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#1373 - 07/12/08 12:12 PM
Book Club Notes
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Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
stranger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, CA
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These will be brief descriptions of the monthly Emeritus Faculty and Friends Book Club meeting.
Anyone is welcome to join our discussions on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning at 6:30.
Meetings are held at members' homes on a rotating basis. Please see the Silver Link Calendar for further information about the books read and where the discussions are held.
Edited by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (07/28/08 06:27 PM)
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#1374 - 07/12/08 12:13 PM
Re: Book Club Notes
[Re: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith]
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Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
stranger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, CA
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Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert
by Georgina Howell
We had a good meeting--about 10 people--and all enjoyed reading about the Queen of the Desert. Pat had a nice intro describing the author's background as editor of Vogue in Europe and a writer of several other kinds of books. Quite an interesting woman herself.
Jo related the book back to Paris 1919, and Jack mentioned A Peace to End all Peace, which I am just starting. Both of these are concerning the Treaty of Versailles. There was some concern about whether the author was inserting her own feelings/ideas in places, but Jo had read another bio of Bell and said this one was far superior in its authenticity, and had used a huge number of letters, diaries, and similar resources. Pat also mentioned a Website with a searchable archive of all the Bell corpora, and she should be sending the address to the e-list.
We decided to go ahead with reading the book for the One Campus One Book project, as the speaker from campus was quite persuasive. We will be opening the October discussion to the community in general and will probably meet in the library instead of in a home. The project is based on a grant, so it looks good to have a large part of the campus participating and trying to involve the community. Lou will be posting more info to the e-list.
Edited by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (07/12/08 12:14 PM)
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#1375 - 07/24/08 07:53 AM
Re: Book Club Notes
[Re: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith]
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Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
stranger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, CA
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FRIENDS/ EMERITUS BOOK GROUP
SCHEDULE 2008-2009
2008
May 7: The Looming Tower: Al Quaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
June 11: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
July 9: Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell
August 13: March by Geraldine Brooks
September 10: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough
October 8: Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
November 12: : Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
December: No Meeting
2009
January. 14: When A Crocodile Eats in the Sun by Peter Godwin
February 11: Special Topics in Calamity Fiction by Marisha Pessl
March 11: Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
April 8: Soul Mountain by Xingjian Gao
May 13: God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis
June 10: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
July 8: The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
August 12: Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
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#2585 - 04/11/09 03:02 PM
Re: Book Club Notes
[Re: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith]
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Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
stranger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, CA
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We had a small but dedicated group at Bonnie's house to tackle "Soul Mountain," a Nobel for Literature book by Gao Xingjian, who has currently given up writing to be a visual artist living in Paris, more or less in exile.
The group agreed that it was a very long but interesting work. Jo made a striking comparison of the book to the Chinese and Japanese style of ink wash painting, where a tiny human figure making his way along a track is almost hidden by the mountains and their enshrouding mists. This image seemed to be a satisfying metaphor for the disturbing narrative disjunction of the novel.
Elizabeth mentioned the book's relation to the picaresque novels of Chinese tradition, like "The Water Margin" or "Journey to the West" (with the Monkey King), or even "Dream of the Red Chamber." Action is episodic and characters come and go in the narrative with little continuity. The background of the author is similar to that of many people encountered in China who underwent the tumultuous changes of the social landscape during the Cultural Revolution.
The group did not agree on whether the female character(s) were a part of the author or an actual other person or persons in the story. It was hard to say that we "liked" the book, but it was worth the read.
Please add your own comments or disclaimers--just use the Quck Reply box below to continue the discussion.
--Elizabeth
Edited by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (04/11/09 03:08 PM)
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#2629 - 06/02/09 09:23 PM
Re: Book Club Notes
[Re: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith]
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Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
stranger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, CA
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There were about 7 of us for the discussion of 'God's Crucible.' I think everyone agreed that it was fascinating to see the history of the Dark Ages from the Muslim point of view. I had studied this period intensively over the years, but always from the European vantage point.
We had some debate about the major premise of the book: would Europe have been better off if Islam had conquered the Frankish kingdom and inherited the mantle of the Roman Empire? I think there was some agreement that this would not have been the case--the Arab/Bedouin rulers of Mozarabic Spain were not really democratic, and were only partially tolerant of the many peoples of other races and faiths. Perhaps only because they were a minority did they make accommodations to Christians and Jews at all.
Please feel free to add your own thoughts below!
--Elizabeth
Edited by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (06/02/09 09:24 PM)
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#2634 - 06/08/09 11:49 AM
Re: Book Club Notes
[Re: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith]
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Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
stranger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11
Loc: Sacramento, CA
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I've created a wiki with links to reviews of various books we have read or will read. The address is
http://friendsandemeritusbooks.wikispaces.com (copy and paste into your browser)
Cheers--
--Elizabeth
Edited by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (06/08/09 11:50 AM)
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Moderator: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
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