July 2018: The House On Mango Street

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros via LitCharts:

"The House on Mango Street is a bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) of a young Chicana (Mexican-American) girl named Esperanza Cordero. The book is told in small vignettes which act as both chapters of a novel and independent short stories or prose poems. The story encompasses a year in Esperanza’s life, as she moves to a house on Mango Street in a barrio (Latino neighborhood) of Chicago, Illinois. The house on Mango Street is an improvement over Esperanza’s previous residences, but it is still not the house she or her family dreams of, and throughout the book Esperanza feels that she doesn’t belong there.

Over the course of the year Esperanza grows emotionally, artistically, and sexually, and the novel meanders through her experiences with her neighbors and classmates. Esperanza makes friends with two other Chicana girls of Mango Street, Rachel and Lucy. These three, along with Esperanza’s little sister Nenny, have many small adventures in the first part of the book, including searching through a labyrinthine junk store and learning from an older girl named Marin. While exploring her world, Esperanza experiences the shame of poverty, the unfairness of racism, and the beauty of poetry and music."

Author Website: Click here. (Spoilers possible)
Books As Medicine - A Conversation With Sandra Cisneros (article): Click here. (Spoilers possible)

We'll meet to discuss The House on Mango Street On Thursday, July 26, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

April 2018: The Mayor Of Casterbridge

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy via Goodreads:

"In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper."

Thomas Hardy biography via Encyclopedia Britannica: Click here.

We'll meet to discuss The Mayor of Casterbridge On Thursday, April 26, at 7pm. Location: Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands. Books are available at the Library Desk.

Please note: This title wasn't available via the Monmouth County Library Bookclub List and quantity is limited!

Aug 2017: Frankenstein

Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley

From BN.com:

"Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering "the cause of generation and life" and "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter," Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creatures hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises rofound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever."

Poetry Foundation author bio: Click here.

We will meet to discuss Frankenstein on Thursday, 31, 2017 at 7pm in the Community Room of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

Catching Up - Great Expectations - Sept 2016

From Penguin Random House:

"A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor-these form a series of events that change the orphan Pip’s life forever, as he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens’s haunting novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his great expectations. Published nine years before Dickens’s death, it remains one of his most celebrated works."

We met to discuss this book on Thursday, September 29th, at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue inside Borough Hall in downtown Atlantic Highlands.

June 2015: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

From the 2005 Farrar, Straus and Giroux paperback:

"First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian."

We will meet to discuss One Day... on Thursday, 6/25/15, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library.

May 2015: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

From the Vintage International paperback edition, 1990:

"One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in American literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant."

Helpful links: (Spoilers may be possible)
-Nobel Prize biography of William Faulkner, click here.
-Interview with the Paris Review entitled, "The Art of Fiction No. 12," click here.
-Article on Faulkner from the NY Times Archives, click here.

Links included in this month's AHLEBC group email regarding The Sound and the Fury:
(spoilers may be possible)
-Faulkner interview, click here.
-Book review #1, click here.
-Book review #2, click here.

We will meet to discuss The Sound and the Fury on Thursday, May 28, 2015, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall, opposite Veterans Park).

February 2015: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

From the 2004 B & N Classics paperback edition:
"Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte's only novel - remains one of literature's most disturbing explorations into the dark side of romantic passion.

An unpolished and devastating epic of childhood playmates who grow into soul mates, Wuthering Heights revolved around the willfully childish Catherine and the dark Heathcliff, who, in the words of Charlotte Brontee, "exemplifies the effects which a life of continued injustice and hard usage may produce on a naturally perverse, vindictive, and inexorable disposition." Heathcliff and Cathy believe they're destined to love each other forever. But when cruelty and snobbery separate them, their untamed emotions literally consume them.

Set amid the wild and stormy Yorkshire moors, Wuthering Heights is widely regarded as the most original tale of thwarted desire and heartbreak in the English language."

Your edition of Wuthering Heights may differ than the one featured here, this shouldn't be an issue!

Wikipedia bio of Emily Bronte: Click here.
Poetry Foundation bio of Emily Bronte: Click here.
Encyclopedia bio of Emily Bronte: Click here.

We will meet to discuss Wuthering Heights on Thursday, February 26, 2015, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue in downtown Atlantic Highlands (inside Borough Hall).

In the event of inclement weather, please look for an email update from AHLEBC right before the meeting date. If you are not on our email list, please send an email to ahlebc@gmail.com / ahlebcATgmailDOTcom requesting to be added to our email list.