Central Market Book Club Archive Page
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Reading Selections for the Central Market Book Club
in Our Earlier Years
Readings for 2008
- Jan 14, 2008 LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding (200 pages) publ 1959
Author is 1983 Nobel Prize winner
Story about a group of young boys stranded on a desert island who must negotiate cooperation and self-government without adult supervision…An investigation of what happens to civilized people when the structures of civilization disappear.
Connie leading discussion.
- Feb 11, 2008 NATIVE SON by Richard Wright (432 pages) publ 1940
Named as #20 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th Century. Bestseller and one of the earliest successful attempts to explain the racial divide in America. Tells the story of 22-year old Bigger Thomas, an African-American of the poorest class, struggling to live in Chicago's South Side ghetto in the 1930s. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, author is sympathetic to the systemic inevitability behind them.
Alice leading discussion
- Mar 10, 2008 UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch. ( 256 pages) publ 1984
Included in Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century
Story of a struggling young Oxford educated male British writer (Donaghue) living in London who goes on a madcap adventure of a little more than a week According to some reviewers, there is much clever wit and humor causing some to laugh out loud thru many of the scenes.
Allan leading discussion.
- Apr 14, 2008 MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert (400 pages) published in 1857 (publ in English in 1886)
Depictions of sex and adultery in the book considered to be vivid in 1857 incited a backlash of immorality charges. Considered to be one of the first modern realistic novels and is included on many lists of greatest novels ever written. It is a story of a doctor's wife who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the emptiness of provincial life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel's true art lies in its details and hidden patterns. Flaubert was notoriously perfectionistic about his writing.
Full text of Madame Bovary available for download from Project Gutenberg or Bibliomania
Jackie leading discussion
Note: Election of new selections to be held at end of April meeting. Ballot is HERE
- May 12, 2008 DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather ( 297 pages) publ 1927
Author won Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for another work titled ONE OF OURS
Included in Time Magazine list of 100 best novels
Notable for its portrayal of two well-meaning and devout French priests who encounter a well-entrenched Spanish-Mexican clergy they are sent to supplant when the United States acquired New Mexico and the Vatican, in turn, remapped its dioceses. Several of these entrenched priests are depicted in classic manner as examples of greed, avarice and gluttony, while others live simple, abstemious lives among the Indians
Connie leading discussion.
- Jun 9, 2008 THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS by Kiran Desai (324 pages) publ 2006
2006 Man Booker Prize winner as well as 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
Main themes include migration and living in between two worlds and in between past and present. Setting is the northeastern Himalayas where a rising insurgency
challenges the old way of life. Characters include a Cambridge educated retired judge, his granddaughter, their cook, the cook's son who is an illegal immigrant working in grimy Manhattan restaurants and the granddaughter's boyfriend who is involved in an insurgency.
Jackie leading discussion.
- July 14, 2008 SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser (Dover Thrift edition - 368 pages) publ 1900
According to H.L. Mencken, "American writing, before and after Dreiser's time, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin." About a young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream by first becoming a mistress to powerful men and later as a famous actress. Author had difficulty finding publisher "due to the blurred division line between good and bad in the plot."
Connie will lead discussion
- August 11, 2008 MRS DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf (192 pages) publ 1925
Story of Clarissa Dalloway's preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess. Story is preoccupied with a number of issues including madness and feminism. With the interior perspective of the novel, the story travels forwards and back in time, and in and out of the characters' minds, to construct a complete image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure.
Alice will lead discussion
- September 8, 2008 THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neal Hurston (194 pages) publ 1937
From the 1930s through the 1950s, Zora Neale Hurston was the most prolific and accomplished black woman writer in America. The book was not universally praised by Hurston's peers, with particular criticism leveled at her use of black southern dialect to show that complex relationships and metaphoric language are possible in something considered "substandard" to English. Setting of novel is central and southern Florida in the early 20th century.
The main character, an African American woman in her early forties, tells via an extended flashback, the story of her life which has three major periods corresponding to her marriages to three very different men.
Ellie will lead discussion
- October 13, 2008 DELTA WEDDING by Eudora Welty (326 pages) publ 1946
Welty won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER.
DELTA WEDDING is a portrait of a large Southern family living on their plantation in the Mississippi delta land in 1923. "A perfect ear for dialect is matched by deep spiritual concerns, and the limits of family and sexuality are explored." says one reviewer.
