FEBRUARY BOOK

Our book for February is The Sympathizer (link)by Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize winner from 2016, among several other awards.  We'll continue with our ZOOM meetings, this one starting at 7pm on Tuesday evening, February 2.  Check the Comments below for the invite.  As usual, one and all are welcome to join the fun and frolic.

With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a "man of two minds," a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

JANUARY BOOK

A belated Happy New Year to everyone.  Our book for January is Tess of the D'Urbervilles (LINK) by the prolific Victorian era author Thomas Hardy (wikilink).  Once again, we'll be having a virtual meeting via ZOOM, starting at 7pm on the evening of Tuesday, January 5.  Check the Comments section below for the invite.  Newcomers and oldtimers always welcome.  (Pets and pajamas optional.)  Stay safe everyone; we're not out of the woods yet.

         

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, subtitled "A Pure Woman," is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.