Book Discussion - Jul 2nd - Freed-Montrose Library -6pm- SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury

[A Aman]

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.