Call Me Critical: The Moby Dick Discussion Group

 

CALL ME CRITICAL 

I don't usually like being in other leader's book discussion groups, mostly because I have been running book groups for over twenty years and don't like giving up my power. 

 

When someone else leads a book group,  I watch what they are doing, rather than thinking or talking about the book. Is the leader patient? Condescending? Prepared? Is the leader better than me ? Did the leader actually read the book? (There are book group leaders who fake it, you know. )   

But even with these reservations, I confess, dear reader... this month I joined a Moby Dick discussion group.  It is a weekly Zoom group that will meet for two hours over the course of twelve Friday mornings. The group is sponsored by a local senior center that I belong to and it is free with membership. The book group leader is a senior who has retired from the tech industry. I don't want to mention his name because I am going to get critical--but he leads literary and current affairs discussions for seniors all around the SF Bay Area. I had never worked with him or seen him work, but he gets fabulous reviews.

The invitation beckoned  from the catalog:

Join us for a reading with commentary of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

I could not resist.  These are the dog days (whale days?) of summer and COVID-19 is keeping me home. Moby Dick has been on my literary bucket list (that's a fishing metaphor not a death metaphor) ever since I visited Melville's home, Arrowhead, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, back in July 1995. Later that summer, I vacationed in Nantucket and heard stories of the ill fated whale ship Essex--the ship that inspired the Moby Dick novel. It was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820 and as for what happened next.......

You can copy the link below into your browser to read the Smithsonian story about this event here:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick-17576/

So, here's the deal. Twenty five years ago I  promised myself that someday I would read Moby Dick.  Now, stranded at home by another great unseen enemy and deadly force of nature--COVID 19--I heard the call (felt the lure?) of the great American novel. I read the first three chapters in preparation for the first book group meeting and was surprised to learn that the first words of the novel are NOT "Call me Ishmael." Yes, that is the first sentence of Chapter I, but there is a preface called "Extracts", which in Melville's words contains "random allusions to whales". What you get are biblical, mythological and historical quotes about whales written from ancient times up to the 1800s.  Moby Dick was was published in 1851.

Here is one such quote by Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric,  also known as Baron Cuvier (August 1769 – 13 May 1832),  a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology":

Cuvier drawing of  sperm whale (1836)

"The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet."

If you love these kinds of references and observations, Moby Dick is for you! Which brings us to book group. 

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I logged into Zoom at 10 a.m. on a Friday morning and found fifteen eager participants. Only a third, however, showed their faces. The rest had blocked the video...or were unable to turn it on.  There was friendly conversation--it appeared that many in the group knew each other either from previous book discussions or just around town--and there were a lot of greetings. The book group leader is a distinguished looking white haired bearded man. He is perhaps my age, 62, or perhaps decades older. That's because California seniors in my neck of the woods--especially those who get involved in life long education, tend to age very well!  He greeted the group and acknowledged that there were a few new members, like me. But he did not ask us to introduce ourselves--so although I showed my face,  I remained a stranger. He then gave us some brief background about Moby Dick. I took notes, so here goes:

• Moby Dick was first published in 1851
• Herman Melville dedicated it to his great friend Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• As a young man, Melville, himself, was a sailor on a whaling boat--so he wrote from experience.
• There is a lot about the whaling industry in this book--we are not sure why Melville felt compelled to include it. We may find it boring.
• As we read, we might want to think about who Ishmael really is. "Is he the roguish son of a wealthy family?  He speaks well and does not sound like a sailor. On the other hand, he could be "everyman."

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And with that, our leader began to read the quotes from the preface called "Extracts." He read every quote--every single one--all sixty of them. I thought that was unusual, but wondered if maybe that was his way of warming up or waiting until more participants Zoomed into the group for the actual discussion. When he finished reading the quotes, he asked if there were any questions. There were none, so he began to read Chapter 1.

 At this point, I was annoyed and thought, if I wanted to hear someone read the book to me, I would have streamed an audio version.  But the faces that I could actually see in the video frames were enchanted. One woman ,who appeared to be in her seventies or eighties, was listening with her eyes closed and a big smile on her face. Others were listening intently.  I don't know if the people I could not see were doing  home chores(we actually could see the leader's wife bustling about the kitchen) or having a late breakfast or dozing off. But the group appeared to be okay with this. In fairness, our leader/reader has a really good reading voice and excellent pacing. He could record for an audio book company if he wanted to, and maybe he has.  I actually listened to some sample recordings of Moby Dick after the book group met, and our leader was better than the narrators that I heard. But what I wanted was...well...discussion.

