January 28, 2011 - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The above is a photo of the group that met on January 28, 2011 to discuss "The Age of Innocence."
The Age of Innocence (1920) is a novel by Edith Wharton, which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize.  The story is set in upper class New York City in the 1870s.  We will meet Friday, January 28, 2011 at the Plaza Branch Library in the Small Meeting Room at 7:00 p.m. to discuss this American classic.  
This novel meets our "recent" and "woman author" slots for book selections this year.  This book has a wider popular appeal to the general reading public than some of our other selections.  So if you're one who has complained that our book selections are too old and boring, this may be the one book for this year that you can enjoy.  And if you attend our meeting, we hope that you find our group so interesting that you'll want to attend more of our book discussions.

SCHEDULE for 2011

January 28, 2011

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

February 25, 2011

The Odyssey by Homer

March 25, 2011

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

and the movie, “10 Things I Hate About You”

April 29, 2011

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, tr. Edward FitzGerald

May 27, 2011

Candide by Voltaire

June 24, 2011

Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch, Part 1

July 29, 2011

Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch, Part 2

August 26, 2011

Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch, Part 3

September 30, 2011

Ecclesiastes from the old Testament

October 28, 2011

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

December 2, 2011

Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

December 3, Beowulf

Here's a photo of the group that met on December 3, 2010 to discuss Beowulf:

Date: December 3, 2010
Meeting time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64112

CLICK HERE TO SEE COMMENTS

We will meet to discuss the book, Beowulf.
Beowulf is the conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature. It survives in a single manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. Its composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century.

There are a variety of translations available, any of which are acceptable for our discussion. See THIS LINK for a comparison of more than a dozen translations of the poem. It can help you find the right translation for you.

We will also be deciding our reading schedule for next year. You may leave your suggestions at THIS LINK.  If you don't want to open a Goodreads.com account, you can leave it as a comment here on our blog.

The following are links to comments by Bernard regarding our next meeting.
Some Suggestions for Possible Reads Next Year
Bernard's review of "Beowulf" for KC Public Library
Beowulf Translations
Please note that suggestions from people other than Bernard are at the link, "Some Suggestion for Possible Reads Next Year." As of the time of this edit, Tim has added some suggestions. I'm sure there will be more by others.

October 29, Selected Poems

The following link has copies of the poems to be discussed at the October 29 meeting.
LINK TO POEMS
Meeting time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64112

A collection of poems by the following authors has been selected for our reading and reflection this month. Group members are asked to read the 40 poems in the packet, select 2 to 5 poems from the list and be prepared to share them with the group.

  •Sir Philip Sidney
  •John Donne
  •George Herbert
  •Thomas Gray
  •William Wordsworth
  •Percy Shelly
  •John Keats
  •Alfred Lord Tennyson
  •Robert Browning

The following is an explanation by Stephen about how the poem selections were made:

1. Poetry is best read in its own language, so I have included only English poems.
2. I've tried to keep the poems short -- less than 300 lines.
3. After having so much Whitman, I felt as though we might best be served by only British authors.
4. In the book club we don't normally go beyond 1950, but I, being even more reactionary than that, have included no poets born after 1880 in my small collection.
5. I've included brief bios with the poems, so as to give some context, though poetry is often read best "out of context" at first, so as not to give the reader pre-imposed first impressions.  (Bios are not posted on-line with the poems. It is suggested that you search the web for bios.)
6. I've excluded Milton and Shakespeare from this list, though they are poets, because they are regulars among our monthly readings.
7. There are no female poets in my collection, not because there are no great female British poets (Elizabeth Barrett Browning immediately comes to mind as excellent), but because there weren't representative poems from those 1-2 women that fit the length I had established with the other poets.

Please read through the packet and be prepared to discuss 2-5 poems that particularly struck you. I will try to keep the discussion moving and hope to seriously discuss 5 poems in our time together.
There are just under 40 poems in your packet.

