2020-21 (Year 13)
| Date | Book | Leader/Host |
| Oct 4 | Selected poems by Maya Angelou There are several autobiographies chronicling Maya Angelou’s life. I just finished listening to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings read by Maya. It allowed an intimate insight into this woman — especially when delivered in her own voice. I highly recommend this book or any of her audio books read by the author herself. As far as Maya Angelou’s many poems, please read or listen to all that interest you then bring one or two to share and discuss. If her poetry harkens you back to other poets or authors we’ve read who echo her gritty and heartfelt themes, please invite them along as well! |
Angie |
| Nov 1 | Silas Marner by George Eliot | Diana |
| Dec 6 | Shantung Compound by Langdon Gilkey | Pat |
| Jan 10 | Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis | Donna |
| Feb 14 | My Antonia by Willa Cather | Jennifer |
| Mar 7 | The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged, Penguin Classics) by Edward Gibbon, David Womersley | John at Pat’s |
| April 11 | 2 short stories by Flannery O’Connor 1. A Good Man Is Hard to Find 2. Everything That Rises Must Converge |
Ken |
| May 16 | The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck | Diana leads, Angie hosts |
| June 6 | Potluck: bring food based on your book choice | Angie’s |
2019-20 (Year 12)
| Date | Book | Leader/Host |
| Sept 15 | The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | Kinard |
| Oct 13 | The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton | Diana |
| Nov 17 | Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein | Donna |
| Dec 8 | Pick a poet: • Jane Kenyon • Rita Dove • Robert Pinsky |
All (hosted by Angie) |
| Jan 19 | The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot | Jennifer |
| Feb 16 | The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton | Angie |
| March 15 | The Feminine Mystique by Betty Frieden | Diana |
| April 19 | A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams | Angie will supply movie |
| May 24 | All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward | John at Pat’s |
| June 14 | The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan | Pat |
2018-19 (Year 11)
| Date | Book | Leader/Host |
| Sept 16 | Pick a poet: • Tennyson • Christina Rossetti |
All/Kinard |
| Oct 21 | Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter | Angie |
| Nov 11 | John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism | John/Pat |
| Dec 9 | Field Trip: Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest | Pat |
| Jan 13 | snow day | n/a |
| Feb 10 | Melville: Moby DickSchedule Capstone (Ken) | Diana |
| March 10 | Pick a poet: • Gerard Manly Hopkins • Paul Laurence Dunbar |
All/Pat |
| April 14 | Tolstoy: Anna Karenina | Donna/Angie |
| May 19 | Burckhardt: The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy | Ken |
| June TBD | capstone | Angie |
2017-18 (Year 10)
| Date | Book | Leader/Host |
| Sept 10 | Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Chesapeake Shakespeare (preview performances Sept 27 and 28 |
Angie |
| Oct 15 | Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales | Group/Pat’s place |
| Nov 12 | Thomas More: Utopia | John leads at Pat’s place |
| Dec 3 | Teresa of Avila: The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself | Pat |
| Jan 14 | Cervantes: Don Quixote | Ken |
| Feb 11 | John Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress | Angie |
| March 11 | Blaise Pascal: Pensees | Vimal at Pat’s place |
| April 15 | Immanuel Kant: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals | Donna at Ken’s place |
| May 20 | Alexander Hamilton: The Federalist Papers | Pat |
| June TBD | capstone |
2016-17 (Year 9)
| Date | Book | Leader/Host |
| Sept 11 | Horace: Odes Book I, Odes 1–9, 17, 30; Book II: Odes 19–20; Book III: Odes 1–6, 13; Book IV: Odes 1, 7 |
Angie |
| Oct 2 | Aristotle: Poetics 107 pages |
(Jennifer) |
| Nov 6 | Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics i 1–10, 13 ii 1–6 iii 1–7 v 1–2, 7, 10 vi 1–3, 5–8, 12–13 vii 1–3 viii 1–3, 9 ix 4, 7–9, 12 v 4–9 |
Ken |
| Jan 8 | Herodotus: Histories V, 76-78, 91-93, 105; VI, 48, 56-72, 94-120; VII; VIII; IX |
Diana |
| Feb 19 | Epic of Gilgamesh | Angie |
| March 26 | Epictetus: Discourses I 29; II 1,2,4,5,8,9,10,11,16,18,22,26; III 5,12,13,15,18; IV 2 |
Diana |
| April 2 | Tacitus: The Agricola and The Germania | Pat |
| May 7 | St. Augustine: On Christian Teaching (aka On Christian Doctrine) | Pat |
| June TBD | capstone |
2015-16 (Year 8)
| Date | Book | Leader/Host |
| Sept 27 | The Cantos of Ezra Pound Epic poem: The most important epic poem of the twentieth century. |
Angie |
| Oct 18 | Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey History: This superb biography of Queen Victoria gives the essentials of Victoria’s life in a most pleasant prose style. It is not a stuffy biography that gets bogged down in details, but instead a charming, well-written life chronicle that is delightful to read. |
Pat
High tea |
| Nov 22 | The Stranger by Albert Camus Novel: Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.” |
Diana |
| Dec 13 | Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw Drama: With Saint Joan, Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc (canonized in 1920), but unhappy with “the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition,” he presents a realistic Joan: proud, intolerant, naïve, foolhardy, always brave-a rebel who challenged the conventions and values of her day. |
Pat |
| Jan 10 | Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Drama: Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity—and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room. |
Angie |
| Feb 21 | The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith History: Atlantic Monthly said: “Economic writings are seldom notable for their entertainment value, but this book is. Galbraith’s prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal of sardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation’s oracles and the wondrous antics of the financial community.” Originally published in 1955, Galbraith’s book became an instant bestseller, and in the years since its release it has become the unparalleled point of reference for readers looking to understand American financial history. |
Ken |
| Mar 20 | Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis Autobiography: Here, C.S. Lewis takes us from his childhood in Belfast through the loss of his mother, to boarding school and a youthful atheism in England, to the trenches of World War I, and then to Oxford, where he studied, read, and, ultimately, reasoned his way back to God. It is perhaps this aspect of Surprised by Joy that we—believers and nonbelievers—find most compelling and meaningful; Lewis was searching for joy, for an elusive and momentary sensation of glorious yearning, but he found it, and spiritual life, through the use of reason. |
all |
| Apr 17 | Autobiography of Malcolm X Autobiography: With its first great victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the civil rights movement gained the powerful momentum it needed to sweep forward into its crucial decade, the 1960s. As voices of protest and change rose above the din of history and false promises, one voice sounded more urgently, more passionately, than the rest. Malcolm X—once called the most dangerous man in America—challenged the world to listen and learn the truth as he experienced it. |
Cindy |
| May 15 | Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt Novel: Winner of England’s Booker Prize and the literary sensation of the year, Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas. |
Jennifer |
| June TBD | capstone: Friday-Saturday trip to NYC including Wall Street tour, 9/11 memorial, NY Public Library, The Strand Bookstore, Chocolatiere, and a Broadway Show | Angie |
2014–2015 (Year 7)
In this term all meetings are 6:30 pm on a Sunday unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Book | Leader | Host/Snack |
| Sept 21 | Longfellow: Selected Poems
Dickinson: Selected Poems
|
Longfellow: JenniferDickinson: Angie | Kinard |
| Oct 19 | Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist 480 pages |
Ken | Diana |
| Nov 16 | Abraham Lincoln, Speeches & Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865 120 pagesSelections:Letters to Joshua speed Jan 3 1842 Feb 3 1842 July 4 1842 Resolutions in the house if representatives Dec 22 1847 Speech at a republican banquet Chicago dec 10 1856 A house divided speech at Springfield Illinois June 16 1858 Letter to general hooker Jan 26 1863 Second inaugural address March 4 1865 |
Wolf | Angie |
| Dec 7 | Karl Marx: Communist Manifesto 15 pages |
Pat | Wolf |
| Jan 18 | Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary 400 pages |
Wolf | Pat |
| Feb 15 | Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 320 pages |
Pat | Pat |
| Mar 15 | Thomas Hardy: The Return of the Native 496 pages |
Angie | |
| Apr 19 | Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (we changed this from Brothers Karamazov) | Diana | Kinard |
| May 17 | Stephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage 160 pages |
Cindy | Cindy |
| August 9 afternoon | Capstone: Tudor House in Bel Air | Angie | Madame Bovary & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Lazaro |
2013–2014 (Year 6)
In this term all meetings are 6:30 pm on a Sunday unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Book | Leader | Host/Snack |
| Sept 15 | Dante: The Divine Comedy: 1. Inferno (Musa, 2002) poetry, 1306, 432 pages |
Ken | Kinard |
