Central Market Book Club
Affiliated with
a Non-Profit Educational Organization
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Contact info for the Houston Central Market Book Club
Location: HEB Central Market
3815 Westheimer(at Weslayan) [map here]
2nd Floor Community Room
Schedule: Every month on the second Monday from 7:30pm to 9:30 pm (this is a change from last year when we started at 7:00pm)
Contact: Eleanore Tyson
Email: etyson112@gmail.com
Our group is free and open to the public. The group
doesn't provide the text so attendees must find a source
for obtaining a copy of the readings on their own.
(Library, web, used book store, retail book store, friend, etc.)
We are associated with the Houston Great Books Council and
always appreciate if someone wants to submit membership dues
to the council but this is not a requirement for the group.
We welcome everyone who might be interested.
We do ask if someone wants to actually participate in
the discussion (and not just listen), that they read the
book and hopefully bring any questions they might have.
The questions from attendees are what really form the basis
for our discussions.
You are invited to join our google group and to review prior google group activity for our group by going to: http://groups.google.com/group/CentralMarketBookClub?lnk=li
We select our readings by voting though getting suggestions on the ballot requires that the title is either a classic, or written by an author noted for writing classics or winner or runner up for a major literary award (Nobel, Pulitzer, Booker, National Book Award). For more info [click here]
Reading Selections for the Central Market Book Club
Readings for 2011
- Jan 10th THE PICKUP by Nadine Gordimer (publ 2002) 288 pages
1991 Nobel Prize winner
Story has a setting of Johannesberg, S. Africa and is told against two backdrops, from the perspective of two very different people, who "pick each other up". It's a cliche to say their lives are changed forever by their encounter, but Gordimer introduces fresh and complex twists into this most ancient of plots --Boy Meets Girl, and Nothing is Ever the Same Again."
--Jacklie leading discussion
- Feb 14th REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier (publ 1938) 384 pages
A novel of mystery and passion, a dark psychological tale of secrets and betrayal, dead loves and an estate called Manderley that is as much a presence as the humans who inhabit it. The exploration of the relationship between a man who was powerful and a woman who was not.
--Catherine leading discussion
- Mar 14th THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Diaz (publ 2007) 352 pages
Pulitzer Prize winner in 2008 and bestseller.
Novel is set in New Jersey where author was raised and deals explicitly with his ancestral homeland's experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo. A coming of age "young-adult melodrama draped over a multigenerational immigrant family chronicle that dabbles in magic realism, feminism, machismo, and enough polymorphous multiculturalism to fill up an Introduction to Cultural Studies syllabus."
-- Nelda leading discussion
- April 11th HOUSEKEEPING: A NOVEL by Marilynne Robinson (publ 1980) 291 pages
received Pulitzer Prize nomination, named by the Guardian Unlimited [as] one of the 100 greatest novels of all time. Named by TIME as one of 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
Story is "a moving depiction of two sisters whose efforts to cope with loss, abandonment, and insecurity illustrates the fragility of human relationships and the transitory nature of the physical world."
--Alice leading discussion
- May 9th BARN BURNING by William Faulkner (publ 1938) 25 pages
This short story is a prequel to the well known SNOPES TRILOGY by Faulkner. The story deals with class conflicts, the influence of fathers, and vengeance as viewed through the third-person perspective of a young, impressionable child. Available on the web at: http://www.tarleton.edu/~sword/Barn%20Burning.pdf as well as included in numerous short story collections of Faulkner's work.
Note: This short story selection for our May discussion is purposefully short giving those readers who choose to plan ahead, time to start early for our June discussion when we will be discussing a book that is longer than what we usually undertake.
--Alice leading discussion
- June 13th BLACK BOY by Richard Wright (publ 1945) 448 pages
The 1991 unexpurgated or restored version of this autobiography will be the version used for discussion.
Powerful autobiographical account of a journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. This memoir covers the time from the author's early childhood to the launching of his career as a writer. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment and a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.
Note: The month prior to this intentionally has a short story scheduled to give readers time to begin reading early, given this book is longer than our usual book length.
--Esther leading discussion
- July 11th EMBERS by Sandor Marai,translated by Carol Brown Janeway (orig pub 1932, publ in English in 2000) 224 pages
Author is a rediscovered Hungarian writer who is considered by literary critics to be one of Hungary's most influential representatives of middle class literature between the two world wars.
Book was an international bestseller in the 1930's. It is about a man whose best friend has an affair with his wife. But, that is not what the book is really about. The book is really about obsession, grief, and mature acceptance, as well as what human beings do with their brief time alive. How the story unfolds is far more important than what it unfolds.
