November 2010: Washington Square

For November, we are back to a classic - Washington Square by Henry James. This is a short novel written in 1880 by Henry James, who was American born but lived in England most of his life. It focuses on the relationship of a widowed father and his daughter.

So as not to conflict with the Thanksgiving holiday, we will be meeting the first Friday of December to discuss this book.

How to Read a Book

This month we will be reading How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.


Now, this selection may seem redundant to those of you who already know your phonics, but I would highly recommend you pick it up with us! The point of this book is not to get you from first page to last, but rather to help you understand the contents of the book. It will suggest what sorts of questions you should ask when you approach a book and teach you to look for the clues that provide you to those answers. Even if you have been reading for years, you will learn something from this book! I am looking forward to reading it again after first reading it 11 years ago.

We will meet for our discussion on Friday, October 29 at 7:30 pm. See you there!

September Selection

I'm late getting the title out this month ... and our discussion comes early! So, we're reading something short - The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy. This short story begins with the death of an upstanding member of society, and then remembers his life - with Tolstoy asking, "What did it gain him?" The reflections on death and life by Ivan Ilych's still living peers are also recorded, challenging us, the living, to refect on our own mortality.

The discussion of this short work will be this coming Friday, September 24, at 7:30 pm. For more information, including the location of the discussion, please leave a comment and I will contact you.

August: The Good News We Almost Forgot

The reading for August will be The Good News We Almost Forgot, by Kevin DeYoung. If you're reading this blog, you have access to Amazon's product description; but I have nothing else to say, so I figured I'd copy it here:

If there is "nothing new under the sun" then perhaps the main task now facing the Western church is not to reinvent or be relevant, but to remember. The truth of the gospel is still contained within vintage faith statements. Within creeds and catechisms we can have our faith strengthened, our knowledge broadened, and our love for Jesus deepened.

In The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin DeYoung explores the Heidelberg Catechism and writes 52 brief chapters on what it has shown him. The Heidelberg is largely a commentary on the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer and the book deals with man's guilt, God's grace, and believers' gratitude. The result is a clear-headed, warm-hearted exploration of the faith, simple enough for young believers and deep enough for mature believers. As DeYoung writes, "The gospel summarized in the Heidelberg Catechism is glorious, it's Christ gracious, it's comfort rich, it's Spirit strong, it's God Sovereign, and it's truth timeless." Come and see how your soul can be warmed by the elegantly and logically laid out doctrine that matters most: we are great sinners and Christ is a greater Savior!

We will meet to discuss this book the evening of Friday, August 27.

June is Fiction!

And for this month, we're reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This book centers on an old house where a fictional family has lived for over two centuries. The story Hawthorne weaves about this family examines how one generation passes guilt on to its progeny and the progeny responds to this burden with retribution or forgiveness.

We will discuss this novel on the last Friday of the month, June 25th at 7:30 pm. Please see Sunday's bulletin for more details on how to join us!

For May: The Practice of the Presence of God

Although May's selection was written by a monk in medieval France, I suspect that we would all benefit from reading it. Using the mundane, Brother Lawrence calls us to a realization that God is a part of all of life, and we have a choice of acknowledging Him or not.

Take your time reading through this slender collection of musings, letters, and notes, but finish by May 28th to join us for a discussion of The Practice of the Presence of God!

April Fiction Choice

In case you haven't seen the bulletin yet, the choice for April has been made; and we are reading Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Alan Paton was a South African who grew up in the areas where the book is set, but he wrote the book while on a trip to study the correctional facilities of Europe and the United States. Cry, the Beloved Country is Alan Paton's first novel.

If you will not be able to make it to our discussion, or you'd just like to begin mulling on the book before our meeting, you might think about the answers to this list of questions.

March 2010 Book

In anticipation of the coming church retreat, we have decided to read D.A. Carson's most recent release - Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. In this book, Dr. Carson examines five passages of scripture to help us undersand why God would save us by sending His son to die on a cross.

The book is about 170 pages long and is available for purchase at the book table before or after services. Whether or not you're planning to hear Dr. Carson speak next month, please join us for the reading of Scandalous!

February Reading

This month's discussion will be on the novel Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. Flannery O'Connor is best known for her short stories, but she also wrote two novels, of which this is the first. It was published in 1952.

Wise Blood is on the short side (about 120 pages), so we hope you will find time to read it before our discussion! The discussion will be held on February 26 at 7:30 pm.