Winter/Spring 2011 Reading and Discussion Series
Read and Discuss: A Man Goes on a Trip

The Milford Public Library’s Reading and Discussion program continues with this series focusing on one of the two “master plots”: A Man Goes on a Trip. Meetings are from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on the 2nd Monday of February, March, April, and May 2011. Registration begins Monday, December 13, 2010. A limited number of books will be available at the Library.

February 14, 2011
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Discussion led by Cecilia Donohue, Madonna University.

Lucy Honeychurch, a young English lady, is in Florence with her older cousin, Charlotte. They were promised rooms with a view of the Arno, but are disappointed. A father and son in their pension, the Emersons, have a view and offer to trade rooms. But Charlotte fears an obligation to people of not quite the same class. Forster’s novel of Edwardian manners details a trip through classes, countries, and cultures.

March 14, 2011
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Discussion led by Will Horwath, Madonna University.

Huck Finn is Twain’s classic story of the adventures of a boy and a runaway slave on a raft down the Mississippi River. Huck escapes his brutal drunken father by faking his own death and hiding out on an island. There he finds Jim, a slave who ran away rather than be sold to a cruel owner. Huck agrees to help Jim become free, but worries about the morality and legality of concealing stolen “property.” Huck and Jim then take to the river, escaping from the “sivilization” found on its banks.

April 11, 2011
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Discussion led by Sandra Sutherland, Professor of English, retired.

Bilbo Baggins has no wish to leave his comfortable hobbit-hole and go on an adventure with a wizard and thirteen dwarves. But they need a burglar to steal a treasure out from under a dragon, and Bilbo is just the right size. So off he goes, meeting trolls and elves and gaining a ring that makes him invisible.

May 9, 2011
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Discussion led by Carla Iris, Allen Park book discussion leader.

Christopher Boone, an autistic fifteen-year-old, finds his neighbor’s dog impaled on a garden fork and is mistakenly arrested for the killing. Christopher is unable to read people but is an avid reader of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He decides to find the criminal and write a “murder mystery novel” about it. Christopher’s hunt for the murderer takes him beyond his carefully constructed world to London and to the secrets hidden in his own family.