--Alice A. leading discussion
- Aug 8th THE PLAGUE OF DOVES by Louise Erdrich (publ 2009) 352 pages
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - author has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for a previous work.
A haunting story of an unsolved murder of a North Dakota family that explores racial discord, loss of land and changing fortunes in a corner of North Dakota where Native Americans and whites share a tangled history.
--Alice M. leading discussion
- Sept 12th ONE AMAZING THING by Chitra Divakaruni (publ 2010) 240 pages
Selected by the Houston Public Library for the city-wide initiative known as Gulf Coast Reads (formerly known as Books on the Bayou).
When an earthquake hits, nine men and women of diverse ages and backgrounds are trapped in an Indian consulate in what some readers speculate is in San Francisco. More info about the author at:
http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/HoustonGreatBooks/
--Connie leading discussion
- Oct 10th THE GENTLEMAN FROM SAN FRANCISCO by Ivan Bunin (publ 1915) 24 pages
Author was first Russian to win Nobel Prize. Translation by D.H. Lawrence.
Story tells of a nouveau riche's fatal family travel around the Mediteranean. Neither at Naples nor on Capri could any one recall his name -- a gentleman with his wife and daughter, was on his way to Europe, where he intended to stay for two whole years, solely for the pleasure of it. Location for downloading story
HERE
--Alice A. leading discussion
- Nov 14th OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham (publ 1915) 700 pgs
NOTE: There is an abridged version - the version we prefer is the original text.
Generally agreed that this is author's masterpiece. Though he admitted it includes autobiographical elements, author claims most of it is pure invention. Included in Modern Library's 100 best English language novels.
Story is about a main character named Carey who goes from childhood through early middle age and the many relationships, despairs, epiphanies, longings, setbacks, sicknesses, friends, and beliefs he goes through along the way. According to one reviewer on Amazon, "it encompasses many ideas and stages in psychological and emotional growth ... almost everyone can find something to which he or she can relate."
--Catherine leading discussion
- Dec 12th SPRING TORRENTS (a.k.a.TORRENTS OF SPRING) by Ivan Turgenev (not Hemingway) - (publ 1870) 228 pages
Author's artistic purity made him a favorite of like-minded novelists of the next generation, such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad, both of whom greatly preferred Turgenev to Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
Story is about a young 22-year-old Russian landowner named Dimitry Sanin who falls deliriously in love for the first time while visiting the city of Frankfurt. No specific requirement for a particular translation. Constance Garnet is a good translator as well as others.
--Lynessa leading discussion
Readings for 2012
- Jan 9, 2012 EMPRESS by Shan Sa [336 pages]
From the internationally best-selling author of The Girl Who Played Go (2003) comes another brilliant historical novel set in China. Reaching back in time to the seventh century, Shan re-creates a China ruled by the powerful Tang dynasty. Chosen to become one of the emperor's royal concubines, a young girl known as Heavenlight is thrust into the exotic world of the Forbidden City, where she must learn to navigate politics, court intrigue, and petty jealousies. One among 10,000 girls and women, she eventually distinguishes herself from the others by relying on her intelligence, wit, and fierce determination. Chosen by the heir to the throne to be his first wife, she ascends to the throne after her husband's death, becoming the first empress of China. Based on the controversial reign of Empress Wu, this fictional biography illuminates the life and times of one of the ancient world's most powerful, capable, and overlooked women. Brad Hooper
--Candace leading discussion
- Feb 13, 2012 THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED by F. Scott Fitzgerald [322 pages]
First published by Scribner's in 1922, [It] is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel. The novel provides a portrait of the Eastern elite during the Jazz Age, exploring New York Society. As with his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters are complex, especially in their marriage and intimacy, much like how he treats intimacy in Tender Is the Night. The book is believed to be largely based on Fitzgerald's relationship and marriage with Zelda Fitzgerald. [from Wikipedia]
--Catherine leading discussion
- Mar 12, 2012 MY NAME IS RED by Orhan Pamuk [Eng version publ 2001]
[432 pages]
2006 Nobel Prize laureate. Novel has been translated into 24 languages
and won international literature's most lucrative prize, the IMPAC
Dublin Award in 2003.
Blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles in a setting of
16th century Istanbul. Story opens a window into the reign of Ottoman
Sultan Murat III in nine snowy winter days of 1591, inviting the
reader to experience the tension between East and West from a
breathlessly urgent perspective.
--Jean leading discussion
- Apr 9, 2012 TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Wolfe [195 pages]
"A novel set on the Ramsays and their visits to the Isle of Skye in
Scotland between 1910 and 1920, it skilfully manipulates temporal and
psychological elements." Wikipedia
--Catherine leading discussion
- Please check for our updated reading list at http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/central-market.htm
Reading selections for our earlier years are available HERE
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