Book Group #7 (Oakton Community College Book Group)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.    

Native Son by Richard Wright.    

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton    

Don Quixote (Part 1) by Miguel de Cervantes    

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh    

Our book club is dedicated to reading books by the Great Books authors. The list above represents some of the best discussions we've had in the last year or so. We have learned that although we may have not rated the discussion as "great" on a particular book (for example, Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor), we are happy having read it. We meet monthly and rotate the leader role on a volunteer basis. Often the person who chose the book will act as leader. We try hard to follow the "Shared Inquiry Technique"--the leader does research, prepares questions, and moderates, then opens it up to other questions if his or her questions are finished which is rare. We keep the focus on the book for that month and the selections for future sessions.

Selections are chosen from members' suggestions. We aim for shorter books for busier months. We are usually just three months ahead unless there's a theme involved (A Christmas Carol for December, for example). We've recently developed a blog to keep track of the reading list and for voting on future selections (http://oaktongb.wordpress.com/).

We meet once a month at Oakton at 11:30 am on the second to the last Wednesday of the month. We bring snacks, but try not to let them interfere with the discussion. Occasionally we have tried to tie our snacks to a food theme or food mentioned in the book we are discussing. For June, we have chosen to have a picnic-potluck outdoors lakeside on campus. The book is Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. 

We have about 4-7 regulars and we are open to the entire OCC community. We consider the group open to the public. See the blog above for more information.