RYE MEN'S BOOK GROUP UPCOMING MEETINGS AND BOOK SELECTIONS
thurs dec 4 7:00 pm
Home: Boyle Book: Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides
6 Stanwich Lane Greenwich
No other December discussion
thu jan 15 7pm
Home: TBD Book:
Upcoming Dates and Books Scheduled (dates to be confirmed)
Download Fred’s Compilation of 2025 scheduled books and descriptions
New 2025 suggestions from members for consideration. (please send me similar blurbs on your choices if possible)
Bill Gedale suggests the new Mark Twain biography by Ron Chernow. However it is 1200 pages. Perhaps Bill can also offer us a speed-reading course? ;-)
Howard suggests White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. This book won the Booker Prize in 2008 and is a very readable story about the protagonist who grows up on the wrong side of the tracks in India, and the price he pays to fight past these limitations.
Howard suggests Joseph Mitchell’s short stories about NY. “A New Yorker short story writer when that was a good thing. His book Up in the Old Hotel is a collection of stories about places and character in the city.”
Dan Ross sugggests How to hide an empire: a history of the greater United States, by Daniel Immerwhar. 400 pages, but a quick read in my opinion. Entertaining writing style.Young historian, an associate professor of history at Northwestern University. I certainly did not agree with everything he said, but found it very stimulating, particularly about the map of the United States, our actions in the Philippines, and the legal justification for imperialism. I learned a lot when I read it.
Dan Ross also suggests An Odyssey, by Daniel Mendelsohn by a Bard professor writing about his father who was a Greek scholar.
Todd Smith suggests Islands in the Stream by Hemingway- his last book, actually published posthumously, which has a philosophical wisdom, even calm attributable to Hemingway’s maturing and bears re-reading as we ourselves get older.
Bill Gedale suggests Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind, a book by Jerry Edelman, whom Bill had met. Bill has enormous respect for Edelman’s pioneering research into the neurobiology and structural workings of the Mind.
Doug MacLaury suggests G-Man, by Beverly Gage, a book about J Edgar Hoover which he finds compelling.
also Chip War, by Chris Miller, published in 2022, about this critical industry which has only gotten more important as the rise of Nvidia and others creating the most sophisticated, energy-consuming AI training chips become a new scarce national resource in global struggle for pre-eminence.
Summary of previous conversations by Fred with good choices for us to consider any time:
Fiction
A Bend in the River or other novel by V.S Naipaul – I have reservations about this but am willing to try it if that’s the decision.
A novel by John Banville – possibly Mrs. Osborn, provided you don’t have to read Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady to appreciate it. Otherwise, Peter can pick another Banville novel. The Sea or The Book of Evidence may be possibilities.
Pnin or another book by Nabokov – we have never read him for the book club. This one is very approachable.
Slow Horses by Mick Herron. The entertaining miniseries of the same name is based on his series of books. It’s basically a British detective series with a lot of humor. May be something for summer since it’s not heavy reading. (Bob’s note: I loved these books but not sure there is as much to discuss in them as we would expect from literary fiction. See the series or read them for sure, though.)
Short Stories by Edith Wharton – she’s a great writer
A novel - maybe about WW2 -by Robert Harris – engaging writer of historical fiction
Pudinhead Wilson Mark Twain
Short Stories Edith Wharton
Short Stories Katherine Ann Porter
1984 George Orwell
The English Patient. Michael Ondaatje
The Sea or The Book of Evidence. John Banville
The Country House John Galsworthy
Short Stories Shirley Hazzard
Short Stories Tom McGuane
Nonfiction
Another book by Gordon Wood – everyone liked Power and Liberty –
Hamilton by Ron Chernow (possibly for Summer, since it’s a long book) or Hamilton biography by Richard Brookheiser - Peter may have read them both
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz -the best seller by Erik Larson or Britain at Bay - the newer revisionist history by Alan Allport, strongly recommended by Jan Kelsey
The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt
John Adams David McCullough
The Gene by Siddartha Mukerhjee or The Genome Odyssey by Euan Ashley
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. ((Bob read this in business school and says it has significantly shaped the way he has thought about science ever since)
Company AYTCH: A Classic Memoir of the Civil War Samuel R. Watkins
Our Last Hope Michael Maharrey
Alexander Hamilton Choose: Ron Chernow or Richard Brookhiser
The Sea or The Silk Roads Peter Frankopan
[Book about English Language]. TBD
Calvin Coolidge Amity Schlaes
Previous Suggestions worthy of re-visiting
Philip Roth: Goodbye Columbus
Saul Bellow: Him With a Foot in His Mouth (Short Stories)
Thomas Mann: Death in Venice
Dosteyeski: The Gambler
Marquez: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Henry James: The Pupil
Anton Checkov: The Steppe
Note: These last two could be combined since they are long short stories.Thru are both about children
Garden Party or other selected Elizabeth Hardwick Stories (?)
Jenny Offil: Department of Speculation
James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
Nathaniel West: Miss Lonely Hearts
Michael Chambon: The Final Solution
The Yellow Birds
That Old Country Music (short stories)
RandomNotes from Selection Committee:
Charles Mann’s 1491 is indeed a revelation simply because we know so little about pre-Columbian America.
Edith Wharton wrote great short sorties. Please not "Ethan Frome". Or, "Silas Marner" for that matter. Boring! I suggest you try short stories by Shirley Hazzard, Tom McGuane, Hemingway (the Big Two Hearted River). You might consider John Banville’s Mrs. Osborn, the sequel to Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady.
I recently reread some Somerset Maugham short stories. God, how they have aged. It’s remarkable how poorly they read while writers like Raymond Carver stand up well.
NonFiction:
From Pat McGunagle, April 2023: How The Word is Passed by Clint Smith a reckoning with the history of slavery across America
A Madman’s Will, John Randolph: Fred
The Best Minds, Jonathan Rosen: Howard
Our Man in Tokyo: Tom
Downloadable file of all our previous books read to date, current as of January 2025