The books to be discussed in June and beyond are described below. Descriptions of future books will be added by next month. In the meantime, comments welcome.

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.

July 2026 — Finite and Infinite Games,  James Carse (2011, 162 p)

August 2026 — Windy City Blues by Renee Rosen  (2017,  476 p)

September 2026 — The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri ( 2005, 242 p)

October 2026 — Diary of a Provincial Lady, E. M. Delafield (2026, 171 p)

November 2026 — Arrow, William Gadea. (2025, 219 p)

December 2026 –The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (1869, 432 p)

January 2027 — God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut  (2007, 290 p)

February 2027  — Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon  (2004, p 288)

March 2027 — Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (2020, 349 p)