Book Discussion, May 1st - 6pm - Montrose Library - readings by Mark Twain
A Aman
We will be meeting next Thursday, May 1st at 6pm in the
Freed-Montrose library in the upstairs conference room to discuss
readings by Mark Twain. More info below. Anne will be leading the
discussion.
And also, I have set up a blog at
http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/blog/. It will be shared by both the
Central Market Book Club and Montrose Great Books for now, possibly
others if someone comes forward and wants to submit a review of
another group's discussion (not the book, but the discussion). There
are some blog features I'm not sure of such as registration. I think
at this point, all you have to do is enter a legitimate looking email
address and leave the other fields blank and this will basically allow
you to make comments about the discussion without registration but you
can also register as well Let me know if you have any trouble or if
you find it too difficult to navigate. I may have some options to
tweak the format. Because the blog is on our web site and not a
public one, privacy regarding any email address information entered is
not an issue since I don't share them with anyone.
I intend for the blog to be very informal. I think if Ginny reads
this, for example, and she is not too busy with her new job in New
York, she could log into the blog and enter how she's doing (maybe
comments under the blog entry for the MALTESE FALCON).
I don't expect a lot of traffic but I will find it convenient to have
the discussions reviewed somewhat in a chronological order. Will make
it easier for newcomers to get an idea about our discussions,
something they often ask me about.
See ya next Thursday, I hope.
--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
=========================
-- May 1, 2008 Readings by Mark Twain:
* THE NOTORIOUS JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY (9 pages) publ 1867
http://members.cox.net/deleyd/religion/solarmyth/frog.html
* WAR PRAYER (2 pages) publ 1905
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html
* NO. 44, MYSTERIOUS STRANGER (200 pages) publ 1982, not 1916 -
Please read version publ by Univ of California Press 1982.
(other versions such as one published posthumously in 1916 reputedly
not written by Twain)
MYSTERIOUS STRANGER is the story of a devil wreaking subversive
havoc on a socially repressive culture by playing on their
hypocritical terms. One example of where it can be purchased is at:
http://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Stranger-Mark-Twain-Library/dp/05200...
---Anne will lead discussion
-- Jun 5, 2008 THE STRANGER by Camus (123 pages) publ 1946
Author was 1957 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature
The new English translation by Matthew Ward published in 1989 is the
preferred translation.
Book is one of the best-known examples of absurdist fiction. Some
classify it as Existential. The setting is Algiers. The stranger of
the story is a young man who commits an unpremeditated crime in a
moment of aberration and then is slowly and methodically condemned to
death. One of the translations is available at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15969/Albert-Camus-The-Stranger
---Wendy will lead discussion
-- Jul 3, 2008 A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh (publ 1934) 308 pages
Included in Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels.
Story focuses on the breakdown of a marriage. Waugh's own marriage was
disintegrating when he wrote this, and his unhappiness led him into
wider realms of feeling—pathos, rage— than any you find in his earlier
triumphs. If this is Waugh at his bleakest it's also Waugh at his
deepest, most poisonously funny as described at:
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_handful_of_dust,00.html
--Carol will lead discussion
-- Aug 7, 2008 THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers (356
pages) publ 1940
One of the top one hundred works of twentieth century fiction chosen
by the Modern Library.
A haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the
forgotten, and the mistreated. Tells an unforgettable story of moral
isolation in a small Georgia mill town in the 1930s where a deaf man
encounters a young girl, a labor agitator, a restaurateur, and an
idealistic African-American doctor. Possible questions for discussion
available at:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/mccullers_heart.shtml#discussion
--Cassie will lead discussion
-- Sep 4, 2008 THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy (publ 2006) 256 pages
Pulitzer Prize winner, an Oprah Book Club Selection.
A post-apocalyptic tale describing a journey taken by a father and his
young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted
years before by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and,
seemingly, most life on earth. They have nothing; just a pistol to
defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the
clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food — and each other.
Possible discussion questions at:
http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307387899&view=rg
--Susan will lead discussion
-- Oct 2, 2008 Title will be same as selection for Books on the Bayou
- Title will be announced by library at the first part of September.
-- Nov 6, 2008 CATCH 22 by Joseph Heller (publ 1961) 464 pages The
novel, set during the later stages of World War II from 1943 onwards,
is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the
Twentieth century.
Classic novel of wartime madness. Story is a general critique of
bureaucratic operation and reasoning, among other things. Joseph
Heller's brilliance lies in his ability to exaggerate an issue, idea
or element of society so perfectly that we see it for just how foolish
it is.
--Wendy will lead discussion
Note: At end of discussion, group will consider election of a play
from available Houston theatre schedules - (classic preferred,
excluding musicals for now) --hopefully one performed somewhere in
Houston in March. Play to be discussed at our March 6th meeting so
play needs to be one where text is available.
-- 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, there will be an election of titles to
update our reading list. Anyone who has attended at least two meetings
may submit candidates for the ballot. Suggestions should be submitted
in advance to Alice.
-- 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=1318
--don't know yet who will lead (accepting volunteers)