Upcoming & Current
John Williams Book Club: “Stoner” & “Augustus”
Stoner is a “perfect” novel, according to the New York Times. It’s literary, cozy, and quietly riveting, telling the life story of English professor whose last name is Stoner. Augustus is a novel about the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, and it won the National Book Award in 1973.
Led by Christopher Frizzelle
Augustus in marble, as seen on display in Rome.
Photo by the Frizzler
Charles Dickens Book Club: “Our Mutual Friend”
It is the last novel Dickens competed, and probably his greatest. Certainly it has the most ingenious plot, the highest quantity of eccentric characters, and the most page-turning suspense. It’s a murder mystery and a battle over an inheritance and a hilarious social commentary that explores what people will do for money and what money does to them. We will read it on Monday nights from June to October.
Led by Christopher Frizzelle
Art by Kathryn Rathke
“Transformative. I adore these book clubs. Christopher’s passion and insight have left me near-delirious with an excitement and optimism I’ve carried into all my reading and writing.”
— Maria Semple, novelist
Book clubs in search of the meaning of life.
In the Moby Dick club we found aliveness and humor in a book that predicted the future.
In the Beloved club, we talked about motherhood and power.
In the To the Lighthouse club, we we watched Woolf bring the dead back to life.
In the Giovanni’s Room club, we considered James Baldwin’s second novel as a critique of oblivious and self-absorbed whiteness.
Past Book Clubs
