On Tuesday, October 10, 2023 we will be discussing Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP, please email tonilin@aol.com.
You will be sent the Google Meet link or the physical address upon RSVP.
We have added two additional books at the end of the list (December and January). Please investigate availability as the last one was just published in 2023.
The list of the books for the rest of 2023 and January 2024 is included below. The list has recently changed, so check it twice, please.
October 10, 2023 Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson – 2022, 192 pp. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s 2022 Golden Poppy Awards
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this “powerful, intoxicating, and shocking” (The New York Times) novel that’s a “slow burn à la Patricia Highsmith” (Oprah Daily). “You’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting” (Vogue).
November 14 Kindred by Octavia Butler – 2009, 264 pp. “In what is considered a literary masterpiece and Butler’s most popular novel, Kindred follows a young Black woman named Dana. Though she lives in 1976 L.A., she’s suddenly transported to a Civil War-era plantation in Maryland. Soon, the more frequently Dana travels back in time, the longer she stays, as she faces a danger that threatens her life in the future.”
December 12, 2023 Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout – 2022, 304 pp. – from Amazon,“NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart.
“Strout’s understanding of the human condition is capacious.”—NPR”
January 9, 2024 The Guest by Emma Cline – 2023, 294 pp. From NYT review, “Under Cline’s command, every sentence as sharp as a scalpel, a woman toeing the line between welcome and unwelcome guest becomes a fully destabilizing force. And not just for her hosts, but for the novel itself.”
On Tuesday, September 12, at 2 pm we will be discussing Silverviewby John le Carré. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP, please email tonilin@aol.com.
You will be sent the Google Meet link upon RSVP.
It would be good to add two additional books to the list so there is no discontinuity. Come with suggestions, please. And/or email suggested titles in advance.
The list of the books for the rest of 2023 is included below. The list has recently changed, so check it twice, please.
September 12, 2023 Silverviewby John le Carré – 2021 – 215 pp. In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
“[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It’s not that he ‘transcended the genre,’ as the tired saying goes; it’s that he elevated the level of play… [Silverview’s] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated.” —The New York Times Book Review
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
October 10, 2023 Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson – 2022, 192 pp. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s 2022 Golden Poppy Awards
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this “powerful, intoxicating, and shocking” (The New York Times) novel that’s a “slow burn à la Patricia Highsmith” (Oprah Daily). “You’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting” (Vogue).
November 14, 2021Kindred by Octavia Butler – 2009, 264 pp. “In what is considered a literary masterpiece and Butler’s most popular novel, Kindred follows a young Black woman named Dana. Though she lives in 1976 L.A., she’s suddenly transported to a Civil War-era plantation in Maryland. Soon, the more frequently Dana travels back in time, the longer she stays, as she faces a danger that threatens her life in the future.”
On Tuesday, August 8, at 2 pm we will be discussing Less by Andrew Sean Greer. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP, please email tonilin@aol.com.
If you would like to meet for lunch before the discussion, email the regular person (see above).
You will be sent the Google Meet link or the physical address of the meeting upon RSVP.
The list of the books for the rest of 2023 is included below. The list has recently changed, so check it twice, please.
August 8, 2023Less – Andrew Sean Greer – 272 pp. — 2017
Well written, insightful in humorous ways. Reminds me of Stegner a bit. Gay writer on world tour of writing retreats, trying to forget ex and get handle on with his life at 50. Light and funny… with dabs of dark.
A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of “arresting lyricism and beauty” (The New York Times Book Review).
September 12, 2023 Silverviewby John le Carré – 2021 – 215 pp. In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
“[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It’s not that he ‘transcended the genre,’ as the tired saying goes; it’s that he elevated the level of play… [Silverview’s] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated.” —The New York Times Book Review
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
October 10, 2023 Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson – 2022, 192 pp. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s 2022 Golden Poppy Awards
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this “powerful, intoxicating, and shocking” (The New York Times) novel that’s a “slow burn à la Patricia Highsmith” (Oprah Daily). “You’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting” (Vogue).
November 14, 2021Kindred by Octavia Butler – 2009, 264 pp. “In what is considered a literary masterpiece and Butler’s most popular novel, Kindred follows a young Black woman named Dana. Though she lives in 1976 L.A., she’s suddenly transported to a Civil War-era plantation in Maryland. Soon, the more frequently Dana travels back in time, the longer she stays, as she faces a danger that threatens her life in the future.”
