What we’re about
We have been in existence as a book club in Houston for over forty years. Our focus is "significant fiction": either classics you might have read in a literature class, or modern major prize winners. We read novels, and occasionally include plays or epic narrative poetry. We are affiliated with Houston Great Books http://www.houstongreatbooks.net and recommend their website for other book clubs of interest.
We meet on the first Thursday evening of each month. You may attend any or all meetings at your choice, regardless of whether you have read the month's book selection. (We ask that only those who have read the book participate actively in the discussions.) We select our books twice a year, six months at a time. If you like what we do and wish to take a part in selecting future books, you are welcome to join our selection team.
Our meetings occur simultaneously on-line (on Zoom) and in-person, in the Rice Village area of Houston, Texas. Our in-person venue is small and we give priority to regularly-attending members. In-person participants are invited to adjourn to a nearby restaurant following the meeting for socializing.
Our approach centers on the work itself and follows a process of "shared enquiry":
-- The discussion leader provides direction and guidance by asking question. The participants in the group look to the leader for questions, not answers.
-- None of us are experts or authorities. We welcome viewpoints from all participants. We engage in active search for the meaning of a work ... articulate and support ideas with evidence from the text, and consider different plausible meanings.
-- We listen carefully, and disagree respectfully ... pursue the implications of others’ thoughts ... support their different interpretations with evidence from the text.
-- We stay focussed on the work that we all share. Avoid digressing into other works or into our personal life experience or philosophy.
-- We avoid relating the work to politics or current events. We enjoy diverse views on literature but do not welcome political statements or arguments.
-- At the end of each session there is time for offering general comments, telling the group how you like / don't like the book, etc.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - **Online**Link visible for attendees
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Led by Leigh
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the myth behind colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters--the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the European's cruel treatment of the natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallel the atmosphere of the story.
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RCgr75
You may attend either online on Zoom or in-person
To attend on Zoom: RSVP to this event.
To attend in person: Go here==============================================
TO ATTEND ONLINE - PRE-REGISTER NOW-1- RSVP to the meeting. When you do, an "Online Event" link will appear
-2- Click on the link, and fill in the Zoom registration form with your name and email address. Use a Zoom name that clearly matches your Meetup.com name.
-3- You will receive an email from Zoom with the link to join the online meeting. Save the email with the link for use at the scheduled time. (If you mislay the email, just repeat step 2).For meeting security we vet first-time participants and check all Zoom names against Meetup.com RSVP registrations. Unrecognized entrants are held in the Zoom waiting room until we identify them. To avoid delay, be sure you
++ RSVP on Meetup now, or at least 24 hours prior to the meeting
++ Use a Zoom name that clearly matches your Meetup.com name.
++ Enter the meeting on Zoom at least 15 minutes prior to start.
++ The Zoom link is personal. Please do not share or post it anywhere. - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - **In Person**Rice Village, Houston, TX
- Join us in person for the book discussion and after-meeting social hour.
- The number of in-person spots is limited. To request a spot, please see details below.
- Click to attend online instead.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Led by Leigh
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the myth behind colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters--the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the European's cruel treatment of the natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallel the atmosphere of the story.
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RCgr75
==============================================
Instructions for In-Person Attendance- This is a "hybrid" meeting, with some participants in-person and others remote on Zoom. This RSVP is for meeting in person.
- The number of in-person spots is limited, and members who regularly attend our events have priority.
- The number of "Spots Left" will appear zero. Please click "Attend" to join the waitlist, and we will confirm your reservation in a following message.
- After your spot is confirmed, directions to the meeting room will be provided through email and Meetup.com messages.
- While on the waitlist you are welcome to register also for the online session
Don't Be a No-Show! If your plans change, please do cancel your in-person RSVP or Wait List request. Allow someone else to take your place.
