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Thursday,
March 27th at 7:30 p.m.
We are meeting to discuss Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s classic tale The House of the Seven Gables. Mystery, greed and redemption-- don’t
miss it!
Our March selection is a tale from
the American Classics shelf. Pick up a copy of The House of the
Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne and join the discussion.
Compelled to explore the moral transgressions of his own Puritan
ancestors, Hawthorne weaves into his “romance” (as he called it) mystery,
greed, redemption, and the legacy of evil deeds:
“We think the book…surpasses
the other works of the author.…It has delighted us; it has piqued a
re-perusal; it has robbed us of a day, and made a present of a whole year
of thoughtfulness …There is a certain tragic phase of humanity which, in
our opinion, was never more powerfully embodied than by Hawthorne.”
--Herman
Melville
A rave review by Melville. Can you
pass that up??
On
Wednesday April 30th at 7:30, you’ll want to join us as we
talk about a most remarkable novel: The Curious Incident of the Dog
in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Entirely written in
“point-of-view” style, this award-winning tale is “told” by a 15-year-old
autistic savant. A rare glimpse into a brilliant and challenged young
mind.
“When his
neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the
crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes … and
track down the killer. As the mystery leads him…into an odyssey to find
his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate
the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book
to him.”
- Wikipedia
“Though
Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell
jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with
touching, ironic humor. The result is an eye-opening work in a unique and
compelling literary voice.”
- Publisher’s Weekly
Contact Susan Spector at book@abnewcomers.org and
directions will be sent to you.
In May (meeting Wed,
May 28, at 7:30) our reading list returns to Asia, this
time to meet Empress Michiko of Japan. The Commoner: a Novel by
John Burnham Schwartz tells the extraordinary story of the woman who
… “marries the Crown Prince of Japan...
She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running,
almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met
with cruelty and suspicion … [she] is controlled at every turn...However,
determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she
perseveres.” - from the
Publisher
“Out of
this heart-wrenching history, Schwartz has woven a delicate, elegiac
tale, intensely moving and utterly convincing”. - New York Times Book
Review
Just
turn the page, a whole world awaits…
Contact
Susan Spector at book@abnewcomers.org
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