“Life without literature is a life reduced to penury. It expands you in every possible way. It illuminates what you’re doing. It shows you possibilities you haven’t thought of. It enables you to live the lives of other people than yourself. It broadens you, it makes you more human. It makes life more enjoyable.”
This remark, made by M.H. Abrams in a fabulous interview marking the 50th anniversary of The Norton Anthology of English Literature (you may remember this text from your college days), describes what smart women know–that a life filled with reading is expansive and joyful. Â Even more, sharing our thoughts and experiences of literature with one another leads to greater understanding and growth.
With these thoughts in mind, we are thrilled to provide the selections for this year’s literary line-up. Each title will be the subject of at least one blog post and questions will also be available. So, if your book club is looking for some great reads, then you might choose one of these.
- To The End of the Land • David Grossman
- Fiasco • Irme Kertesz
- Hate • Tristan Garcia
- Flaubert’s Parrot •  Julian Barnes
- The Messenger • Yannick Haenel
- Last Man in Tower • Aravind Adiga
- The Hunger Angel • Herta Muller
- A Sport of Nature • Nadine Gordimer
- The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa • Gonzalo Barr
- Canada • Richard Ford
- Binocular Vision • Edith Pearlman
- A Hologram for the King • Dave Eggers
- Hikikomori and the Rental Sister • Jeff Backhaus
This is an ambitious, exciting list guaranteed to provoke, inspire, and stimulate amazing conversations. We are looking forward to a great year ahead and hope all our readers will share their thoughts on these books.
Wow, that is a very intense list! Please send me the information about the group that meets at Books & Books.
Also, as I mentioned to you, the next Local Author Night at The Bookstore in the Grove, in Coconut Grove, will be on Friday, October 19th from 7 – 9 p.m. . I will be emcee-ing that night, and the list of authors and related information will be up on their website soon. They are developing a new website, and I’ll be blogging on it – – that will be fun and interesting!
Lisa, it was great to meet you and I hope to have a chance to see you and discuss books again sometime in the near future! (BTW, I recently found the list of author presentations for the upcoming Annual Jewish Book Festival that runs from Oct. 11 – Nov. 8 at http://www.alperjcc.org/default.asp?cid=1&n1=29&n2=0#6196. I’ll definitely be going to some of that.).
Thanks –
Pamela