What we’re about
The Morristown, Summit and Everywhere Else Book Clubs have now merged!
The Morristown Book Club
Founded in 2011 by the manager of Zebu Forno (now closed but it was a great place on South Street); we have since had a stint at Atlanta Bread in Madison – now also closed – and after that Panera Bread until IT closed in Morristown, then the one in Florham Park. Now, we have switched to the Florham Park Diner, across the street – it is much quieter, and the temperature is more moderate.
We started as a typical book club – reading mostly "literary" best-sellers with some non-fiction sprinkled in, all suggested by members. Then we had a phase where we each picked books that had special meaning for us, and discussed them with the group. Also we did a string of great YA fiction... We then tried a "featured writer" approach, first Haruki Murakami (our members are called "Laikas" in remembrance of "Sputnik Sweetheart"), then Pat Conroy, and finally Virginia Woolf. Now we are back to taking turns picking books for the group at the Meetups.
The Summit Sunday Book Club
We started up in 9 years ago in the winter of 2014. For the first couple of years, we met at the lovely Summit home of our founder, Amy P., always on Sunday afternoons.
Amy envisioned a sort of salon where we’d gather to discuss literary books over tea and cookies. She did a great job of selecting a diverse mix of books as well as moderating our discussions.
After Amy left in 2016 it took a few of us to fill her shoes. Suzanne organized and led us in choosing books while others pitched in to host us and/or provide the treats we had come to enjoy. We met less and less often, finding home hosting a challenge to schedule. But we soldiered on until COVID nearly shut us down.
That’s how we ended up online. At first we just exchanged recommendations for books, movies, TV, and local outdoor escapes to help us get through the lockdown. Last year we returned to our tradition of choosing/discussing individual books with more of us getting involved. Through our reading we traveled all over the place and back and forward in time.
We still meet virtually. We continue to look to the experts in the book biz for recommendations. They include reviewers, critics, and literary organizations from all sorts of media. All their output makes it much easier to find books that are likely to be interesting, informative and “discussion-worthy”.
Over the years we’ve learned that everyone’s book preferences are very different. It’s folly to promise you’ll love every book we choose. Instead, by choosing a wide variety of great books, we hope sooner or later to come up with some that intrigue you and a few that really inspire you. To learn more about us please join us at our next meeting.
The Everywhere Else Book Club
During the pandemic, we started to do Shakespeare readings over Zoom, and acquired members who are from elsewhere and who can't attend in-person gatherings. We are expanding the Zoom meetings to do more Shakespeare, and other authors. These are mostly "read-together" meetups; come-as-you-are; no pre-reading needed.
The Shakespeare readings are named in honor of our long-time participant, Milt Commons.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Ovid*s MetamorphosesLink visible for attendees
Group Read-aloud (text will be displayed onscreen during the meetup)
Today we are departing from Metamorphoses to spend two or three sessions reading the classic tragedy The Bacchae by Euripides (405 BC). Last time we read Book (chapter) 4 in Ovid, Cadmus and Harmonia. We are doing The Bacchae because we have just covered Ovid*s version of the story of Cadmus and the fall of the House of Thebes - The Bacchae is the original version. Before we read we will watch a brief video clip summary, so we can enjoy reading the play aloud without getting too caught up in the plot intricacies. If you are new, welcome. Come ready to take your turn and ham it up!
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Welcome to Ovid*s Metamorphoses! Please feel free to log in five or ten minutes early to work out any technical issues you might be having or just to say hello. We hope to start on time. If you have enabled any form of AI, recording, or transcribing before entering, please exit the meeting, disable it, and re-enter the session. Do NOT click Yes for Zoom AI "Assistance" when entering Zoom.The meeting hosts will put David Raeburn*s English translation up on the screen, and we will all take turns reading aloud. You can join us at any point in the series of meetings. No special knowledge or preparation is necessary; all you have to do is show up. You do not need a copy of the book, nor do you need to read anything in advance. We won*t be recording this, so please keep your camera on for friendliness if you feel comfortable doing so.
Warning: the book’s content may be triggering for some trauma survivors. It contains multiple descriptions of sexual assault, incest, murder, infanticide, family violence, kidnapping, death, blood, pregnancy, plague, starvation, warfare, racism, sexism, and the hunting and killing of animals, as well as male-female, male-male and female-female sexual relationships and transsexuality.
That being said, the poem*s lyric beauty and wealth of stories are unsurpassed in world literature; its tales and themes have inspired artists ever since.
This is a slow, thoughtful reading group with time for discussion. We pause to savor felicitous phrases and share our emotional responses to the stories, and to spotlight recurring images and explore which stories they link together. Along the way we*re learning about the morals, customs, and beliefs of Greco-Roman antiquity, some of which were very different from our own. We stay close to the text, mentally putting ourselves in the place of the original audience, while inevitably of course comparing their worldviews with ours, thereby sliding through a continuous doublemindedness that is itself a series of metamorphoses.
Resources:
A free audiobook version of the Raeburn translation can be found here: archive.org. Wikisource has a number of older translations here: Metamorphoses Translations. The one on there by Golding was the one available in English in Shakespeare*s era. (Shakespeare himself did use at least one portion that appears only in the Latin version.)
Group members are welcome to prepare a presentation for the group on any Ovid-related topic. This can take up all or part of a session. The only caveat is no spoilers – please plan your presentation for after the group has read and discussed a particular story. (Please contact Madeline two weeks in advance about scheduling. Since inspiration may strike you after a story is past, we*ll be happy to slot your presentation in even if it*s long after we*ve read the story.)
Free online resources for many things Ovidian are listed at the bottom of the event description on all of the January Ovid meeting pages.
