PALAC . where people and ideas meet S T U D Y D I S C U S S I O N P R O G R A M S W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 New leaders and hosts are the life blood of PALAC offers continuing liberal arts PALAC. Please call the office to volunteer. education to adults of the San Gabriel 626 797-2380 Valley. If you enjoy the excitement and stimulation of discussing ideas DATES TO REMEMBER Annual Meeting Saturday January 26 in a new learning situation, whatever Program Brunch Saturday March 16 your educational background, Spring Party Sunday June 2 you’re welcome in any of PALAC’s WINTER SESSION 2019 programs. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 101 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by JOIN US PALAC offers additional advantages and activities to members. Membership subscription is just $30 Yuval Noah Harari per person or $50 per couple per calendar year. Call 626 This is Harari’s third book after his internationally acclaimed Sapiens and Homo Deus , which assessed the past and the 797-2380 for details or mail your registration and check to future. He has put together a strategy to deal with most of the PALAC, 1015 N. Lake #108, Pasadena, CA 91104-4574. critical “isms” that confront our society today. The book was recently reviewed inFULL the “NY Times Book Review” by Bill REGISTER To register, submit a completed registration Gates as a powerful book that he generally agrees with but not form and a check to the PALAC office. every part and that should give the group a good opportunity Most groups are limited to 13-15 participants. This provides to discuss the pros and cons for this very important book. a comfortable, intimate atmosphere for discussion. Early ISBN-13: 978-0525512172 Mondays, 2 - 4 p.m., January 7, 14, 21, 28 registration will help assure you a place in your selected Leader David Whitcomb Members $27 group. If you register close to the time the group begins, Host Coralie Whitcomb Non-Members $37 please contact the office to verify group openings. Place Glendale You will receive confirmation of your selected group(s) by email if you have email. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 102 Writing Salon: Your Personal Stories Get your registration form in ASAP. Please! Once again we will try a lottery system to allow those living outside Pasadena on Paper a chance to get in their chosen groups. For those discussion Inspiration and guidance to record and share memorable groups and safaris that are over-subscribed, the office will moments from your life – adventures, reflections, family hold a lottery one week after a designated “outlier” receives history or the lives of those whose memory you want to honor. her program. Be sure to get your registration form to the office In addition to reading and commenting on the writing of before the lottery! And don’t forget, dues-paying members others, now you will create your own. This is an opportunity receive priority. Call the office if you are unsure if you have to delve into the experiences you’ve had before the details are paid your 2019 dues. forgotten. We all have something special to share. Tuesdays 7 - 9 p.m., January 8, 15, 22 We will order books three weeks before each group begins. If Leader Jo Nelsen Members $10 you plan to drop a group, please let us know before then, or Host Fran Blackwell Non-Members $20 we will not be able to refund you for the cost of the book. Place Pasadena ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 103 Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust 107 Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Swann’s Way is the first of the seven volume 20th century Journey Through the World's masterpiece In Search of Lost Time . It’s a novel of childhood Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson – a sensitive boy’s impressions of his family and neighbors – How does our mind, our individual sense of self, emerge from all brought back years later by the famous taste of a the physical matter of the brain? What happens when the madeleine. ISBN-13: 978-1726778039 mind misbehaves: distance is distorted, memory plays tricks, Thursdays 2 – 4 p.m., January 10, 17, 24, 31, February people hear in color, or see in music. By studying disruptions 7 to typical brain functioning,FULL we will deepen our understanding Leader Julio-Cesar Marin Members $21 of thought, feeling, behavior, memory, and creativity – the Host Peggy Schiffman Non-Members $31 very nature of what it means to be human. ISBN-13: 978- Place San Marino 0062391162 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Tuesdays 2 – 4 p.m., January 15, 22, 29 104 The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Leader Bob Diller Members $30 Host Clara Richards Non-Members $40 Hat by Oliver Sacks Place South Pasadena Oliver Sacks, “one of the great clinical writers of the 20th ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ century” ( The New York Times ) recounts the case histories of 108 How Democracies Die by Steven patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of brain disorders. These brilliant tales, in Dr. Sacks’ Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt sympathetic and humane telling, lead him and his readers to Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question: Is our reflect on modern cognitive science and its attempts to democracy in danger? Harvard professors Levitsky and understand the mind, and perhaps the soul, by reflecting on Ziblatt spent twenty years studying the breakdown of how the brain is able to function, albeit strangely, when faced democracies, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy with obstacles of disease or injury. ISBN-13: 978- no longer ends with a revolutionFULL or military coup, but with the 0684853949 gradual weakening of the judiciary and the press, and the Fridays 2 – 4 p.m., January 11, 18, 25, February 1 gradual erosion of political norms. The good news is that Leader Stanley Oropesa Members $22 there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. Host Margaret Hostrup Non-Members $32 ISBN-13: 978-1524762933 Wednesdays 2 – 4 p.m., January 16, 23, 30 Place Pasadena ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Leader Reiko Sakata Members $29 105 Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis Host Reiko Sakata Non-Members $39 Place Monrovia “What are the consequences if the people given control over ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ our government have no idea how it works?” Michael Lewis 109, 110 & 111 Great Decisions delves into an administration ignorant of how our government The Foreign Policy Association, an independent non-profit works. Lewis finds experts who are working to keep our organization, publishes Great Decisions every year. This is a government running and what keeps them awake at night. series of eight in-depth articles by policy experts and global ISBN-13:POSTPONED 978-1324002642 thinkers. Through this national program we are provided Mondays 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., January 14, 21 28, background information, news and context for anyone February 4 seeking to understand global issues and eager to discuss them. Leader Joan Stafford Members $28 109 Great Decisions 1 Host Nancy Sullivan Non-Members $38 Thursdays, 7 - 9 p.m., January 31, February 7, 14, 21, 28, March 7, Place Pasadena ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 14, 21 Leader Brice Harris Members $37 106 The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Host Suzanne Diller Non-Members $47 Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 by William Place Pasadena Manchester 110 Great Decisions 2 This is a view of Winston Churchill when he was out of power Fridays, 2 - 4 p.m., February 15, 22, March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, April 5 Leader Bhargav Oza Members $37 during many years before WWII. It shows him struggling to Host Deborah Fox Non-Members $47 alert Britain to the danger of Hitler. Government leaders refused to listen until they were forced to do so by disaster. Place South Pasadena ISBN-13: 978-0385313315 111 Great Decisions 3 Mondays, 7 – 9 p.m., January 7, 14, 21, 28 Tuesdays, 2 - 4 p.m., March 26, April 2, 9, 16. 23, 30, May 7, 14 Leader Ed Washatka Members $37 Leader Steve Crane Members $31 Host Jane Crane Non-Members $41 Host Cornelia Fuller Non-Members $47 Place Pasadena Place Altadena ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _ _ 112 North Korea Confidential: Private 115 & 116 Laemmle Theatre Groups Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, The Laemmle Theatre always has some interesting films Dissenters and Defectors by Daniel Tudor showing. With your input we’ll choose the best, meet for an and James Pearson afternoon matinee, stroll to a nearby restaurant for a drink, Practically everything you know about North Korea is wrong snack and a discussion of the movie. Several days ahead