Timeless classics and modern masterpieces that challenge, inspire, and leave a lasting impact. Ideal for thought-provoking discussions.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain, 1885
July 2007
Scholars have long considered Huck Finn one of the Great American Novels (alongside Moby-Dick and The Scarlet Letter).
It's a ripping good “escape story”—a young boy and run-away slave make their way by raft down the Mississippi toward freedom. Along the way they meet up with adventure and an array of flamboyant characters, mostly shady but a few honest.
Till We Have Faces
C.S. Lewis, 1956
313 pp.
June 2007
Dismissed by critics at first, Till We Have Faces is now thought by some to be one of Lewis’s most profound works. Certainly it is mysterious, complex, and imaginative—and on any level a wonderful read.
Faces is a retelling of the ancient myth of Psyche and Eros. If you’re unfamiliar with the original story, get hold of Edith Hamilton’s classic Mythology (a book you might want for your personal library). But here’s a stripped down version:
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville, 1851
500-600 pp. (varies)
May 2007
10 Reasons to Read Moby-Dick
1. It's The Great American Novel.
2. It's a terrific story.
3. It's like spinach—it's good for you.
4. It's ubiquitous—it pops up in literature, religion, politics, & psychology.
5. It's bound to be a question when you're on Jeopardy.
Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass
Isak Dinesen, 1937 and 1960
480 pp. (incl. Shadows)
April 2007
“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”
With that beautifully modulated opening, Dinesen begins her epic memoir: 17 years (1914–31) as a coffee grower in Kenya, then a British protectorate. This is a powerful love story—but not the one between Redford and Streep as told in the 1985 movie.
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner, 1936
313 pp.
March 2007
This is a spellbinding book, a sort of mystery story, in which we know who committed the crime but not why.
Faulkner takes a young man's murder and around that single event constructs an entire history of a southern aristocratic family. In many ways it is the history of the South itself.