Tag: books

Spontaneous Book Group NEW!

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Do you sometimes hear about a book and wish you could talk to a friend who’d already read it before you make the investment of time and possibly money?

Or you’re half way through a book and really want to talk with some like-minded person/s about the ideas before continuing.

To complement other book groups at UCV (2nd Sunday where they choose a book and Potluck Books where people show up and share what they’ve been reading–and sometimes the actual books too!) a new group is starting.

Along the lines of Christina’s Baldwin’s “Calling the Circle”, anyone in the group can “call the circle” – by putting out an email suggesting when and where you’re inviting people to get together and the intention. i.e. it might be to discuss a particular book, or it might be potluck-style: come and tell us what you’re reading.

Another approach would be to have one or two people who have read a particular book, present it and reading is optional for the others. (This format borrowed from Toronto First’s Issues and Ideas group.) We’ll use this approach for the Zero Waste Book Club.

Mary Bennett has set up an email group for any who want to participate. If you join, you’ll get some invitations and you’ll be expected to now and again “call the circle”.  #SharedLeadership

Interested in book clubs? Here are some of the other book groups going at UCV.

2nd Sunday Book Club. Contact Rob Dainow

Potluck Book and Lunch Club. Contact Nan Gregory

Zero Waste Book Group.  http://vancouverunitarians.ca/zero-waste-book-group/

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For contact information, schedules and other small group opportunities, contact Membership Outreach Coordinator, Derrick at moc@vancouverunitarians.ca

 

 

Live from many places…it’s the CUC!!

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The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) is an organization of Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist member congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists acting to enhance, nurture and promote the Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist religion in Canada.

Learn more this way:

  • Subscribe to the CUC Monthly eNews.
  • Read the January 2021 CUC eNews
  • Read previous issues of the CUC Monthly eNews
  • Pad your resume! Join in local discussions with UCV’s Unitarian Universalist Connections Committee (UUCC) about CUC’s mission, vision, goals, and strategic priorities, and, if you’re a congregational member or an associate member, become eligible to be a voting delegate. Contact UUCC Chair Keith Wilkinson, or members Lynn Armstrong, Kiersten Moore, Olivia Hall, or Emilie Adin.

Mark your calendar
for the 2021 Canadian Unitarian Council Conference and take part from the comfort of your home!
CUC National Conference 2021: Sustaining Our Light – Online via Zoom

  • Saturday, 8 May 2021 – CUC AGM
  • Friday, May 14 – Sunday, 16, 2021
  • Details to follow at the CUC Conference website. (Registration opens 15 Mar 2021)

Participate in the AGM Motions Roundtable 2021
Saturday, 20 February 2021 at 9 am PT |10 am MT | 11 am CT |12  pm  ET |1 pm AT
Online via Zoom: http://bit.ly/CUCMotions   Join us for a discussion session on the motions…

(The big stone photos were taken at E’eyalmo in winter 2021 and spring 2020.)

And while you’re waiting…here are a few book and podcast suggestions from me (Keith Wilkinson) that I thought were consistent with Unitarian principles and sources. My 8 favourites are marked with asterisks*.

On democracy and autocracy

  • Sarah Kendzior, 2020. Hiding in plain sight *
  • Sarah Kendzior, 2018. The view from flyover country
  • Steven Livitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, 2018. How democracies die *
  • Kishore Mahbubani, 2018. Has the West lost it?
  • Timothy Snyder, 2017. On tyranny *
  • Hannah Arendt, 1973, The origins of totalitarianism
  • Left right and centre (a PRX podcast) *
    “PRX is a non-profit media company specializing in audio journalism and storytelling. We believe strong public media is anchored in journalism, strengthened with diverse voices, and amplified by innovative technology”)
  • IQ2US Debates – Intelligence Squared US Debates (a Panoply podcast) *

On equity and racial justice

  • Layla F. Saad, 2020. Me and white supremacy
  • Isabel Wilkerson, 2020. Caste: The origins of our discontents *
  • Isabel Wilkerson, 2010. The warmth of other suns

On persistence and gender equity

  • Victoria James, 2020. Wine girl
  • Sara Seager, 2020. The smallest lights in the universe *
  • Chris Hadfield, 2013. An astronaut’s guide to life

Poetry

  • Margaret Atwood, 2020. Dearly *

 

All Ages Book and Video Sharing Online Group

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by Paula Vander

Did your heart do a little gasp when you heard the libraries were closed? Did the locked door of your own library, with all those lonely books behind it, convince you that we were really and truly locked down?

If you are someone who loves to read, you will enjoy the book sharing zoom meetings. You will find your peeps.

Everyone shares a bit about the books they are reading and sometimes films they have seen on Netflix too. This way you can start to assemble a good dream list of books to take out when we finally, finally can get back into our libraries!

from Mary: Bruce and Phaedra are regulars, as are Paula and myself. We welcome others of all ages.

Bruce helped Phaedra put her book review on a video.

If you love kids and young adult books, please have one ready to share according to who’s on the call.

You can also ask some questions or for recommendations.

This past week I asked for some discussion related to Jane Eyre so I’m ready to watch the National Theatre broadcast. I got a great context-setting and additional reading (or re-reading) of various 19th century novels. I’ve now posted a request for Middlemarch on my Buy Nothing Group. Confession: Although I owned a copy and it was required reading, I no longer have it and (oops) never did finish reading it.

