Books & Beans Meetup

When I was a junior at the University of Alabama, I took a class that kind of changed my perspective of the world in major ways. At the time, the class was known as The Modern Novel. Now, everything we read then is 30+ years older, like me. I remember my final exam in this class though (because it was important), and I'd love to share it with you if you'll let me.
The Secret History: Tartt, Donna: 9781400031702: Amazon.com: Books

I loved the book in 1994 when I first read it. Our professor assigned it and asked us if it would become a classic. Like Faulkner? Like Hemingway? Like Twain? Another Great American Novelist? Maybe a Judith Shakespeare (oh wait, Virginia Woolf helped us see she doesn't exist)? Sadly, my essay said it wouldn't become a classic, even though this novel has every single element it needed to become one. And here it is 30 years later, and I'm pretty sure none of you have heard of this book. I was right, but not because I wanted to be.

Tartt's The Goldfinch is more widely known and more widely read (and it is an amazing read). But the fact that she wrote The Secret History at 21 years of age is phenomenal. Let's read it and discuss more.

Side note: It do find it a little funny that the novel is now a "Read with Jenna" pick, since Jenna was maybe eight when it was written.

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch.

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times

The Secret History: Tartt, Donna: 9781400031702: Amazon.com: Books
I loved the book in 1994 when I first read it. Our professor assigned it and asked us if it would become a classic. Like Faulkner? Like Hemingway? Like Twain? Another Great American Novelist? Maybe a Judith Shakespeare (oh wait, Virginia Woolf helped us see she doesn't exist)? Sadly, my essay said it wouldn't become a classic, even though this novel has every single element it needed to become one. And here it is 30 years later, and I'm pretty sure none of you have heard of this book. I was right, but not because I wanted to be.
Tartt's The Goldfinch is more widely known and more widely read (and it is an amazing read). But the fact that she wrote The Secret History at 21 years of age is phenomenal. Let's read it and discuss more.
Side note: It do find it a little funny that the novel is now a "Read with Jenna" pick, since Jenna was maybe eight when it was written.
A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch.
Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.
“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times

142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~
This month we'll be reading the first half of Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water (about 350 pages).

Amazon: The Covenant of Water..Paperback: Abraham Verghese: Amazon.com: Books

From the Back Cover:

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.

Welcome!
We will meet at The Parfait Pastry Shop, downtown St. Augustine.
142 King St.
St. Augustine, FL 32084
Phone: (904) 217-3094 (Arlene & Melanie)
Parfait Pastry Shop | Home

PARKING: There are six parking spaces in the front of the building and on the side, but I spoke with the owner, Arlene, and she said she will allow us to park in employee parking behind the building. There is also a large lot at the St. Augustine Winery, a block away (catty-corner to Carmelo's).
~~~
This month we'll be reading the second half of Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water (about 350 pages).

Amazon: The Covenant of Water..Paperback: Abraham Verghese: Amazon.com: Books

From the Back Cover:
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.