October Book Club

Note: All the upcoming books and those that we didn’t select are listed at the bottom of this section.
October: James: A Novel by Percival Everett
Pulitzer Prize Winner, 2025 National Book Award Winner, 2024
A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view.
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

Steve will be moderating this month. Hope you can join us for some thoughtful discussion.

Upcoming books: (November is the next book selection month.)
November: Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth by Ingrid Robeyns (Ryan)
December: No book club!
January: Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World by Richard Cockett (Jim)
Not selected this time:
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools Hardcover by Mary Annette Pember
A Piece of Cake: A Memoir Paperback by Cupcake Brown
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia MD
Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference by Rutger Bregman
Proudly Made: A Story of Reinvention in the Big Woods and Small Towns of the Pennsylvania Wilds by Tataboline Enos