Mary will lead discussion
Note: Election of new books for our reading list to be held at end of October meeting.
- November 10, 2008 NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND by Fyodor Dostoevsky (136 pages) publ 1864
Considered by many to be the world's first existentialist novel.
It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man) who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. Considered to be possible inspiration for Wright's THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND.
Alice wil lead discussion
- December 8, 2008 THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND by Richard Wright (65 pages) publ 1945
Written seven years before Ellison's novel INVISIBLE MAN , Wright's story is considered by many to be an unacknowledged source of Ellison's work; however, both writers rely heavily on Dostoevsky. Wright's story is also thought to present a better portrayal of the black man's plight in American society during that time period.
An African American falsely accused of killing a white woman, attempts to make a new life in the sewers.. he examines his assumptions about guilt and innocence and comes to believe that people are inherently guilty and isolated from one another.
Before anyone gives up trying to find a copy, we will discuss what options are available in making sure everyone has a copy of the text. One source for text is a collection by Wright titled EIGHT MEN: SHORT STORIES but supply seems limited at this point.
Esther will lead discussion
Year 2007
Note: Changes have been made to schedule. Please check if you haven't reviewed the list recently!
- Jan 8, 2007 -
BABBITT by Sinclair Lewis (publ 1922) approx 320 pages
Author is 1930 Nobel Prize winner (first American)
Classic commentary on middle-class society - about a businessman who mistakes commercial success for an understanding of the world at large - dissatisfied and lonely, questions the conformity, consumerism, and competitiveness of his conservative, and ultimately cultureless community. Available online at:
etext.library.adelaide.edu.au
Connie will be discussion leader
Note: Please submit via email to Alice your suggestions for the ballot IN ADVANCE of the February meeting when election of new readings will take place.
- Feb 12 2007 -
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster (224 pages) publ 1908
Included in list of 100 best novels by Modern Library.
Author's most romantic, optimistic book; a romance and a critique of English society; about a young woman in the sexually repressed culture of early 20th-century; two main male characters have very different life-styles, one is conservative, the other is free-spirited..
Available online at:
www.hti.umich.edu
Lynessa will be discussion leader
NOTE: Election of readings will be held at the end of the discussion. Suggestions must be submitted in advance to Alice. Ballot available
HERE .
ANOTHER NOTE: Hard copies of the short story by Flannery O'Connor being discussed at our March meeting will be handed out free to anyone who would like a copy.
- March 12, 2007 -
A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND by Flannery O'Connor (10 pages) publ 1955
"Author was a Southern writer in the vein of William Faulkner, often writing in a Southern Gothic style and relying heavily on regional settings and ...grotesque characters." [from Wikipedia.com]. "..deceptively simple story exhibits all the characteristics for which author is best known: a contrast of violent action with humorously and carefully drawn characters and a philosophy that underscores her devout faith."
Available in many anthologies of American short stories and online at: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html
Alice will be discussion leader.
- April 9, 2007 -
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (352 pages) publ 1997
Booker Prize winner in 1997.
A semi-autobiographical, politically charged story about the childhood
experiences of a pair of fraternal twins who become victims of
circumstance...--- a description of how the small things in life build
up, translate into people's behavior and affect their lives...takes
place in Karela, India. Prominent facets of Kerala life that the novel
captures are Communism, the caste system, and the Syrian Christian way
of life. -- time shifts back and forth for fraternal twins from when
they are 7 years old and then reunited at age 31.
--Lynessa leading discussion
- May 14, 2007 - No discussion this month as requested by.Central Market personnel who reported there was a schedule conflict with another group (for this month only). We will definitely meet next month.
We hope this extra reading time made available by group not meeting this month will give you an advantage that will allow you more time to read the exceptionally long selection for June.
- June 11, 2007 -
THE INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison (publ 1952) (approx 600 pages)
Received a National Book Award and has appeared high on every list of the canon of 20th-century literature written in English. Chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness.
Esther will be discussion leader.
- July 9, 2007 -
DISGRACE by John Coetzee (220 pages) publ 1999
Book won 1999 Booker Prize and author is winner of 2003 Nobel prize in
literature.
The "disgrace" of David, a professor at a college in South Africa,
comes when he has an affair with one of his students and is dismissed
from his teaching position, after which he takes refuge on his
daughter's farm where he is forced to come to terms with the aftermath
of an attack on the farm in which his daughter is raped and he is
brutally assaulted.
