Book club 2005-06
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Flowers for
Algernon by Daniel Keyes |
Something Wicked This
Way Comes by Ray Bradbury |
The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
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Robinson Crusoe by
Daniel Defoe |
Clockwork by Philip
Pullman |
Sabriel by Garth
Nix |
The UHS Book Club started in November 2004. Our group
meets in the high school library and is sponsored by
Matthew Murrey, the librarian at UHS. This year we will
meet on the third Thursday of the month in the library
after school. At our first meeting on Thursday, September
29th, we discussed Flowers for Algernon by
Daniel Keyes and picked our book for November--Robinson
Crusoe (NOTE: We ended up meeting
on October 27th and due to ordering problems, copies
of Robinson Crusoe were not available. The
group decided to pick a short book for our November
meeting--The Little Prince.) At our November
meeting The Little Prince turned out to be
quite popular with nearly all the readers.
The book club met on December 15th and all agreed that
Robinson Crusoe could have used some editing
to tighten it up--probably explains the availability
of so many abridged versions. However, we all admired
Defoe's imaginative powers and found many aspects of
the story very compelling.In January we discussed the
short book Clockwork by Philip Pullman. Everyone
liked the book and found that it managed to wrestle
with significant topics such as love, honesty, integrity,
and the perils of the creative arts, in spite of being
a rather slim work. Our book for February was Sabriel
which was popular with our group. Some of the participants
had read Lireal, the sequel to Sabriel,
and stated that it was much better than Sabriel.
We are moving to the end of another year; we met on
March 30th to talk about Song of Solomon by
Toni Morrison. Her book sparked some lively remarks
about race and identity. All agreed that Morrison writes
complex, textured stories that are immensely creative
and also demanding.
Due to scheduling conflicts we moved our discussion
of Demian to May 5th. Everyone had positive
comments about Demian. We found that Hesse's
focus on psychological conflicts and gender make him
seem fairly contemporary--even though he was writing
in the 1920s. Readers commented on his surrealistic
elements, Jungian influence, and social and religious
commentary. Most of us admired his ability to wrestle
with weighty issues, even in a short novel like Demian.
Our next, and last book of the year will be Terry Pratchett's
The Light Fantastic. As always any interested
student may participate in the book club. Several copies
of each title we select are available in the library.
We hope to see you at our next meeting.
NEXT MEETING: Thursday, May 25 at 3:20 pm. in the library
for The Light Fantastic.
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Song of Solomon by
Toni Morrison |
Demian by Herman
Hesse |
The Light Fantastic by
Terry Pratchett |
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See information from previous years of the UHS book
club by clicking on one the following: 2004-05
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