On Tuesday, June 13, at 2 pm we will be discussing The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP, please email tonilin@aol.com.
If you would like to meet for lunch before the discussion, email the regular person (see above).
You will be sent the Google Meet link or the physical address of the meeting upon RSVP.
The list of the books for the rest of 2023 is included below.
June 13, 2023 The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian – 496 pp. Online blurb: “Today’s “machine-learning” systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us―and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.
Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole―and appear to assess Black and White defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.
July 11, 2023 When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese, 256 pp – 2016
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
August 8, 2023Less – Andrew Sean Greer – 272 pp. — 2017
Well written, insightful in humorous ways. Reminds me of Stegner a bit. Gay writer on world tour of writing retreats, trying to forget ex and get handle on with his life at 50. Light and funny… with dabs of dark.
A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of “arresting lyricism and beauty” (The New York Times Book Review).
September 12, 2023Mendeleyev’s Dream, by Paul Strathern. 2019, 320 pp. The history of chemistry is filled with quirky characters like Dimitri Mendeleyev, the Russian scientist who first proposed the periodic table after it allegedly came to him in a dream. Strathern’s book traces that history all the way back to its origins in ancient Greece. It’s a fascinating look at how science develops and how human curiosity has evolved over the millennia.
October 10, 2023Silverviewby John le Carré – 2021 – 215 pp. In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
“[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It’s not that he ‘transcended the genre,’ as the tired saying goes; it’s that he elevated the level of play… [Silverview’s] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated.” —The New York Times Book Review
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
November 14, 2023Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson – 2022, 192 pp. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s 2022 Golden Poppy Awards
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this “powerful, intoxicating, and shocking” (The New York Times) novel that’s a “slow burn à la Patricia Highsmith” (Oprah Daily). “You’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting” (Vogue).
December 12, 2021Kindred by Octavia Butler – 2009, 264 pp. “In what is considered a literary masterpiece and Butler’s most popular novel, Kindred follows a young Black woman named Dana. Though she lives in 1976 L.A., she’s suddenly transported to a Civil War-era plantation in Maryland. Soon, the more frequently Dana travels back in time, the longer she stays, as she faces a danger that threatens her life in the future.”
On Tuesday, February 14, at 2 pm we will be discussing The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP, please email tonilin@aol.com.
The list of the books for the rest of 2023 is included below.
February 14, 2023 — The Burgess Boys – Elizabeth Strout – 2013, 352 pp — Elizabeth Strout is a Pulitzer prize-winning American writer whose reputation has grown steadily since her first novel, Amy and Isabelle, which was shortlisted for the Orange prize. She also works as a lawyer, and her expertise informs the plot of The Burgess Boys, where a legal drama is at the center of the story.
In the end …, this is not a story of good versus evil but a complex and bold examination of political and family relationships, of the long-term effect of guilt and lies, of people’s motives and failures and muddled intentions.
March 14, 2023Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again – by Norah Vincent, 2006, 287 pp.
There’s so much codification of pronouns and pressure now at prepubescent ages to make irreversible sex changes (many of them later regretted), that this book seems refreshing.. It’s about a woman who is a tomboy going to see what it’s like to be a man, without wanting to be one. I think the politically correct stuff with transgender in the States is a bit stultifying and here’s a book that precedes it, but shows a way that might be less traumatic for young people. (Like, skip the procedures and just be gay.) Right now society says one has to be transgender, and choose one gender over the other; it’s rather homophobic really, right? I’m not sure but would love to discuss and to read this book, which apparently shows the problems of being either sex.
April 11, 2023 Warlightby Michael Ondaatje – 305 pp, 2018 — From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of The English Patient: a mesmerizing new novel that tells a dramatic story set in the decade after World War II through the lives of a small group of unexpected characters and two teenagers whose lives are indelibly shaped by their unwitting involvement.
“Warlight is a quiet new masterpiece from Michael Ondaatje…An elegiac thriller [with] the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale. In Warlight, all is illuminated, at first dimly then starkly, but always brilliantly.” —Anna Mundow, The Washington Post
“Mr. Ondaatje has stepped into John de la Carré’s world of spies and criminals…his novel views history as a child would, in ignorance but also innocence and wonder.” —Sam Sacks, WSJ
May 9, 2023A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, 288 pages, a classic, 1934
Evelyn Waugh’s 1934 novel is a bitingly funny vision of aristocratic decadence in England between the wars. It tells the story of Tony Last, who, to the irritation of his wife, is inordinately obsessed with his Victorian Gothic country house and life. When Lady Brenda Last embarks on an affair with the worthless John Beaver out of boredom with her husband, she sets in motion a sequence of tragicomic disasters that reveal Waugh at his most scathing.
