Timeless classics and modern masterpieces that challenge, inspire, and leave a lasting impact. Ideal for thought-provoking discussions.
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
Studs Terkel, 1974
694 pp.
October 2010
Working caused a major stir when published in 1974—everyone was talking about it. It even spawned a Broadway play. Thiry-five years later the book has attained iconic status for its bird's eye view into the world of the American worker.
Terkel had a simple but brilliant idea: let's go out and actually talk with real people to see how they feel about their jobs. Let's give voice to the "nobodies"—instead of the rich and famous "somebodies" we always hear from.
A Man for All Seasons
Robert Bolt, 1960
163 pp.
September 2010
When Robert Bolt's play opened 50 years ago, critics called it "dazzling"... "luminous," ... "universal." For years thereafter, the play was performed in theaters and taught in classrooms around the country. Today, it's strangely neglected. It shouldn't be.
A Man for All Seasons is the story of Thomas More—another casualty of the Tudor-Boleyn era. Despite pleadings of friends and family, even his soverign, More will not...cannot...approve Henry's divorce and remarriage. A devout churchman, he chooses principle over expediency—at the cost of his life.
Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
Joseph Conrad, 1904
500 pp.
May 2010
Many scholars have considered Nostromo one of the finest novels in the English language. If I lost you at the word "scholars," please don't let that be a deal breaker—Nostromo is a dense but compulsive read.
As he does in all his works, Conrad plumbs the depths of human frailty, offering an intimate study in psychology and human relations. Yet here he uses a vaster canvas to consider the wider political and economic world.
The Quincunx
Charles Palliser, 1989
788 pp.
April 2010
I'm taking a chance here. First, The Quincunx is not a true "classic," in terms of age. Second, it's long (800 pages)...at times overly complicated...and other times downright tiresome.
But it's a rare reviewer who would tell you to stay away from it. If you read this book, you will lose sleep...forget meals...miss work...and ignore your family. You will become depraved.
The Magus
John Fowles, 1965
672 pp.
March 2010
Best known for The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles often tells what first appear to be straightforward love stories but are, instead, open-ended, unresolved meditations on the difficulties of knowing. That is...knowing the world and knowing the self.
Enter The Magus, one of Fowles's earliest works, a novel of illusion and deception. The book's epitaph is such:
The Magus, Magician, or Juggler, the caster of the dice and mountebank in the world of vulgar trickery.