 

Do you love books?  and lunch? 

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by Karen Theroux

The new UCV Potluck Book and Lunch Club brings together good books, delicious food, and lively conversation.  Unlike most book clubs, the PLB&LC doesn’t choose one book for everyone to read. Instead, members bring one, or two, or more favorites to describe and recommend. We go around the table highlighting what’s special about our choices, sometimes reading passages aloud, and we talk about how the books—magical, tragic, uplifting, revealing, inspiring, or sad—have touched and changed us. All books and all readers are welcome. 

If you love books, why not join the club?  Meetings are the last Thursday of the month, 11 to 1 in the Fireside Room.  

Here are some of the titles from the club’s most recent meetings: 

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

The Shoebox Bible by Alan Bradley

Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kampkwanda

The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Celia’s Song by Lee Maracle

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Becoming by Michelle Obama

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Sustenance by Rachel Rose

The Trans Generation by Ann Travers

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese

Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Annabel by Kathleen Winter 

Once Upon a Time by Jane Yolen 

This One Looks Like a Boy by Lorimer Shenher

Do you enjoy life writing? Register for the new group

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UPDATE: The group is now full and Andrea is taking a wait list in case there are cancellations in future.

A writing group will start meeting every two weeks starting in September facilitated by Andrea Nicki, author of three prose poetry books, editor, and professor in ethical leadership at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In each meeting of 90 minutes the group will discuss short pieces of life writing or prose poetry on a topic, write individually about the topic, and then share writing with others (optional) in a spirit of mutual appreciation.

Topics will include self-love, relationships, family, genealogy, trauma, illness, loss, life transition, healing, fun and play, movement, dance, beauty, nature, pets and animals, social justice, spirituality and mystery. All genders and ages 19+ are welcome!

Registration is required: nicandr4@aol.com.
The meeting time of the group will be determined after taking a poll of registrants.
sponsored by Arts Committee.

Andrea Nicki

Andrea’s website: http://www.andreanicki.com/

Canadian Unitarian Book Clubs on Zoom

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Starting in January, 2019, there will be one or more cross-country book groups meeting using Zoom technology.

This idea was initiated by Mary Maler of the Montreal congregation. Email Mary Maler to learn more, make suggestions or read further for other ways to share your ideas.

Mary Maler was looking for online book clubs and noticed that the European Unitarian Universalists have a book club.  Because of time zone differences, they met at a time that was inconvenient for her. She proposed through the CUC e-news that we start one in Canada. 

You can vote on which books will be discussed here.  https://tinyurl.com/unitarianbooks until Dec. 28, 2018.

For now we’re sticking to the winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards for the past ten years. CUC will provide a Zoom link for the groups. 

We suggest each group have a maximum of 8 people, possibly starting with five or six and then adding people once the group has worked out their guidelines. 

To be on the call you should have read the book, be prepared to participate and have registered in advance. Confirmation of participants, book title and date/time will be sent out on the googlegroup.

From the response so far it looks like there may be three different popular time slots: Sunday 4:30pm Eastern; Saturday 1pm Eastern and a weekday at 4pm Eastern. 

Keith Wilkinson will share a format for the one-hour conference including a 15-minute period before the start of the book discussion for anyone who is unfamiliar with zoom to get online and some tech support.

Over time, each group will develop their own time frame, guidelines and likely rotate responsibility for facilitating the book discussion as well as someone else who will handle the technical part of setting up the zoom conference and assisting people with the technology.  

Here’s what went out in the CUC e-news in early December.

Canadian Unitarian Online Book Club

Winter has arrived in Canada, and wouldn’t it be nice just to curl up at home and discuss a good book with like-minded folks, without having to brave the weather? Mary Maler from the Unitarian Church of Montreal is proposing an online book club that could meet every month or so via Zoom at a time convenient to those interested, possibly Sunday at 4:00 ET, to discuss some of the classics of Canadian literature. Please contact Mary Maler if you’re interested.

Mary Bennett from UCVancouver has helped to set up a survey to help  choose the initial books to be discussed and polling people as to their preferred time. 

We’ve narrowed the choices to the winners of the Governor General’s Literary awards for fiction in English over the past ten years.  If this idea proves as popular as we think it will be, specific groups may form for discussion of YA fiction; non-fiction or other genres. 

We’ve put several possible times (each session will be an hour or more if the group wants) as well. That will help us narrow it down.

Decisions for the January book and date/time will be made by Dec. 28 and announced by Jan. 3. 

We’ve also set up a googlegroup for book discussion and recommendations. You can join by sending an email to canadian-unitarian-book-group+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Google Group Welcome message:

Welcome to the Canadian Unitarian Book Group. Our intention is to meet monthly online using zoom for an hour each time. We will choose a time and date as well as selected books for discussion by voting online. We hope you will introduce yourself and contribute to the discussion here. The intention is that this email group/forum supplements the online zoom discussion so is primarily for people who intend to be online for the monthly discussions.

Here’s a link to past winners and finalists of the Governor General’s Literary Awards. To browse through the lists, you can choose various options, such as fiction only, English only, winners only .https://ggbooks.ca/past-winners-and-finalists