MNA Online Book Club — Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes

The Little Canada Book Club has been rebranded as the MNA Online Book Club to reflect the fact that we comprise a wider region now that we are online.

Join us online Sunday December 8th at 2 p.m. to discuss Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes.

*********

Julian Barnes gives us a memoir on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction.

If the fear of death is “the most rational thing in the world,” how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty, an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for and against and with God, and at the bloodline whose archivist, following his parents’ death, he has become—another realm of mystery, wherein a drawer of mementos and his own memories (not to mention those of his philosopher brother) often fail to connect. There are other ancestors, too: the writers—“most of them dead, and quite a few of them French”—who are his daily companions, supplemented by composers and theologians and scientists whose similar explorations are woven into this account with an exhilarating breadth of intellect and felicity of spirit.

Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.

*********
Our book for January is Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will Robert M. Sapolsky. Please note that this is a longer book, so it may be useful to get an early start on it.

Tentative Future books are:
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot
Fluke: Chance, Chaos and Why Everything We Do Matters by Brian Klaas
Seven Flowers: And How They Shaped Our World by Jennifer Potter
Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman Times to the Modern Era by Karen Bowman

If you would like us to read any of these titles, or have other book suggestions, please message me or leave a comment below.