The NTPA Book Club is excited to announce our lineup through June 2022! We are looking forward to discussing the following.
Test Pilot (Kaplan)
Discussion March 2, 2022
Stanley H. Kaplan’s uniquely effective teaching methods and his curiousity about a mysterious new test caused his tutoring business to grow at breathtaking speed from a modest Brooklyn operation into a global enterprise. Kaplan was entering uncharted territory when, in 1946, he first set out to prepare students for a little-known test called the SAT. Already established as a succ
essful tutor offering classes in the basement of his Brooklyn home, Kaplan’s fascination with this challenging new test was instantaneous. The test maker’s determined efforts to keep all aspects of the test secret, from what the test looked like to how students scored, only fueled his interest and increased the number of students who turned to Kaplan for help. Kaplan’s efforts to help students succeed on this intimidating exam led to his being attacked by the test maker and ostracized by educators, both of whom felt threatened by his results — higher scores and successful students. Ultimately, the conflict led to a showdown. Kaplan’s victory in 1979, when the Federal Trade Commission confirmed the value of his courses, changed the rules of standardized testing forever. Stanley H. Kaplan invented the business of test preparation and helped millions of students succeed on a wide range of tests. Today, millions of students face standardized tests with greater confidence born of the revolution he launched.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (Burkeman)
Discussion March 31, 2022
Time is our biggest worry: There is too little of it. The acclaimed Guardian writer Oliver Burkeman offers a lively, entertaining philosophical guide to time and time management, setting aside superficial efficiency solutions in favor of reckoning with and finding joy in the finitude of human life.
Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces listeners to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society – and that we could do things differently.
Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Tatum)
Discussion April 29, 2022
Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? How can we get past our reluctance to discuss racial issues?
Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand dynamics of race and racial inequality in America.
The E-Myth Revisited (Gerber)
Discussion June 2, 2022
In this first new and totally revised edition of the over two million copy bestseller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next, he walks you through the steps in the life of a business — from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed — and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.
The Dignity of Difference (Sacks)
Discussion June 30, 2022
The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was ‘the clash of civilizations.’ The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a force for peace?
The Dignity of Difference is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s radical proposal for reconciling hatreds. The first major statement by a Jewish leader on the ethics of globalization, it also marks a paradigm shift in the approach to religious coexistence. Sacks argues that we must do more than search for values common to all faiths; we must also reframe the way we see our differences.
