On Tuesday, May 12 at 2 pm, we will be discussing The Sellout by Paul Beatty.  As usual, we meet on the second Tuesday of each month.

RSVP to tonilin@aol.com with questions, comments, or recommendations. The Zoom or other virtual link will be sent to you before the meeting if you RSVP.

The books to be discussed in May and June are described below. We are currently considering books to read for the next 6 to 9 months. If you would like to receive the list of books we will be voting on please email tonilin@aol.com. . .

May 2026 — The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Fiction. 2015, 305 p. A ferocious satire about race and American culture that won the Booker Prize. Critics praised its wildly funny yet incisive social commentary.  Written stream of consciousness. A biting satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant.

June 2026 — Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes. Fiction. 2022, 193 p. From the best-selling, award-winning author of The Sense of an Ending, a magnetic tale that centers on the presence of a vivid and particular woman, whose loss becomes the occasion for a man’s deeper examination of love, friendship, and biography.

This beautiful, spare novel of platonic unrequited love springs into being around the singular character of the stoic, exacting Professor Elizabeth Finch. Neil, the narrator, takes her class “Culture and Civilisation,” taught not for undergraduates but for adults of all ages; we are drawn into his intellectual crush on this private, withholding, yet commanding woman. While other personal relationships and even his family drift from Neil’s grasp, Elizabeth’s application of her material to the matter of daily living remains important to him, even after her death, in a way that nothing else does.