Did you know that the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative (NGBC) hosts two book clubs? The NGBC Book Club meets on the third Monday of every month to discuss a book selected by one of its participants. The Alternative Economies Book Club meets on the last Thursday of every other month to discuss texts that critically analyze our current economic system and review alternative proposals that support building healthy communities and ecosystems.

On Monday, Sept. 16 the NGBC Book Club will convene at 5:30 p.m. to discuss Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.

Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 60s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research. A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. The true subject of Pollan’s “mental travelogue” is not just psychedelic drugs, but the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both struggle and beauty, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.

On Thursday, Sept. 26 the Alternative Economies Book Club will meet at 5:30 p.m. to discuss Adam Winkler’s National Book Award Finalist We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights.

We the Corporations chronicles the astonishing story of one of the most successful yet least well-known “civil rights movements” in American history. Hardly oppressed like women and minorities, business corporations, too, have fought since the nation’s earliest days to gain equal rights under the Constitution—and today have nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. Exposing the historical origins of Citizens United and Hobby Lobby, Winkler explains how those controversial Supreme Court decisions extending free speech and religious liberty to corporations were the capstone of a centuries-long struggle over corporate personhood and constitutional protections for business.

Book Club discussions are always coupled with a potluck meal, so please bring something to share. Upcoming titles include Michelle Obama’s Becoming and Jane Jacob’s The Nature of Economies. You can purchase book club selection for 10 percent off at the NGBC.

Narrow Gauge Book Coop is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information on volunteering, or taking part in the owner and member opportunities, stop by the store, go on the Facebook page, email [email protected] or call 719-589-3464. The coop is located at 602 Main Street