HARMONY BOOK GROUP


The next meeting is Wednesday, January 6th, at 6:15 PM at the Harmony Library in Fort Collins

Typically, meetings are on the 1st Wednesday of the month at 6:15PM at the Harmony Library. Check out the FAQ for more information about the book group.

Upcoming Selections

  • January 2010 : Classic Female Gone with the Wind by Margeret Mitchell We will also discuss "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns from the collection Great Short Poems edited by Paul Negri
  • February 2010: Contemporary Male Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
  • March 2010: Contemporary Female Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin/LI>
  • April 2010: Classic Male Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant
  • May 2010: Classic Female TBD by TBD
  • June 2010: Contemporary Male TBD by TBD
  • July/August 2010: Summer Project, TBD
  • September 2010: Contemporary Female The land of Green Plumbs by Herta Mueller
  • Here is the poem for January (spelling or punctuation may be different than it is in the book):

    A Red, Red Rose

    by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

    O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
    That's newly sprung in June:
    O my Luve's like the melodie,
    That's sweetly play'd in tune.

    As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
    So deep in luve am I;
    And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    Till a' the seas gang dry.

    Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
    And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
    And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    While the sands o' life shall run.

    And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
    And fare-thee-weel, a while!
    And I will come again, my Luve,
    Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!




We will read and discuss one author or at most a few authors per month from the collection:
Great Short Poems edited by Paul Negri.

Previously we read one short story per month from The Best American Short Stories of the Century edited by John Updike and co-edited by Katrina Kenison. We finished the book in August of 2008.

Email: HarmonyBookGroup@comcast.net

HARMONY BOOK GROUP

Reading List (since October, 1998)




    2006 Selections


    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: I, Claudius and Claudius the God
    2nd Memoirs of Hadrian
    3rd: Wuthering Heights
    The top poem of the year from the collection we are reading was "Ode on Solitude" by Alexander Pope.

  1. December 2009 : Classic Male So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
  2. November 2009: Contemporary Female Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
  3. October 2009 : Contemporary Male Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle. This is the selection for Fort Collins Reads. On November 8th, Boyle will lecture at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins.
  4. September 2009 : Classic Female: The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman
  5. August 2009 : Classic Male, summer project part two: Claudius the God by Robert Graves
  6. July 2009: Classic Male, summer project part one: I, Claudius by Robert Graves
  7. June 2009: Contemporary Female: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.
  8. May 2009: Classic Female: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  9. April 2009: Classic Male: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.
  10. March 2009: Contemporary Male: Bright Lights, Big City by Jay Mcinerney
  11. February 2009: Contemporary Female: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
  12. January 2009: Classic Female: Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

  13. 2008 Selections

    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: The Age of Innocence
    2nd The Meadow
    3rd: The Master (note that Washington Square written by the master, Henry James, was a close 4th)


  14. December 2008 : Classic Male: As you Like It by William Shakespeare
  15. November 2008: Contemporary Male: The Meadow by James Galvin.
  16. October 2008 : Contemporary Female: The Gathering by Anne Enright
  17. September 2008: Classic Female: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
  18. July and August 2008 (summer project): Classic Male: The Aeneid by Virgil, translation by Robert Fagles.
  19. June 2008: Contemporary Male: Snow by Orhan Pamuk
  20. May 2008: Contemporary Female: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai


  21. The February, March and April selections form a theme of late 19th century New York. The Master is a fictionalized account of Henry James.
  22. April 2008: Classic Male: Washington Square by Henry James
  23. March 2008: Classic Female: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
  24. February 2008: Contemporary Male: The Master by Colm Toibin
  25. January 2008: Contemporary Female: Hell's Bottom, Colorado by Laura Pritchett


  26. 2007 Selections

    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: The Road
    2nd The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (most 1st place votes)
    3rd: Suite Francaise
    The top short story of the year from the collection we are reading was "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.

  27. December 2007: Classic Male: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
  28. November 2007: Classic Female: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
  29. October 2007: Contemporary Male: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  30. September 2007: Contemporary Female: On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  31. July and August: Summer Project: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
  32. June 2007: Contemporary Male: A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle
  33. May 2007: Classic Female: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontė
  34. April 2007: Classic Male: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  35. March 2007: Contemporary Female: March by Geraldine Brooks
  36. February 2007: Contemporary Male: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
  37. January 2007: Classic Female: The Mill on the Floss by George Elliott.


  38. 2006 Selections

    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: The Brother Karamazov
    2nd: Tale of Two Cities
    3rd: Tie: Water Music and All the Pretty Horses
    The top short story of the year from the collection we are reading was "The Rotifer" by Mary Ladd Gavell.

