Announcing Two Summer Book Study Series

This summer, I'll be trying out a new format for adult education. I read several really great books last year, and I'd like to share them with you. How to do that though? Everybody is busy; when could we meet? Should it be a large group so more people can participate, or a small group for better conversation?

I've hit upon an idea that I think might work. I'd like to try and combine an intimate conversation that will take place in real time and in person with an online component that anyone can take part in at whatever time is convenient.

The real time conversations will take place at my house, on Sunday evenings at 7:00pm. The first session, featuring Barbara Brown Taylor's "An Altar in the World", will begin on June 6th and continue through June 13th and 20th. The second session, covering Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' "To Heal a Fractured World", will begin on July 11th and continue through the 18th and 25th. For those of you who have been to my home before, you'll already know that space is limited. I figure we can seat a maximum of 6 or 7 people and still have room for me. This will make for a nice, intimate discussion group. If you're interested in participating in one of the real time series' you can sign-up by sending me an email. Due to the limited space, please only sign up if you can attend all three sessions of the conversation, and for now only sign up for one of the two sessions. If demand is high, I'll happily repeat these two great books in the Fall.

The online component of the conversation will work like this: before each series I will post here an overview of the book we'll be reading and some initial questions and/or themes to watch out for. Pages covered in each session will be posted in the sidebar so we can all stay on the same page. After each real time session, probably the next morning in the office, I'll write up a report of our conversation including any questions, criticisms, or epiphanies we might have had. Folks following along here at the blog can participate either by simply reading what is published here, or by posting their own comments to each report. Hopefully we can get some good online conversation going.

So, that's the plan! We'll see how it goes. If it works, I'm happy to continue running book study groups like this indefinitely. I can't imagine running out of books, but if I do I can always pick a new one and read along with yall. Stay tuned for more details on the upcoming books, and have a reading summer!