June 29 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 1)

We will discuss the first third of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas (part 1). That will be Chapters 1 through 37. There will be two more meetings this summer to cover the balance of the book.

"The Count of Monte Cristo" is one of the author's most popular works, along with "The Three Musketeers." He completed the work in 1844. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.

The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean, and in the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838 (from just before the Hundred Days to the reign of Louis-Philippe of France). The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book. An adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness, it focuses on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune and sets about getting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. However, his plans have devastating consequences for the innocent as well as the guilty.

The book is considered a literary classic today. According to Luc Sante, "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, Noah's flood, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood."

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Time: 7:00 PM

May 25 -- Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson

We will discuss Idylls of the King at our next meeting. Idylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892; Poet Laureate from 1850) which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom. The whole work recounts Arthur's attempt and failure to lift up mankind and create a perfect kingdom, from his coming to power to his death at the hands of the traitor Modred. Individual poems detail the deeds of various knights, including Lancelot, Geraint, Galahad, and Balin and Balan, and also Merlin and the Lady of the Lake. There is little transition between Idylls, but the central figure of Arthur links all the stories. The poems were dedicated to the late Albert, Prince Consort. The Idylls are written in blank verse. Tennyson's descriptions of nature are derived from observations of his own surroundings, collected over the course of many years.The dramatic narratives are not an epic either in structure or tone, but derive elegiac sadness from the idylls of Theocritus. Idylls of the King is often read as an allegory of the societal conflicts in Britain during the mid-Victorian era.

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Time: 7:00 PM

April 27 -- Tao te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao-tsu

We will discuss the Tao Te Ching (Pronounced Dao De Jing or Daodejing) which is a classic Chinese text that dates from around the 6th century BC. Its name comes from the opening words of its two sections: dào "way," Chapter 1, and dé "virtue/power," Chapter 38, plus jīng "classic." According to tradition, it was written around the 6th century BC by the sage Laozi (or Lao Tzu, "Old Master"), a record-keeper at the Zhou Dynasty court. The text's true authorship and date of composition or compilation are still debated, although the oldest excavated text dates back to the late 4th century BC. The text is fundamental to the Philosophical and religious Taoism (pronounced and also spelled Daoism).

The book isn't very long (about 50 pages) so it shouldn't take too much time to read.

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Time: 7:00 PM

March 30, 2012--Symposium by Plato

Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO Time: 7:00 PM

Our group will meet at the above time and place to discuss "Symposium" by Plato. The Symposium is an ancient Greek philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BC. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love, and (in later day interpretations) is the origin of the concept of Platonic love. Love is examined in a sequence of speeches by men attending a symposium, or drinking party. Each man must deliver an encomium, a speech in praise of Love (Eros). The party takes place at the house of the tragedian Agathon in Athens. Socrates in his speech asserts that the highest purpose of love is to become a philosopher or, literally, a lover of wisdom. The dialogue has been used as a source by social historians seeking to throw light on life in ancient Athens, in particular upon sexual behavior, and the symposium as an institution.

February 24, 2012 -- Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Time: 7:00 PM

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story is based upon a black family's experiences in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood.

Since it's a play it can be read in about an hour; so it's one of the shorter reads on our 2012 schedule.

January 27, 2012 -- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Friday, January 27, 2012, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
We meet in the small meeting room.
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller was published 50 years ago which makes it eligible for selection by our group. This is the most recently published book that our group has ever read and discussed.

Eleven people attend our meeting on January 27. It was a robust discussion from a group bubbling over with comments and opinions. If you missed this one, you missed a good one. Those in attendance included Marc, Bernie, Tim, Karen, James, John, Bo, Paul, Tim, Jan, and Clif.

Schedule for 2012

January 27 -- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
February 24 -- Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
March 30 -- Symposium by Plato
April 27 -- Tao te Ching by Lao-tsu
May 25 -- Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson
June 29 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 1)
July 27 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 2)
August 31 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 3)
September 28 -- Anthony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
October 26 -- Gilgamesh
December 7 -- Gospel of Mark from the Bible

December 2, 2011 -- The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Our next meeting:
Friday, December 2, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

We plan to discuss the Federalist Papers which are a series of 85 essays written in 1787 and 1788 to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution.

The following is a discussion of the contents of the Federalist Papers. As you read them and note items of interest, you all are invited to add comments to this post. Perhaps these comments can then serve as a guide regarding which to give priority in case you don't have time to read them all. (I've already added the first two comments regarding Papers 10 and 84.)

Structure and Content of the Federalist Papers

In Federalist No. 1, Hamilton listed six topics to be covered in the subsequent articles:

"The utility of the UNION to your political prosperity" – covered in No. 2 through No. 14

"The insufficiency of the present Confederation to preserve that Union"—covered in No. 15 through No. 22

"The necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed to the attainment of this object"—covered in No. 23 through No. 36

"The conformity of the proposed constitution to the true principles of republican government"—covered in No. 37 through No. 84

"Its analogy to your own state constitution"—covered in No. 85

"The additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty and to prosperity"—covered in No. 85.

As the series grew, this plan was somewhat changed. The fourth topic expanded into detailed coverage of the individual articles of the Constitution and the institutions it mandated, while the two last topics were merely touched on in the last essay.

LINK TO COMMENTS

LINK TO DISCUSSION OF POTENTIAL BOOKS FOR 2012 SCHEDULE

October 28, 2011 -- Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Our next meeting:
Friday, October 28, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

We are meeting to discuss Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Notes from the Underground (Russian: "Notes from Underground" is a more literal translation) is an 1864 short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy. The second part of the book is called "Àpropos of the Wet Snow," and describes certain events that, it seems, are destroying and sometimes renewing the underground man, who acts as a first person, unreliable narrator.

September 30, 2011 -- Ecclesiastes

Our next meeting:
Friday, September 30, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

We are meeting to discuss the Book of Ecclesiastes as literature.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, literally "Book of the Teacher", commonly referred to simply asEcclesiastes, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. The English name derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title.

The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title Qoheleth (usually translated as "teacher" or "preacher"), introduces himself as "son of David, king in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal or autobiographic matter, at times expressed in aphorisms and maxims illuminated in terse paragraphs with reflections on the meaning of life and the best way of life. The work emphatically proclaims all the actions of man to be inherently "vain", "futile", "empty", "meaningless", "temporary", "transitory", "fleeting, or "mere breath", depending on translation, as the lives of both wise and foolish men end in death. While Qoheleth clearly endorses wisdom as a means for a well-lived earthly life, he is unable to ascribe eternal meaning to it. In light of this perceived senselessness, he suggests that one should enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment in one's work, which are gifts from the hand of God.

The book is particularly notable for its iconic phrases, "the sun also rises," "[there's] nothing new under the sun" and "he who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow."