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Literate, n. - a learned person; adj. - to be educated, to be well-informed.
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The Trinity Book Group
Who are we? We are a random, self-selected gathering of avid readers and conversationalists, with no particular political, social or religious agenda.
All are welcome. Newcomers are especially welcome.
Since the early 1980s the Trinity Book Group has met regularly to talk about a wide variety of books. We meet at each other's homes about once every six weeks, and read and discuss some seven books each year. In our busy lives, we don't always get around to reading everything we have assigned to ourselves, but we sincerely try, and we inevitably have fun trying and have memorable discussions.
We are mostly parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut. Some of us are educators and librarians; others are lawyers, psychologists, social workers, architects, doctors, art historians and scientists ...the list of professions is endless, but you definitely don't have to be a professional to join our group - you only have to be especially interested in the good life of reading and talking - and, on occasion, of also sharing in good food and drink.
What kinds of books do we read? We read bestsellers (The Secret Life of Bees; The Poisonwood Bible; Cold Mountain); we read classics (Dinesen's Out of Africa); we read detective novels and science fiction; we read biographies and histories; we read about the Bible (Elaine Pagels' Beyond Belief); we read almost anything that we collectively find interesting.
How do we select the books we read each year? Once a year we meet as a group to propose and evaluate the next year's selections. After an energetic hour or two of contemplation and debate, we vote on the next year's list, and come up not only with a selection of books but also with a selection of meeting dates and book group hosts. It's a somewhat unpredictable process, but we always manage to muddle through in good spirits. After all, what could be more - or less - serious than a book group's selection of readings?
Nonetheless, each year we are further edified by our book group friends and colleagues. We will have read books that we neither knew about nor anticipated; we will have seen and learned more than we expected; we will have extended ourselves and enjoyed the experience.
All are welcome. Newcomers are especially welcome. Call Jenny Briggs at 203-624-2488 for information and directions or email her at jennifer.briggs@yale.edu.
BOOK GROUP SCHEDULE AND SELECTIONS 2007-2008 (click here for PDF)
Saturday September 15 (potluck supper)
Venue: Leroy and Carolyn Gould
Book: The Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
Tuesday October 30
Venue: Julianne and Boyd Griffin
Book: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Monday December 3
Venue: Jenny Briggs
Book: Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers
Monday January 21
Venue: Peg Chambers
Book: A Year In the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
Monday March 3
Venue: Helena Estes
Book: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Monday April 14
Venue: Tom and Kathy Ayars
Book: Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett
Monday May 19 (potluck supper)
Venue: Joan Dreyfus
Book: A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell
Monday June 16 (potluck supper)
Venue: Veronica Soell
Book Browse (to select books for next year)
You may also be interested in the list of proposed selections from our Book Browse in June, from which we chose the above. Click here for PDF.
TRINITY BOOK GROUP READING LISTS, 2001-2006
Here is what the Trinity Book Group has read and discussed since 2001
2006-2007
The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
2005-2006
Hillary Clinton, It Takes a Village
Bernhard Schlink, The Reader
Ursula K. Leguin, The Left Hand of Darkness
C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite-Runner
Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice
2004-2005
- Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith
Beyond Belief, Elaine Pagels
Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
As I Sat on the Green, ed. Alice Mattison et al
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
2003-2004
- The Piano on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, Bernard Lewis
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Prague, Arthur Philip
The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan
2002-2003
- Firehouse, David Halberstam
Jim the Boy, Tony Earley
Lying Awake, Mark Salzman
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
Death in Holy Orders, P. D. James
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym
2001-2002
- Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
- The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill
A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr
My Garden Book, Jamaica Kincaid
Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
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