September 24, The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Date: September 24, 2010
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Small Meeting Room, Plaza Branch Library
Address: 4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64112

A classic (circa 400 B.C.) of Chinese literature, Art of War by Sun Tzu reveals the strategies, tactics, and insights that lead to success. Some today apply it to business success.

Mastery of warfare and the maintenance of power are the most important values in Sun's philosophy--without which there can be no peace or life. According to Sun, studying your enemy, detecting his weakness, allowing him to expose himself and then acting accordingly is the key to success. But, it is perhaps even more important to master the skill of winning without fighting. Sun's battle-proven strategies have been put into practice by countless leaders. (Since we just finished talking about Napoleon and General Kutuzov, maybe we discuss which one best followed Sun's advice.)

Filled with practical wisdom and strategy, Art of War is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants an edge over the competition.

August 27, War and Peace (Meeting 3 of 3)

This will be our third and final meeting to discuss our big book of the year, War and Peace by Tolstoy. We hope you can join us in reading and discussing this classic piece of Russian literature.
Date: Friday, August 27, 2010,
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Plaza Branch Library (Small Meeting Room)
4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64112

July 30, War and Peace (Meeting 2 of 3)

This will be our second meeting to discuss our big book of the year, War and Peace by Tolstoy. Reading is more fun when you can share and discuss your impressions of the book with friends. So we hope you can join us in reading this classic piece of Russian literature during this summer.
Time: 7:00 PM
Date: July 30, 2010, Friday
Location: Plaza Branch Library (Small Meeting Room)
4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64112

June 25, War and Peace

The next Great Books KC meeting:
What: War and Peace by Tolstoy
When: June 25, 2010, 7:00 PM
Where: Plaza Branch Library
4801 Main Street, KC, MO 64112
On June 25, a Friday, we plan to have our first of three meetings to discuss Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE. That's our big book book for the year. We're spreading our discussion over three meetings during the summer so you have all summer to finish it.

May 28, The Tempest (also Forbidden Planet)

The next Great Books KC meeting:
What: The Tempest by Shakespeare
When: May 28, 2010, 6:00 PM
Where: Plaza Branch Library
4801 Main Street, KC, MO 64112
On May 28 we plan to meet and discuss Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST and then watch the movie FORBIDDEN PLANET which is based on it. Watching the movie will take more time than our usual meeting so we plan to meet at 6:00 p.m., discuss Shakespeare's play first, then watch the movie, and be finished by around 8:30 p.m.

April 30, Book of Revelation

The next Great Books KC meeting:
What: Book of Revelation from the Bible
When: April 30, 2010, 7:00 PM
Where: Plaza Branch Library
4801 Main Street, KC, MO 65112
We're reading the Book of Revelation from the New Testament of the Christian Bible. We will meet to discuss it on Friday April 30 at the Plaza Branch Library, 7 p.m. We will be discussing it as a historic literary work, and not necessarily as divinely inspired material.

March 26 -- 1984 by George Orwell

The next Great Books KC meeting:
What: 1984 by George Orwell
When: March 26, 2010, 7:00 PM
Where: Plaza Branch Library
4801 Main Street, KC, MO 65112

Following-up on last year's discussion of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, this year we explore the darker dystopia of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

From the Amazon.com editorial review:

"Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language--and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written."

February 26, Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich

The next Great Books KC meeting:
What: Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich
When: February 26, 2010, 7:00 PM
Where: Plaza Branch Library
4801 Main Street, KC, MO 65112
It is believed that this is the first book written by a woman in the English language. Julian of Norwich (c. November 8, 1342 – c. 1416) is thought of as one of the greatest English mystics. Little is known of her life aside from her writings. Even her name is uncertain, the name "Julian" coming from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, where she was an anchoress (a type of hermit living in a cell attached to the church, engaged in contemplative prayer). At the age of 30, suffering from a severe illness and believing she was on her deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions of Jesus Christ. (They ended by the time she overcame her illness on May 13, 1373.) She recorded these visions soon after having them, and then again twenty years later in far more theological depth. They are the source of her major work, called Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love (circa 1393).
Link to FREE COPY OF TEXT