Copies of the books are available at the reference desk. Everyone is welcome!

World Literature Discussions

Moderated by Professor Bill Schiavo

**For a full list of Bill Schiavo’s past book discussions, please click here!**

Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Thursday, September 12 at 2:00 PM
The first in a series of books about the title character, this story follows Tarzan’s adventures of being raised by apes in the jungle, to his becoming a fierce hunter and warrior, and to his eventual encounters with humans and Western society. The impacts of heredity and behavior, racial superiority and alternate civilizations are all evident as Tarzan struggles with his identity as a human.

The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
Thursday, October 10 at 2:00 PM
These stories, inspired by ancient Indian fables, are set in a forest in India with animals teaching moral lessons. Through the animals’ freedom of movement, the author shows the wild and lawless side of human nature, while at the same time teaches respect for authority and one’s place in the “law of the jungle.”

Contemporary Evening Book Discussions

Moderated by Professor Michael Boecherer of SCCC

The Lazarus Project, by Aleksandar Hemon
Thursday, September 19 at 7:30 PM
A National Book Critics’ Circle Award winner, The Lazarus Project is a novel based on the true story of 19 year old Lazarus Averbuch, an Eastern European Jew who was shot to death on the doorstep of the Chicago Chief of Police on March 2, 1908, and was cast as an assassin. A century later, a young Eastern European writer in Chicago becomes obsessed with his story and enlists a friend to help him retrace Lazarus’ path.

The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 PM
In 1969 New York City’s Lower East Side, word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day that they will die, so the Gold children – adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness – sneak out to hear their fortunes. Their prophecies define the next five decades of their lives as the novel probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, and this world and the next. A sweeping novel of remarkable depth.