by Renee Paolino | Jun 19, 2023 | Blog
The Count of Monte Cristo has been discussed on this website, so the only fact I would add is that this novel has never been on our GB schedule. Edgar Allan Poe also makes his debut this year with two short stories. St. Benedict’s The Rule has made it on the schedule...
by Renee Paolino | Mar 9, 2023 | Blog
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, written by Betty Smith and published in 1943, is a timeless novel that deserves to be regarded as a Great Book. The novel is set in Brooklyn, New York, in the early 20th century and follows the life of a young girl named Francie Nolan and her...
by Renee Paolino | Dec 29, 2022 | Blog
The Great Books of Greater Cleveland is presently on Winter Break. “Break” is somewhat of a misnomer since there is no break from a reading assignment, only a break from meetings. During the break we are reading Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Is this novel a...
by Renee Paolino | Nov 4, 2022 | Blog
What would I put on a GB list if I could choose any reading for any reason from our 77 years of lists? A Year of Epic Poetry! I would begin with The Epic of Gilgamesh. I would include Homer’s two poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Virgil dovetails nicely with Homer, so...
by Renee Paolino | Oct 30, 2022 | Blog
You can expect to see Thomas Paine’s Common Sense on the Great Books schedule every few years. Of course it is the seminal work of American history which served to galvanize the American colonists against British rule. Beyond its importance to the birth of the United...
by Renee Paolino | Sep 14, 2022 | Blog
Our discussions are 90 minutes. We begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m. The meetings are on the first and third Tuesdays during the scheduled GB year. We meet at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library. Directions and other...