June 13, 2023 The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian – 496 pp. Online blurb: “Today’s “machine-learning” systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us―and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.
Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole―and appear to assess Black and White defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.
July 11, 2023 When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese, 256 pp – 2016
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
August 8, 2023Less – Andrew Sean Greer – 272 pp. — 2017
Well written, insightful in humorous ways. Reminds me of Stegner a bit. Gay writer on world tour of writing retreats, trying to forget ex and get handle on with his life at 50. Light and funny… with dabs of dark.
A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of “arresting lyricism and beauty” (The New York Times Book Review).
September 12, 2023Mendeleyev’s Dream, by Paul Strathern. 2019, 320 pp. The history of chemistry is filled with quirky characters like Dimitri Mendeleyev, the Russian scientist who first proposed the periodic table after it allegedly came to him in a dream. Strathern’s book traces that history all the way back to its origins in ancient Greece. It’s a fascinating look at how science develops and how human curiosity has evolved over the millennia.
October 10, 2023Silverviewby John le Carré – 2021 – 215 pp. In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
“[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It’s not that he ‘transcended the genre,’ as the tired saying goes; it’s that he elevated the level of play… [Silverview’s] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated.” —The New York Times Book Review
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
November 14, 2023Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson – 2022, 192 pp. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s 2022 Golden Poppy Awards
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this “powerful, intoxicating, and shocking” (The New York Times) novel that’s a “slow burn à la Patricia Highsmith” (Oprah Daily). “You’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting” (Vogue).
December 12, 2021Kindred by Octavia Butler – 2009, 264 pp. “In what is considered a literary masterpiece and Butler’s most popular novel, Kindred follows a young Black woman named Dana. Though she lives in 1976 L.A., she’s suddenly transported to a Civil War-era plantation in Maryland. Soon, the more frequently Dana travels back in time, the longer she stays, as she faces a danger that threatens her life in the future.”
On Tuesday, January 10, we are invited to lunch at a member’s home. Then at 2 pm on Google Meet, we will be discussing Round House by Louise Erdrich. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP and to let the host know you will be coming to lunch and/or to receive the Google Meet ID, please email tonilin@aol.com.
The February book will be The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.
Details on these two books and the rest of the books for 2023 are included below.
January 10, 2023 — The Round House by Louise Erdrich – 2012, 336 pp, One of the most revered novelists of our time—a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life—Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.
Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.
February 14, 2023 — The Burgess Boys – Elizabeth Strout – 2013, 352 pp — Elizabeth Strout is a Pulitzer prize-winning American writer whose reputation has grown steadily since her first novel, Amy and Isabelle, which was shortlisted for the Orange prize. She also works as a lawyer, and her expertise informs the plot of The Burgess Boys, where a legal drama is at the center of the story.
In the end …, this is not a story of good versus evil but a complex and bold examination of political and family relationships, of the long-term effect of guilt and lies, of people’s motives and failures and muddled intentions.
March 14, 2023Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again – by Norah Vincent, 2006, 287 pp.
There’s so much codification of pronouns and pressure now at prepubescent ages to make irreversible sex changes (many of them later regretted), that this book seems refreshing.. It’s about a woman who is a tomboy going to see what it’s like to be a man, without wanting to be one. I think the politically correct stuff with transgender in the States is a bit stultifying and here’s a book that precedes it, but shows a way that might be less traumatic for young people. (Like, skip the procedures and just be gay.) Right now society says one has to be transgender, and choose one gender over the other; it’s rather homophobic really, right? I’m not sure but would love to discuss and to read this book, which apparently shows the problems of being either sex.
April 11, 2023 Warlightby Michael Ondaatje – 305 pp, 2018 — From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of The English Patient: a mesmerizing new novel that tells a dramatic story set in the decade after World War II through the lives of a small group of unexpected characters and two teenagers whose lives are indelibly shaped by their unwitting involvement.
