Central Market Book Club
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Central Market Book Club candidates - Ballot for February 12, 2007
(Those attending will each have 6 votes to choose from this list.)
Suggested by Alice
- 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.
- TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens (304 pp) publ 1859
A moral historical novel strongly concerned with themes of guilt, shame, redemption and patriotism. The horrors and atrocities committed by boths sides in the French Revolution are described. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror.
Suggested by Mary
- 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.
- THE COMEDIANS by Graham Greene (288 pages) publ 1966
Novel depicts life in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police. Three men are ruined by their own apathy as they attempt to destroy tyranny.
Suggested by Lynessa
- THE GOOD EARTH by Pearl S. Buck (357 pages) publ 1931
Pulitzer Prize winner in 1932
The portrayal of the status and treatment of women, a man's status in Chinese society, and the Chinese culture pre-Revolution make the book a classic. Wang Lung's rise from poor farmer to respected family patriarch illustrates a Chinese man's relationship to everyone around him during the early 1900s.
- 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.
Suggested by Esther
- 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.
- 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
Examines the creativity of black women in America from earliest times...available in David Bartholomae’s Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers, 4th ed. (St. Martins Pr., 1996) and online at: www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/walker.asp
- 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/jmcdermott/everyday_use__by_alice_walker.htm
Suggested by Connie
- 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.
- 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
Suggested by Ellie
- FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley (350 pages) publ 1818, revised 1831
a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. Many distinguished authors consider this the very first science fiction novel.
Suggested by Elizabeth T.
- REBECCA by Daphne DuMaurier
(384 pages depending) publ 1938
a modern classic inspired by the Victorian tradition. The story of a timid young woman who marries an English nobleman and largely as a result of the mean intentions of other characters in the book finds herself haunted by reminders of his first wife.
Suggested by John T.
- THE NATURAL by Bernard Malamud (248 pages) publ 1952
novel about baseball that follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked when he is shot by a crazed fan. Most of the story concerns itself with his attempts to return to baseball later in life. It has been suggested that the story closely parallels the legends of Percival and King Arthur. (Note: The movie is not considered to be faithful to the book.)
Suggested by Candace
- MARTIN LUTHER: SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS (excerpt of a little over 300 pages) written mid 16th century
a representative selection of essays from Luther's extensive writings, with a lucid introduction to his thought provided by Dr. Dillenberger.
Luther was a German monk, priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines and culture of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions. An excerpt of the book in the form of the introduction, part I, part II, part III and the ninety-five theses in the appendix.has been suggested.
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