The Wednesday Reading Group

   Since the completion of the "first" Grainger renovation in 1992, lovers of literature within the department have been meeting at lunch time on Wednesdays to read a variety of works from world literature.  There are several unique aspects to our readings:

• Works are nominated and approved by the group, which consists not only of departmental faculty, but also of faculty from other departments, administrators, and retired colleagues.
• Works chosen are generally literary pieces which the  majority of the group has not previously read.
• Works are read at a slow and reflective pace, with weekly assignments rarely exceeding 15-20 pages.
• Members may not read ahead of the assigned pages for the week.
• There are no appointed discussion leaders.
• Discussions are unplanned and unrestricted--except for a ban on references to campus politics--and tend to jump from one place to another. 

Works Read to Date

Honoré de Balzac, Lost Illusions

Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks

Eric Kraft, Leaving Small's Hotel

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

Naguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street

Larry Watson, Montana 1948

Anthony Trollope, The Warden

Helena María Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus

Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch

Murasaki Shikitu, The Tale of Genji

Alessandro Baricco, Silk

Smith, McCorkle, et al.  Pete and Shirley: The Great Tar Heel Novel 

Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries

Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans

Nick Hornby, How to be Good

Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red

J. M. Coetzee, Foe

Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons

Maureen Howard, Silver Screen

Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove / In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

Günter Grass, Crabwalk

Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

Julian Barnes, Arthur and George

Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide

Ken Bugul, The Abandoned Baobab

V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River

Members of the Group, Past and Present

McRae Amoss

Nancy Blattner

Susan Booker

Rhonda Brock-Servais

Donna Brown

Jená Burges

Brian Coleman

Martha Cook

Carolyn Craft

Isabel Dulfano

Wade Edwards

Guiomar Fages

Lily Goetz

Trudy Hale

Brett Hursey

Nancy Krippel

Lee L'Hote

Candis LaPrade

Michael Lund

Robert May

Susan May

Eric Moore

Paul Moriarty

Kate Neff

Christopher Nesmith

Frances O'Donohue

Geoffrey Orth

Greg Salyer

Ellery Sedgwick

Jennifer Sheeler

Robin Smith

Shawn Smith

Derek Taylor

Gordon Van Ness

William Woods

Joan Woolfrey