Ovid*s long and astonishing poem Metamorphoses has resounded throughout Western civilization for two thousand years. Exuberant, sophisticated, witty, harrowing, ambiguous, and sublimely beautiful, this compilation of Greek and Roman mythology is one of the foundational works of Western culture. Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Goethe and Joyce, as well as contemporary authors such as Samuel R. Delany, Ada Palmer, and Richard Powers, have drawn upon it for themes and imagery. Metamorphoses was composed in Latin circa 8 C.E. by Publius Ovidus Naso (Ovid), a Roman poet, public intellectual, and man about town. Many of his upper-class urban contemporaries were atheists who were familiar with these tales, so nuance, presentation, and poetic skill were all. - Florham Park Readers Group: "Train Dreams", by Denis JohnsonFlorham Park Diner, Florham Park, NJ
We meet in-person on the third Monday of the Month, at the Florham Park Diner. Currently we are selecting our readings from the New York Times "Best Books of the 21st Century". You may RSVP here, but please join our group via https://bookclubs.com/clubs/6022268 for an accurate attendance count.
___From the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson (Tree of Smoke) comes Train Dreams, an epic in miniature, and one of Johnson's most evocative works of fiction.
Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West―its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders―this extraordinary novella poignantly captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.
It tells the story of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century―an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.
- Milt Commons Shakespeare: "The Winters' Tale"Link visible for attendees
Join us in reading Shakespeare plays out loud; no prior experience needed.
You only need a copy of the play to participate; we use the Folger's online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works
Our meetups will now run from 7:15 to 9:15. The "regular" part of the meetup will start at 8pm as usual, where we will resume our reading of our current play from where we left off the previous week. From 8:45 to 9:15, we will watch a selected production of the scenes we just read.
From 7:15 to 8, we will typically "pre-read" this week's scenes, "popcorn style" (just read lines in turns, not by roles) or combine a mini-lecture and some socializing, OR group-read essays about the current play. Attendance at the first and last segments is optional.
A quick overview of Shakespeare: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/The-Plays-of-Williams-Shakespeare--A-Complete-Guide-20240317
An article about the Folger Shakespeare Collection reopening: https://wapo.st/4c5w4vc
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Click on the link at right to join the Zoom meeting. You may need to install/update the Zoom software on your device. We usually open the room a little early in case you want to test your settings.Image of the Folger Shakespeare Library Reading Room by Jennifer Chase for the Washington Post.
Late-comers, unless we know you, will generally not be admitted, as it disrupts the reading. However, it's fine for attendees to drop off at any time they want.
- Ovid*s MetamorphosesLink visible for attendees
Group Read-aloud (text will be displayed onscreen during the meetup)
Today we are reading . Last time we read . If you are new, welcome - at the start of every session we read a summary of the previous events in the book.Welcome to Ovid*s Metamorphoses! Please feel free to log in five or ten minutes early to work out any technical issues you might be having or just to say hello. We hope to start on time. If you have enabled any form of AI, recording, or transcribing before entering, please exit the meeting, disable it, and re-enter the session. Do NOT click Yes for Zoom AI "Assistance" when entering Zoom.
The meeting hosts will put David Raeburn*s English translation up on the screen, and we will all take turns reading aloud. You can join us at any point in the series of meetings. No special knowledge or preparation is necessary; all you have to do is show up. You do not need a copy of the book, nor do you need to read anything in advance. We won*t be recording this, so please keep your camera on for friendliness if you feel comfortable doing so.
Warning: the book’s content may be triggering for some trauma survivors. It contains multiple descriptions of sexual assault, incest, murder, infanticide, family violence, kidnapping, death, blood, pregnancy, plague, starvation, warfare, racism, sexism, and the hunting and killing of animals, as well as male-female, male-male and female-female sexual relationships and transsexuality.
That being said, the poem*s lyric beauty and wealth of stories are unsurpassed in world literature; its tales and themes have inspired artists ever since.
This is a slow, thoughtful reading group with time for discussion. We pause to savor felicitous phrases and share our emotional responses to the stories, and to spotlight recurring images and explore which stories they link together. Along the way we*re learning about the morals, customs, and beliefs of Greco-Roman antiquity, some of which were very different from our own. We stay close to the text, mentally putting ourselves in the place of the original audience, while inevitably of course comparing their worldviews with ours, thereby sliding through a continuous doublemindedness that is itself a series of metamorphoses.
Resources:
A free audiobook version of the Raeburn translation can be found here: archive.org. Wikisource has a number of older translations here: Metamorphoses Translations. The one on there by Golding was the one available in English in Shakespeare*s era. (Shakespeare himself did use at least one portion that appears only in the Latin version.)
Group members are welcome to prepare a presentation for the group on any Ovid-related topic. This can take up all or part of a session. The only caveat is no spoilers – please plan your presentation for after the group has read and discussed a particular story. (Please contact Madeline two weeks in advance about scheduling. Since inspiration may strike you after a story is past, we*ll be happy to slot your presentation in even if it*s long after we*ve read the story.)
Free online resources for many things Ovidian are listed at the bottom of the event description on all of the January Ovid meeting pages.
Ovid*s long and astonishing poem Metamorphoses has resounded throughout Western civilization for two thousand years. Exuberant, sophisticated, witty, harrowing, ambiguous, and sublimely beautiful, this compilation of Greek and Roman mythology is one of the foundational works of Western culture. Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Goethe and Joyce, as well as contemporary authors such as Samuel R. Delany, Ada Palmer, and Richard Powers, have drawn upon it for themes and imagery. Metamorphoses was composed in Latin circa 8 C.E. by Publius Ovidus Naso (Ovid), a Roman poet, public intellectual, and man about town. Many of his upper-class urban contemporaries were atheists who were familiar with these tales, so nuance, presentation, and poetic skill were all.
