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AWC Going Dutch May_June 2019

The monthly magazine of the American Women's Club of The Hague

The monthly magazine of the American Women's Club of The Hague

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Ongoing Activities (cont.)<br />

Continued from page 13<br />

Daytime Book Club Recap – March<br />

Yuval Noah Harari is well known for looking<br />

into the past and future to assess what<br />

society did and can expect. He uses his<br />

expertise as a history professor to encourage<br />

his readers to consider and reevaluate<br />

events. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century<br />

was a journey into how the author views<br />

the challenges of our present age. He provides<br />

the reader with 21 vantage points<br />

from which to evaluate the world we live<br />

in; those going from Disillusionment, to<br />

God, to Post-Truth. His goal is to get the<br />

reader to consider how our world of algorithms<br />

and a veritable automatization revolution<br />

poses long-term consequences for<br />

humankind when we are much more shortterm<br />

thinkers. Governments, social media,<br />

schools, even how we raise our children,<br />

are all heavily impacted by a world changing<br />

so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up<br />

at all levels of society. While not attempting<br />

to be doomsday at all, Harari’s book is<br />

meant to be a “wake-up call.” Our group<br />

had a rousing discussion, but only after<br />

there was agreement that the 300+ page<br />

book would have made a better article, or<br />

even a TED Talk. Everyone felt he belabored<br />

most of his points, also not considering<br />

the diversity of society in all of these<br />

changes. Instead it seemed as if he felt<br />

everyone, from super-rich to very povertystricken,<br />

would have to embrace change in<br />

the same manner. Some in the group agreed<br />

that we all need to do our best to keep up in<br />

this rapidly changing world, while others<br />

preferred not to imagine the possible outcomes<br />

of sitting in the midst of a technorevolution.<br />

Much of the discussion was<br />

about our children and the world in which<br />

they must prepare themselves. One particular<br />

turn was when we pondered the various<br />

Credit: Amazon<br />

ways in which schools approach technology.<br />

Generally, we would only recommend<br />

the book to those steeped in all the jargon<br />

of the age.<br />

Evening Book Club<br />

<strong>May</strong> Selection: The<br />

Immortalists by Chloe<br />

Benjamin<br />

If you knew the date of<br />

your death, how would<br />

you live your life? It’s<br />

1969 in New York City’s<br />

Lower East Side, and<br />

word has spread of the<br />

arrival of a mystical<br />

woman, a traveling psychic who claims to<br />

be able to tell anyone the day they will die.<br />

The Gold children—four adolescents on<br />

the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to<br />

hear their fortunes. The prophecies inform<br />

their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon<br />

escapes to the West Coast, searching for<br />

love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara<br />

becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed<br />

with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son<br />

Evening Book Club Reading List:<br />

September (TBA): Buried Appearances<br />

by D.E. Haggerty<br />

October 9: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant<br />

Daniel seeks security as an army doctor<br />

post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself<br />

into longevity research, where she tests the<br />

boundary between science and immortality.<br />

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition<br />

and depth, The Immortalists probes the<br />

line between destiny and choice, reality<br />

and illusion, this world and the next. It is<br />

a deeply moving testament to the power of<br />

story, nature of belief, and unrelenting pull<br />

of familial bonds. The location changes<br />

every month, so please contact Dena at<br />

bookclubevening@awcthehague.org if you<br />

are interested in attending.<br />

Wednesday, <strong>May</strong> 8<br />

7:30 p.m.<br />

Location TBA<br />

FREE<br />

>> 16<br />

14 GOING DUTCH<br />

MAY/JUNE <strong>2019</strong> 15

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