For our July pick we chose a book that met two criteria. Namely that it was available on Project Gutenberg and that we had numerous copies already on hand at the Arroyo Seco Branch. The chosen book is The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
The book description tells us that “The Awakening is the story of Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing attitudes of the American South at the start of the 20th century.”
Amazon provides us with this additional information: “Originally published in 1899, Kate Chopin's masterpiece is considered to be a landmark work of early feminism, as well as a precursor of American modernist literature. It is also considered to be among the first contributions to the "Southern" tradition of American literature, prefiguring the works of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams.”
You will find a downloadable copy of the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/160, courtesy of Project Gutenberg. Those of you who like to use Overdrive will find an “always available” copy there (https://lapl.overdrive.com/library/available/media/784887). Finally I do have a few paperback copies available. If you are interested you will need to contact me at ayosco@lapl.org to arrange a pickup appointment. This will be done on a first come, first serve basis.
The plan is for everyone to obtain a copy and spend the first couple of weeks of July reading. I will begin posting questions to discuss on the group’s web bulletin board space on July 15 and will add a new question each day until July 25 (our regular meeting day). I encourage members to log on each day to answer the day’s question as well as review, and respond to, the answers other members provided for the previous days questions. We will then meet via video-conference on July 25 at 3:00.
If you’re not already a member of our web bulletin board space email me at ayosco@lapl.org. I will send you the details you need to know to sign yourself up.
Make a note: if you plan to join the video-conference you’ll need to send an email to ayosco@lapl.org so I can get the conference link to you.