After reading Chapter One, called "Loomings", the leader asked if there were any questions. One woman we could not see asked if when Melville used the phrase "orchard thieves" in a sentence about people having to pay up debts--he was referring to Adam and Eve.

The book group leader said modestly that he did not know.

I knew. Melville was referring to Adam and Eve--I have seen the phrase before, and there are even  some Orchard Thieves cider companies. I kept quiet and did not provide an answer via the chat feature, since nobody else was using the chat feature. Maybe my comments would have been appreciated, maybe not, but I was not going to take a chance--especially since commenting on chat while annoyed is not a great habit to get into.

And  then we were off to Chapter Two--again being read in full--much to my dismay.  By now resigned to the reading, I picked up my book, and read the chapter along with the leader.  The recitation of Chapter Two was completed by noon, the meeting ended and the audience members said goodbye, wished each other a good week and thanked the leader. And that was it. No metaphors explored. No mythological or biblical references explained. No homework for next week.

I was baffled and somewhat frustrated. This was a book discussion without discussion. What had I signed up for? (Granted it was free!)

I went back to the invitation:

Join us for a reading with commentary of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

Aha!  A READING.  WITH COMMENTARY!

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As it turned out, it was more reading, less commentary--but the leader delivered what was promised. I just misunderstood the invitation. The audience members on Zoom stayed all the way through the two hour meeting. Those that I could see or hear seemed very happy with the proceedings. And I imagine that pre-COVID, they had met in person to read and hear readings done by this leader-

so a sense of community and comfort may have been already well established.  I could see how setting aside two hours on a weekday morning to listen with others to a reading of Moby Dick, established community, discipline and routine and also a great escape, during this difficult time. 

I know that for me, now reading the book on my own, the descriptions of freezing snow in New Bedford, Massachusetts offer great relief from what have turned out to be the hottest days of this California summer. Meanwhile, a chase after a great white whale is more thrilling than chasing after someone trying to remove my mailbox so that it is harder for me to vote.

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I began to reframe the two hours of my life that I will never get back. I certainly understand the great value of sitting together and listening to a great story--and this case we had a great American story and a talented storyteller.  Yes, this would have been better for me if we were sitting around a New England tavern drinking ale on a dark and stormy night --instead of sitting in front of a computer screen in a sunny California kitchen or back deck. No, I am not going to return to this group, as I personally wanted more active discussion. But against my natural tendencies,  I have chosen not to be snarky about the "other" book group leader and how he runs the group.  And on that Friday morning, I truly wanted to be snarky as in: You call this a book group?  

But now, I think that I should have  reworked the first line of this blogpost.

Call this a book group!

It was way different than what I wanted or what I expected, but yes....the senior center online (Zoom) Moby Dick reading and commentary group--is a book group to be reckoned with and respected! I wish my fellow literary travelers a safe and rewarding  voyage as we now part ways! 

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What You See Is What You Get: Notes from the Virtual Classroom

Picture this!  

It’s 9 a.m. on a Monday and you are a college professor starting an online class. Your students, physically separated from you and from each other, since Corona Virus closed your campus, sleepily appear in little boxes on your screen.  In one box, to the left, a student stands at an angle.  Is that a checkout counter you see? You take a closer look, spot a familiar logo and realize that he is shopping at Costco.

How should you react?

 a) Furiously take him down in front of the class?

 b) Compliment him for multitasking?                                             c) Ask him to get you some toilet paper?

This is not a hypothetical. It happened to my colleague, Dr. M, who fortunately, for all concerned, teaches psychology.

The good doctor decided to overlook the shopper and started class. That’s because Dr. M considered whether this teen was the designated shopper for his family. 

Was he shopping for the elderly?

Was the Wi-Fi at Costco better than the Wi-Fi at home?

What would I have done? I teach English as a second language and it has taken me hours to reformat lectures. I would be furious if a student signed into my class from a shopping cart.  At the very least, the kid could block his the video. Oh wait—maybe he didn’t know how. Inspired by Dr. M, I reframed.  In my own virtual class, three young Chinese men lucky enough to get flights home, were signing in live to my 9 a.m. class. They appeared at midnight, their time, from hotel rooms in Beijing. Now in the world before COVID-19, how would you judge students showing up at midnight from anywhere—let alone a hotel?  Sadly, that’s where my students are quarantined for two weeks before being allowed to return to their families.

