PLEASE NOTE: DISCUSSION GROUPS
The Culinary Discussion Group provides a setting for those Athenaeum members with a particular interest in food. Discussions and talks are designed to advance the knowledge of food and cookery and to deepen our appreciation of the place of the culinary arts in history, society and culture. The discussion group meets on the second Monday of the month at 6:00 p.m.
Winter
2008
Willow
Blish from Slow
Food Boston, advocate for local farmers and the sale
of their
special produce, will speak of the importance of locally grown food.
Experience Chocolate. Suzanne will
speak of
her specialized private home-based chocolate tastings for corporate
events,
family and neighborhood get-togethers, etc. See www.experiencechocolate.com.
Jean
Tillson,
president of The Wodehouse Society, and her “newts” will talk
about
those days gone by and culinary cuisine. Surprise visit from a fav Jeeves
and Wooster chef!
David Zebny, owner of
Monday, May 12, 2008
Irene Costello, founder of "Ruby
Chard" in-house cooking classes and the new "Effie's Homemade" will be
coming to share some of her
adventures in the culinary world. See rubychard.com
and
effieshomemade.com
Thanks and see you then. --Mary DiZazzo Trumbull.
BOOK SELECTIONS
January 7: The Glass Key
by Dashiell Hammett
February 4: House of Meetings
by Martin Amis
March 3: Play It As It Lays
by Joan Didion
April 7: Every Past Thing
by Pamela Thompson
[Author Appearance]
May 5: The Obscene Bird of Night
by Jose Donoso
June 2: Intuition
by Allegra Goodman
July 7: The Pope's Rhinoceros
by Lawrence Norfolk
August 4: Twighlight of the Superheroes
by Deborah Eisenberg
September 8: The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing
October 6: The Sparrow
by Maria Doria Russell
November 3: The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
December 1: Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
Literary Conversations meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 6pm to discuss works of literature, from the Greek classics to contemporary bestsellers.
Members take turns leading the discussions and are in active e-mail correspondence with the group regarding the books selected and background issues. Members are invited to join the Literary Conversations dutch treat dinners following the meeting at the Grotto on Bowdoin Street.
Book List from Literary Conversations Past Meetings
BOOK SELECTIONS
January 28, 2008: Two Lives by William Trevor
February 25, 2008: Optimist's Daughter
by Eudora Welty
March 17, 2008: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
April 28, 2008: Reading Like a Writer by
Francine Prose
May 19, 2008: Faust by Goethe
June 16, 2008: The Kreutzer Sonata, How Much
Land Does a Man Need, and The Death
of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
July 21, 2008: Continued discussion of Faust
August 18, 2008: Continued discussion of Faust
September 15, 2008: Bleak House by Charles Dickins
October 20, 2008: Waiting by Ha Jin
November 17, 2008: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
December 15, 2008: Miss Lonelyhearts/ Day of the Locust
by Nathaniel West
January 26, 2009: Hopscotch by Julion Cortazar
February 23, 2009: The Burger's Daughter
by Nadine Gordimer
March 16, 2009: The Egoist by George Meredith
April 27, 2009: An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguru
May 18, 2009: The Golden Bowl by Henry James
June 15, 2009: A Question of Upbringing
by Anthony Powell
The Mystery Novel Group meets on the last Monday of each month at 6:00 pm.
BOOK SELECTIONS
January 28: Murder in the Marais by Cara Black
Febrary 25: Interpretation of Murder by Jed
Rubenfield
March 31: A Corpse in the Koryo
by James Church
April 28: Night Gardener by George Pelecanos
May 19: The Fourth Angel by Suzanne Chazin
June 30: The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
July 28: Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson-Douglas
August 25: A Conspiracy of Paper: A Novel
by David Liss
Sept. 29: Island of Exiles by I.J. Parker
Oct. 27: Death in the Off Season by Francine Matthews
Nov. 24 Miss Lizzy: A Psychoanalytic Study
by Walter Satterthwaite
Dec. 29: Dark House: A Novel by John Sedgwick
Mystery Novel Resources
The New England Seminar meets the first Monday of every month at 6:00 pm. The Group reads fiction and non-fiction written about Boston and New England. Past selections include Santayana's "The Last Puritan," Louis Menand's "The Metaphysical Club," Dorothy West's "The Living Is Easy," William Dean Howells' "The Rise of Silas Lapham," Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick"and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Collected Short Stories."