Parking
There is a mixture of free and metered parking on streets around the venue. There is also a large parking garage (1st 2 hours free) at Kelvin at Amherst.After Meeting Socializing
After the meeting ends, you are invited to join us at a near-by restaurant for refreshments and socializing. - Middlemarch by George Eliot - **Online**Link visible for attendees
Middlemarch by George Eliot - Led by Travis
'The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts'
The greatest 'state of the nation' novel in English, Middlemarch addresses ordinary life at a moment of great social change, in the years leading to the Reform Act of 1832. Through her portrait of a Midlands town, George Eliot addresses gender relations and class, self-knowledge and self-delusion, community and individualism.
Eliot follows the fortunes of the town's central characters as they find, lose, and rediscover ideals and vocations in the world. Through its psychologically rich portraits, the novel contains some of the great characters of literature, including the idealistic but naive Dorothea Brooke, beautiful and egotistical Rosamund Vincy, the dry scholar Edward Casaubon, the wise and grounded Mary Garth, and the brilliant but proud Dr Lydgate. In its whole view of a society, the novel offers enduring insight into the pains and pleasures of life with others, and explores nearly every subject of concern to modern life: art, religion, science, politics, self, society, and, above all, human relationships.
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3tcxHFH
You may attend either online on Zoom or in-person
To attend on Zoom: RSVP to this event.
To attend in person: Click here==============================================
TO ATTEND ONLINE - PRE-REGISTER NOW-1- RSVP to the meeting. When you do, an "Online Event" link will appear
-2- Click on the link, and fill in the Zoom registration form with your name and email address. Use a Zoom name that clearly matches your Meetup.com name.
-3- You will receive an email from Zoom with the link to join the online meeting. Save the email with the link for use at the scheduled time. (If you mislay the email, just repeat step 2).For meeting security we vet first-time participants and check all Zoom names against Meetup.com RSVP registrations. Unrecognized entrants are held in the Zoom waiting room until we identify them. To avoid delay, be sure you
++ RSVP on Meetup now, or at least 24 hours prior to the meeting
++ Use a Zoom name that clearly matches your Meetup.com name.
++ Enter the meeting on Zoom at least 15 minutes prior to start.
++ The Zoom link is personal. Please do not share or post it anywhere. - Middlemarch by George Eliot - **In Person**Rice Village, Houston, TX
- Join us in person for the book discussion and after-meeting social hour.
- The number of in-person spots is limited. To request a spot, please see details below.
Middlemarch by George Eliot - Led by Travis
'The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts'
The greatest 'state of the nation' novel in English, Middlemarch addresses ordinary life at a moment of great social change, in the years leading to the Reform Act of 1832. Through her portrait of a Midlands town, George Eliot addresses gender relations and class, self-knowledge and self-delusion, community and individualism.Eliot follows the fortunes of the town's central characters as they find, lose, and rediscover ideals and vocations in the world. Through its psychologically rich portraits, the novel contains some of the great characters of literature, including the idealistic but naive Dorothea Brooke, beautiful and egotistical Rosamund Vincy, the dry scholar Edward Casaubon, the wise and grounded Mary Garth, and the brilliant but proud Dr Lydgate. In its whole view of a society, the novel offers enduring insight into the pains and pleasures of life with others, and explores nearly every subject of concern to modern life: art, religion, science, politics, self, society, and, above all, human relationships.
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3tcxHFH
==============================================
Instructions for In-Person Attendance- This is a "hybrid" meeting, with some participants in-person and others remote on Zoom. This RSVP is for meeting in person.
- The number of in-person spots is limited, and members who regularly attend our events have priority.
- The number of "Spots Left" will appear zero. Please click "Attend" to join the waitlist, and we will confirm your reservation in a following message.
- After your spot is confirmed, directions to the meeting room will be provided through email and Meetup.com messages.
- While on the waitlist you are welcome to register also for the online session
Don't Be a No-Show! If your plans change, please do cancel your in-person RSVP or Wait List request. Allow someone else to take your place.
Parking
There is a mixture of free and metered parking on streets around the venue. There is also a large parking garage (1st 2 hours free) at Kelvin at Amherst.After Meeting Socializing
After the meeting ends, you are invited to join us at a near-by restaurant for refreshments and socializing.
