July 25, 2025—The Manticore, by R. Davies

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be July 25, 2025.   

We will discuss The Manticore (The Deptford Trilogy), by R. Davies.
  
Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: July 25, 2025 

• Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

The Manticore is the second novel in Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy. Published in 1972 by Macmillan of Canada, it deals with the aftermath of the mysterious death of Percy Boyd "Boy" Staunton retold during a series of conversations between Staunton's son and a Jungian psychoanalyst.

June 27, 2025—Fifth Business, by R. Davies

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be June 27, 2025.   

We will discuss Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy), by R. Davies.

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: June 27, 2025 

• Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

Fifth Business (1970) is a novel by Canadian writer Robertson Davies. It is the first installment of Davies' best-known work, the Deptford Trilogy, and explores the life of the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay. It was the novel that brought Davies to international attention.

May 30, 2025—Love's Labour's Lost, by Shakespeare

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be May 30, 2025.   

We will discuss Love's Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare. 

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: May 30, 2025 

• Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to swear off the company of women for three years in order to focus on study and fasting. Their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of France and her ladies makes them forsworn (break their oath). In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play closes with the death of the Princess's father, and all weddings are delayed for a year. The play draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalization, and reality versus fantasy.

April 25, 2025— Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be April 25, 2025. 

We will discuss Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters. 

Meeting Date & Time:
• Date: April 25, 2025 
• Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library
• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

Spoon River Anthology (1915) is a collection of short free verse poems by Edgar Lee Masters. The poems collectively narrate the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town named after the Spoon River, which ran near Masters's home town of Lewistown, Illinois. The aim of the poems is to demystify rural and small town American life. The collection includes 212 separate characters, in all providing 244 accounts of their lives, losses, and manners of death. Many of the poems contain cross-references that create a candid tapestry of the community. The poems originally were published in 1914 in the St. Louis, Missouri, literary journal Reedy's Mirror, under the pseudonym Webster Ford.

March 28, 2025—The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be March 28, 2025. 

We will discuss The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty. 

Meeting Date & Time:

• Date: March 28, 2025 

• Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:

• In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library

• Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting
• Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:
The Optimist's Daughter is a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning short novel by Eudora Welty. It was first published as a long story in The New Yorker in March 1969 and was subsequently revised and published in book form in 1972. It concerns a woman named Laurel, who travels to New Orleans to take care of her father, Judge McKelva. Her father's second wife, Fay, who is younger than Laurel, is a shrewish outsider from Texas. Her shrill response to the Judge's illness appears to accelerate his demise. Laurel and Fay are thrown together when they return the Judge's body to his hometown, Mount Salus, Mississippi, where he will be buried. There, Laurel is immersed in the good neighborliness of the friends and family she knew before marrying and moving away to Chicago. Fay, though, has always been unwelcome and leaves for a long weekend, leaving Laurel in the big house full of memories. Laurel encounters her mother's memory, her father's life after he lost his first wife, and the complex emotions surrounding her loss as well as the many memories. She comes to a place of understanding that Fay can never share, and she leaves small town Mississippi with the memories she can carry with her.

Feb. 28, 2025—Tale of Sinuhe (Ancient Egyptian)

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be February 28, 2025.  

We will discuss Tale of Sinuhe (Ancient Egyptian)

Meeting Date & Time:

Date: February 28, 2025 

Time: 7:00 pm

Zoom Meeting:

Attendance by Zoom only (meeting room not available)

Zoom link sent to mailing list on day of meeting

Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book: 

The Tale of Sinuhe is a work of ancient Egyptian literature. It was likely composed in the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty after the death of Amenemhat I. The tale describes an Egyptian man who flees his kingdom, and lives as a foreigner before returning to Egypt shortly before his death. It explores universal themes such as divine providence and mercy. The oldest known copy of the text dates to the reign of Amenemhat III, around 1800 BCE. The work was so popular within Egypt that newer copies have been found ranging up to 750 years after the original.

             

Availability of Book:

Google search of "Tale of Sinuhe full text" reveals many options.  

January 31, 2025— The Radetzky March, by Joseph Roth

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be January 31, 2025.    

We will discuss The Radetzky March, by Joseph Roth.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: January 31, 2025 
Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
— In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library 
— Zoom attendance, link sent to mailing list.
— Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

The Radetzky March is a 1932 family saga novel by Joseph Roth chronicling the decline and fall of Austria-Hungary via the story of the Trotta family. Radetzkymarsch is an early example of a story that features the recurring participation of a historical figure, in this case the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (1830–1916). English translations by Geoffrey Dunlop in 1933, Joachim Neugroschelin 1995 and Michael Hofmann in 2003.

Note:

A previous version of this post indicated the meeting was by Zoom only. As it turns out we do have access to the meeting room, thus it will meet by both Zoom and in-person.

2025 Schedule of Books

 The following are the books we plan to read and the dates we will meet to discuss them.

Jan. 31, 2025— The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
Feb. 28, 2025— Tale of Sinuhe (Ancient Egyptian)
Mar. 28, 2025—  The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty
Apr. 25, 2025—  Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters
May. 30, 2025— Love's Labour Lost, by Shakespeare 
Jun. 27, 2025— Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy, by R. Davies)
Jul. 25, 2025— The Manticore (The Deptford Trilogy, by R. Davies)
Aug. 29, 2025— World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy, by R. Davies)
Sep. 26, 2025— The Stranger, by Camus
Oct. 31, 2025— The Twelve Caesars, by Suetonius
Dec. 5, 2025— Book of Proverbs (from Bible)
Dec. 12, 2025— Prepare Schedule for 2026

December 13, 2024—Selection of Books for Next Year

We will meet on December 13, 2024 to select books for next year's schedule. You are invited to send your nominations for next year's book schedule to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com. Please note link below for categories to be filled. 

Meeting Dates & Time:

Dates: December 13, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm
Zoom on-line meeting

    —an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.

     — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.    

    —requests to be added to email list to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Rules & Categories for Book Nominations
    G.B. KC Categories of Books 
    G.B. KC What Makes a Great Book 
    G.B. KC History of Previous Books 

December 6, 2024—Revelation, by John of Patmos

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be December 6, 2024.    

We will discuss The Book of Revelation, by John of Patmos.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: December 6, 2024 
Time: 7:00 pm

Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meeting:
— In-person meeting, Little Conference Room, Plaza Branch Library 
— Zoom attendance, link sent to mailing list.
— Request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com

About the Book:

The Book of Revelation or Book of the Apocalypse is the final book of the New Testament (and therefore the final book of the Christian Bible). Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'. The Book of Revelation is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament canon. It occupies a central place in Christian eschatology.