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 7:00pm to 9:00 pm (sometimes we finish sooner)
Contact: Alice Aman
Email: amanhaus@gmail.com
Ph:713-523-3652
Check out our new Blog Current plans are to share the blog between Montrose Great Books and Central Market Book Club with possible occasional "guests" sharing descriptions of other book discussions around the city. You need to register to add comments. I'm not limiting registrations to book club members only. Anyone as long as they aren't spammers or obnoxious may contribute.
Note from Alice:
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 2009
- Jan 12, 2009 A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster (publ 1924) 416 pages
Selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library, included on Time Magazines 100 best English-Language novels and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
Set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s, Forster employs his first-hand knowledge of India.to write about an ambiguous incident between a young Englishwoman of uncertain stability and an Indian doctor eager to know his conquerors better that leads to a trial and its aftermath reflecting all the racial tensions and prejudices between indigenous Indians and the British colonists who rule India..
Connie will lead discussion
- Feb 9, 2009 THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING by Carson McCullers (pub 1946) 176 pages
The story of 12-year-old troubled adolescent tomboy, who feels disconnected from the world -- 'an unjoined person'. She dreams of going away with her brother and his bride-to-be on their honeymoon, following them to the Alaskan wilderness. Rather than as a sentimental work, some critics have said it should be seen as a ?very funny, very dark novel?, and a ?combination of hope, hopelessness and callousness
Mia will lead discussion
- Mar 9, 2009 THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark (publ 1961) 160 pages
The bizarre, unforgettable character of Miss Jean Brodie brought Spark international fame and boosted her into the first rank of contemporary Scottish literature. Time Magazine included the novel in its list of Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
In 1930s Edinburgh, six ten year old girls are assigned Miss Jean Brodie who as their teacher is "genuinely intent on opening up her girls' lives, on heightening their awareness of themselves and their world, and on breaking free of restrictive, conventional ways of thinking, feeling, and being."
Alice will lead discussion
- Apr 13, 200 UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry (publ 1947) 448 pages
Rated as number 11 on the list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century compiled by the Modern Library.
Semi-autobiographical -- tells the story of an alcoholic British consul in a small Mexican town on the Day of the Dead in 1938 when his wife arrives and is determined to rescue their failing marriage. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.
Connie will lead discussion
Note: Election of new books for our reading list to be held at end of April meeting. Ballot is HERE
- May 11, 2009 THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe (publ 1959) 184 pages
Seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim. This moving story realistically depicts Nigeria's Igbo tribe as its way of life is changed by the encroachment of European colonizers. The internal struggles and eventual downfall of the main character, Okonkwo, are accented by the inevitable loss of tribal culture.
-- Jackie will lead discussion
- Jun 8, 2009 WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen (pub 2006) 350 pages
Winner of 2007 Alex award, 2007 BookBrowse award, a 2006 Quill Awards nominee and a NYTimes Best Seller. Set during the great depression of the 1930s, the story of a veterinarian who joins a traveling circus, falls in love with a performer and befriends an elephant named Rosie. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust and survival.
-- Mia will lead discussion
- Jul 13, 2009 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey (publ 1962) 320 pages
Included the list of TIME's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Set in an Oregon asylum, and serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind. Narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Indian "Chief" Bromden, who has pretended to be a deaf-mute for several years, this story focuses on the antics of the rebellious McMurphy, a happy-go-lucky transferee from a prison work farm to a mental hospital.
-- Scott will lead discussion
- Aug 10, 2009 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington (publ 1918) 176 pages
Pulitzer Prize winner in 1919. Second novel in a trilogy that traces the growth of the US through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in a fictional Mid-Western town, between the end of the Civil War and the early part of the 20th century, a period of rapid industrialization and socio-economic change in America.
-- Connie will lead discussion
- Sept 4, 2009 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.
-- Scott will lead discussion
- Oct 12, 2009 THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford (publ 1915) 256 pages
Set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedies of the lives of two seemingly perfect couples. Captain Edward Ashburnham appears to be the ideal “good soldier” and the embodiment of English upper-class virtues but he also represents the corruption at society’s core. Beneath Ashburnham’s charming, polished exterior lurks a soul well-versed in the arts of deception, hypocrisy, who has betrayed an equally privileged American, John Dowell.
-- Jackie will lead discussion
[next election will be at October meeting]
- Nov 9, 2009 HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene (publ 1948) 288 pages
Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Novel is included in TIME's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Story of a good man enmeshed in love, intrigue, and evil in a West African coastal town. Scobie, flawed yet heroic is bound by strict integrity to his job and by severe responsibility to his wife for whom he cares with a fatal pity.
-- Alice will lead discussion
- Dec 14, 2009 THE JUNGLE by- Upton Sinclair (publ 1906) 475 pages
Classic novel about corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century - depicts in harsh tones the poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant living and working conditions, and hopelessness prevalent among the "have-nots". Most of the main characters are part of an immigrant Lithuanian family which as the novel progresses, the jobs and means the family uses to stay alive lead to their moral decay.
-- Mia will lead discussion
Reading selections for our earlier years are available here
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