Picture this!  A college professor forced to shift her teaching style within days, now has to shift social expectations—not just framing the student visages on her screen—but also reframing them.

Okay Boomer--A Put Down or A Rallying Cry?

“Okay Boomer” is the phrase that young people, often in their thirties—use to disrespect elders like me—a woman born  after the end of World War II in the era of national fertility known as the Baby Boom.

The first time I heard the phrase directed at me, I was teaching English to international college students.  I told a 20-year-old guy from France to stop texting and pay attention.  As he looked up from his phone, he said in a beautiful French accent: “Okay Boo-mere.” I didn’t know whether to be insulted or proud that he was picking up idioms so well.

The next time "Okay Boomer" hit home—it was self-directed.  I was croaking it out to myself—at the gym.  It was 7 a.m. on a chilly morning in Mountain View—in a gym that was once a two-story warehouse.  Even while working up a sweat, I was layered in a T-shirt and hoodie. I was working with a trainer on squats for balance and strength. No weights, no ropes, no equipment—just me, my 62-year old knees and my belly—what others call a “core.” Across the gym, a breathtaking young woman, training for the Olympics in the sport of mountain biking, was warming up by leaping upwards over the loft stairs, taking them four at a time. The sweat glistened on her bare midriff as she returned to the ground. And on that very same ground, just feet away,  I creaked into my fifth squat out of ten.  My trainer Matt, a guy in his early thirties who has eyes in the back of his head and pays attention to the smallest details, called out the reps-- "five more to go.”  I wondered how he was going to keep count with me as the  mountain biker goddess began a new series of leaps.  He was acting like he didn't notice her feats of strength--but, hell, I was noticing them. I creaked into squat six. Could I get to seven?

"Okay Boomer", I whispered to myself—at least I thought it was a whisper.  Matt heard it—and started to laugh—with me and not at me. Really—he laughed with me--while at this point we both watched the Olympian.  And at that moment, I realized that "okay boomer"was a rallying cry  It was a cry of inspiration—not resignation--loud and proud—a call to action, showing myself and others what I was made of. (Of course, the others had to be paying attention)  I finished my squats, got some water--hydrating as it is known amongst us athletes. And as I fished the keys to my Prius out of my lightweight crossbody purse, I celebrated my strength—(at least what was left of it)--and headed to Costco, ready to haul oversized packages into the trunk!

Urbs In Horto--My Road Scholar Trip to the Art Institute of Chicago

Early Morning View from the Art Institute Grand Staircase 

Road Scholar is a nonprofit educational travel company geared to travelers aged fifty-five and over. It offers thousands of tours in all fifty states and abroad. Founded in 1975, the organization is headquartered near Boston, connecting with other groups that run the tours on location. Road Scholar was originally known as Elderhostel, when my parents and maybe yours took these trips. But in 2010, Elderhostel rebranded as Road Scholar, perhaps distancing itself from an association  with "hostile elders"  Last week, at the ages of 60 and 61, respectively. my husband and I  became  Road Scholars for the very first time, complete with oversized badges and listening devices.

The trip that we chose was the five day Treasures of the Art Institute of Chicago which cost $1450 per person, not including airfare. What it did include were five nights at the historic Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago, (one block from the Institute), four dinners and five buffet breakfasts at the hotel's Lockwood Restaurant and four lunches at the Art Institute Cafe. We also got free, early admission into the Art Institute and private tours and gallery lectures representing a wide range of art styles and time periods.

The program also included a Chicago Architecture Center walking tour featuring late 19th century and early 20th century buildings.
Below is a photo I took of my favorite building, The Rookery, with an interior designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and an exterior designed by the firm of Burnham and Root

The Rookery

My Treasures of the Art Institute tour was originally was going to be a solo trip, but my husband George decided to join me at the last minute, figuring that if he lost interest in the art, the treasures of the city of Chicago were waiting just outside. As it turned out, we attended every  gallery lecture ranging from The Old Masters to Abstract Expressionism, to Rococo, to Impressionism to African and Native American art.  We also had free time to catch a jazz performance at the Jazz Showcase, visit a friend and her Mom in a spectacular Chicago high rise at Harbor Point and see a Second City comedy troupe.