“Warlight is a quiet new masterpiece from Michael Ondaatje…An elegiac thriller [with] the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale. In Warlight, all is illuminated, at first dimly then starkly, but always brilliantly.” —Anna Mundow, The Washington Post
“Mr. Ondaatje has stepped into John de la Carré’s world of spies and criminals…his novel views history as a child would, in ignorance but also innocence and wonder.” —Sam Sacks, WSJ
May 9, 2023A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, 288 pages, a classic, 1934
Evelyn Waugh’s 1934 novel is a bitingly funny vision of aristocratic decadence in England between the wars. It tells the story of Tony Last, who, to the irritation of his wife, is inordinately obsessed with his Victorian Gothic country house and life. When Lady Brenda Last embarks on an affair with the worthless John Beaver out of boredom with her husband, she sets in motion a sequence of tragicomic disasters that reveal Waugh at his most scathing.
June 13, 2023 The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian – 496 pp. Online blurb: “Today’s “machine-learning” systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us―and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.
Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole―and appear to assess Black and White defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.
July 11, 2023 When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese, 256 pp – 2016
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
August 8, 2023Less – Andrew Sean Greer – 272 pp. — 2017
Well written, insightful in humorous ways. Reminds me of Stegner a bit. Gay writer on world tour of writing retreats, trying to forget ex and get handle on with his life at 50. Light and funny… with dabs of dark.
A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of “arresting lyricism and beauty” (The New York Times Book Review).
September 12, 2023Mendeleyev’s Dream, by Paul Strathern. 2019, 320 pp. The history of chemistry is filled with quirky characters like Dimitri Mendeleyev, the Russian scientist who first proposed the periodic table after it allegedly came to him in a dream. Strathern’s book traces that history all the way back to its origins in ancient Greece. It’s a fascinating look at how science develops and how human curiosity has evolved over the millennia.
October 10, 2023Silverviewby John le Carré – 2021 – 215 pp. In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
“[Le Carré] was often considered one of the finest novelists, period, since World War II. It’s not that he ‘transcended the genre,’ as the tired saying goes; it’s that he elevated the level of play… [Silverview’s] sense of moral ambivalence remains exquisitely calibrated.” —The New York Times Book Review
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
November 14, 2023Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson – 2022, 192 pp. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s 2022 Golden Poppy Awards
A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this “powerful, intoxicating, and shocking” (The New York Times) novel that’s a “slow burn à la Patricia Highsmith” (Oprah Daily). “You’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting” (Vogue).
December 12, 2021Kindred by Octavia Butler – 2009, 264 pp. “In what is considered a literary masterpiece and Butler’s most popular novel, Kindred follows a young Black woman named Dana. Though she lives in 1976 L.A., she’s suddenly transported to a Civil War-era plantation in Maryland. Soon, the more frequently Dana travels back in time, the longer she stays, as she faces a danger that threatens her life in the future.”
In December we will discuss Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado. We are invited to lunch together in Palermo and to discuss the book in person afterwards or you can join us on Google Meet at 2 pm, Tuesday, December 13. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP and to receive the address or Google Meet ID, please email tonilin@aol.com.
This will be the last book we discuss in 2022. What a good reading and discussing year it has been!
The list of books to be read and discussed by the BAIN Downtown Book Group for 2023 is now being prepared. If you would like to participate in the selection, if you want to see the draft list, or if you have a suggestion for next year, please email tonilin@aol.com. Your input is vital!
December 2022 — Captains of the Sands – Jorge Amado – 288 pp – 2013 — A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia. “Amado was writing to save his country’s soul. . . . The scenes where the captains of the sands manage to fool the rich of the city and get away with it would have made Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens proud.” —Colm Tóibín, from the Introduction “Amado is Brazil’s most illustrious and venerable novelist.”—The New York Times
“Brazil’s leading man of letters . . . Amado is adored around the world!” —Newsweek
In November we will discuss The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. We are invited to lunch together in Palermo and discuss the book in person afterwards or you can join us on Google Meet at 2 pm, Tuesday, November 8. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP and to receive the address or Google Meet ID, please email tonilin@aol.com.
The list of books to be read and discussed by the BAIN Downtown Book Group for the remainder of 2022 appears below. Recommendations for 2023 are welcome. Please!
November 2022 — The Post Office Girl – Stefan Zweig — 2008 – 278 pp — Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel.
