Saint Anselm College Great Books » Book Lists

Books for Next Discussion

David Banach — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:46:45 +0000

Here are a list of books that are candidates for the next discussion:

Selected Stories by Kurt Vonnegut

Ishmael, Daniel Quinn

Story of a talking gorilla
May have been read by many in high school
Turns story of Adam and Eve upside down: the apples don’t do anything, Adam and Eve only thought they did.
Environmental Book

Regeneration, Pat Barker

Chronicles the WWI poetic minds of Britain, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilferd Owens.
Quick read.
Discusses the effects of war on the self.

Atonement, Ian McEwan

Movie.
Romance
Attempts to reconcile reality with fiction, the emotional, subjective mind with an objective reality.

Raise High the Roof Beams Carpenters, JD Salinger

All Men are Mortal, Simone de Beauvoir

The main character, a egocentric actress, attempts make herself immortal through a man who is.
About 350 pages.

Tomcat In Love, Tim O’Brien

The Constant Gardner, John Le Carre

Movie
Discusses ethical issues such as self sacrifice and the dignity of all human beings, including the “expendable” populations of third world countries.
The movie is excellent. The book is a bit long…

The Sea, John Banville

The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those whom he loved as a child and as an adult.
200 pages

Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Stephen Adley Guirgis

Six Characters in Search of an Author, Luigi Pirandello

The play spends much time vividly demonstrating the limitations of the theatre as a medium of story-telling. Thus the play can be regarded as simply an exercise in the now much-explored realm of meta-theatre; however, it also delves into the larger questions of defining existence and hints at the responsibilities inherent in creativity.
A bit gruesome in the end…

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard

The Crucible, Arthur Miller

Beloved, Toni Morrison

My sister recommended this. It’s supposed to “blow you away:.
There is a film.
Depicts the tumultuous and disheartening life of a slave fighting for her and her children’s liberty from slavery and the ghosts of their past.

Selected Stories by Nikolai Gogol

Selected Short Stories by Joseph Conrad (“Youth” and “The Lagoon”)

The Lagoon – The main theme of the story is that death is inescapable, humans often have the illusion that through ‘true love’ nothing can touch us, and that love makes one whole. In order to succeed in life, one must overcome these illusions.
Youth – A Narrative is a story within a story about the exuberance of youth and the romantic illusions that the young have about life.
He has other great stories. It’s amazing that he only finished learning English in his late youth.