2020
March
In order to stay social, at this time of social distancing, we met on Zoom!. At the March 2020 Zoom meeting we read from
Frankissstein: A Love Story
In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love – against their better judgement – with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI. ...>>
Midnight's Children
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously "handcuffed to history" by the coincidence. ..>>
Blue Shoes and Happiness
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously "handcuffed to history" by the coincidence. ..>>
A Line in the Sand
Through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers - including T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle - 'A Line in the Sand' tells the story of the short but crucial era when Britain and France ruled the Middle East...>>
King Lear
Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the suffering of others. Lear himself rages until his sanity cracks. What, then, keeps bringing us back to King Lear? For all the force of its language, King Lear is almost equally powerful when translated, suggesting that it is the story, in large part, that draws us to the play... ...>>
February
The Great Believers
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS ...>>
Blue Shoes and Happiness
There is considerable excitement at The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe's office. Then a nurse from a local medical clinic reveals that faulty blood–pressure readings are being recorded there. And Botswana has a new advice columnist, ...>>
Quichotte
Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television, who falls in impossible love with a TV star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand ...>>
Clip Viewed
Unsuitable for Ladies; An anthology of Women Travellers
Real ladies do not travel--or so it was once said. This collection of women's travel writing dispels that notion by showing how there are few corners of the world that have not been visited by women travelers...>>
A Russian Doll in China
In this world of international M&A (Merger/Acquisitions) banks and their consulting arms play games of mutual tortuous interference during the buying process. Our hero has to find out how this looks like in the Chinese business culture without any of this showing up in the news. The players are introduced to him via a Russion doll with .. ...>>
January
A Line in the Sand; Britain, France and the Struggle that shaped the Middle East
Through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers - including T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle - 'A Line in the Sand' tells the story of the short but crucial era when Britain and France ruled the Middle East...>>
An Orchestra of Minorities
A heart-breaking and mythic story about a Nigerian poultry farmer who sacrifices everything to win the woman he loves, by Man Booker Finalist and author of The Fishermen, Chigozie Obioma....>>