Timeless classics and modern masterpieces that challenge, inspire, and leave a lasting impact. Ideal for thought-provoking discussions.
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
143 pp.
January 2009
Confession time. I don't really like The Great Gatsby. But I think I'm alone in the universe on this, which is why I'm recommending this month.
This review comes on the heels of Baz Luhrmann's 2013 film adaptation, a new biographical novel of Zelda, and a recently issued volume of Fitzgerald's famous flapper stories. Finally, I recommend Gatsby because critics have long considered it one of the quintessential American novels—a story bound up in the uniquely American myth of self-creation.
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton,
274 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
May 2013
Fifteen years before her Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton already had her sights trained on New York's gilded-age society. That earlier work is The House of Mirth, a devastating portrait, far crueler and more predatory than anything in her later book.
And in Lily Bart, Wharton has given us one of literature's enduring heroines. Lily, with her remarkable beauty and innate charm, captivates readers in the same way she captivates the characters within the novel.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte, 1847
~500 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
April, 2013
Possibly no book, other than Pride and Prejudice, has been as beloved by women as Jane Eyre, a Cinderella novel if ever there was one. If you haven't read it...what have you been doing with your life? If you have read it, read it again. It's one of many classic works that gets better and better with each successive read.
On its surface, Jane Eyre is a simple romance: a young girl, brought low by circumstance and maltreated by the very institutions that should have protected her (family and school), wins the heart of a wealthy, accomplished man. At its core, however, Jane Eyre is much, much more.
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie, 1939
320 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
February, 2013
Agatha Christie is the doyenne of murder mysteries—not because she was a prose stylist (she wasn't) nor because she was prolific (though she was). Her staying power is due to the sheer inventiveness of her stories and tight structure of her plots—plots that surprise, even though the clues have been there all along. For nearly a century, mystery writers have marveled at her technique.
Her classic And Then There Were None remains Christie's best selling novel—and the top-selling mystery of all time. It's a bone-chilling, deadly story.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott, 1868 and 1869
~500 pp. (varies by publisher)
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
January, 2013
Louisa May published her beloved classic 145 years ago, and while at times dated—its homiletic style and emphasis on female duty—Little Women still has much to say about the modern condition.
There's nothing—at all—old-fashioned about the concept of virtue: generosity and compassion, forgiveness, self-restraint, wisdom, and living with intention. These are the values that Marmee teaches her four daughters and which they come to see as the path to a good life. It's far too easy to overlook those values in the 21st century.