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Our groups use the Shared Inquiry™ guidelines, a text-based Socratic method of discussion that the Great Books Foundation has successfully developed over more than six decades of work with educators of all kinds. This means that all come as inquirers, none as experts. While there is a facilitator, there is not a teacher. We focus on the primary text, not on what others have written about it.
Two Literature Groups
The Tuesday night book clubs began in 2001. As part of our Education for Living offerings, we have two groups. The one that meets on the second Tuesdays of the month during the school year is the one based on the Great Books Foundation series of books. The other, which meets on the third Tuesdays, is a short story reading and discussion group.
Great Books Group
In the recent past, the group has used the Great Conversations series from Great Books Foundation, which includes pieces of literature that are ancient and others that are more contemporary. These works are written in various forms and are multi-disciplinary, spanning, for example, philosophy, relationship of the individual to the community, peace, and social criticism, and using essays, poems, plays, short stories, and fiction to ignite the imagination. Some of the authors include Marcel Proust, Jane Austen, Tim O'Brien, Eavan Boland, Lisel Mueller, Yasunari Kawabata, Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, Immanuel Kant, and several others.
Meeting Information
This reading and discussion group meets on second Tuesdays September
through May
at 7:30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall.
For the tuition and the details of the current offering, please see the Adult Education Bulletin for the tuition for members and non-members.
New participants are welcome to join either group anytime throughout the year.
Short Story Group
In the past, for example, the group has used the book The World of the Short Story: A 20th Century Collection, edited by Clifton Fadiman. Examples of selections came from authors Irwin Shaw, Saul Bellow, Doris Lessing, Truman Capote, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Alice Munro, and many others.
Meeting Information
The short story reading
and discussion group
meets third Tuesdays
September through
May at 7:30 p.m.
in the Assembly Hall.