Book Discussion Dec 4 - 6pm - Montrose Library - downstairs - TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller - plus details on arrangements for Stoppard play

[A Aman]

Hi everyone --

Happy Thanksgiving!

We will be discussing TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller at our meeting next Thursday December 4th at 6pm in the downstairs conference room at Freed-Montrose Library.   Susan will lead the discussion.

To those who have attended at least two meetings, don't forget to SEND IN YOUR SUGGESTIONS to me for our ballot BEFORE the meeting and please remember we are affiliated with Great Books (with a capital "G") when you look for titles to suggest.  FYI  - we'll only be voting on 4 titles this time. Ballot so far is at: http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/Montrose/ballots/dec4-2008.html

And please notice I've changed the date for our DISCUSSION on the play titled ROCK 'N ROLL by Tom Stoppard to our April meeting.  That is because I've changed the performance date for those who want to attend the play as a group to Sunday, May 3rd.  Since I'm not seeing 10 people signing up for tickets to be purchased (4 of us already have tickets), we won't be buying at a group rate.  But for those who want to attend the Sunday performance and want to sit together, as a subscriber I can buy tickets hopefully together and at a $5 discount which results in the price of a ticket being $45..  I hope to make this purchase by the end of December. 

So be thinking about whether you want to attend on that Sunday, May 3rd.  If you are interested in having me buy your ticket, you can give me a check at our next meeting or mail me a check or use Paypal and send the price of a ticket to my email address. 

FYI - There are "preview" performances earlier in the week on a week-night before the play is actually in production. Presentation can sometimes be a bit rough but price will be a lot cheaper.  I'm planning for us to have dinner on Sunday after the performance at Bieraporettis. Anyone may join us for dinner, whether you've attended the Sunday performance or not. Just let me know in advance before I make reservations.

And for those who don't make up their minds until much later and decide they are interested, they can always buy their own tickets (though remember that best seats go early).

--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 SELECTIONS
=========================

-- Dec 4, 2008 TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller (publ 1934)
The Modern Library named it the 50th greatest book of the 20th century.
Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards permitted its publication. Famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the life and sexual adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s.
--Susan will lead discussion
Note: At end of discussion, group will vote on new titles for upcoming reading list..

-- Jan 1, 2009 No discussion this month because of holiday. This should give you more time for extra long book to be discussed in February.

-- Feb 5, 2009 MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides (publ 2002) 544 pages
2003 Pulitzer Prize winner, 2007 Oprah Book Club selection
The narrator and protagonist, an intersexed person has 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. The bulk of the novel is devoted to telling his coming-of-age story growing up in Detroit, Michigan in the late 20th century. ...story is intertwined with elements of a family saga, meditations on the era's zeitgeist and bits of contemporary history. Possible discussion questions at
http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number...
-- Marcella will lead discussion

-- Mar 6, 2009  WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by J.M. Coetzee (publ 1980) 156 pages
Author is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
Story is set in a small frontier town of a nameless empire. The Nobel Prize committee called this book "a political thriller in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, in which the idealist's naivete opens the gates to horror". "Early in the novel, it's apparent who the barbarians really are, that's no surprise. What is a surprise, however, is the compassion Coetzee shows his victims and villains alike." Possible discussion questions at http://www.geocities.com/aauw_vancouver/groupdetail/barbarians.html
 -- Alice will lead discussion.

-- Apr 3, 2009  ROCK 'N' ROLL by Tom Stoppard (premier 2006)  144 pages
List of awards for Sir Stoppard at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Stoppard#Honours_and_awards
ROCK 'N' ROLL is a play concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the democratic movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia. Takes place over several decades.
 FYI - A group theatre event by Montrose Great Books members is planned for the local performance at the Alley Theatre sometime between April 29th-May 24th. Exact date TBD.  Contact Alice if you are interest in attending.  Deadline for signing up to attend has not been established yet. Stay tuned for more info.
 -- Leader of discussion is TBD

-- May 7, 2009 TBD