We have partnered with SJNY to create a virtual book club for alumni, faculty and staff, covering lifelong learning, personal growth, novels and other topics in which the participants are interested. The book club will connect through a private forum where all participants can discuss the current book and network with each other. Joining is completely free, sponsored by Geico; you only have to get a copy of the book to enjoy. The book club will read one book every two months so that you will have plenty of time for each book.
by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
"A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family–and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for–and everything she feared."
"Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter–she doesn’t behave like most children do. Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well. Then their son Sam is born–and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth. The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed."
1. Embrace Lifelong Learning: The facilitated book club will broaden your career and provide new insights to get results in making you more effective in areas including leadership, communications skills, and achieving a fulfilling life.
2. Connect with Fellow alumni, faculty and staff: Our book club will introduce you to fellow alumni across industries, generations, and geographies all while gaining different perspectives while reading the book. The network you will be building may help you with career advice, introduce you to new people, and find your next opportunity.
3. Reading Is Good for You: Reading can reduce stress, help you sleep better, and improve your relationships [1]. Did we mention it also makes you smarter? Reading increases your verbal intelligence, your emotional intelligence, and your creativity [2].
Below are a few examples of the kind of books the group may read. We will vote between several options each period and select a book based on reader interests.
We plan to start the book club by reading one book every two months. The texts selected will be lifelong learning, personal growth, novels and other topics and take an average of nine hours to read cover to cover. If you have between 1 and 2 hours a week to read you should be fine.
No, the book club will be entirely online. You can participate anywhere you have Internet access and on days and times that are convenient to you.
Participation is free for all alumni, faculty and staff! --Sponsored by Geico
Participants can get books for free at their local library or purchase them.
The book club will have a moderator from PBC Guru who manages the forum where discussions occur online. The moderator will pose questions to the book club, share relevant articles and facilitate conversation about topics in the book. Members will be encouraged to post and share as well. This format allows for ongoing conversation and makes it easy for readers to connect with each other through the forum.
We're using a private forum to host the virtual book club so it's easy to connect with fellow alumni. During our sign up process, you will enter the information to auto-generate your free profile. After you complete the sign up, we'll send you a link to the forum and you can begin to post right away!
Professional Book Club (PBC) Guru is a book club management company that works with businesses, alumni associations and professional societies. We are teaming up with PBC to put this program in place for alumni, faculty and staff. You can check out their website at www.pbc.guru if you want to see more of what they do.
If you are already a member, you can click here to log in.
Feel free to send an email to info@pbc.guru and we will be happy to help.
1 The Expert Editor, 2016, https://experteditor.com.au/blog/brain-books-benefits-reading/
2 Harvard Business Review, 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/08/for-those-who-want-to-lead-rea/
