just
as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few
fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied
customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social
epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical
mass, is the Tipping Point. 

In The Tipping Point, Gladwell introduces us to the particular personality
types who are natural pollinators of new ideas and trends, the people who
create the phenomenon of word of mouth. He analyzes fashion trends, smoking,
children's television, direct mail and the early days of the American
Revolution for clues about making ideas infectious, and visits a religious
commune, a successful high-tech company, and one of the world's greatest
salesmen to show how to start and sustain social epidemics. The Tipping
Point is an intellectual adventure story written with an infectious
enthusiasm for the power and joy of new ideas. Most of all, it is a road map
to change, with a profoundly hopeful message--that one imaginative person
applying a well-placed lever can move the world."

Any questions? Contact Janet Buelow at [email-masked] 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

-  Margaret Mead

Regards,

Janet Buelow

[email-masked]  Note New Email Address

650-941-0403