  39. December 2006: Classic Male: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  40. November2006: Contemporary Female: Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
  41. October 2006: Contemporary Male: All the Pretty Horses by Cormack McCarthy
  42. September 2006: Classic Female: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
  43. July/August 2006 summer project: Category: Classic Male: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevesky
  44. June 2006: Contemporary Female: The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
  45. May 2006: Contemporary Male: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  46. April 2006: Classic Female: Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
  47. March 2006: Classic Male: Walden by Henry David Thoreau
  48. February 2006: Contemporary Female: Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
  49. January 2006: Contemporary Male: Water Music by T.C. Boyle


  50. 2005 Selections

    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: Tie: The Corrections and Pale Fire
    3rd: Pride and Prejudice
    Honorable mention: The Iliad

  51. December 2005: Classic Female Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  52. November 2005: Classic Male Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
  53. October 2005: Contemporary Female Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
  54. September 2005: Contemporary Male Nothing but Blue Skies, Thomas McGuane
  55. August 2005 summer project: Category: Classic Male The Odyssey, by Homer
  56. July 2005 summer project: Category: Classic Male The Iliad, by Homer
  57. June 2005: Classic Female Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  58. May 2005: Classic Male Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  59. April 2005: Contemporary Female Winter Range, Claire Davis
  60. March 2005: Contemporary Male The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
  61. February 2005: Classic Female Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
  62. January 2005: Classic Male The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner


  63. 2004 Selections

    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: Life of Pi
    2nd: a tie between Don Quixote and For Whom the Bell Tolls
    3rd: Sailing Alone Around the Room

  64. December 2004: Contemporary Female The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard
  65. November 2004: Contemporary Male The Information, Martin Amis
  66. October 2004: Classic Male The Winters Tale, William Shakespeare
  67. September 2004: Classic Female: Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
  68. July/August 2004 summer project: Category: Classic Male: Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes (translation by Edith Grossman)
  69. June 2004: Contemporary Female: Beloved, Toni Morrison
  70. May 2004: Contemporary Male: Sailing Alone Around the Room(Poetry), Billy Collins
  71. April 2004: Classic Female: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
  72. March 2004: Classic Male: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
  73. February 2004: Contemporary Female: Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams
  74. January 2004: Contemporary Male: Life of Pi, Yann Martel
    and first story in The Best American Short Stories of the Century

  75. 2003 Selections

    As voted at the December meeting, the top 3 books of the year were:
    1st: Middlemarch
    2nd: Atonement
    3rd: Emma


  76. December 2003: Classic Female: The Green Knight, Iris Murdoch
  77. November 2003: Classic Male: Macbeth, William Shakespeare
  78. October 2003: Contemporary Female: Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
  79. September 2003: Contemporary Male: White Noise, Don DeLillo
  80. July/August 2003 summer project: Category: Classic Female: Middlemarch, George Elliott
  81. June 2003: Classic Male: The Quiet American, Graham Greene
  82. May 2003: Contemporary Male: Atonement, Ian McEwan
  83. April 2003: Classic Female: Emma, Jane Austen
    March 2003: no meeting due to blizzard
  84. February 2003: Contemporary Female: The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
  85. January 2003: Classic Male: The Big Money, John Dos Passos

  86. 2002 Selections

    Top book of the year:
    Under the Net

  87. December 2002: Classic Female: Under The Net, Iris Murdoch
  88. November 2002: Contemporary Male: Rabbit, Run, John Updike
  89. October 2002: Contemporary Female: Birds of America, Lorrie Moore
  90. September 2002: Classic Female: Out of Africa, Isak Dineson
  91. August 2002: Contemporary Male: Waiting, Ha Jin
  92. June and July 2002: Classic Male: Swann's Way, Marcel Proust
  93. May 2002: Contemporary Female: Bee Season, Myla Goldberg
  94. April 2002: Classic Male: High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
  95. March 2002: Classic Female: Ship of Fools, Katherine Anne Porter
  96. February 2002: Contemporary Male: A House for Mr. Biswas,V.S. Naipaul
  97. January 2002: Contemporary Female: White Teeth , Zadie Smith

  98. 2001 Selections


    Top book of the year:
    War and Peace
    Exempting War and Peace, the top vote getter was
    A Month in the Country

  99. December 2001: Classic Male: A Month in the Country, J.L. Carr
  100. November 2001: Classic Female: The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty
  101. October 2001: Contemporary Male: Ravelstein, Saul Bellow
  102. September 2001: Contemporary Female: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
  103. July and August 2001: Classic Male: War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
  104. June 2001: Contemporary Male: A Prayer for the Dying, Stewart O'Nan
  105. May 2001: Classic Female: My Antonia, Willa Cather
  106. April 2001: Contemporary Female: Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
  107. March 2001: Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
  108. February 2001: Classic Female: The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
  109. January 2001: Classic Male: The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford
  110. December 2000: Contemporary Female: Regeneration, Pat Barker
  111. November 2000: Classic Male: The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
  112. October 2000: Contemporary Male: The Hours, Michael Cunningham
  113. September 2000: Classic Female: Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
  114. August 2000: Contemporary Female: Close Range, Annie Proulx
  115. June and July 2000: Classic Male: Ulysses, James Joyce
  116. May 2000: Classic Female: The Bridal Wreath, Sigrid Undset
  117. April 2000: Contemporary Male: Life and Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee
  118. March 2000: Gigi, Collette
  119. February 2000: The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass
  120. January 2000: Ship Fever, Andrea Barrett
  121. December 1999: Passage to India, E.M. Forster
  122. November 1999: Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
  123. October 1999: Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes
  124. September 1999: Cowboys are My Weakness, Pam Houston
  125. August 1999: Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
  126. July 1999: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
  127. June 1999: So I Married a Communist, Philip Roth
  128. May 1999: Charming Billy, Alice McDermott
  129. April 1999: Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
  130. March 1999: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
  131. February 1999: Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
  132. January 1999: Friend of My Youth, Alice Munro
  133. December 1998: Catch-22, Joseph Heller
  134. November 1998: To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
  135. October 1998: Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Ideas for future selections

Possibilities for future selections are from various literary prizes, lists of top literature, and suggestions from the members of the book group.