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!**
The Immoralist, by Andre Gide
Thursday, December 6 at 2:00 PM
Considered a literary landmark, The Immoralist is the confessional account of a young anthropologist who journeys from sickness to health to debauchery in a rebellion against his Protestant upbringing. Seeking the truth to his own nature, he awakens both sexually and morally as he finds new freedom in living according to his own desires.
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
Thursday, January 10 at 2:00 PM
Carroll frames Alice in Wonderland as a dreamlike experience for Alice who drifts to sleep and dreams that she is following a white rabbit to Wonderland. Through the Looking Glass is also framed like a dream, but in this work, Alice is controlled by the rules of chess as she enters a geometrical landscape. Through them both, Carroll presents us with the ultimate question: what is reality?
Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
Thursday, February 7 at 2:00 PM
This Book Discussion has been canceled and will be rescheduled for a later date.
The refined daughter of a “good old family” meets a miner at a Christmas dance and they fall into a whirlwind, passionate romance. The ensuing marriage later begins to drift apart as she realizes the difficulties of living on his meager salary. Written in 1913 and received with lukewarm critical reception, Sons and Lovers is today regarded as both a masterpiece and as Lawrence’s finest achievement.
Contemporary Evening Book Discussions
Moderated by Professor Michael Boecherer of SCCC
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 PM
Due to the library’s closing on Thursday evening November 15th because of inclement weather, the book discussion on “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” by Ray Bradbury will be rescheduled to March, 2019. Please check our March/April Newsletter for the date. Copies of the book will be available at the Reference Desk in late February.
A fantasy novel about teenage best friends and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town, this novel combines elements of fantasy and horror, and analyzes the conflicting natures of good and evil as the boys learn to combat fear.
Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
Thursday, December 13 at 7:30 PM
This illuminating memoir of a young man growing up in the “hillbilly culture” of the heart of Appalachia is a powerful account of a life on the edge of plausibility, shedding light on overlooked lives and the impossibility of upward mobility for most. The author, who “escaped” into the Marines, then to college and Yale Law School, writes a moving, passionate portrayal of a culture in crisis and the loss of the American dream.
The Baker’s Secret, by Stephen Kiernan
Thursday, January 17 at 2:00 PM
This moving and thought-provoking work of historical fiction takes place during WWII while Europe awaits liberation. A small Normandy village fights the occupying German army with little, brave acts of defiance, but the resourcefulness of a heroic twenty-two year old baker helps the village to survive.
The Idiot, by Elif Batuman
Thursday, February 28 at 2:00 PM
Email is new in 1995 when Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, starts her Freshman year at Harvard. She begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student in Hungary, and with each email their writings take on increasingly mysterious meanings.