Until We Meet Again....

Hi all:

Our dear book club has decided to curl up with a substantial book, and meet again in January 2014 to discuss.  With all of the excitement in our lives and the holidays looming, it seemed most prudent to choose a long one, enjoy it in our spare moments, and meet again when the chaos has subsided.  As such, the choice was made to read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. 

While East of Eden was not outright banned (unlike Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men) Steinbeck's language and forthrightness was difficult for his contemporaries to swallow.  That same language speaks to us -- calls us back time and again to his work -- almost universally, and acts as a potent reminder of the necessity of shared language in literary form.  In recognition of this necessity, seek out banned books (a good place to start is http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/ -- Toni Morrison's Beloved has come up time and again, almost as if by tradition)...read them...support their authors.  In doing so we help to carve out a literary space where thoughtfulness, creativity, self-expression, and shared experiences trump fear and conformity. 

Enjoy East of Eden and then join us on January 29th 2014 from 6p-8p...I am looking forward to getting to join in once again in the booze part of our club!