Book Discussion - December 3rd including election of new titles - send in your suggestions, please - THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath - Freed-Montrose Library - downstairs

[A Aman]

Hi everyone -

Hope your Thanksgiving went well.  We will be discussing THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath next Thursday, December 3rd at the Freed-Montrose Library in the downstairs conference room starting at 6pm.  Wendy will be leading the discussion.
 
And we will also be voting on our readings for March through August 2010.  The ballot can be viewed at: http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/Montrose/ballots/dec3-2009.html  Hopefully, others of you who have attended at least twice will step forward and submit at least one other title so we can have at least six.  Remember that we are affiliated with Great Books and request that the titles on the ballot be either classics or written by authors who are famous as classic writers or winners of major book awards such as Booker, Pulitzer or the Nobel Prize in Literature..  Email me if you aren't sure and I'd be glad to discuss it.

The ballot will close on Tuesday evening Dec 1st, prior to midnight.  If possible,  please review the ballot before you arrive at the library so that you won't need too much time to review any new additions that have been added before the deadline.  If you can't review, that's okay but for those who can, please do.

Hope to see you next Thursday evening for our 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===========================

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.
--Wendy will lead discussion
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.
--Jo will lead discussion

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.
--Alice will lead discussion