Meeting: Saturday, December 15, 2007

James Surowiecki on sovereign wealth funds.

Q. Is there a problem with government managed investment funds? There are already controls in place regarding the US government contracting with foreign companies. What would happen if China brought Boeing? or Ford?

Wheels of Fortune

Peter Hessler

The People’s Republic learns to drive.

Q. Was anything a surprise to you in this article? Have you ever driven overseas, Asia, Europe or elsewhere? What makes the China experience different from yours?

Darwin’s Surprise

Michael Specter

An evolutionary discovery about viruses.

Q. What are the dangers of bringing retroviruses back to life? What's the most promising outcome of these discoveries? Is it a good thing that our genes carry so much information about our ancestors, even attributes and viruses that are extinct? Are viruses alive?

The Book of Exodus

Geraldine Brooks

Two families, two wars, and two rescues.

Q. How amazing is this story? If this was a fictional movie, would you believe the coincidences? Does the author present an atonement theme? Which is the more dramatic rescue?

Cookbooks for carnivores.

Bill Buford

Q. All of the subjects are characters, but are they very different from each other? If you HAD to read one of their books, which would you chooses? Why?

Reading My Father

Alexandra Styron

William Styron was the quintessential tough male writer, until depression claimed him.

Q. Is it the author's skill or the story she tells that makes this article compelling? Would you care if the subject wasn't a famous author of a famous book? How would you feel reading the words of a parent and possibly identifying them or yourself in the story?

The Checklist

Atul Gawande

Intensive care can harm as well as heal, but there’s a simple way of improving the odds.

Q. What's the lesson to take from this article? Does it apply to other disciplines besides intensive care? Medicine? Do you think this practice will be widely accepted? Why would it succeed or fail?

The very different diaries of Leo Lerman and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Louis Menand

Q. How do diaries compare to blogs? Which of the three theories apply to bloggers? To Schlessinger? To Lerman? Does the writing skill of the diarist matter?

Meeting: Saturday, December 1, 2007

Future Reading

Anthony Grafton

Dreams of a universal library.

Q. What's the upside/downside of digital libraries? If reading is an anti-social act, what does it matter if it's on a screen (a computer or a "Kindle" device) or on paper? Are books and bits complementing or conflicting?

Neptune’s Navy

Raffi Khatchadourian

A controversial bid to save the seas

Q. Does enforcing law as a civilian always make you a criminal? When the body that makes the law refuses to enforce? Watson's motives and methods are troublesome if not problematic. How is he different from fundamentalists? U.N. enforcers of WMD resolutions?

Dangerous Minds

Malcolm Gladwell

The myth of criminal profiling.

Q. If the purpose of profiling is to find criminals, what's the danger if it's inaccurate? In some disciplines, half-right is as bad as completely-wrong. Does that apply here?

“Pushing Daisies.”

Nancy Franklin

Q. Is television a good medium for complex narrative? If it's free can it be good? What's the purpose of serial network television? Its value? Are there any good zingers in this review?

James Surowiecki on the writers’ strike.

Q. Is fairness a quantifiable measure? Or is it a game, as the economists believe? Does a strike have value?

The Player Kings

Claudia Roth Pierpont

Welles and Olivier take on Shakespeare.

Q. Which man had more success with Shakespeare as an actor? a director? on the stage? in film? How are their lives similar? different?

“Young Frankenstein,” “Peter and Jerry.”

John Lahr

Q. A movie made into a musical again. Has Mel Brooks gone to the well one time too many? Should we wait for the movie version? Or just rent the original? Why do the horses whinny at the mention of "Frau Blucher"?

“Redacted,” “Love in the Time of Cholera,” “Margot at the Wedding.”

David Denby

Q. Do we really have too much media information? Or is there too much "data" to sift to find information? Is this Denby's point or does he mean something else?