PARKING: Street parking and garage parking are available. There is a charge for garage parking prior to 7pm.
You will be required to collect a ticket at 6pm but you won't need to pay when you leave.
Jan 1, 2009 No discussion this month because of holiday. This should give you more time for extra long book to be discussed in February.
Feb 5, 2009MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides (publ 2002) 544 pages
2003 Pulitzer Prize winner, 2007 Oprah Book Club selection
The narrator and protagonist, an intersexed person has 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. The bulk of the novel is devoted to telling his coming-of-age story growing up in Detroit, Michigan in the late 20th century. ...story is intertwined with elements of a family saga, meditations on the era's zeitgeist and bits of contemporary history. Possible discussion questions HERE
--Marcella will lead discussion
Mar 5, 2009WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by J.M. Coetzee (publ 1980) 156 pages
Author is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
Story is set in a small frontier town of a nameless empire. The Nobel Prize committee called this book "a political thriller in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, in which the idealist's naivete opens the gates to horror". "Early in the novel, it's apparent who the barbarians really are, that's no surprise. What is a surprise, however, is the compassion Coetzee shows his victims and villains alike." Possible discussion questions at geocities.com
-- Alice will lead discussion.
Apr 2, 2009ROCK 'N' ROLL by Tom Stoppard (premier 2006) 144 pages
List of awards for Sir Stoppard at: Wikipedia.
ROCK 'N' ROLL is a play concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the democratic movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia. Takes place over several decades.
FYI - A group theatre event by Montrose Great Books members is planned for the May 3rd afternoon local performance at the Alley Theatre. Feel free to purchase your tickets anytime if you have not signed up with Alice for a ticket but let Alice know if you want to be included in the dinner reservation planned for after the performance.
-- Leader of discussion is TBD
May 7, 2009CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole (publ 1980) 352 pages
Pulitzer Prize winner in 1981
Setting is New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is an intelligent but slothful man still living with his mother at age 30 in the city's Uptown neighborhood, who, because of family circumstances, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. Many locals and writers of New Orleans think that it is the best and most accurate depiction of the city in a work of fiction.
-- Claudia will lead discussion
June 4, 2009TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE by Bohumil Hrabal (self published in 1977) 112 pages
Considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century, the man whom Kundera considers to be one of his masters.
Tells the story of an eclectic and dimwitted old man who works as a paper crusher at a hydraulic press in a dark cellar in Prague. Using his job to save and amass astounding numbers of rare and banned books, he is an obsessive collector of knowledge. The books that he must destroy become his whole life, his only companions.
--Jo will lead discussion
Note: At end of discussion in June, group will vote on new titles for upcoming reading list..
July 2, 2009SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury (publ 1972) 317 pages
About two thirteen-year-old boys who have a harrowing experience with a nightmarish traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark" who bears a tattoo for each person who, lured by the offer to live out his secret fantasies, has become bound in service to the carnival. Novel places emphasis on the more serious side of the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Cassie will lead discussion.
August 6, 2009MAIN STREET- by Sinclair Lewis (publ 1920) 448 pages
First American to win Nobel Prize in 1930.
Captures the aura of small town America which requires conformity to tradition and social standards in exchange for recognition, respect and love from one's neighbors, versus the City as depicted by Washington which seems to offer freedom and individuality precisely because there's no one there who cares about you or what you do.
--Susan will lead discussion
September 3, 2009UBIK by Philip K. Dick (publ 1969) 224 pages
Named by Time magazine as one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923.
A combination of Science Fiction comedy with the unease of reality gone wrong...the protagonist is hired by a company which blocks telepathic snooping and paranormal dirty tricks. Something goes terribly wrong when a big job is tackled on the moon.
For those looking for book on Amazon, check HERE
--Brian will lead discussion
October 1, 2009THEIR 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. Participating in the Books on the Bayou program sponsored by the Houston Library
November 5, 2009HARD TIMES by Charles Dickens (publ 1854) 313 pages
Novel highlights the social and economic pressures that some were experiencing at the time. Dickens wished to satirize radical Utilitarians whom he described ... as "see[ing] figures and averages, and nothing else." He also wished to campaign for reform of working conditions. Setting is the fictitious Victorian industrialist town named Coketown.
--Marcella will lead discussion
Note: our group will elect a play from list of available performances provided by Alice to be discussed in March (play must be available in text form)
December 3, 2009THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath (publ 1963) 288 pages
Book is semi-autobiographical with the protagonist's descent into mental illness paralleling the author's own experiences chronicled with stunning wit and devastating honesty.
