The MGSW Book Club Continues!
Hello friends!
The return of our community book club over the past five months has been a huge success. I have once again been reminded of how meaningful it is to read alongside this community, and to discuss all of our insights and reflections together. At first, I suspected that I might only be stationary for five months, so I planned only five months of books. However, since Chris and I just bought a house here in Crestone, Colorado, it looks like we will be staying still for a little while, which means I have the availability to extend the book club!
In case you missed the books we’ve read thus far, you can always read them on your own time, and watch the recorded discussions. The links to those can be found here -
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Die Wise by Stephen Jenkinson
Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
In March we are reading The Dawning Moon of the Mind by Susan Brind Morrow, and there’s still time to join us! Continue reading for instructions for how to sign up…
For the previous iteration of the book club, I chose different co-hosts to assist me in choosing books and leading the discussions each month. It was incredibly fun to host these discussions alongside my friends, former podcast guests, and community members, and it really added to the communal theme of this project overall.
Since the next iteration of the book club will begin in April concurrent with the astrological new year (the sun moves into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, on March 20th), I figured it would be fun to choose books that align in some way to the archetypal nature of each sign that the sun will reside in over the next six months. (It’s very possible I will extend this theme for a year, but for now, I will announce the first six books).
So, without further ado, here’s what we’ll be reading!
April: Aries
Open To Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught by Mark Epstein
“It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as if it is the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding. In his controversial defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, each other, and our world. Proposing that spiritual attainment does not have to be detached from intimacy or eroticism, Open to Desire begins with an exploration of the state of dissatisfaction that causes us to cling to irrational habits. Dr. Epstein helps readers overcome their own fears of desire so that they can more readily bridge the gap between self and other, cope with feelings of incompletion, and get past the perception of others as objects. Freed from clinging and shame, desire’s spiritual potential can then be opened up.
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Thrift Books
May: Taurus
Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology by Andrea Weber
“In Matter and Desire, internationally renowned biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber rewrites ecology as a tender practice of forging relationships, of yearning for connections, and of expressing these desires through our bodies. Being alive is an erotic process―constantly transforming the self through contact with others, desiring ever more life. In clever and surprising ways, Weber recognizes that love―the impulse to establish connections, to intermingle, to weave our existence poetically together with that of other beings―is a foundational principle of reality. The fact that we disregard this principle lies at the core of a global crisis of meaning that plays out in the avalanche of species loss and in our belief that the world is a dead mechanism controlled through economic efficiency. Although rooted in scientific observation, Matter and Desire becomes a tender philosophy for the Anthropocene, a “poetic materialism,” that closes the gap between mind and matter. Ultimately, Weber discovers, in order to save life on Earth―and our own meaningful existence as human beings―we must learn to love.”
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Thrift Books
June: Gemini
Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson
“Kim Stanley Robinson, the New York Times bestselling author of science fiction masterworks such as the Mars trilogy and 2312, has, on many occasions, imagined our future. Now, in Shaman, he brings our past to life as never before. There is Thorn, a shaman himself. He lives to pass down his wisdom and his stories -- to teach those who would follow in his footsteps. There is Heather, the healer who, in many ways, holds the clan together. There is Elga, an outsider and the bringer of change. And then there is Loon, the next shaman, who is determined to find his own path. But in a world so treacherous, that journey is never simple -- and where it may lead is never certain. Shaman is a powerful, thrilling and heartbreaking story of one young man's journey into adulthood -- and an awe-inspiring vision of how we lived thirty thousand years ago.”
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Thrift Books
July: Cancer
Psyche’s Sisters: Re-Imagining the Meaning of Sisterhood by Christine Downing
“This work is an exploration of the ongoing significance of sister relationships throughout our lives, bringing together personal narrative with the illuminations provided by myth, fairy tale, and the depth psychological reflections of Freud, Jung, and their followers. The book suggests that an imaginal return to our relationship with the actual sister of our early years is only the beginning; it leads forward to an understanding of how that relationship reappears, transformed, in many of our friendships and love affairs, and to a challenging revision of our innermost self, and even toward a new way of imaging our relation to the natural world. The book in no way sentimentalizes sisterhood. In her retelling of the familiar story about Psyche and Eros, Downing focuses on Psyche’s relation to her envious sisters who, she suggests, push Psyche in a way her soul requires. Reflections on this aspect of the story initiates us into an appreciation of how our sisterly relationships challenge and nurture us, even as we sometimes disappoint and betray one another.”
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Thrift Books
August: Leo
Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich
“Dancing in the Streets explores an impulse that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing. Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although sixteenth-century Europeans viewed mass festivities as foreign and ‘savage,’ Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greeks' worship of Dionysus to the medieval practice of Christianity as a ‘danced religion.’ Ultimately, church officials drove the festivities into the streets, the prelude to widespread reformation: Protestants criminalized carnival, Wahhabist Muslims battled ecstatic Sufism, European colonizers wiped out native dance rites. The elites' fear that such gatherings would undermine social hierarchies was justified: the festive tradition inspired French revolutionary crowds and uprisings from the Caribbean to the American plains. Yet outbreaks of group revelry persist, as Ehrenreich shows, pointing to the 1960s rock-and-roll rebellion and the more recent ‘carnivalization’ of sports. Original, exhilarating, and deeply optimistic, Dancing in the Streets concludes that we are innately social beings, impelled to share our joy and therefore able to envision, even create, a more peaceable future.”
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Thrift Books
September: Virgo
Breakfast at the Victory: The Mysticism of Ordinary Experience by James Carse
“A brilliant memoir of the rebirth of the soul and a return to innocence. Combining everything from the teachings of the Buddha to the poetry of Frost, Carse revisits those ordinary moments in which we see the wondrous and the terrible to reveal the mystical at work in American life.”
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Thrift Books
How to participate:
You are welcome to join us for some or all of these books, and you can participate in whatever way is easiest for you.
Regardless of how you’d like to participate, the only way to get access to updates, Zoom links and WhatsApp details is to sign up for the official MGSW book club Substack newsletter, which is separate from what you’re currently signed up for. Here is how to do that…
If you’re currently reading this in your email browser, please click here to be taken to the web version. If you’re already reading the web version, you’re all set to continue…
In the top righthand corner of your screen, you should see the following icon:
Click on it, and then scroll down until you see “Manage Subscription” in the dropdown menu. Click on that.
Once you’ve done that, you will see several things related to your subscription, including the following:
In order to participate in the book club, and get access to the WhatsApp group and Zoom links, you need to click the box next to “Book Club”.
Once you’ve done that, you’re all set!
Ok I am so excited for this !!
Excited to be part of the next book club read. Just got Matters & Desire as well. Can’t wait to dive in!