| Oct 13 | Dante: The Divine Comedy: 2-3: Pergatorio, Paradiso poetry, 1306, ? pages |
Diana | Kinard |
| Nov 17 | Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings theology, 1518–1525, 526 pages |
Jen | Angie |
| Dec 15 | John Milton: Paradise Lost poetry, 1667, 480 pages |
Vienna/ Angie | Diana |
| Jan 19 | William Shakespeare: Hamlet drama, 1603, 342 pages |
Tom? | Kinard |
| Feb 16 | Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels (switched order with Locke) novel, 1726, 240 pages Selections: Part 1, chapter 1 Introductory paragraph Part 2, chapter VI Brobdingnag Part 4, chapter XII, critical of himself in not claiming lands for England; the Houyhnhnms At least read about the Lilyputians for fun and to tell your grandchildren. |
Pat | Pat |
| Mar 16 | John Locke: Second Treatise of Government Book One- Chapter 1 and 3 Book Two: Civil Government Chapter 8, Beginning of Political Societies “ 11, Extent of Legislative Power “ 18, Tyranny “ 19, Dissolution of Government |
Pat | Angie |
| Apr 13 | Thomas Paine: Common Sense history, 1776, 64 pages |
Jen | Diana |
| May 4 | Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Confessions autobiography, 1783, 748 pages |
Ken | Kinard |
| June 14 | Capstone, paper presentations 12:30 at Timonium Park&Ride, Paca House, Hogshead, Reynold’s Tavern |
Angie |
2012-2013 (Year 5)
In this term all meetings are 6:30 pm on a Sunday unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Book | Leader | Host/Snack |
| Sept 16 | The Odyssey by Homer | Wendy and Ken | Lazaro |
| Oct 14 | Oedipus the King by Sophocles | Cindy | Diana |
| Nov 4 | Birds by Aristophanes | Jennifer | Kinard |
| Dec 2 | Republic by Plato | Wendy | Peyton |
| Jan 6 | Elements of Geometry by Euclid | John | Seefried |
| Jan 27 | The Metamorphoses by Ovid | Diana | Huso |
| Feb 17 | The Apostolic Fathers by J.B. Lightfoot and/or Michael W. Holmes | Pat | Sue |
| Mar 17 | The Annals by Tacitus | Sue | Pat |
| May 5 | The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine by Eusebius | Jeff | Peyton |
| June 2 | Confessions by St. Augustine | Ken | Diana |
| July 28 | Capstone experience, paper presentations | Angie |
2011-2012 (Year 4)
In this term all meetings are 6:30 pm on a Sunday unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Book | Leader | Host/Snack |
| Sept 25 | Poetry 1 of 2
|
Kinard | |
| Oct 30 | Our Town by Thornton Wilder | Pat | Meet at 4 pm at Kinards. 5 pm play by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Ellicott City, 7:30 pm dinner discussion |
| Nov 20 | Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad | Nick | Diana |
| Dec 18 | The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov | Diana | Pat |
| Jan 22 | The Protestant Ethic by Max Weber | Ken | Huso |
| Feb 19 | Poetry 2 of 2
|
Kinard | |
| Mar 18 | Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler | Pat | Pat |
| April 22 | Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf | Jennifer | Kinard |
| May 20 | Gandhi, An Autobiography by Mahatma Gandhi | John | Huso |
| June 24 | Fellowship of the Ring | Wendy/Ken | Seefried |
| July 22 | The Two Towers | Wendy/Ken | Seefried |
| August 19 | Return of the King | Wendy/Ken | Seefried |
| TBD | Capstone experience, paper presentations | Angie | |
2010-2011 (Year 3)
In this term all meetings are 6:30 pm on a Sunday unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Book | Leader | Host/Snack |
| Sept 6 6:30 pm |
Poetryof John Keats Endymion, The Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion: A Fragment, La Belle Dame sans Merci, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Nightingale, To Autumn | Ken | Kinard |
| Sept 19 | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | Jen | Kinard |
| Oct 10 | Democracy in America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville selections: chapters 9-17 |
Chris | Diana |
| Oct 24 | Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë selections: Read the whole thing if you have time. If you need to merely skim some chapters, skim 2-4, 16, 18, 32 |
Pat | Pat |
| Nov 14 | Walden by Henry David Thoreau | Angie | Chris |
| Dec 5 | Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman | Diana | Seefried |
| Jan 30 | Poetry of W.B. Yeats | Seefried | Angie |
| Feb 20 | War and Peace by Tolstoy (part 1) | Diana | Pat |
| Mar 6 | War and Peace by Tolstoy (part 2) | Diana | Kinard |
| Mar 27 | The Idea of a University by John Newman | Ken | Chris |
| April 10 | A Doll’s House by Ibsen | Angie | Pat |
| May 15 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain | Seefried | Diana |
| July 3depart Kinard house 10am, return 6:15 pm | Capstone: Choptank Paddleboat Dinner CruisePapers:
|
Angie/Ken | 6304 Suicide Bridge Road, Hurlock, MD 21643$35/person |
Spring 2010
In this term all meetings are 6:30 pm on a Sunday unless otherwise noted.