Story begins with the protagonist as a young girl from the suburbs of Boston gaining a summer internship at a prominent magazine in New York City.
--Wendy will lead discussion
Note: At end of discussion, group will vote on new titles for upcoming reading list..
Readings for 2010
January 7, 2010IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER by Italo Calvino (publ 1979) 304 pages
Author was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. List of awards of author can be viewed on wikipedia.org
This book is about a reader trying to read a book called IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER. According to this book, the entire novel, even its plot, is an open trajectory where even the author himself questions his motives of the writing process.
--Jo will lead discussion
February 4, 2010THE PRINCE by Niccolo Machiavelli (publ 1532) 134 pages
Sometimes shockingly direct how-to manual for rulers who aim either to establish and retain control of a new state or to seize and control an existing one. Makes a clear break from the Western tradition of political philosophy that preceded the author where the thinkers of this tradition were concerned with issues of justice and human happiness, and with the constitution of the ideal state.
--Alice will lead discussion
March 4, 2010THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH by Tolstoy (publ 1886) 86 pages
Tells the story of the life and death, at the age of 45, of a high court judge in 19th century Russia who is a miserable husband, proud father, and upwardly-mobile member of Russia's professional class. The story progresses in the second half of the novella to the judge's terror as he battles with the idea of his own death caused by a trivial accident and then finally to his deathbed and his final interactions with his family.
Brian will lead discussion
April 1, 2010
Two short stories by E.M. Forster:
THE MACHINE STOPS by E.M. Forster (publ 1909) 31 pages
A short science fiction story that describes a dystopian world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual lives in a cell, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as unmechanical and are threatened with Homelessness.
Available online at http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS by E.M. Forster (publ 1911) 10 pages
A modern fantasy with wordplay and hidden allusions that allow it to function as an allegory.
This second short story was not part of original list but added later after the conclusion was reached that THE MACHINE STOPS has not enough content for a full discussion.
Available online at http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a1126.pdf
Note: I will make copies of short stories available (no guarantees I won't run out of copies). Hope that some of you will be able to download it on your own or buy the short story collection by the author or check it out from the library.
Also Note: These short stories being relatively short should leave more time so you can start reading early for next month, given that THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA is rather long at 656 pages.
Alice will lead discussion
May 6, 2010THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA by Jan Potocki (pub 1805-1815) 656 pages
A great late-18th century classic of Polish/French fiction that is a web of stories reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. The narrator of the story tells of the brigands, demons, succubi and evangelists he encounters. The stories cover a wide range of genres and subjects, including the gothic, the picaresque, the erotic, the historical, the moral, and the philosophic; and as a whole the novel reflects the author's far-ranging interests, especially his deep fascination with secret societies, the supernatural, and "Oriental" cultures.
According to one Amazon reviewer: "The plot, if it could be called such a thing, unfolds like a chinese puzzle, one unreliable narrative nested within another. ...It wends its way into your thoughts like an ear-boring worm." Though not well-known by Americans, it is defined as a masterpiece by every review I have read thus far.
Recommended publisher is Penguin Classics translated by Ian MacLean.
Jo will lead discussion
June 3, 2010THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG by Mark Twain (publ 1900) 128 pages
Classic tale that is a funny yet blistering indictment of political hypocrisy. A mysterious stranger is treated badly by the town of Hadleyburg-the town that proclaims itself "the most honest and upright town in the region." Through an ingenious sting operation, the stranger sets out to expose Hadleyburg's leading citizens and reveal their greedy, deceitful natures.
Alice will lead discussion r
Note: At end of discussion, group will vote on new titles for upcoming reading list. Ballot in progress at: http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/Montrose/ballots/jun3-2010.html
July 1, 2010NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy (publ 2005) 320 pages
By far McCarthy's most exciting and suspenseful novel in recent years, the story speeds along, the body count rising in shocking scenes of depravity. A mesmerizing modern-day western. The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican-American border in southwest Texas.
Brian will lead discussion
Aug 5, 2010ORYX AND CRAKE by Margaret Atwood (publ 2003) 416 pages
Critically examines developments in science and technology such as xenotransplantation and genetic engineering, particularly the creation of transgenic animals such as "wolvogs" (hybrids between wolves and dogs), "rakunks" (raccoon and skunk), and "pigoons" (pigs and humans, for organ transplants). This society has also produced an exacerbated gap between rich and poor, as well as the commodification of human life and sexuality in prostitution and online child pornography.
David will lead discussion
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