Lehigh Valley Humanists

Note: All the upcoming books and those that we didn’t select are listed at the bottom of this section.
November: On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver
The Instant New York Times Bestseller
In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in this timely and riveting new book, Silver investigates “the River,” the community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape—and dominate—so much of modern life.
These professional risk-takers—poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true believers and blue-chip art collectors—can teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the twenty-first century. By immersing himself in the worlds of Doyle Brunson, Peter Thiel, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sam Altman, and many others, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the frontiers of finance to the future of AI.
Most of us don’t have traits commonly found in the River: high tolerance for risk, appreciation of uncertainty, affinity for numbers—paired with an instinctive distrust of conventional wisdom and a competitive drive so intense it can border on irrational. For those in the River, complexity is baked in, and the work is how to navigate it. People in the River have increasing amounts of wealth and power in our society, and understanding their mindset—and the flaws in their thinking— is key to understanding what drives technology and the global economy today.
Taking us behind the scenes from casinos to venture capital firms, and from the FTX inner sanctum to meetings of the effective altruism movement, On the Edge is a deeply reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of power bro-kers and risk-takers.
Steve A. will be moderating this month. Hope you can join us for some thoughtful discussion.
Upcoming books:
December: No book club.
January: Book Selection Month: Please bring a book to recommend.
January: The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center by Rhaina Cohen (Jim)
February: The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth (Pat)
Not selected this time:
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

January: Book Selection Month: Please bring a book to recommend.
January 2025: Steve’s 10 year anniversary organizing the book club!
Note: All the upcoming books and those that we didn’t select are listed at the bottom of this section.
January: The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center by Rhaina Cohen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
AN INDIE BESTSELLER
Why do we assume romantic relationships are more important than friendships? What do we lose when we expect a spouse to meet all our needs? And what can we learn about commitment, love, and family from people who put deep friendship at the center of their lives?
In The Other Significant Others, NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner―these are friends who are home co-owners, co-parents or each other’s caregivers. Their riveting stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life―spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more―reveal how freeing and challenging it can be to embrace a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't limited to daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but actually possible in real life.
Based on years of original reporting and striking social science research, Cohen argues that we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them, while we diminish friendships by expecting too little of them. She traces how, throughout history, our society hasn’t always fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or even love. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced, or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Cohen insists that we recognize the many forms of profound connection that can anchor our lives. A rousing and incisive book, The Other Significant Others challenges us to ask what we want from our relationships―not just what we’re supposed to want―and transforms how we define a fulfilling life.
Jim will be moderating this month. Hope you can join us for some thoughtful discussion.
Upcoming books:
February: The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth (Pat)
Not selected this time:
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson