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Thursday, May 17, 2012

For Meeting about Alice Munro's story, "Cortes Island," May 21, 2012

Why Alice Munro May Have Written "Cortes Island" From the First Person Point of View and Not the Third

 

"What is the point of old women anyway?” (143, “Cortes Island," Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman,  Knopf, 1998)

 

It is a husband who asks this question, of his wife, a young woman who grows old...

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Friday, December 2, 2011

Thoughts on William Trevor's "A Bit on the Side" and "The Children" for Book Group meeting Monday, 12/05

For Book Group meeting, Monday, 12/ 5, Warner Building, 7 PM

 

“Then, for the forty minutes that were theirs, they spoke of love…” – “A Bit on the Side,” William Trevor

Dear All Souls Book Group,

A couple of Book Group members have asked for some orienting words about the Trevor stories we’ll be discussing...

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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Questions and Proposals about Jennifer Egan's "A Visit From the Goon Squad"

For All Souls Book Group Meetings Mon., 10/ 17 and Mon., 10/24

(The page numbers below refer to the 2010 Anchor Books edition of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.)

         "I don't think those ladies were ever watching birds." (83)

1. Redemption, Corruption

...

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Questions and Proposals, Jennifer Egan's "The Keep"

For Meetings Mon., 9/19 and Mon., 9/26

 

"She says, My job is to show you a door you can open." (20, The Keep.)  

Question 1:   Remembering what it felt like to read this book for the first time

What was it like...

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

For Second George Herbert Meeting, Monday, April 25, 2011, 7 PM, The Warner Building

Footnotes/ Annotations to Poems

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Dear All Souls Book Group,

Below are some footnotes from Mario Di Cesare’s anthology, George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets, to help you navigate the poems we'll be discussing during Monday's meeting, on April 25th, at 7 PM....

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Poetry of George Herbert, All Souls Book Group

Meetings Monday, April 18th and Monday, April 25

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Dear All Souls Book Group,

Enclosed below you will find several poems by the English poet, George Herbert (1593 - 1633).  These are the poems we'll be discussing across our next two meetings, that on Monday, April 18th, and Monday, April 25th.  So there'...

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sestina Meeting/ Looking forward to Pantoum Meeting

All Souls Book Group

Dear All Souls Book Group,

Thanks for a good sestina meeting last night.  We had a larger group than usual, and I think we did an admirable job of trying to accommodate multiple perspectives on single poems – while still hewing pretty close to the poems.  

This morning...

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Porter Taylor to Lead a Discussion on Jesus' Parables

April 29, 10 AM - 3 PM, Valle Crucis Conference Center

February 23 2011

Dear All Souls Book Group,

I wanted to let you know about an interesting program to be offered in late April regarding JESUS' PARABLES.   The program consists of a day-long conversation to be facilitated by Bishop Porter Taylor.   Here are the details:

...

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Friday, December 10, 2010

Toni Morrison's Beloved

A Few Thoughts for Our First Meeting

Dear All Souls Book Group,

Hi and Happy December, Happy Chanukah, and Blessed Advent.

Enclosed are a few thoughts in preparation for our first meeting on Toni Morrison's Beloved, which is coming up this Monday, in the Warner Building, at 7 p.m.  We'll have two subsequent...

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Friday, November 19, 2010

Poem read at first Song of Solomon meeting

Dear All Souls Book Group,

Enclosed is the poem read by George Sieburg at Monday night's meeting about Song of Solomon.  The poet is Countee Cullen, and the poem is called, "Yet I do Marvel."  Thanks, George.

All best,

Emilie

 

...

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Friday, November 19, 2010 - 13:55
Poem read at first Song of Solomon meeting

Dear All Souls Book Group,

Enclosed is the poem read by George Sieburg at Monday night's meeting about Song of Solomon.  The poet is Countee Cullen, and the poem is called, "Yet I do Marvel."  Thanks, George.

All best,

Emilie

 

 

Yet I Do Marvel

 

I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind

And did He stoop to quibble could tell why

The little buried mole continues blind,

Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,

Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus

Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare

If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus

To struggle up a never-ending stair.

Inscrutable His ways are, and immune

To catechism by a mind too strewn

With petty cares to slightly understand

What awful brain compels His awful hand.

Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:

To make a poet black, and bid him sing! 

 

Countee Cullen