Rogue Counselor

🌿 The Living Library Book Club — August Edition

What happens when a book club begins not with a book, but with the people in the room? In the August edition of The Living Library Book Club, Michael Shoeman is joined by Grace, Vern, and Susan for a two-part conversation exploring family, spirituality, creativity, culture, and the stories that have helped shape our lives.

Part One: How Are You Arriving?

Before discussing books, we begin by practicing the Living Library—or Human Library—conversation itself. Each participant is invited to share how they are arriving and what feels most important in their life right now.

The rest of the group practices listening with curiosity rather than preparing an argument or response. The conversation opens naturally into stories about:

❤️ Family, love, and communication

🌱 Supporting the people we care about as they grow toward greater independence

🕊️ Death, dying, and the work of a death doula

🤝 Building understanding across different faiths, cultures, identities, and life experiences

👂 Creating brave spaces where people’s lived experiences can actually be heard Rather than trying to solve one another’s problems, we practice something much simpler: «Getting to know the human being before discussing the issue.»

Part Two: The Books and Stories That Influenced Us

From there, books, writers, music, and characters become conversation starters. Grace shares the impact of Helen Burke’s Just Tell Them I Love Them and its connection to her work around death and dying. Vern explores the influence of musician Chris Whitley and how deeply listening to music can inspire creativity of its own. Susan discusses the interfaith work We Refuse to Be Enemies, along with Jane Roberts’ The Education of Oversoul Seven trilogy and the spiritual questions these works have opened for her. Michael shares his return to Marcus Goodwin’s The Psychic Investor and how it has influenced his ongoing Divination and Money Management experiments.

What begins as a discussion about favorite books becomes something much more personal: a conversation about family, faith, creativity, mortality, difference, and the experiences that have made each of us who we are.

📚 And your time has value. All time spent watching these Living Library Book Club conversations is redeemable as creditable hours through the Living Library Time Bank. Learning, listening, reflection, and meaningful participation are contributions—and the Time Bank provides a way for that contribution to be recognized. The Living Library Book Club is both a book discussion and an experiment in conversation culture: using stories to help us become more curious about one another.

🌿 Because sometimes the most interesting story in the room isn’t the one inside the book. It’s the person sitting beside us.

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