Every Thursday afternoon at 12:15 on the Porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall, a fellow Chautauquan will present a book of their choice over lunchtime.  Speakers present and discuss their book and then open the porch for questions, comment, and observations.  Come, bring your lunch, and spend your lunchtime with us as we discover a new book together!

 June 26 - 12:15

"Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World"

by Parmy Olson

Presented by: MJ Johnson

"In Supremacy, Olson, tech writer at Bloomberg, tells the astonishing story of the battle between these two AI firms, their struggles to use their tech for good, and the hazardous direction they could go as they serve two tech Goliaths whose power is unprecedented in history. The story focuses on the continuing rivalry of two key CEOs at the center of it all, who cultivated a religion around their mission to build god-like super intelligent machines: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind." - Amazon

July 3 - 12:15

July 10 - 12:15

"Oil and Water"'

by Destinay Kinal

Presented by: Destiny Kinal

"The purpose of this brand of new historical fiction, also called reinhabitory fiction, is to reinhabit crossroads of history where we, as a people, made certain decisions to go forward with values that we may now regret, having seen their outcome. Reinhabiting the past at the street level, and reinterring values we have buried “in that vast cemetery of forgetting,” (Milan Kundera) allows us to consider alternative futures.

In the marriage of Philip Sechinger and Sarah Noonan, the two forces that vied to define modernity, compete for supremacy.

Oil & Water is the concluding volume of the Textile Trilogy." - Destiny Kinal

July 17 - 12:15

 "Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy
American Democracy"
by Katherine Stewart

Presented by: Welling Hall

"Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? In this deeply reported book, Katherine Stewart takes us to conferences of conspiracy-mongers, backroom strategy gatherings, and services at extremist churches, and profiles the people who want to tear it all down. She introduces us to reactionary Catholic activists, atheist billionaires, pseudo-Platonist intellectuals, self-appointed apostles of Jesus, disciples of Ayn Rand, women-hating opponents of “the gynocracy,” pronatalists preoccupied with the dearth of white babies, Covid truthers, militia members masquerading as “concerned moms” and battalions of spirit warriors who appear to be inventing a new style of religion even as they set about attacking democracy at its foundations.

Along the way, she provides a compelling analysis of the authoritarian reaction in the United States. She demonstrates that the movement relies on several distinct constituencies, with very different and often conflicting agendas. Stewart's reporting and comprehensive political analysis helps reframe the conversation about the moral collapse of conservatism in America and points the way forward toward a democratic future." - Amazon

July 24 - 12:15

July 31 - 12:15

"The Light Eaters:
How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New
Understanding of Life on Earth"

by Zoe Schlanger

Presented by: Dennis McNair, BTG Club

"It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close." - Amazon

August 14 - 12:15

The CHQ Prize Winner

Presented by: Stephine Hunt, Manager of Literary Arts