March 29 -- Genesis from the Bible

Meeting Information:
Date: March 29, 2013
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Plaza Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO

Biblical literature is one of the two major sources of the Western literary tradition. Our group therefore includes one book from the Bible each year to be reviewed and discussed from a literary perspective. This year we will be discussing the The Book of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament.

We recommend watching Bill Moyer's "Genesis: A Living Conversation." It's on DVD and available at most libraries.  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/genesis/

A word about a recommended translation:   Stephen Mitchell has produced a new translation of the Bible's first book, Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Bible Stories.  Mitchell's sensitivity to the original Hebrew language and the history of biblical scholarship is evident in his carefully written work.

February 22 -- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Meeting Information:

Date: Friday, February 22, 2013
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Mo

We will meet to discuss the book, Things Fall Apart, a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe published in 1958. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. The title of the novel comes from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming".

The novel depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia—one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo people (archaically, and in the novel, "Ibo"). It focuses on his family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo, and the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community during the late nineteenth century.

January 25 -- A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Meeting Information:
Date: Friday, January 25, 2013
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Mo

We will be discussing the book, A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf. This books was first published on 24 October 1929 and is based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled "Women and Fiction", and hence the essay, are considered non-fiction. The essay is generally seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.

Schedule for 2013

January 25 -- A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

February 22 -- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

March 29 -- Genesis from the Bible

April 26 -- Poems: North & South. A Cold Spring by Elizabeth Bishop

May 31 -- As You Like It by William Shakespeare

June 28 -- One Thousand and One Nights (part 1)

July 26 -- One Thousand and One Nights (part 2)

August 30 -- One Thousand and One Nights (part 3)

September 27 -- On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

October 25 -- Medea by Euripides

December 6 -- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

December 7 -- Gospel of Mark (from the Bible)

Meeting Information:

• Book: Gospel of Mark (from the bible)
• Other Business: Select books for next year's schedule (*See Note)
• Date: Friday, December 7, 2012
• Time: 7:00 PM
• Location: Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
• Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
• Meeting Room: Small Meeting Room. 

*Note: Please send your book suggestions for next year's reading schedule to:
chostetler@kc.rr.com
The received suggestions will be compiled and distributed about a week before the next meeting so you'll have time to think it over.
A list of categories followed in our selections is at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/b5s3bg3
A list of past books is at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/adenvwz

Comments about Gospel of Mark:

Biblical literature is one of the two major sources of the Western literary tradition. Our group therefore includes one book from the Bible each year to be reviewed and discussed from a literary perspective. This year we will be discussing the Gospel of Mark from the Christian New Testament.

Most contemporary scholars now regard Mark as the earliest written of the canonical gospels. The gospel was written in Greek, possibly in Galilee or Syria, shortly after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. The writing style of Mark is crude and terse when compared to the later synopitic gospels, Matthew and Luke.

Octber 26 -- Epic of Gilgamesh

Meeting details:

Date: Friday, October 26, 2012
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
We meet in the small meeting room.

We will meet to discuss the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, is amongst the earliest surviving works of literature. Parts of it are believed to date to 18th century BC and other parts the 13th to 10th Centuries BC.

September 28 -- Anthony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

Meeting details:
Date: Friday, September 28, 2012
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
We meet in the small meeting room.

The topic of discussion for our next meeting is Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. Many consider the role of Cleopatra in this play one of the most complex female roles in Shakespeare's work.

Remaining Schedule for 2012

Here's a reminder of the remaining books on our schedule for this year:

September 28 -- Anthony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

October 26 -- Epic of Gilgamesh

December 7 -- Gospel of Mark from the Bible (Plan books to read in 2013)

August 31 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 3)

We are to finish the book by reading Chapters 75 through 117, and discuss the whole book at our next meeting.

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Time: 7:00 PM
Date: August 31 (Friday)

July 27 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 2)

We will discuss Chapters 38 through 74 of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas. There will be one more meeting in August to cover the balance of the book.

Meeting Information:
Location: Plaza Branch Library, Small Meeting Room
Address: 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Time: 7:00 PM
Date: July 27 (Friday)