The trip was a huge success, but we went into it with many concerns.  For example, would we be the youngest people on the trip by perhaps as much as twenty years and would the pace be too slow? Would our fellow Road Scholars really take a scholarly approach or would they focus on their own lives and ailments?

(Our intake questionnaire asked for a fairly complete medical history including medications and contact info for our primary care doctors).

Would the art experts truly be experts and if they were experts would they be condescending? In the Bay Area, we have had our share of condescending experts in ALL fields.

These were the lightweight, portable stools that we used.

As it turned out, none of these concerning things came to pass. In fact, the trip surpassed all expectations. But I was willing to take a chance and put these concerns aside when planning to take this trip on my own. For one thing, I have a strong interest in art history which also means an interest in world history and religious history and dare I say life itself. And I never really had a chance to learn about any of these subjects except in large college survey courses. Another factor was that I had briefly visited the Art Institute before  on a family trip to Chicago in 2018, and I knew what a stellar, well displayed collection it had. Despite its size, the Institute had a friendly vibe--which I guess I could say overall for the sections of Chicago that we visited.

I have a terrible sense of direction and need to be corralled should I start to daydream, and so the structure of the Road Scholar trip worked for me.  What's more, I can sit through the most boring of lectures by finding other ways to amuse myself (what is the instructor wearing--is that gold pendant made of real gold ? are those two fellow travelers who are  checking each other out going to hook up later?  Look at that photograph across the room of the topless Hell's Angel --I think those breasts are real) Also, since I am now an adjunct English professor at Menlo College, I like to analyze the teaching styles of others, even if they are really bad at it--especially if they are really bad at it! Fortunately, to a person, these were stellar lecturers--many on the Institute staff. Also, because this was an older crowd, the tours took comfort into consideration--there were really sturdy stools  available for us at the galleries . (See the photo above.)

The outdoor cafe --features ducks this year!

There were also bathroom breaks(no lecture was longer than an hour), an early lunch at 11:30, which I loved, and an early dinner at six, if you wanted to have the hotel meals.
Here, (at right) is a photo I took from an outdoor museum cafe table.

We were fortunate to have a group of ten--some Art Institute tours have as many as thirty people. And none of the folks on our tour had mobility issues, although folks in wheelchairs are welcome and accommodated if they bring along a traveler who can help them out, if necessary.

There were three couples and four single people on the trip. Most were retired. George and I  were among the younger people on the tour, but not by much. One woman nattered endlessly about personal matters including the state of her digestion at all hours, but she was an exception. There were no chronic complainers and all were attentive during lectures and participated in group discussion.
Overall this was a friendly, intelligent group and George and I plan to keep in touch with one of the other couples that we met on the trip--a retired biochemistry professor who divides her time between Phoenix and North Dakota, and her beau of three years, a retired accountant from Michigan. They met when each was traveling separately in Paris. They live separately, but travel together and their budding romance was wonderful to observe.

So with literally thousands of Road Scholar programs to choose from, how can you pick a winner?

Although we were a small group, we had headphones to block ambient noise

Dr. Lauren DeLand explains Kandinsky!

Of course, word of mouth helps a lot. But here are some other ideas:

Find out who's really in charge and how long they have been doing this: First and foremost, you need to remember that Road Scholar is a contractor and program quality really depends on who is running things at your location. The Art Institute of Chicago has an outreach program and we, as seniors, are one of their targeted audiences. The people who ran the weeklong program, taught the courses, escorted us around the museum, and chatted with us at lunch, were all Institute employees, trained volunteers or local professors.  And they worked well together as a team. Morale at the Art Institute appeared to be high at least in front of the canvases. What's more, the Institute has been running this program with Road Scholars for over five years and the Outreach Director has been with them for seventeen years. They have got this down!

Check out the quality of your accommodations: This is easy enough to do with TripAdvisor, Yelp and other evaluation websites. Also check out the hotel/motel website. You want to be able to relax at the end of a long day and if meals are onsite, you want to make sure they are quality meals. You also want to have a responsive staff if something goes wrong in your room.The Palmer House met all of our needs--it is a four star hotel and has a great central location.

If you think you may get bored or restless, or if you are traveling as a couple, where one person may have more interest in the subject area than another--see what other activities are available nearby.
In Los Angeles or Florence, Italy or New York City, your co-traveler should be fine. But make sure your partner won't be trapped if they lose interest in the lectures or featured sights.

