Oedipus the King
Our book choice for September 2012 is Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Oedipus, king of Thebes, is confronted with the problem of plague in the city.
Books
Books we read.
The Night Watch
Our book choice for August 2012 is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. The novel, which is told backward through third-person narrative, takes place in 1940s London during and after World War II. Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is compelling.
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
Our book choice for July 2012 is The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (a Memoir, a History) by Lewis Buzbee. This is a gorgeous ode to the beauties of bibliomania, with fascinating, warmly-written essays and personal and historical anecdotes on books and bookselling.
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Read More »
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Our book choice for June 2012 is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. All but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel, Mrs. Palfrey strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer, Ludovic Meyer. Fate brings them together after she has an accident outside his basement flat.
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Read More »
The Sense of an Ending
Our book choice for May 2012 is The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, the Man Booker Prize 2011 winner. Tony Webster and his clique befriend Adrian Finn at school. The group navigate “the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit.”
The Sense of an Ending Read More »
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Our book choice for April 2012 is The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. Gentle, Christ-like alien, Thomas Jerome Newton falls to earth and undertakes a desperate plan to rescue the 300 remaining inhabitants of his war ravaged, resource depleted, dying home planet, Anthea.
The Man Who Fell to Earth Read More »
In Patagonia
Our book choice for March 2012 is In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through “the uttermost part of the earth,” that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome and Charles Darwin formed part of his “survival of the fittest” theory.
Hard Times
Our book choice for February 2012 is Hard Times by Charles Dickens. The novel is set in Coketown, a northern industrial city. Thomas Gradgrind rules his family and his school according to Utilitarianism, the philosophy of the time, which has as its aim the greatest possible happiness for the greatest possible number of people. However, the form of Utilitarianism which
Brideshead Revisited
Our book choice for January 2012 is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. It is an evocative and poignant story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence, set in pre-war England when privileged aristocracy fell into decline.
Brideshead Revisited Read More »
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Our choice for December 2011 is We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. In this gripping novel of motherhood gone awry, Shriver approaches the tragedy of a high-school massacre from the point of view of the killer’s mother.
We Need to Talk About Kevin Read More »
