Friday, September 28, 2012

Location for Tomorrow's Meeting

Hello Bookworms,
Tomorrow's meeting will take place in UCU 301 at 2pm! See you then.

PS There might be cupcakes ;)

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Sprinkle With Murder - Meeting on Saturday, Sept 29 at 2PM

Hi Bookworms!

The votes are in, and this month's meeting will take place this coming Saturday, Sept 29 at 2PM.  We'll announce the location as soon as we have a room booked.  Thanks to everyone who voted!

If you can't make it to this month's meeting, don't worry!  We'll vote for a new meeting time next month.  If there is a time that would be better for you that wasn't in the list this month, send us an email and we'll include it in next month's poll (provided we're available at that time as well).

We'll be discussing genres and books for next month at the meeting, so start brainstorming!  If you can't make it to the meeting, feel free to send us an email with your suggestions for genres or books to read.

We'll post again once we have a meeting location.  Until then, happy reading!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Time to vote for date/time!

Hello Bookworms - new and old!

So the poll is up (look to the right!) to pick which times you want this month's meeting to take place. Since it's a pretty quick read we chose dates that are coming up quickly. Also the next weekend is Thanksgiving so we didn't want to interfere with any plans you guys might have. Choose all the time slots that would work for you!

On another note, if you gave us your email yesterday at the table and you have not received a welcome email then it might be because we couldn't read your email address. If you want to receive emails when we update the blog, either input your email in the top left corner of this blog page or send us an email at uottawabookworms@gmail.com

That's it for now, be sure to start reading Sprinkle with Murder and vote! See you soon.

Monday, September 10, 2012

'Sup September - time to vote again!

Hello Bookworms!

Might I say you're all looking fabulous today?! But seriously, it's time to vote for a book! We agreed at the end of last year to kick off this year with a Cooking Mystery - mostly so we can cook the recipes included in the book and bring them to the meeting! Ergo: free food for everyone!

The poll is on the right as usual, please vote by midnight on Friday (September 14). We'll post the poll for the meeting date/time shortly thereafter.

If you have any friends interested in the club, send them our way on September 17 - we'll have a table as part of the Clubs Week. Our infectious enthusiasm for reading will be sure to win them over :D

See you soon!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Clubs week and Treasurer

Hello Bookworms,
We hope your first days of school are going well. We just have a couple of things to tell you about.

We're in the process of renewing the club this year and we were wondering if anyone is interested in being the Treasurer (there is little to no money to handle so it is more of a 'symbolic' position). If you are interested send us an email with your name and contact information. Please email us as soon as possible (preferably before Monday).

Also we (Stephanie and Sam) will have a table on September 17 as part of the clubs week. We'll be there all day so feel free to swing by and chat with us if you have any questions, comments, or just want to hang out! We'll have books...and possibly cookies...

That's it for now - we'll have the poll for choosing our September book posted early next week so keep checking the blog.

Hope to see you all very soon! Be sure to invite your friends to join the Bookworms - the more the merrier!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Plan for August and September

Hi Bookworms!

Based on the poll and the turnout at our last meeting, Steph and I have decided that we aren't going to hold a meeting for August, but instead focus our efforts on making a great meeting for September!

We're planning on doing a cooking mystery for the September book, with a meeting at the end of the month.  We're hoping to cook one of the recipes from the novel at the meeting!  If you know of any good cooking mysteries, please email us your suggestions at uottawabookworms@gmail.com or leave them as a comment to this post!

In September, we are planning on actively recruiting new members.  We'll be having a table during Clubs Week - Steph and I will be at the table all day on Monday, September 17th.  If you have any suggestions for recruitment, please let us know!  If you have any questions for us, drop us a line or find us at our table!

See you in September!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Freakonomics: Bonus materials

Hello Bookworms!  I hope you've all had a great month!  There are a few things I'd like to mention to you all:

First, there's a meeting this Saturday (August 11) at 1PM, and it's going to be held in room UCU301.  See you there!


Second, Steph and I are both out of town at the end of August.  We'll still be able to organize a meeting if there's enough interest, but we figured we should put it to a vote to see if there are a lot of people who want to have an August meeting.  To that end, there's a poll up on the blog.  If you vote yes to having a meeting, we'll have one early in September, most likely the first week of school.  If you vote no, we'll skip the August meeting and go straight into preparation for our September book club, which will most likely be the cooking mystery!  Please vote - polls are going to close on Saturday at 1PM so we can discuss it at the meeting.


Last, it's time for some bonus materials for this month's book, Freakonomics.  The authors Levitt and Dubner have had some pretty wild success with this book, so there's cool stuff online produced by them and about them.  Check out some of these links:


In case your copy of the book didn't include it, here's the original article that NY Times writer Dubner wrote about economist Levitt: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/magazine/probability-that-real-estate-agent-cheating-you-other-riddles-modern-life.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm


The authors keep up an ongoing blog here: http://www.freakonomics.com/

They also write an ongoing column at the NY Times.  Here's an archive of past articles if you're interested: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/features/magazine/columns/freakonomics/index.html
They also wrote a "sequel" book to Freakonomics called Superfreakonomics: http://www.freakonomics.com/books/superfreakonomics/

Check out a couple of the TED talks that Levitt has given:
Are children's carseats still necessary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um5gMZcZWm0

The freakonomics of McDonald's vs drugs: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/steven_levitt_analyzes_crack_economics.html

Levitt was named one of Time's 100 best people of 2006 (or something), but the tribute to him was written by hugely popular nonfiction author Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers), and it's pretty interesting:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813_1975844_1976457,00.html

There was actually a documentary made that is based on the boo - one of the directors is Morgan Spurlock, the guy from Supersize Me.  

Check out the trailer here: http://www.magpictures.com/freakonomics/
Here are a couple of clips from the film as well:
On real-estate agents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck

On abortions and crime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6gOeggViw

A lot of the material in the book was based on papers that Levitt had already published.  You can see all of his published papers on his CV found here: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Levitt-CV.pdf


And here are the originals of some of Levitt's papers covered in the book, in case you want to see them in more detail:
Understanding why crime fell in the 1990s: Four factors that explain the decline and six that do not:
 http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf

Market distortions when agents are better informed: The value of information in real estate:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/market%20distortion.pdf

Using repeat challengers to estimate the effect of campaign spending on election outcomes in the US House: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUsingRepeatChallengers1994.pdf
Rotten apples: An investigation of the prevalence and predictors of teacher cheating:
 http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/JacobLevitt2003.pdf

Winning isn’t everything: Corruption in sumo wrestling :http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DugganLevitt2002.pdf
Testing theories of discrimination: Evidence from Weakest Link:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittTestingTheories2004.pdf

An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang's finances:
 http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittVenkateshAnEconomicAnalysis2000.pdf

The impact of school choice on student outcomes: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/CullenJacobLevittTheImpactOf2004.pdf
Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school:
 http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerLevittUnderstandingTheBlack2004.pdf

The causes and consequences of distinctively black names: 
 http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerLevitt2004.pdf

I hope you enjoy those materials.  Please vote about the August meeting, and see you on Saturday!