March 25, 2009 — Gerda Lerner shined at EWG conference today

EXECUTIVE WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT (EWG) threw quite a bash today when they hosted their 2009 conference at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Among the highlights was a speech by the founder of Women's History Month, Gerda Lerner.

At 88, Gerda is an amazing, formidable embodiment of 20th century history. Armed with her ever-present cup of tea, she enthralled us with her stories of her early days as a prisoner in the Austrian jail, her experience with the McCarthy-era black list, women's activism, and more. Gerda has seen and survived it all and we were honored to listen as she shared her wisdom with the dynamic crowd of top women in government.

We felt honored to be able to bring her to the conference, and we thank our friends at Accenture for underwriting the purchase of Gerda's book, Living with History Making Social Change. Each attendee took home a copy - along with copies of the books by the other powerful women leaders who spoke that day:

• Diane MacEachern, author of Big Green Purse
• Rosemary O'Leary, author of The Collaborative Public Manager
• Carolyn Maloney, author of Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
• Nell Merlino, author of Stepping Out of Line

We also loved meeting the fabulously energetic and inspirational keynote speaker Vernice Armour, America's first African-American female combat pilot (www.vernicearmour.com). This event was filled with incredible networking opportunities, good conversations, and of course, great books. Learn more about EWG and be sure to sign up for next year's event: www.execwomeningov.org.

March 2, 2009 — “Animal Spirits” authors George Akerlof and Bob Shiller at the Greater Washington Board of Trade

More than 50 local executives tonight joined world-class economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, co-authors of the book “Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism.” The professors were invited to share their insights and ideas on the economy at the Greater Washington Board of Trade (pictured here with BOT president and CEO Jim Dinegar and Perry Hooks). Afterward they responded to questions about their forecasts on the future of the economy.

About the Authors: Akerlof is the Daniel E. Koshland Sr. Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics. Shiller is the best-selling author of “Irrational Exuberance” and “The Subprime Solution.” He is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University and the co-creator of the Case-Shiller index.

About the Book: The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, “animal spirits” are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity.

Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery.

Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government—simply allowing markets to work won’t do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life—such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes—and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them.

Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits—the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today.

March 1, 2009 — 50th Birthday Bash Salon with Adam Gopnik, “Angels and Ages”

Famed New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (pictured here with HBE owners Perry and Loretta), author of the new book, “Angels and Ages: A short book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life,” was the celebrity author who spoke tonight at our second Salon — a birthday bash book party!

The event was hosted by our good pal Marcia, who had a big birthday on February 12. She thought it was especially fitting that Adam come to speak about the two men also born on that day.

The birthday girl opened her home to nearly 100 people. Like us, she feels giving back is crucial and chose to have the event catered by New Course Catering, part of 3rd & Eats Restaurant, which provides culinary arts training to homeless and chronically unemployed individuals. For details visit: NewCourseCatering.com.

Hooks Book Events also donated a portion of the sale of Adam Gopnik’s book to Crossway Community, an entrepreneurial, non-profit organization run by Kathleen Guinan. “Our mission is to promote learning, creativity, and community for all families,” Kathleen says. For information visit www.crossway-community.org.

What the guests said:

Sunday’s event was the most intellectual experience I have had in a long time. Thanks so much for inviting me.

This was a Bohemian salon of deep thoughts and noble causes.

Adam’s knowledge and passion were incredibly impressive.

Many writers can write but are not good speakers — I was impressed with Adam’s ability to do both. When is the next salon?

To book your own Salon, send us an email: perry@hooksbookevents.com / loretta@hooksbookevents.com

About Adam Gopnik: A writer for The New Yorker since 1986, Adam is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. From 1995 to 2000, he lived in Paris and now lives in New York City with his wife and children. About Angels and Ages: On a memorable day in human history, February 12, 1809, two babies were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. It was a time of backward-seeming notions, when almost everyone still accepted the biblical account of creation as the literal truth and authoritarianism as the most natural and viable social order. But by the time both men died, the world had changed: ordinary people understood that life on earth was a story of continuous evolution, and the Civil War had proved that a democracy could fight for principles and endure. And with these signal insights much else had changed besides. Together, Darwin and Lincoln had become midwives to the spirit of a new world, a new kind of hope and faith.