The COVID-19 pandemic took its place in our lives at the beginning of 2020, and changed life as we know it.
Silicon Valley Reads picks a theme every year and selects books around that theme for discussion. The theme this year is “Connecting”— "the universal human ability to build resilience by looking for people, places and things that provide comfort and joy during tough times."
Six books have been selected on this theme, from vantage points such as nature, music, food, animals, books and human contact. Learn more about the books here.
Numerous events will be held (virtually this years) across the bay area, and I wanted to inform you of two main events.
1. The Kickoff Event hosted by Commonwealth Club
Thursday January 28, at 6.30PM Pacific Time.
Sal Pizarro, columnist at San Jose Mercury News, will moderate the kickoff event as he does every year, with Santa Clara Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody, well known for her rapid response to the pandemic, Stanford neurosurgeon Dr. James Doty, and Usha Srinivasan, founder of Mosaic America, which uses multicultural collaborative arts to strengthen rapidly diversifying communities across the US. They will discuss their perspectives on ways in which each of us and our community can find comfort and connection through difficult times. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will make a special appearance! Register for this free event here.
2. Panel discussion hosted by Indian Business and Professional Women (IBPW),
Book Talk: a discussion of Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy’s book Together: The
Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
Sunday, February 21, 2021 at 4:00 PM
Yours truly will be on the panel with a few bay area professionals to discuss the ways in which we can overcome the current crisis of loneliness which affects our health.
Panelists:
Raji Pillai, Writer and Scientist
Neerja Raman, Author and research executive
Shailaja Venkatsubramanyan, Associate Professor Emeritus
Moderator: Michele Bolton, Executive Coach
Register for this free event here. Hope to "see" you there!
Read my review of Vivek Murthy's book Together here.
The complete list of 2021 events is here.
Previous Silicon Valley Reads events and reviews:
The SVReads theme for 2020 was Women Making It Happen. My write-up of the kickoff event on the book Alpha Girls is here, and the video recording of my conversation with Indian Alpha Girl Vinita Gupta is here under 2020 videos.