Post Type Archives: VBC Events

There’s many reasons I’m so enthusiastic about this choice: as the book’s description notes, it “tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside” – […]

This “late Hemingway” novel will transport you to the Paris of the author’s youth, where he honed his literary craft in the dizzyingly avant-garde expat community that included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and many other giants of twentieth-century literature. In Hemingway’s own words, “there is never any end to Paris”–nor is there […]

You are in for a treat on Thursday, Feb. 4th at 6pm Eastern Standard Time, when we will discuss Forster’s masterpiece. His magical story will enable us housebound VBC’ers to travel (figuratively, at least!) to the breathtaking city of Florence and explore the birth of love between the English ingénue Lucy Honeychurch and the freethinking, […]

I can’t think of a more timely, important book (according to George Packer in the Atlantic, no novel of the past century “has had more influence“). Orwell was a brilliant prophet of the future, and through terms like “Newspeak” and “doublethink” he showed how ruthless leaders can manipulate language and the media for sinister political […]