The Circuit

Just finished Bob's sports selection all about the 2017 professional tennis circuit. The book truly digs into the personalities and athletic specialties of many of the top 20 or so male players. Although 2017 ended with a sense of natural order of Nadal and Federer clearly establishing themselves as the number 1 and 2 players, you witness the fall of Murray and the struggles of Djokovic from injury, and simultaneously sense the rise of many young stars ready to move into the top positions. The book lets you experience the grind of the long season and the struggles to get to the top levels. It provides a window to the sheltered, privileged, yet tortured life of the typical tennis star and the often brooding and boorish behavior. The book is an everything you every wanted to know about men's tennis written by someone that loves the game...maybe TMI

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

At first I was skeptical of Paul's choice this month thinking that it was going to be another business book on how to succeed in the 21st Century. It turns out that Yuval Harari is a gay male historian living on an Israeli commune practicing extensive meditation. The 21 lessons are his deep thoughts organized in chapters from disillusionment to meditation.
Harari states that the only certainty in life is change and he fears that many people are in danger of becoming irrelevant. He describes religions and politics as collections of stories. Nations are built on these stories resulting in nationalism, communism, and liberalism. People adopt various levels of religious belief based on Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, or other stories. The author states that moral behavior does not depend on religion and only a secular society has the primary objectives of seeking truth, compassion, and freedom.
The author feels that people should be aware of the dangers of power, technology, and rituals in controlling our minds. He feels that though meditation we can better understand our own minds and have a better chance of finding truth.
Yes Paul, this book should make for an interesting conversation.