Join ICF NYC for our June Breakfast and a Book Club meeting to kick off your week with a mental boost! This month we delve into Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile.  

Summary Details

When: June 14, 2021, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Facilitator:  Lora Lebo, MHRM, PCC, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Format:  Virtual - Zoom meeting format, cameras enabled

CCEUs: 1 TBD 

About The Book

Title: The Splendid and the Vile

Author: Erik Larson

Publication Date: 2020

Description: On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

“Churchill’s lessons of resilience and his style of steady-handed leadership are essential to the state of mind of American readers.”—Vanity Fair

About the ICF NYC Breakfast and Book Club

Meetings will be held consistently on the second Monday of each month at 8 AM New York time (except where may be otherwise indicated).  Attendance at every meeting is not necessary.  You may participate based upon your preference for the book.  The intended purpose of this offering is to broaden and deepen our knowledge of current practices in the coaching profession and in the business world.

Please register early!  If registration is low, or non-existent, for any specific book, we will revisit the selection and float a poll to the membership to select a replacement book.  We therefore encourage participants to register early for meetings so that we may assess interest at an early stage.

Meeting Guidelines:

• Please be sure to read at least portions of the book so that meaning, intent and application may be discussed with depth.  

• As with any virtual call, please be prepared to have your video and audio on, with limited distraction.  Turn off all notifications.  

• Come in your pajamas! We don’t care about how you look, only the intellectual contribution you bring.

Meet our Breakfast and a Book Club Host

Lora Lebo, MHRM, PCC, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Big Bold Ideas Coaching & Consulting, LLC

Director

www.BigBoldIdeas.com

www.linkedin.com/in/loralebopcc

@BigBoldIdeas

Lora is a graduate of the University of Miami, attaining her PCC designation, and has more than twenty-five years of experience in Human Resources working for Fortune 500 Companies.  Lora earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Stockton University, and her Master of Human Resource Management from the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University.  Lora also obtained her EO Investigation certificate from Cornell University and spent many years of her career conducting employment related investigations.  Lora holds her Senior Professional of Human Resources designation through HRCI and her Certified Senior Professional designation through the Society for Human Resource Management and is the founder of Big Bold Ideas Coaching & Consulting, LLC.