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Informed Community Book Club |
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Welcome to The Informed Community Book Club, a space dedicated to exploring and discussing pertinent social, economic, and political issues. If you are interested in participating in our democratic institutions or just making friends, join us! New members are welcome at any time. Our next meeting is in March. The discussion will be hosted by former Los Gatos Planning Commissioner and current president of the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition Jeff Suzuki. |
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On tyranny : twenty lessons from the twentieth century by Timothy Snyder#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times)
“Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings.”—Masha Gessen
The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.
On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.
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Age of revolutions : progress and backlash from 1600 to the present by Fareed Zakaria A New York Times Bestseller • A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2024
The CNN host and best-selling author explores the revolutions―past and present―that define the polarized and unstable age in which we live. Populist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, war, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk―the early decades of the twenty-first century may be the most revolutionary period in modern history. But it is not the first. Humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What are these revolutions, and how can they help us to understand our fraught world? In this major work, Fareed Zakaria masterfully investigates the eras and movements that have shaken norms while shaping the modern world. Three such periods hold profound lessons for today. First, in the seventeenth-century Netherlands, a fascinating series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in the world―and created politics as we know it today. Next, the French Revolution, an explosive era that devoured its ideological children and left a bloody legacy that haunts us today. Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Great Britain and the US to global dominance and created the modern world.
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Caste : the origins of our discontents by Isabel Wilkerson"In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of America life today"
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Narcan Training at the Library Tuesday, February 25, 11 AM Stop by the Los Gatos Library every other Tuesday to be trained in how to use Narcan. This training will be a short training on how to: - Recognize the signs of an opioid overdose
- Demonstrate how to administer the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone
- Discuss the role of harm reduction in the overall opioid public health crisis strategies.
You will take home a box of Narcan to add to your first-aid kit and new resorces for your community.
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Behavioral Health Navigators Tuesdays, 10 AM-12 PM and 1 PM - 3 PM Come speak with a member of the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Navigator team. Peer Navigators will offer: - Personalized assistance to get help for behavioral health needs
- Peer guidance about options for wellness services and support
- Knowledgeable information and resources for mental health, substance use, suicide prevention, support groups, and more
- Connection to County and community-based resources
- Support from Peers with an understanding of local services
Visits are drop in, first come first served.
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Know Your Rights: Presentation from Siren
Friday, February 21, 5 PM
SIREN is a vehicle for low-income immigrants and refugees in California—to be their own agents for change. They do this through community education and organizing, leadership development, legal services, policy advocacy, and civic engagement. Come hear their informative presentation on immigration rights, and be sure to bring your questions. |
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Help Us Stock Our Comfort Cabinet
Our Comfort Cabinet provides health and hygiene necessities to those who need them, no questions asked. Located in the Library's Lobby, visitors can get emergency blankets, ponchos, dental supplies, socks, hats, first aid supplies and more. Please help spread the word to anyone who might need these basic supplies. We built this cabinet with a grant from the Pacific Library Partnership, and we are asking for your help to keep it going. Visit our Amazon Wishlist to donate supplies for people in our Library community. |
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Los Gatos Library
100 Villa Avenue, Los Gatos, California 95030 (408) 354-6891 |
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