2019 Schedule of Books and Meeting Dates

January 25, 2019 — The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing

February 22, 2019 — Acts of the Apostles

March 29, 2019 — Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare

April 26, 2019 — Tin Drum, by Günter Grass

May 31, 2019 — A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul

June 28, 2019 — The King Must Die, by Mary Renault

July 26, 2019 — Bull From the Sea, by Mary Renault

August 30, 2019 — Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault

September 27, 2019 — The Histories, by Herodotus

October 25, 2019 — Turn of The Screw, by Henry James

December 6, 2019 — The Ink Dark Moon, by Onono Komachi & Izumi Shikibu,

December 7, 2018 — Songs from the Slums, by Kagawa Toyohiko

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be December 7, 2018. We'll be discussing Songs from the Slums, by Kagawa Toyohiko
We will also be creating the schedule of books for 2019. Suggestions of books may be sent to .
Please note the following links to assist in plans for preparing the 2019 schedule:
G.B. KC Categories of Books
G.B. KC What Makes a Great Book
G.B. KC History of Previous Books

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library
Small Meeting Room
Date: December 7, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm
Address: 4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO

About the Author:Kagawa Toyohiko, author of Songs from the Slums, (1888—1960) was a Japanese Christian pacifist, Christian reformer, and labour activist. Kagawa wrote, spoke, and worked at length on ways to emply Christian principles in the ordering of society and in cooperative. His vocation to help the poor led him to live among them. He established schools, hospitals, and churches.


The text of Songs from the Slums is available at this link:
https://greatpoemskc.blogspot.com/2018/10/songs-from-slums-by-kagawa.html

October 26, 2018—The Reivers: A Reminiscence, by William Faulkner

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be October 26, 2018. We'll be discussing The Reivers: A Reminiscence, by William Faulkner

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library
Small Meeting Room 
Date: October 26, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm
Address: 4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO

The Reivers: A Reminiscence, published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963. 

September 28, 2018—Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be September 28, 2018. We'll be discussing Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun.

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library
Small Meeting Room 
Date: September 28, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm
Address: 4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:
Growth of the Soil, is a novel by Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. It follows the story of a man who settles and lives in rural Norway. 

August 31, 2018—"A House Divided" by Pearl Buck

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be August 31, 2018. We'll be discussing A House Divided, by Pearl Buck.

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library
Large Meeting Room (Small Meeting Room not available)
Date: August 31, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm
Address: 4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:
A House Divided is the sequel to the novels The Good Earth and Sons, and it is the third book in The House of Earth trilogy by Pearl S. Buck. It centers on the third generation of Wang Lung's family, focusing particularly on his grandson Wang Yuan.

July 27, 2018—Sons by Pearl Buck

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be July 27, 2018. We'll be discussing Sons, by Pearl Buck.

Meeting Information:

Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

Small Meeting Room (reserved for our group)

Date: July 27, 2018

Time: 7:00 pm

Address: 4801 Main Street

Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:

Sons is the sequel to the novel The Good Earth, and the second book in The House of Earth trilogy by Pearl S. Buck. The story tackles the issue of Wang Lung's sons and how they handle their father's estate after his death. It deals mostly with the youngest son, who goes off to war. 

"The Good Earth," by Pearl Buck

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be June 29, 2018. We'll be discussing The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck.

Meeting Information:

Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

Small Meeting Room (reserved for our group)

Date: June 29, 2018

Time: 7:00 pm

Address: 4801 Main Street

Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:

"The Good Earth" is the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall.

May 25, 2018—The Kreutzer Sonata, by Leo Tolstoy

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be May 25, 2018. We'll be discussing The Kreutzer Sonata, by Leo Tolstoy.

Meeting Information:

Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

Small Meeting Room (reserved for our group)

Date: May 25, 2018

Time: 7:00 pm

Address: 4801 Main Street

Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:

The Kreutzer Sonata is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, named after Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. The novella was published in 1889, and was promptly censored by the Russian authorities. The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage. The main character, Pozdnyshev, relates the events leading up to his killing his wife: in his analysis, the root causes for the deed were the "animal excesses" and "swinish connection" governing the relation between the sexes.

April 27, 2018—Richard II, by Shakespeare

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be April 27, 2018. We'll be discussing the play Richard II , by William Shakespeare.

Meeting Information:

          Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

                           Small Meeting Room

          Date: April 27, 2018

          Time: 7:00 pm

          Address: 4801 Main Street

                           Kansas City, MO

Description of Book: 

King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England (ruled 1377–1399) and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's successors: Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V. Although the First Folio (1623) edition of Shakespeare's works lists the play as a history play, the earlier Quarto edition of 1597 calls it "The tragedie of King Richard the second."

March 30, 2018—Luke, from the New Testament

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be March 30, 2018. We'll be discussing the book Gospel of Luke from the New Testament Bible.

Meeting Information:

          Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

                           Small Meeting Room

          Date: March 30, 2018

          Time: 7:00 pm

          Address: 4801 Main Street

                           Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:

Luke is the first part of a two-volume work called Luke-Acts (our group's discussion will cover only the Luke portion). Scholars estimate that the most probable date for the composition of Luke-Acts is around 80–110 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century. According to Church tradition the author was Luke the Evangelist, the companion of Paul, but the scholarly consensus doubts this authorship because of the many contradictions between Acts and the authentic Pauline letters. 

Forty-one percent of Luke is similar to textual material found in the book of Mark, twenty-three percent shares "sayings of Jesus" that are common with Matthew, and thirty-five percent is unique to Luke. The portion of Luke taken from Mark has been expanded and the Greek grammar and syntax improved. Some passages from Mark, notably most of Mark Chapters 6 and 7, are eliminated entirely. Despite this, Luke follows Mark's plot more faithfully than does Matthew.

February 23, 2018 — The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be February 23, 2018. We'll be discussing the book The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin.

Meeting Information:

          Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

                           Small Meeting Room

          Date: February 23, 2018

          Time: 7:00 pm

          Address: 4801 Main Street

                           Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:

The Fire Next Time consists of two essays, both examining the problems faced by African Americans in the early 1960s. 

Themes explored by the book include: 

• Description of racial tension

• Examination of the ineffectiveness of religious faith

• Explanation of the limitations of intergenerational influences and relationships among both blacks and whites

January 26,2018—"Annals," by Tacitus

We will meet January 26 to discuss The Annals by Roman historian and senator Tacitus. The Annals is a history of the Roman Empire from the reign of Tiberius to that of Nero, the years AD 14–68.

Meeting Information:
Location: Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Date: January 26, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm 

Click on "Comments" below to access notes by Bernard Norcott-Mahany.