-
Alice leading discussion
- August 13, 2007 We will not meet in August because of Central Market store remodeling plans.
JANE EYRE has been rescheduled for our September discussion.
- Sept 10, 2007 -
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte (448 pages) publ 1847
Classic romance novel - story of a governess, who despite her
plainness, captures the heart of her enigmatic employer, Edward
Rochester, but soon discovers he has a secret that could jeopardize
any hope of happiness between them. Novel depicts a new kind of mutual
love and respect, in contrast to the social and economic inequalities
that formed the 19th century context of courtship and marriage.
Mary leading discussion
- Oct 8, 2007 -
Two works (listed below) by Alice Walker.
Author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received the
National Book Award for another work titled THE COLOR PURPLE in 1983.
- IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS' GARDENS by Alice Walker (ESSAY
Approx. 13p.) publ 1974.
Availability: Publ in 1983 in a book of the same title and also
available in David Bartholome's "Ways of Reading: An Anthology for
Writers", 4th ed. (St. Martins Pr., 1996). Also online at:
www.msmagazine.com
Essay examines the creativity of black women in America from earliest times.
- EVERYDAY USE by Alice Walker (SHORT STORY Approx. 9p. ) publ 1973
The author grew up in the rural South, and "Everyday Use" is a
sort of love letter to her sharecropper ancestors. Uses a
mother-daughter conflict as a backdrop to explore the meaning of
heritage. Online at:
www.bownet.org
Esther leading discussion
Note: Election of new selections to be held at end of October meeting. Ballot is HERE
- Nov 12, 2007 -
MARTIN LUTHER: SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS (excerpt
listed below is total of 128 pages out of 560 pages from the book)
This collection publ in 1958. Orig essays written mid 16th century.
- INTRODUCTION TO MARTIN LUTHER by Dr. Dillenberger - (p xi-xxx)
- FREEDOM OF A CHRISTIAN (p 42-85)
- TWO KINDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (p86-96)
- THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL (p166-203)
- NINETY--FIVE THESES (p489-500)
For those without access to the published book above, See http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/CentralMarket/Luther for a substitute (however imperfect)
Candace leading discussion
- Dec 10, 2007 -
THE POWER AND THE GLORY by Graham Greene (221 pages) publ 1940
Included in Time Magazine list of 100 best novels
The story of a Roman Catholic priest in Mexico during the 1930s, a
time when the Mexican government strove to suppress the Catholic
Church. One theme of the book relates to the power of the Catholic
sacraments to change lives for the better, no matter how frail and
sinful the life of the priest administering them. The book is
considered by many to be his masterpiece.
Esther leading discussion
Year 2006
- Jan 9, 2006 - THE MYSTIC MASSEUR by V.S. Naipaul, publ 1959 (224 pages)
2001 Nobel Prize winner, British writer,
from NYTimes review: "..describes the progress of a likeable chameleon who un-selfconsciously metamorphoses from a... turbanned faith-healer to a ... sack-suited diplomat" "uncovers a rich vein of ethnic humor in the world of the Caribbean Hindu"
Availability: retail, library
Alice to lead discussion.
- Feb 13, 2006 - GOING TO MEET THE MAN:STORIES by James Baldwin, publ 1965
Two short stories from this collection will be discussed. From: Amazon: By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying--and informed throughout by Baldwin's uncanny knowledge of the wounds racism has left in both its victims and its perpetrators--GOING TO MEET THE MAN is a major work by one of our most important writers. Short story titles we will discuss:
- SONNY'S BLUES (43 pages)
- GOING TO MEET THE MAN (28 pages)
Availability: Library, retail
Mary to lead discussion.
Note: Voting/Election for new reading list for May thru Oct 2006 at
this meeting. Ballot HERE
Titles MUST be submitted via email in advance of meeting. Thanks.
- Mar 13, 2006 - WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson (204 pages) - written 1919
from a review: One of the first books to convincingly employ Freudian psychology to revealing the inner workings of ordinary characters, this collection used a small-town setting as a means of examining the neuroses and obsessions of American life in a manner that has only been rivaled by Flannery O?Conner for sheer intensity and insight.
Availability: Library, retail book stores, downloadable from web here at: http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Sherwood_Anderson/Winesburg_Ohio/.
Connie to lead discussion.
- Apr 10, 2006 - ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan (351 pp) - publ 2002
Selection was nominated for a Booker prize. Author has won Booker prize for other works. This selection won the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as numerous other awards.
