Book Discussion Groups
The Gioconda and Joseph King Library hosts two book discussion groups each month. Focusing on thematic relationships between books, the title selections are often determined by the group members. No reservations are necessary; just arrive with an understanding of the assigned reading and a willingness to engage in active debates and enlightening conversation. For more information, call the King Library at (561) 655-2766 or e-mail kinglibrary@fourarts.org.
2011-2012 Book Discussion Group Selections
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
Nonfiction, 2011
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11 a.m.
Edward Dolnick tells us in the 1600’s in Europe the average life expectancy was 30. In London, deaths outnumbered births because of disease. Everyone believed in the supernatural – even the intelligentsia. For example, one leading scientist believed the best treatment for cataracts was blowing dried human feces into patients’ eyes. Amid such superstition, a small group of mathematicians and astronomers set out to decode the workings of the universe. Deeply religious, their goal was to prove that God had indeed created a perfect, orderly world — the “clockwork universe” of Dolnick’s title. These men — Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Leibniz and, most importantly, Isaac Newton — uncovered and discussed the forces that kept the Earth, the moons and all the planets spinning in their orbits. In doing so, they undermined belief in a creator and made God irrelevant by elevating science and technology ushering in the modern era.
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Fiction, 1908
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 11 a.m.
This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England. A charming young English woman, Lucy Honeychurch, faints into the arms of a fellow Brit when she witnesses a murder in a Florentine piazza. Attracted to this man, George Emerson – who is entirely unsuitable and whose father just may be a Socialist – Lucy is soon at war with the snobbery of her class and her own conflicting desires. Back in England she is courted by a more acceptable, if stifling, suitor, and soon realizes she must make a decision to choose between convention and passion. The enduring delight of this tale of romantic intrigue is rooted in Forster’s colorful characters, including outrageous spinsters, pompous clergymen and outspoken patriots. Written in 1908, A Room with a View is one of E.M. Forster’s earliest and most celebrated works.
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell
Fiction, 2009
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 11 a.m.
Bernard Cornwell examines the Hundred Years War era in this action-packed epic about King Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Nicholas Hook, an English forester, is on the run and ends up a mercenary defender at Soissons, where he saves a young and beautiful novitiate, Melisande. With his French prize in tow, he returns to England and signs on with Henry’s army as an archer. Back on French soil, he fights his way to Agincourt, where 6,000 Englishmen confront 30,000 French soldiers. The crisply rendered battle scenes are adrenaline rushes of blood, thunder and clashing swords that transport the reader back to the early 15th century. Cornwell’s vividly recreates Henry V’s greatest military triumph.
Priceless by Robert K. Wittman
Nonfiction, 2010
Please note: the date of this program has changed since the printing of our schedule of events.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 11 a.m.
Former FBI agent Robert Wittman, who created the agency’s Art Crime Team and pursued a lifelong interest in antiques and collectibles, goes undercover to hobnob with infamous art thieves. The ineffective, the stupid, the clever and the dangerous – Wittman befriends them all in order to betray them. Among other challenges are bumbling agency bureaucrats and government turf wars when attempting to recover stolen art abroad. Wittman keeps the narrative interesting, and reveals himself as something of a renegade: “Under the FBI’s strict undercover rules, you’re only supposed to work one case at a time. I never followed that rule.” Keep the lies to a minimum, he advises, and avoid working in your home town.
Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
Fiction, 2011
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 11 a.m.
Susan Vreeland excavates the life behind another famous artistic creation – in this case the Tiffany leaded-glass lamp, the brainchild not of Louis Comfort Tiffany but his glass studio manager, Clara Driscoll. Tiffany staffs his studio with female artisans – a decision that protects him from strikes by the all-male union – but refuses to employ women who are married. Lucky for him, Clara’s romantic misfortunes insure that she can continue to craft the jewel-toned glass windows and lamps that catch both her eye and her imagination. Behind the scenes she makes her mark as an artist and champion of her workers, while living in an eclectic Irving Place boarding house populated by actors and artists. Vreeland ably captures Gilded Age New York and its atmosphere of robber barons, sweatshops, colorful characters and ateliers.
Reading My Father by Alexandra Styron
Biography, 2011
Please note: the date of this program has changed since the printing of our schedule of events.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 11 a.m.
Alexandra Styron, William Styron’s youngest daughter was often left alone with her harddrinking and intimidating father and bore the brunt of his mercurial temperament, literary obsession and casual psychological cruelty. The older she got, the more painfully aware she became of the deep divide between his private torments and star-studded social life as the feted author of The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice. Alexandra Styron’s blend of memoir and biography and forthright inquiry into her father’s inevitable date with madness tells for the first time the full story of her father’s creative triumphs and anguished failure to complete another novel before his death in 2006. The insightful tales about her complicated father and his circle, which included Peter Matthiessen, Norman Mailer and Arthur Miller, are captivating.
