Hi everyone --

We will be meeting next Thursday, July 2nd to discuss SOMETHING WICKED THIS
WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury.  Cassie was originally scheduled to lead the
discussion but because of a unexpected commitment at her job, she will not
be able to attend. And I will be leading the discussion (unless someone else
would like to volunteer?)

Also, please note the new additions to our reading list.  Thanks to everyone
who participated in our recent election.

Looking forward to the discussion.

 --Alice

  http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/Montrose
  http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/blog/
  http://groups.google.com/group/MontroseGreatBooks
  http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/groups/Montrose.html
  http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/GreatBooksGuide.htm

==========UPCOMING READINGS=======================

July 2, 2009  SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury (publ 1972)
317 pages
About two thirteen-year-old boys who have a harrowing experience with a
nightmarish traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town. The
carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark" who bears a tattoo for each
person who, lured by the offer to live out his secret fantasies, has become
bound in service to the carnival. Novel places emphasis on the more serious
side of the transition from childhood to adulthood.<br>
-- Alice will lead discussion

August 6, 2009 MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis (publ 1920) 448 pages
First American to win Nobel Prize in 1930.
Captures the aura of small town America which requires conformity to
tradition and social standards in exchange for recognition, respect and love
from one's neighbors, versus the City as depicted by Washington which seems
to offer freedom and individuality precisely because there's no one there
who cares about you or what you do.
--Susan will lead discussion

September 3, 2009 UBIK by Philip K. Dick (publ 1969) 224 pages
Named by Time magazine as one of the one hundred greatest English-language
novels published since 1923.
A combination of Science Fiction comedy with the unease of reality gone
wrong...the protagonist is hired by a company which blocks telepathic
snooping and paranormal dirty tricks. Something goes terribly wrong when a
big job is tackled on the moon.

October 1, 2009 (reserved for Books on the Bayou - title not announced yet
by library)

November 6, 2009 HARD TIMES by Charles Dickens (publ 1854) 313 pages
Novel highlights the social and economic pressures that some were
experiencing at the time. Dickens wished to satirize radical Utilitarians
whom he described ... as "see[ing] figures and averages, and nothing else."
He also wished to campaign for reform of working conditions.  Setting is the
fictitious Victorian industrialist town named Coketown
Note: group will elect a play from list of available performances provided
by Alice to be discussed in March (play must be available in text form)

December 3, 2009 THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath (publ 1963) 288 pages
Book is semi-autobiographical with the protagonist's descent into mental
illness paralleling the author's own experiences chronicled with stunning
wit and devastating honesty. Story begins with the protagonist as a young
girl from the suburbs of Boston gaining a summer internship at a prominent
magazine in New York City.
Note: At end of discussion, group will vote on new titles for upcoming
reading list..

January 7, 2010 IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER by Italo Calvino (publ
1979) 304 pages
Author was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of
his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. List of
awards of author can be viewed on wikipedia.org
This book is about a reader trying to read a book called If on a winter's
night a traveler. According to this book, the entire novel, even its plot,
is an open trajectory where even the author himself questions his motives of
the writing process.

February 4, 2010 THE PRINCE by Niccolo Machiavelli (publ 1532) 134 pages
Sometimes shockingly direct how-to manual for rulers who aim either to
establish and retain control of a new state or to seize and control an
existing one. Makes a clear break from the Western tradition of political
philosophy that preceded the author where the thinkers of this tradition
were concerned with issues of justice and human happiness, and with the
constitution of the ideal state.