January Book: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

The book is a collection of 'economic' articles written by Levitt, an expert who has already gained a reputation for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists; he does, however, accept the standard neoclassical microeconomic model of rational utility-maximization. In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives. The book's topics include:

• Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers (See below)
• Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
• Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers
• Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion may have played in reducing crime. (Levitt explored this topic in an earlier paper entitled "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.")
• Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education
• Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children

December Book: Runaway by alice Munro

Join us for one of north america's best writers, Alic Munro, as she tells her fascinating stories. Munro's prose and writing haunt us as we end each story. At times intense and depressing, these stores never failed to capture our hearts and minds.
- E. B.

November:Cutting for Stone

Join us for Abraham Verghese's latest masterpiece! Two brothers conjoined at birth grow up in Ethiopia to become physicians in america - a coming of age and hisorical fiction novel in one! Beautifully written and compelling.

Northampton Men's Book Group: October Book: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

Northampton Men's Book Group: October Book: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/books/review/Robinson-t.html

October Book: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

This is the second book by Russo that the NMBG has selected. Russo combines middle aged male angst with a sharp wit to create a pretty thoughtful and humorous read. I am sure there will be much discussion about our hero Griffin and his multiple relationships and failings. Any resemblance to any specific book group member is purely coincidental.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/books/review/Robinson-t.html

September book: Feed, by M.T. Anderson

Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.

--from Nicholas Carr's article in the Atlantic Monthly

The September gathering to discuss Feed, by M.T. Anderson has been rescheduled to avoid Rosh Hashanah. We will meet at the Hooks Davis's on September 15. It's been a long time to read a short book, so, in addition to the article cited above, here are some other suggestions for supplemental "reading":
The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr
Digital Overload, on NPRs Fresh Air
Multitasking Teens, more NPR
Interview with Nicholas Carr
something by Sherry Turkle, like maybe this interview

Here's what some Barnes & Noble reader/reviewers had to say about Feed:

• The book in general is directed towards teens and a youthful age group. In other words, for those who can understand the humor and withstand the language. The novel is far from horrendous and far from a must-read.
• Many of the phrases and scenarios described in the reading are NOT for easily offended church goers.
• I loved the writing style of this book. The dialoge was very similar to ours but for the fact that they said words like mal and unit. Anderson's style of writing made tha book very interesting and a page-turner. I truly believe that you should read this inticing book about the future and the technology of it. It takes you on a ride of confusion and intensity.
• Overall I didn't really like the book because it had strange text or I should the way the author wrote how the characters talk was strange. In the beginning of the book it really threw me off because it described how they were all on the moon and had lesions and some guy was hacking into everyone's feed. I didn't get that at all.
• I'm pretty sure we all won't have feeds in our heads telling us what to wear or what's popular and what isn't and lesions randomly appearing on our bodies. All we have to do is watch t.v. or go online and get updated on the new trends and fashions.
• I enjoyed having dialogue with my teenager after we both read this book, determining the relativity to her personal reality in high school and the main characters. It is an eye-opening look into a future we all say we don't want while we merrily IM and text and surf for a better tomorrow.

July book: Burnt Shadows, by Kamila Shamsie

Join us at Mr Hunter's for "Burnt Shadows" by Kamila Shamsie. Shamsie’s complex fifth novel, spanning the years between August 1945 and September 2001, is a story of two inextricably connected and politically impacted families. Berliner Konrad Weiss and Hiroko Tanaka, his translator, meet in Nagasaki and plan to marry. But after he is incinerated by the bomb and she is left permanently scarred, Hiroko journeys to Delhi, home of Konrad’s half-sister, Elizabeth Burton, and her British husband, James. Hiroko bonds with James’ assistant, Sajjad. With Partition between India and Pakistan looming, the Burtons return to England, where their son Henry is in boarding school. Hiroko and Sajjad marry, but they’re not allowed back into India, since Sajjad is a Muslim who “chose to leave.” Shamsie takes up their story 35 years later in Karachi, where they have one son, Raza, after bomb-related miscarriages. Henry appears, searching for his past, and offers to assist with Raza’s education; by 2001, they’re working together for the CIA in the U.S. Shamsie offers a moving look at the “complicated shared history” of these two families, an increasingly common facet of globalization. --
SEE INTERVIEW WITH KAMILA: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3I71LSQ7D8E2

June Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

Join us in June for "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". An epic tale of serial murder and corporate trickery spanning several continents, the novel takes in complicated international financial fraud and the buried evil past of a wealthy Swedish industrial family. Through its main character, it also references classic forebears of the crime thriller genre while its style mixes aspects of the sub-genres. There are references to Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, as well as Sue Grafton, Val McDermid, Elizabeth George, Sara Paretsky, and several other key authors of detective novels. A journalist and magazine editor in Stockholm until his death, Larsson reveals a knowledge and enjoyment of both English and American crime fiction. He declared that he wrote his opus for his own pleasure in the evenings after work.^[1]

May book: Unaccustomed Earth

Join us for the third Lahiri book of the NMBG. She now reaches only a few other authors whose work has ben enjoyed more than twice. Can you name them?

Bengali families struggling to deal with identity and life in the US
From the files of "women we love"

April Book : City of Thieves by Benioff

This hard-to-put-down novel is based on the authors's grandfather's stories about surviving WWII in Russia. Having elected to stay in Leningrad during the siege, 17-year-old Lev Beniov is caught looting a German paratrooper's corpse. The penalty for this infraction (and many others) is execution. But when Colonel Grechko confronts Lev and Kolya, a Russian army deserter also facing execution, he spares them on the condition that they acquire a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Their mission exposes them to the most ghoulish acts of the starved populace and takes them behind enemy lines to the Russian countryside. There, Lev and Kolya take on an even more daring objective: to kill the commander of the local occupying German forces. A wry and sympathetic observer of the devastation around him, Lev is an engaging and self-deprecating narrator who finds unexpected reserves of courage at the crucial moment and forms an unlikely friendship with Kolya, a flamboyant ladies' man who is coolly reckless in the face of danger. Benioff blends tense adventure, a bittersweet coming-of-age and an oddly touching buddy narrative to craft a smart crowd-pleaser. (May)

Why men are forming their own book clubs - The Boston Globe

Why men are forming their own book clubs - The Boston Globe

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March book: "Terrorist" by John Updike (at Paul's)

Join us for the eerily true fictional account of a teenager Arab American sorting out his life in a post 9/11 New Jersey. The story is told as no one but Updike could do.

February Book: The White Tiger

Join us for a fascinating exploration of the caste system in India as told through the eyes of "one from the darkness", a servant driver.