December 2022 — Captains of the Sands – Jorge Amado – 288 pp – 2013 — A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia. “Amado was writing to save his country’s soul. . . . The scenes where the captains of the sands manage to fool the rich of the city and get away with it would have made Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens proud.” —Colm Tóibín, from the Introduction “Amado is Brazil’s most illustrious and venerable novelist.”—The New York Times
“Brazil’s leading man of letters . . . Amado is adored around the world!” —Newsweek
In October we will discuss Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. We can have lunch together in Palermo and discuss the book in person afterwards or you can join us on Google Meet at 2 pm, Tuesday, October 11. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To RSVP and to receive the address or Google Meet ID, please email tonilin@aol.com.
The list of books to be read and discussed by the BAIN Downtown Book Group for the remainder of 2022 appears below. Recommendations for 2023 are welcome. Please!
October 2022 — Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy — 228 pp – 2021— An Amazon Best Book of August 2020: Clear your calendar and settle in for a brilliant and breathless read. Migrations is about a woman who goes to the ends of the earth in search of herself and to track what just might be the last migration of Arctic terns, birds that travel from pole to pole every year. It’s also about love, adventure, climate change, and what happens when a person simultaneously runs away from her past and runs straight towards it. Migrations gets richer with every scene as you learn more about Franny Stone—why she boards a boat full of fishermen, why birds call to her, how she fell in love with her husband, and how death stalks her at every turn. From Antarctica to a prison in Ireland, Australia to Galway, Franny traverses the world and with every turn of the page, you learn more about why she’s always on the move. The novel’s pacing is phenomenal—and the candor, veracity, and clarity with which it’s written make it feel like a memoir. Migrations is confessional, intimate and one of the best books I’ve read this year. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review
November 2022 – The Post Office Girl – Stefan Zweig — 2008 – 278 pp — Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel.
December 2022 — Captains of the Sands – Jorge Amado – 288 pp – 2013 — A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia. “Amado was writing to save his country’s soul. . . . The scenes where the captains of the sands manage to fool the rich of the city and get away with it would have made Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens proud.” —Colm Tóibín, from the Introduction “Amado is Brazil’s most illustrious and venerable novelist.”—The New York Times
“Brazil’s leading man of letters . . . Amado is adored around the world!” —Newsweek
In September we will discuss How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue. The meeting will be on Google Meet at 2 pm, Tuesday, September 13. This is the second Tuesday of the month, as usual. To receive the Google Meet ID, please email tonilin@aol.com. The meeting will start at 2 pm.
The list of books to be read and discussed by the BAIN Downtown Book Group for the remainder of 2022 appears below. Recommendations for 2023 are welcome. Please!
September 2022 — How Beautiful We Were — Imbolo Mbue — 2021 — 363 pages — A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers.
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People• ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review,The Washington Post,Esquire, Good Housekeeping,The Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire, Ms. magazine, BookPage,Kirkus Reviews
October 2022 — Migrations – Charlotte Mcconaghy — 228 pp – 2021— An Amazon Best Book of August 2020: Clear your calendar and settle in for a brilliant and breathless read. Migrations is about a woman who goes to the ends of the earth in search of herself and to track what just might be the last migration of Arctic terns, birds that travel from pole to pole every year. It’s also about love, adventure, climate change, and what happens when a person simultaneously runs away from her past and runs straight towards it. Migrations gets richer with every scene as you learn more about Franny Stone—why she boards a boat full of fishermen, why birds call to her, how she fell in love with her husband, and how death stalks her at every turn. From Antarctica to a prison in Ireland, Australia to Galway, Franny traverses the world and with every turn of the page, you learn more about why she’s always on the move. The novel’s pacing is phenomenal—and the candor, veracity, and clarity with which it’s written make it feel like a memoir. Migrations is confessional, intimate and one of the best books I’ve read this year. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review
November 2022 – The Post Office Girl – Stefan Zweig — 2008 – 278 pp — Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel.
December 2022 — Captains of the Sands – Jorge Amado – 288 pp – 2013 — A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of Bahia. “Amado was writing to save his country’s soul. . . . The scenes where the captains of the sands manage to fool the rich of the city and get away with it would have made Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens proud.” —Colm Tóibín, from the Introduction “Amado is Brazil’s most illustrious and venerable novelist.”—The New York Times
“Brazil’s leading man of letters . . . Amado is adored around the world!” —Newsweek
