Books to Change Your Life Book Club

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of the FINAL THIRD of Vol 6: Time Regained of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. (Pages 360 to the end of the Modern Library Classics version; your version's page numbers may vary; Beginning line on page 360 is "Gilberte de Saint-Loup said to me: 'Shall we go and dine, just the two of us, at a restaurant?' As I replied: 'So long as you don't think it compromising to dine alone with a young man,' I heard everybody round me laughing, and hastily added: 'or rather, with an old man.'")

Per Wikipedia, "In Search of Lost Time is considered, by many scholars and critics, to be the definitive modern novel...Virginia Woolf wrote in 1922: 'Oh if I could write like that!.' Harold Bloom wrote that In Search of Lost Time is now 'widely recognized as the major novel of the twentieth century.'" Per the publisher, "Graham Greene considered Marcel Proust 'the greatest novelist of the twentieth century, just as Tolstoy was in the nineteenth.' Edmund Wilson proposed that he was 'perhaps the last great historian of the loves.'

Since the novel is six volumes of about 4,200 pages in total, we will split the readings into 22 meetings of about 200 pages per month, taking a two month break between each volume. (Note: You are welcome to join at any point in the series, and to come and go as you please; you do not need to commit to all 22 meetings.) The entire project will take about 2 years and 4 months per the schedule below:

Vol 1: Swann's Way
Mon 8/29/22: Meeting 1 pgs 1-200 (Modern Library Classics version)
Mon 9/26/22: Meeting 2 pgs 200-400 (Modern Library Classics version)
Mon 10/24/22: Meeting 3 pgs 400-607 (Modern Library Classics version)

Vol 2: Within a Budding Grove
Tue 1/17/23: Meeting 4 pgs 1-200 (Modern Library Classics version)
Wed 2/15/23: Meeting 5 pgs 200-400 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 3/14/23: Meeting 6 pgs 400-620 (Modern Library Classics version)

Vol 3: The Guermantes Way
Tue 6/06/23: Meeting 7 pgs 1-200 (Modern Library Classics version)
Wed 7/05/23: Meeting 8 pgs 200-400 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 8/01/23: Meeting 9 pgs 400-600 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 8/29/23: Meeting 10 pgs 600-820 (Modern Library Classics version)

Vol 4: Sodom and Gomorrah
Mon 11/20/23: Meeting 11 pgs 1-180 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 12/19/23: Meeting 12 pgs 180-360 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 1/16/24: Meeting 13 pgs 360-540 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 2/13/24: Meeting 14 pgs 540-726 (Modern Library Classics version)

Vol 5: The Captive & The Fugitive
Tue 5/07/24: Meeting 15 pgs 1-190 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 6/04/24: Meeting 16 pgs 190-380 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 7/02/24: Meeting 17 pgs 380-570 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 7/30/24: Meeting 18 pgs 570-760 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 8/27/24: Meeting 19 pgs 760-936 (Modern Library Classics version)

Vol 6: Time Regained
Tue 11/19/24: Meeting 20 pgs 1-180 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 12/17/24: Meeting 21 pgs 180-360 (Modern Library Classics version)
Tue 1/14/25: Meeting 22 pgs 360-535 (Modern Library Classics version)

The page numbers above correspond to the Modern Library version of the Moncrieff-Kilmartin-Enright translation which you can buy on kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/Search-Lost-Time-IV-Book-ebook/dp/B000QCSA86/

Or in print here: https://www.amazon.com/Search-Gomorrah-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0375753109/

All are welcome!

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of I See Satan Fall Like Lightning by Rene Girard. (Please read all of it, prior to the meeting.)

In "I See Satan Fall Like Lightning," René Girard offers a thought-provoking exploration of human violence, desire, and the forces that drive them. Using his groundbreaking mimetic theory, Girard examines how our desires are often shaped by others, leading to competition, conflict, and societal upheaval. By analyzing cultural and historical patterns of violence, the book uncovers the hidden mechanisms that perpetuate destructive behaviors and social tensions. Girard's insights challenge readers to rethink the roots of conflict, the dynamics of human interaction, and the potential for breaking these cycles.

You can get the book in paperback or kindle here:
https://www.amazon.com/See-Satan-Fall-Like-Lightning/dp/1570753199

All are welcome!

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of the first half of The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Pages 1 to 265; Note, The Dark Forest is book two in the Three Body Problem series. We already read book one, The Three Body Problem last year. I recommend you read that book first before this one. Please see below for the full schedule of readings.)

Per the publisher, "In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion-in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret."

PRAISE FOR THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM SERIES: “A mind-bending epic.”―The New York Times • “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”―The Wall Street Journal • “Extraordinary.”―The New Yorker • “Wildly imaginative.”―Barack Obama • “A breakthrough book.”―George R. R. Martin • “Impossible to put down.”―GQ • “Absolutely mind-unfolding.”―NPR • “You should be reading Liu Cixin.”―The Washington Post

Tue 2/18/25 The Dark Forest - Pages 1 to 265
Tue 3/28/25 The Dark Forest - Pages 265 to end
Tue 5/13/25 Death's End - Pages 1 to 310
Tue 6/10/25 Death's End - Pages 310 to end

You can buy the book on paperback or kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765386690

All are welcome!

Hello all! We will meet online for a discussion of the first half of American Colossus by H.W. Brands (Pages 1 to 310; Please read the entire selection before the meeting.)

Per the publisher, "From the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War: a "first-rate" narrative history (The New York Times) that brilliantly portrays the emergence, in a remarkably short time, of a recognizably modern America.

"American Colossus captures the decades between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, when a few breathtakingly wealthy businessmen transformed the United States from an agrarian economy to a world power. From the first Pennsylvania oil gushers to the rise of Chicago skyscrapers, this spellbinding narrative shows how men like Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller ushered in a new era of unbridled capitalism. In the end America achieved unimaginable wealth, but not without cost to its traditional democratic values."

Tue 03/04/25 Meeting 1 - Pages 1 to 310
Tue 04/29/25 Meeting 2 - Pages 310 to end

You can buy the book on paperback or kindle here:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Colossus-H-W-Brands-ebook/dp/B003F3PK72/

All are welcome!