Check out the activity level indicated on the tour and observe it carefully. This is not the time to test your physical limits--know what you can do before showing up. Otherwise you will inconvenience an entire group of people and could put yourself at risk.
Our Art Institute tour did not involve a lot of physical activity other than gallery walking, and we had portable lightweight stools for gallery lectures. We did do one walking tour with the Architecture Society which was rather ambitious on a muggy day with a fast walking, traffic dodging tour leader. Everyone did stretch their endurance on that walking tour--still we had no complainers.  However, everyone had the opportunity to leave the tour which centered on buildings near the hotel. The advantage of traveling with an older group, at least in this case, is that everyone is kinder about your frailties, whatever they may be. At this point, most of us have got a few.

Many of the travelers on the Art Institute tour had been on other art tours with Road Scholar and they recommended an art tour called Art Collectors and Their Collections which is held in Los Angeles/Pasadena and covers the Getty, Norton Simon and Huntington collections. Right now the dates do not work with my Menlo College teaching schedule, but I will be keeping watch for a summer tour.  If you go, let me know how it is!!!

This sculpture is called Gift Horse and it was designed to show the conflict between art and commerce.

A Poem for ESL Students ....And Everyone Else

Portia Nelson (102--2001) was a cabaret singer, a poet,  a songwriter, a painter and an actress on the long running afternoon television drama a.k.a. soap opera a.k.a telenovela All My Children.  When throat cancer threatened to stop her career late in life, she developed a new way of singing and speaking. She was talented, resourceful, tenacious and she explored and expressed many talents. Small wonder she wrote the poem below about choosing new life directions.

The poem has been a staple of self help movement books and meetings. But it was new to me. I heard it in synagogue Bible study as we read the book of Exodus. Our teacher Rabbi Janet Marder talked about how even though the Hebrews had fled their lives as slaves in Egypt heading for a new land, as soon as it got tough wandering in the desert, many wanted to turn back--the certainty  ofslavery being preferable to the unknown.

I would have shared this poem earlier in January as a New Year inspiration, but I wanted to test it out first as a teaching tool. It works. The language is simple enough to be used in ESL classes for reading, speaking and discussion. If your students speak English as a first language, you can pair it with the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken.

Whether you walk on urban sidewalks or roads that diverge in a yellow wood, I hope that you learn from the obstacles along the way!

Autobiography in Five Chapters

by Portia Nelson

Chapter One:

I walk down the street.
There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I’m lost.
I’m helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two:

I walk down the same street.
There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in this same place.
But it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three:

I walk down the same street.
There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I fall in.
It’s a habit.
But my eyes are open.
It is my fault and I get out immediately.

Chapter Four:

I walk down the same street.
There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five:

I try walking down a different street.

Fiction: The Gateway Drug

SYMPATHY

APATHY

EMPATHY

These are the three emotions that I describe at the start of a literature class, regardless of the story or whether my students speak English as a first or second language.  We explore and define the Greek root PATHOS: an appeal to emotions. Originally this word meant suffering. Today it is a root of many English words that describe our connection or lack of connection to the suffering or other strong emotions of others.



Next we talk about the characters and situations that we identify with and those that we don't care about at all.  We talk about the author's writing style and point of view and how it has affected us--or not. We do assignments and analysis that are based on the text alone, and then we reach beyond to see what lessons, if any, we can apply to our own lives. 

Some students enjoy the process, some students hate it, and many don't see the point beyond getting the AP English credits that will impress a college admissions board. Many, even those who enjoy reading, wonder if there are better ways to spend their time. 

So....why read fiction?

I tailor my answer to the student. For me, reading fiction comes as naturally as breathing or sleeping, so it is really hard to break down the reasons for doing it.  I couldn't live without fiction. But apparently many many people can take it or leave it.

Neil Gaiman, a prolific author best known for his science fiction and fantasy writing (popular with readers of all ages) offers the best overall explanation I have seen so far.  It comes from his anthology called The View From the Cheap Seats. This explanation will resonate with some of my students and will fly over the heads of others. But if you are taking the time to read this blog, I think you will like it. 



Here's Neil: 

Literate people read fiction, and fiction has two uses. Firstly, it's a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if its hard, because someone's in trouble and you have to know how it's all going to end...that is a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. .. The second thing that fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film. you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation markers, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world, and people in it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You're being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you're going to be slightly changed...You're also finding out something as you read that will be vitally important for making your way in the world. And it's this: THE WORLD DOESN"T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS. THINGS CAN BE DIFFERENT.