Book List from New England Seminar Past Meetings
BOOK SELECTIONS
For the year 2008-2009, New England Seminar is taking a
sabbatical year reading about
September 8, 2008: Robert Caro – The Power Broker
October 6, 2008: Jane Jacobs – The
Death and Life of Great
American Cities
November 3, 2008: Wilfred Sheed – The House That George Built
December 1, 2008: Alfred Kazin – A
SOME LIKE POETRY
"Some
–
thus
not all. Not even the majority of all but the
minority.
Not
counting schools, where one has to,
and
the poets themselves,
there
might be two people per thousand.
but
one also likes chicken soup with noodles,
one
likes compliments and the color blue,
one
likes an old scarf,
one
likes having the upper hand,
one
likes stroking a dog.
but
what is poetry.
Many
shaky answers
have
been given to this question.
But
I don’t know and don’t know and hold on to it
Like
to a sustaining railing."
Wislawa
Szymnorska
(Translated
by Regina Grol)
The Poetry
Study Group will not meet during the summer months but will
reconvene on Monday September 8, 2008 at 5:30 PM. At that meeting we will read and discuss the poetry of Wislawa
Szymborska, a Polish poetess who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. You will be most welcome if you can join us.
Bring a half dozen copies of one of her poems which you would like to
explore with us. Enjoy the summer!
The Trollope Discussion Group meets on the last Monday of each month, at 6:00 PM.
The Trollope Group will resume meeting on September 24th.
BOOK SELECTIONS
Jan. 28, 2008: Is He Popenjoy?
Feb. 25, 2008: Dr. Wortle's School
March 31, 2008: An Eye for an Eye
April 28, 2008: The Fixed Period
June 2, 2008: John Caldigate (First Half)
June 30, 2008: John Caldigate (Finish)
The World History Book Group meets on the second Monday of each month at 6:00 pm.
BOOK SELECTION
May 12: Armageddon Averted: Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000
by Stephen Kotkin
June 9: The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History
by Gordon S. Wood
July 14: Treasures of China by John Channery
August 11: The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus
by Charles King
Sept. 8: What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation
of America, 1815- 1848
by Daniel Walker Howe
Book List from World History Past Meetings
When Big Ben tolls DONG,DONG,DONG, This is London Calling----August 20th, 1940 "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
The Group will meet on the third Saturday of the month at 10:30 am
BOOK SELECTIONS
January 19, 2008: "Why the Allies Won"
by Richard Overy
February 16, 2008: "The Day of Battle, The War
in Sicily and Italy 1943" by Rick Atkinson (first half)
March 15, 2008: "The Day of Battle, The War
in Sicily and Italy 1943" by Rick Atkinson
(second half)
April 19, 2008: Guest Speaker: Wayne Soini discusses
Henry Cabot Lodge
May 17, 2008: "The Nazi Conscience" by Claudia Koonz
June 21, 2008: Group Outing (meet at Trinity Church Copley Sq.;
if raining, meet inside Dartmouth St. entrance of the BPL, 10:30 a.m.).
September 20, 2008: "The War Hitler Won: The Fall of Poland,
September, 1939" by Nicholas W. Bethel
Summer Reading Suggestions:
"Thunder in the East" by Evan Mawdsley
"A Quiet American" by Andy Marino
"Wine and War" by Don and Petey Kladstrup
"Das Reich" by Max Hastings
World War II Resources
Book List from World War II Discussion Past Meetings
Please contact me if you have any questions,
Dan Moulton djmoulton@verizon.net