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What we’re about
I like to read--a lot. I also like to spend time talking with interesting, congenial people about the books I read. And quite often, it is a lot of fun to pursue these conversations with a drink in hand. I'm not saying we should get plastered, but let's relax in a gracious New Orleans setting, knock back a few, and discuss books that matter. Just a note here--it should be fairly obvious but in case not--this group is for the 21 and over set. Sorry kids--your time will come.
Among the books we've read: American Gods, The Movie Goer, The Awakening, The Tragedy of Arthur, Quiet Houses, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Nine Lives,The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Goldfinch, The Sense of a an Ending, The Master and Margarita, Sacre Bleu, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Piano Tuner, The Satanic Verses, East of Eden, Await Your Reply, The Clearing, Pale Fire, To Kill a Mockingbird, Seasons of Ash, Jitterbug Perfume, Snow, Water for Elephants, Babylon Rolling, Midnight in Peking, The White Tiger, The Handmaid's Tale, The Broom of the System, The Help, Of Human Bondage, A Movable Feast, Mercy of Thin Air, Little Bee: A Novel, Cat's Cradle, The World That Made New Orleans, Tenth of December, The Last Madam, Leaving the Atocha Station, To the Lighthouse, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Ocean at the End of Lane.
PROCEDURE
1. Read a good book (chosen by vote--our tastes are literary but eclectic)
2. Meet up
3. Drink liberally (or not)
4. Talk about it
What else is there to say? We'll meet once a month, usually the last Tuesday. We will be looking for a new location, post-lockdown. When we find, we'll let you know.
I don't care how old you are, your race, gender, religion, or whatever, but I do hope you are willing to read beyond Dan Brown, Stephen King and romance. I hope you're willing to talk intelligently about books too. I've come to enjoy reading as a collaborative process because the discussion enhances my understanding to such a great degree.
WHY?
Because you miss college ... or didn't go to college but like to read good literature and stay up late talking about it ... Because you think language and ideas are important ... Because book clubs should kick ass.
Upcoming events (1)
See all- HEAT INTOLERANCESilk Road Restaurant & Wine Bar, New Orleans, LA
Can reading about a cold place help us through a New Orleans summer? Pair your reading with an icy cold drink and it should work. Certainly worth a try! For the sweltering month of July, we will be turning to a Russian classic, Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls. Although it is primarily concerned with Russian society during the early 19th century, Gogol's wit and fresh prose make it a joy to read today.
“You can't imagine how stupid the whole world has grown nowadays.”
― Nikolai Gogol , Dead SoulsDead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol,(Recommended version: Pevear, Volokhonsky-Translators), 1842
Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls is the great comic masterpiece of Russian literature–a satirical and splendidly exaggerated epic of life in the benighted provinces.Gogol hoped to show the world “the untold riches of the Russian soul” in this 1842 novel, which he populated with a Dickensian swarm of characters: rogues and scoundrels, landowners and serfs, conniving petty officials–all of them both utterly lifelike and alarmingly larger than life. Setting everything in motion is the wily antihero, Chichikov, the trafficker in “dead souls”–deceased serfs who still represent profit to those clever enough to trade in them.
This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel’s lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.
--------------------------------------------For purposes of planning ahead, our August selection keeps us in Russia but in the remote Eastern region of Kamchatka in Julia Phillips' novel, Disappearing Earth.