From Amazon:..interwar, upper-middle-class setting..at heart, Atonement is about the pleasures, pains, and dangers of writing, and perhaps even more, about the challenge of controlling what readers make of your writing. Random House Reading Guide available here: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/atonement1.asp
Availability: Houston Library, retail book stores.
Mary to lead discussion.
- May 8, 2006 - METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka (publ 1915) (about 50 pages
depending on copy)
In this classic novella, Kafka presents "an impossible situation, such
as a man's transformation into an insect, and develops the story from
there with perfect realism and intense attention to detail." Available
online at www.litrix.com/metamorf/metam001.htm .
Alice leading discussion.
- June 12, 2006 - AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner (orig publ 1930) (267 pages)
As Robert Penn Warren said: "[Faulkner's works] are without equal in
our time and country." This novel is the tragic, harrowing account of
the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to
bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family
members–including Addie herself–the novel ranges in mood from dark
comedy to the deepest pathos.
Dianne leading discussion.
- July 10, 2006 - PERSUASION by Jane Austen. ( 288 pages) published 1816
Author needs no introduction.
Austen's last novel is a romance (of course) about a young woman
(spinster age in the days of the novel's setting) who long ago let the
love of her life get away and who has a chance to pursue his affection
once again. Available on line at:
www.litrix.com/persuasi/persu001.htm
Mary C. leading discussion.
- Aug 14, 2006 - THE RAZOR'S EDGE by Somerset Maugham (326 pages) first published 1944
Maugham's most successful novel. Bestseller. "The hero of the book,
Larry Darrel, is a young American drifter who wanders around the world
in an attempt to find peace of mind and answers to some of the
fundamental questions that have traditionally perplexed spiritual
seekers." Setting is India.
Connie leading discussion.
NOTE: Election of readings will be held at the end of the discussion. Suggestions must be submitted in advance to Alice. Ballot that is still a work in progress is
HERE .
- Sep 11, 2006 - THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson (256 pages)
orig publ 1959. Can also be found under the title of THE HAUNTING.
Author most noted for her short fiction -- especially the now-classic
"The Lottery"; Jackson's elegant, subtle and at times, wickedly comic
writing is finally beginning to attract the attention it so richly
deserves". This story is a "classic of supernatural fiction"; about a
paranormal researcher who, seeking evidence of a haunting, brings
three people to the mysterious Hill house where they experience
strange phenomena.
Lynessa leading discussion.
- Oct 9, 2006 - CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London (114 pages) (first published 1903)
Superb details, taken from Jack London's firsthand knowledge of
Alaskan frontier life, makes this classic tale of endurance by a
sturdy crossbreed canine accustomed to a comfortable life as a family
dog as gripping today as it was over a century ago.
Available on the web at www.litrix.com/callwild/callw001.htm .
Connie leading discussion.
- Nov 13, 2006 -
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow (publ 1959) 352 pages
Author is 1976 Nobel Prize Winner
Comic fable about an eccentric American millionaire who finds his soul among primitive tribesmen in Africa..also a profound look at the forces that drive a man through life.
Jerry will be discussion leader
- Dec 11, 2006 -
DEATH IN VENICE by Thomas Mann (publ 1915) approx 100 pages
Author is 1929 Nobel Prize Winner
Tells the story of a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom.
Connie will be discussion leader
Year 2005
- January 3, 2005--Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies, two short stories from this collection:
Sheila Leading
- Interpreter of Maladies (story has same name as the book)
- second story to be discussed - Mrs. Sen's
- February 7, 2005--Welty: Optimist's Daughter
Connie Leading
At this meeting, we will vote on new reading list for May thru October
- March 7, 2005--Faulkner: Absolom, Absolom
Connie Leading
- April 4, 2005--Dostoevsky: Poor Folk
Alice Leading
- May 2, 2005 - The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri ( 304 pages) - 2004
Mary will lead discussion.
- June 6, 2005 - Night by Elie Wiesel (128 pages) - 1958
Adam will lead discussion.
- July 4, 2005 - We will not meet. No discussion in July
- August 1, 2005 - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (304 pages) - 1940
We will vote in August for selections to be discussed November 2004 thru April 2005.
Connie will lead discussion.
- Sept 12, 2005 - Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist by Richard Feynman (133 pages) - 1999
Adam will lead discussion.
(We do not meet Labor day but instead will meet the 2nd Monday in September)
- October 3, 2005 - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - (50 pages) - 1899
Mary will lead discussion.
