Great Books in the Pandemic Year of 2020

If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself. All this however, was too late. The first step had been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.

--Frederick Douglass, "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"

To recap our doings in this covid-19 pandemic year of 2020, I offer the following list of our readings:

In January we celebrated our fifteenth anniversary with "The Devil Baby of Hull House," by Jane Addams, in which she recounts the rumors that swirled around the immigrant communities of the south side of Chicago.

February our selection "The Man Who Could Perform Miracles" by H.G. Wells was a "thought experiment" of what would happen if a man had the power to make the world stop turning.

In March, alas, we had to cancel our meeting because of the covid-19 shutdown.  We took up the selection, Thomas Mann's eerie story of a family's sojourn at an Italian seaside resort, "Mario and the Magician" in May.

We held a special meeting in April in which we looked at Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, a masterpiece of plague literature.  Fittingly, as a twenty-first-century response to a pandemic, it was our very first Zoom meeting.

April's regular selection was "Daughters of the Late Colonel," by Katherine Mansfield, on two sisters living in their father's shadow.

June's reading was the amazing play "R.U.R." by Karel Čapek, in which robots revolt against their human makers.

In July we looked at Mary McCarthy's memoir "My Confession" in which she recounts her involvement with the Communist Party in the 1930s.

August's selection was the impressionistic "Holy Week," by Deborah Eisenberg.

In September we took up "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," a book which strongly influenced the anti-slavery movement in the United States. In October  the selection was "The Epic of Gilgamesh," with our Head of Adult Services Thérèse Nielsen filling in for me.  Thank you Thérèse!

In 2021 we continue our reading and discussion of great literature and philosophy, a fulfilling and lifelong pursuit.