2009
September 2009
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Wed 16 Sep. 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, 90049. 310-440-4500. Skirball Cultural Center - [email][events]
Four groups, each with own September start date Course FEE: $125 General; $100 Skirball Members; $75 Full-Time Students Registration for this course begins online, on site, and by phone on Wednesday, August 12, at 12:00 p.m. This fall, the Skirball Book Groups will read books that illuminate how traumatic events can create opportunities for happiness and progress. At each meeting, under the direction of a professional book group facilitator, participants learn about the author's background and explore the book together, engaging in lively, interactive discussion. Discussion questions are distributed in advance of each class session. Participants must read the book prior to each class session.
Students must read the book prior to each class session and bring a copy to each meeting. All books are available at Audrey's Museum Store at the Skirball; class participants receive a 10% discount (may not be combined with other discounts.)
Group 1: Tuesdays, September 8, October 13, November 10, December 8, and January 12, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (5 sessions)
Group 2: Tuesdays, September 15, October 20, November 17, December 15, and January 19, 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. (5 sessions)
Group 3: Wednesdays, September 9, October 14, November 11, December 9, and January 13, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (5 sessions)
Group 4: Wednesdays, September 16, October 21, November 18, December 16, and January 20, 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. (5 sessions)
SEPTEMBER
Run by Ann Patchett
Secrets link an Irish Catholic family of three sons headed by Bernard Doyle, Boston's former mayor, with an African American mother and daughter who live in a nearby housing project. Their opportune meeting, after a speech by Jesse Jackson, radically alters the lives of both families.
OCTOBER
Hope's Boy: A Memoir by Andrew Bridge
At age seven, Andrew Bridge was forced into foster care after authorities declared his mother, Hope, unfit to raise him. His next eleven years included a stint in L.A.'s notorious youth facility MacLaren Hall, as well as time living with a Baltic refugee who had spent part of her childhood in Dachau. This poignant memoir follows Andrew as he discovers that success in academia can bring him the escape he needs from the constant hell of his life.
NOVEMBER
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev (translated by Evan Fallenberg)
Just when Yair Mendelsohn, an Israeli tour guide, thinks he has had enough of his thankless job and enervating marriage, his mother, the family mystic, gives him money and some advice: go off and find the only two things you really need, a story and a place of your own.
DECEMBER
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
In post-9/11 New York, after a break-up with his wife that leaves him feeling defeated, Dutch banker Hans van den Broek stumbles upon the city's vibrant subculture of cricket. Thanks to a charismatic Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, Hans is introduced to an "other" New York populated by immigrant strivers of every race and nationality and begins to connect with his adopted country and re-examine his own life.
JANUARY
Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris
When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing in Saudi Arabia, her prominent family hires Nayir, a desert guide, to lead a search party. But when the family seems suspiciously uninterested in getting to the truth of the matter, Nayir takes it upon himself to find out what really happened to the teen.
Instructor: Penelope Litt Saltsburg is a professional book group leader and former high school teacher with degrees in English, speech, and public relations. She has been affiliated with book groups for thirty years.