- Nov 7, 2005 - ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton - (181 pages) - publ 1911
A tragic love story set in a remote New England background that has become one of the classics of 20th century American literature. Wharton tells a compelling story about the human need for passion and affection in a situation where only abject coldness exists.
Availability: retail, library, downloadable from the web at ftp://ftp.archive.org/pub/etext/etext03/thnfr10.txt
Connie to lead discussion.
- Dec 5, 2005 - THE DEVIL by Tolstoy, publ 1926 (50 pages depending on version)
"may be the most personally revealing - Tolstoy thought it so scandalous, he hid the manuscript in the upholstery of a chair in his office so his wife wouldn't find it, and he would never allow it to be published in his lifetime. Perhaps because the gripping tale of an aristocratic landowner slowly overcome with unrelenting sexual desire for one of the peasants on his estate was strikingly similar to an affair Tolstoy himself had.
Availability: retail, library and downloadable from the web at http://www.geocities.com/cmcarpenter28/Works/devil.txt
Alice to lead discussion.
Year 2004
- January 5, 2004--
Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
Connie Leading
- February 2, 2004--
Jane Jacobs: The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Mary Leading
Also on Feb 2nd, we voted on new reading selections for May thru November. Ballot [here]
- March 1, 2004-- Williams: Stairs to the Roof
Scott Leading
- April 5, 2004--
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
Susan Leading
- May 3, 2004-- Fuentes:Two Shores from Clashes of Culture Anniversary Series
as well as from the short story collection titled The Orange Tree
Connie Leading
- June 7, 2004-- Nabokov:Lolita
Susan Leading
- July 5, 2004-- Nafisi: Reading Lolita in Tehran
Mary Leading
- August 2, 2004-- Maguire: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Kelly Leading
Also on Aug 2nd, ballot for vote of reading selections for December thru April. Ballot [here]
- September 13, 2004-- Lewis: The Screwtape Letters
Connie Leading
(Note:September meeting will not be on Labor day but instead will be 2nd Monday of the month)
- October 4, 2004-- Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five
Alice Leading
- November 1, 2004-- Fitzgerald: Tender Is the Night
Mary Leading
- December 6, 2004-- James: Daisy Miller
Mary Leading
Year 2003
- 1/6/2003--Sartre: No Exit (play - on the web) along with an essay by Sartre titled Existentialism is a Humanism (also on the web).
- 2/3/2003--Kennedy: Ironweed (Penguin)
Click here to see a web price comparison.
Also at the Feb 3rd meeting, reading selections for July thru November 2003 will be selected. See a list of future readings by clicking [here]
- 3/3/2003--Tolstoy: Master and Man (on the web)
- 4/7/2003--Steinbeck: The Pearl
Penguin Guide Here
Text here
- 5/5/2003
Murakami: Honey Pie
Murakami: Tony Takitani
Murakami: The Second Bakery Attack
- 6/2/2003 Andrei Makine: Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer
Penguin Guide
- 7/7/2003 Camus: The Stranger (Scott leading)
- 8/4/2003 Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale (Dorothy leading)
(also performed at Houston Shakespeare Festival during Aug)
Text here
List of Books here on the Ballot for our August 4th meeting that were voted on after the discussion, including those not selected (for future reference)
- 9/1/2003 Skinner: Walden Two (Ron leading)
- 10/6/2003 Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (Connie leading)
- 11/3/2003 Maugham: Moon and Sixpence (Mary Leading)
- 12/1/2003 Nina Berberova: The Accompanist (Tova Leading)
Year 2002
- 3/4/2002--Dostoevsky: Notes from the Underground (short novel on the web)
- 4/1/2002--Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men (online Penguin Study Discussion Guide)
Click here to see a web price comparison.
- 5/6/2002--Chekhov: The Kiss (short story on the web)
- 6/3/2002--Bellow: Seize the Day (Penguin)
Click here to see a web price comparison.
- 7/1/2002--Melville: Bartleby, the Scrivener (short story on the web)
- 8/5/2002--Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (Penguin)
This text is available on the web [here] and a few copies will also be available at the July 1st meeting for a small cost while supplies last.
- 9/2/2002--Joyce: The Dead (short story on the web)
- 10/7/2002--Machiavelli: The Prince (Penguin)
Click here to see a web price comparison.
- 11/4/2002-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery: The Little Prince
- 12/2/2002--Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera (Penguin)
Click here to see a web price comparison.
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