Season 26-27 Book List

September 10 - The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

(1276 pages) 

Edmond Dantès, a young sailor, is falsely accused of treason by jealous rivals and imprisoned for years. While in prison, he befriends another inmate who teaches him many skills and reveals the location of a hidden fortune. After escaping and finding the treasure, Dantès reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo. He carefully seeks revenge on those who betrayed him while rewarding those who remained loyal. In the end, he realizes that revenge has consequences and chooses forgiveness and hope over bitterness.

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October 8 - Measure for Measure (William Shakespeare)

(300 pages)

A comedy about justice, morality, and mercy. The Duke of Vienna pretends to leave the city and appoints the strict Angelo to enforce neglected laws. Angelo sentences Claudio to death for getting his fiancée Juliet pregnant before marriage. Claudio's sister, Isabella, a novice nun, pleads for his life, but Angelo offers to spare Claudio only if Isabella sleeps with him. Refusing to sacrifice her principles, Isabella exposes Angelo's hypocrisy. The Duke, secretly observing events in disguise, devises a plan that reveals the truth, pardons Claudio, and restores justice.

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November 12 - Short Stories (Leo Tolstoy)

  • How Much Land Does a Man Need? (32 pages)

    • A farmer named Pahom believes that owning more land will make him happy. As he acquires more and more land, his greed grows. He eventually learns of an opportunity to claim as much land as he can walk around in a single day, but he must return to the starting point before sunset. The story's central message is that greed can destroy a person, and that people often desire more than they truly need.

  • God sees the Truth, but Waits (14 pages)

    • The story follows Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov, a kind merchant who is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to prison in Siberia. After spending many years suffering unjustly, he discovers that the real murderer. The story's central message is that truth and justice may be delayed, but they are ultimately revealed, and forgiveness is more powerful than vengeance.

  • Master and Man (40 pages)

    • The story of a wealthy landowner, Vasili Andreevich, and his servant, Nikita, who travel through a snowstorm to complete a business deal. As the storm worsens, they become lost, and Vasili initially thinks only about his own profit and survival.  The novella explores themes of greed, social class, mortality, and spiritual transformation, showing that love and self-sacrifice are more meaningful than wealth or status.

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December 10 - Shadows on the Rock (Willa Cather)

(272 pages, paperback). 

This book follows the story of a father and daughter as they settle in Quebec in 1697. Like “Death Comes for the Archbishop” it explores life on the frontier, and how people respond to the drama and hardships of such a life.

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January 14 - Men at Arms (Evelyn Waugh)

(105 pages, paperback, hardcover, kindle)

The First book in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor Trilogy. This semi-autobiographical series follows Guy Crouchback, an English aristocratic who desires to serve in World War II. Crouchback is forced to rethink his chivalric convictions as he comes face to face with the folly and futility of war.

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February 11 - A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)

(416 pages)

This work by John Kennedy Toole - and only published after his death - A Confederacy of Dunces is a comedic masterpiece. The protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, is a fat, conceited, slob who lives with his mother in New Orleans. He has many misadventures driven by his undeserved snobbery, cowardice, and vanity. A singular, original work that is like nothing else.

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March 11 - The Machine Stops (E.M. Forester)

(32 pages)

This science fiction short story, first published in 1909, is prescient in its predictions regarding the cultural and social impact of technological dependence and artificial living. Perhaps it is best read as a cautionary tale, more relevant to our current circumstances than it’s comfortable to admit.

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April 8 - The Wasteland (T.S. Eliot)

(Poetry selection, 27 pages)

Published in 1922, T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland is an enigmatic exploration of the destruction of the old world after World War I and the dark portents of what was to come. Perhaps the greatest work of modern English poetry, the relevance and insight into the human condition makes this work inexhaustible.

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May 13 - A Man in Full (Tom Wolfe)

(764 pages)

Tom Wolfe was one of America’s sharpest observer of modern society, both as a journalist and novelist. Centered on former college football star turned business mogul, Charles Croker, this book chronicles the collapse of his empire against the backdrop of racial tension in Atlanta. Skewering the hypocrisy and absurdity of business, media, and politics, this work is nevertheless tempered by Wolfe’s genuine love for the wild and weird parts of modern America.

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