| Date | Book | Leader | Host/Snack |
| Jan 10 | Meditations/Objections & Replies by Descartes in many different publications such as Philosophical Writing Vol. 2 or Meditations & Other Writings. For selections see the table of contents from the Meditations & Other Writings book. |
Jeff | Kinard |
| Jan 31 | Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by Bunyan | Pat | Kinard |
| Feb 28 | The Way of the World by Congreve | Huso | Seefried |
| Mar 14 | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by Hume | Seefried | Pat |
| April 11 | History of England Vol. 5 by Hume | Ken | Huso |
| May 2 | School for Scandal and other plays by Sheridan | Diana | Bruns |
| May 23 | Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Pat | Kinard |
| June 13 | Capstone experience: 11 a.m. Sunday brunch at Gadsby’s Tavern. A tour of the museum with a costumed guide is scheduled for 1:00 (cost $4). This tour takes about 30 minutes. Afterward we will walk approximately two blocks and tour the Staedler-Leadbetter Apothecary (cost $3). | Angie/Ken |
All meetings are 7:30 pm on a Friday unless otherwise noted.
Fall 2009
| Date | Book | Host | Leader | Snack |
| Aug 30 | Taming of a Shrew by Shakespeare | Free For All | ||
| Sept 25 | The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede | Kinard | Kinard | |
| Oct 9 | Beowulf (Seamus Heaney) | Seefried | John S | Seefried |
| Oct 23 | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien) | Lazaro | Bruns | Lazaro |
| Nov 13 | The Prince by Machiavelli | Kinard | Huso | Bruns |
| Dec 11 | Sonnets by Shakespeare and Selected Poems of John Donne | Kinard | Ken and Jen | Huso |
Spring 2009
| Date | Book | Host | Leader | Snack |
| May 15 | Greek Lives (Lycurgus and Solon, maybe also Pericles and Alcibiades) by Plutarch | Lazaro | Lazaro | Huso |
| May 29 | Roman Lives (Caesar and Cato) by Plutarch | Lazaro | Bruns | Lazaro |
| June 12 | City of God by Augustine, 1 (Books 1-10, read 1, 4-6) | Bruns | Kinard | Bruns |
| June 20 (Sat.) schedule: noon lunch downtown, afternoon visit to Walters |
City of God by Augustine, 2 (Books 11-22, read 11, 14, 19, 22) Toolbox Time |
Restaurant/Museum | Kinard | restaurant |
Fall 2008
| Date | Book | Host | Leader | Snack |
| Sept 19 | The Bacchae Translation: Philip Vellacott Penguin Classics |
Bruns | Kinard | Lazaro |
| Oct 10 | Medea Translation: James Morwood Oxford World’s Classics |
Kinard | Bruns | Seefried |
| Nov 14 | History of the Pelopennesian War 1 Section: Books 1-4 Selections: Intro, I:66-88, 139-146, II:35-65, III:36-50 |
Kinard | A. Huso & Lazaro | Kinard |
| Dec 12 | History of the Pelopennesian War 2 Section: Books 5-8 Selections: V:84-116, VI:8-41,53-61, 88-93; VII:72-87; all of VIII Toolbox Time |
Kinard | A. Huso & Lazaro | Lazaro |
Summer 2008
| Date | Book | Host | Leader | Snack |
| June 13 | Introduction to Iliad | Kinard | Kinard | |
| June 27 | Iliad 1:1-8 (1-3, 8) Translation: Robert Fagles |
Kinard | Kinard | |
| July 11 | Iliad 2:9-16 (9, 10, 15, 16) | Kinard | Kinard | |
| July 25 | Iliad 3:17-24 (17-19, 22, 24) Toolbox Time |
Kinard | Kinard | Huso |
| August 1 | Oresteia: Agamemnon Translation: Robert Fagles |
Lazaro | Seefried | Lazaro |
| August 22 | Oresteia: Libation Bearers & The Eumenides | Lazaro | Huso | Kinard |
Winter 2009
| Date | Book | Host | Leader | Snack |
| Jan 16 | Symposium by Plato Translation: Complete works, John M. Cooper, editor |
Kinard | Kinard | Bruns |
| Feb 13 | Meno by Plato Translation: Complete works, John M. Cooper, editor |
Kinard | Seefried | Huso |
| March 27 | The Aeneid by Virgil, 1 Translation: Penguin Classics Read books 1-6 entirely (the “Odyssean half”) |
Seefried | Huso | Seefried |
| April 18 (Sat) | The Aeneid, 2 Read books 7-12 entirely (the “Iliadic half”) Toolbox Time |
Seefried | Huso | Lazaro |