This last sentence has become a mantra here in Silicon Valley where everyone wants to change the world. Small wonder many of our company founders are science fiction fans. But look into the heart of many a lawyer, at least of my generation, and they will tell you that they were inspired by the noble Atticus Finch Esq. in Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Stanford physician Abraham Verghese is now a full time author and National Humanities medal winner. He has inspired many with both fictional and nonfiction accounts of the challenges of practicing patient-centered medicine. His first novel about medicine was Cutting For Stone written in 2009.

Steve Jobs read a lot of fiction.  In fact, he told his biographer Walter Isaacson that in the last two years of high school he explored Shakespeare and Plato and Melville. Click here to see some of his reading list.

Throughout his life he read widely on subjects within and beyond the realm of technology. 
But I knew that even before I read the Isaacson book. 

Here's the proof:

The Great American Read--And Me

This spring, the Public Broadcasting System released a list of one hundred great American books, selected from reader polls.

Here is part of the press release announcing the list.

http://www.pbs.org/about/blogs/news/the-great-american-read-reveals-americas-100-favorite-novels/

PBS is hosting a series of tie-in events of book discussions and presentations, including reader perspectives aired on San Francisco's KQED radio station. I was honored to be invited to record a perspective which aired this morning. It is about a life changing book that I didn't think was so great--Ulysses by James Joyce.

Click here for my radio review:

The Great American Read: The Book of Books, will be released next week (available from Amazon). It includes information about the 100 novels, author profiles, rare images of original manuscripts and more, plus a foreword by THE GREAT AMERICAN READ host Meredith Vieira

The top 100 book list is based on a public opinion poll, conducted by YouGov on behalf of PBS for THE GREAT AMERICAN READ, that asked respondents to name their favorite novel. An advisory panel of book industry professionals compiled the results. Each author was represented only once, and series such as the Alex Cross Mysteries were included as one entry.

The chosen books span five centuries, from Don Quixote (1603) to Ghost (2016). Authors from 15 different countries are represented, with genres ranging from beloved children’s classics such as Charlotte’s Web to modern best-sellers such as Twilight.

Note that the novels do not have to be written by American writers (Cervantes and C.S. Lewis are here)--they just have to be novels that Americans love to read.

Below is the full list of America’s 100 favorite novels, in alphabetical order by title:

1984	Hatchet
A Confederacy of Dunces	Heart of Darkness
A Game of Thrones	The Help
A Prayer for Owen Meany	The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
A Separate Peace	The Hunger Games
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	The Hunt for Red October
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	The Intuitionist
The Alchemist	Invisible Man
Alex Cross Mysteries**	Jane Eyre
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland	The Joy Luck Club
Americanah	Jurassic Park
And Then There Were None	Left Behind
Anne of Green Gables	The Little Prince
Another Country	Little Women
Atlas Shrugged	Lonesome Dove
Beloved	Looking for Alaska
Bless Me, Ultima	The Lord of the Rings**
The Book Thief	The Lovely Bones
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao	The Martian
The Call of the Wild	Memoirs of a Geisha
Catch-22	Mind Invaders
The Catcher in the Rye	Moby Dick
Charlotte’s Web	The Notebook
The Chronicles of Narnia**	One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Clan of the Cave Bear	Outlander
The Coldest Winter Ever	The Outsiders
The Color Purple	The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Count of Monte Cristo	The Pilgrim’s Progress
Crime and Punishment	The Pillars of the Earth
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	Pride and Prejudice
The Da Vinci Code	Ready Player One
Don Quixote	Rebecca
Doña Barbara	The Shack
Dune	Siddhartha
Fifty Shades of Grey	The Sirens of Titan
Flowers in the Attic	The Stand
Foundation	The Sun Also Rises
Frankenstein	Swan Song
Ghost	Tales of the City
Gilead	Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Giver	Things Fall Apart
The Godfather	This Present Darkness
Gone Girl	To Kill a Mockingbird
Gone with the Wind	Twilight
The Grapes of Wrath	War and Peace
Great Expectations	Watchers
The Great Gatsby	The Wheel of Time**
Gulliver’s Travels	Where the Red Fern Grows
The Handmaid’s Tale	White Teeth
Harry Potter**	Wuthering Heights