Book Club II

All Book Club II articles are collected here.

Book Club II: White Noise

Event Date:

UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will discuss White Noise, the eighth novel by the master storyteller Don DeLillo, when it meets on Friday, November 22, by way of Zoom. Newcomers are welcome.

More...
White Noise

Book Club II: Vintage Munro

Event Date:

Vintage Munro is a collection of short stories from throughout the literary career of author Alice Munro, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. 

More...
Vintage Munro

Fourth Friday Book Club: 'Main Street'

Event Date:

October is the season for Nobel Prize announcements, so it is fitting that UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will be reading books by two Nobel Prize-winning authors this fall: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis and Vintage Munro by Alice Munro. 

More...
Main Street

In the Garden of Beasts

Event Date:

Erik Larson’s non-fiction narrative recounts the struggles of middle-class University of Chicago, Professor William Dodd, was appointed as U.S. ambassador to Germany during the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich. Dodd not only had to deal with the threats to democracy, but his thriftiness was criticized by State Department officials who mainly came from wealthy elite families. In addition, Dodd’s daughter began dating Nazi officials.

More...
In the Garden of Beasts

Edith Wharton – The Age of Innocence

Event Date:

Edith Wharton is best known for her stories about upper-class New York society into which she was born. Age of Innocence is her eighth novel, published in 1920 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1921.

More...

Fourth Friday Book Club to meet May 24

Event Date:

UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club welcomes back, for the second time, author Julie Schumacher, U of M Regents professor of creative writing and English, for a conversation about her novel The Shakespeare Requirement.

More...
The Shakespeare Requirement, book cover

FF Book Club to meet April 26

Event Date:

Silk Parachute, an anthology of essays and the 40th of 44 published books by author John McPhee, will be the topic of discussion when UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club meets via Zoom from 2 to 3:30 p.m. CDT on April 26.

More...
Silk Parachute, book cover

Fourth Friday Book Club to meet March 22

Event Date:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, a recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and other awards, is the Fourth Friday Book Club’s selection for March. The setting is Appalachia in the early days of the opioid epidemic.

More...
Demon Copperhead, book cover

Fourth Friday Book Club to read 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison

Event Date:

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970 and the first novel by Toni Morrison, is next up for UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club when it meets via Zoom on February 23. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

More...
The Bluest Eye, book cover

Fourth Friday Book Club to welcome special guest Julie Schumacher

Event Date:

.UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club discuss Dear Committee Members with special guest and New York Times bestselling author Julie Schumacher when it meets via Zoom on January 26.

More...
Julie Schumacher

Book Club II to meet December 1

Event Date:

UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will discuss The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy when it meets on Friday, December 1. This is a departure from the usual fourth Friday meeting to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. 

More...
UMRA Events

The memoirs of Frederick Douglass

Event Date:

The Fourth Friday Book Club will meet from 2 to 3:30 p.m. CDT on October 27 to discuss the life and narrative of Frederick Douglass.

More...
The Portable Frederick Douglass, book cover

Fourth Friday Book Club to discuss classic short stories by Herman Melville

Event Date:

We will discuss three famous short stories by Herman Melville. These classics are widely available. Even if we have studied them before, we will surely have new insights into these well-told tales by this great 19th-century American author.

More...
Great Short Works of Herman Melville

‘Beowulf’ is the FF Book Club selection for August 25

Event Date:

UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club recently read the Epic of Gilgamesh translation by Stephen Mitchell. Next up, for the group’s August 25 meeting, is Beowulf. One of the only Old English works to survive, it is a powerful story of unwavering integrity, heroism, and honor

More...
Beowulf book cover

‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is FF Book Club selection for July 14

Event Date:

In a departure from its regular schedule, UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club will be meeting on the THIRD Friday in July, to discuss Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway.

More...
Mrs. Gilgamesh by Virginia Woolf, book cover