Top Stories
Stories in BookClub that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
My To Be Read List
I have been taking some time away from writing. I haven't forgotten about Vocal, the truth is I just have been too busy pursuing other things to write online and honestly, my little family and I just had a really hard month between the flu and a weird eye infection/cold circulating our house. I'm currently sipping some warm peppermint tea because my throat is sore.
By Chloe Rose Violet 🌹2 years ago in BookClub
An Education in Alienation
It might seem odd to conjure the ghost of an ancient Greek philosopher the better to try to understand and appreciate a 19th Century tale of thrilling horror with his help. I was moved to do so because I am the sort of silly idealist who believes that anything encoded by a human mind can be decoded by one, to echo David Lodge’s irascible Morris Zapp, provided sufficient energy and attention are devoted to the cause. After all, I have had the privilege and pleasure of teaching this novel to hundreds of students. When I have done so, I have repudiated charming customer service and power point karaoke in favor of close reading of the text and texts about it. The latter have both preserved and provoked a scholarly and critical conversation about tragedy in general and this novel in particular. Aristotle was the first to contribute a systematic theory of tragedy to this conversation, in the 4th Century BCE. Walking anachronism that I am, I understand it to be my duty to prepare my students to understand the text and said conversation in order, in however modest and provisional a way, to contribute to it themselves. If the aims of a university are not to preserve, create and disseminate knowledge, by these and other means, what could they possibly be?
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in BookClub
Little Ghost Laban
I like to dig into other cultures and languages, particularly when it comes to horror, folklore, and storytelling. There's so much out there that isn't readily available in English. It's the same with your native language, whatever that might be. The world is connected now in a way it never has been, and newer technology allows me to explore it using translation tools. We take these tools for granted today, but they are recent inventions.
By J.A. Hernandez2 years ago in BookClub
Vocal Book Club: Trust by Hernan Diaz
In Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (published in English in 2014) we are reminded of how much fiction underpins our lives. Fiction, Harari argues, is one of the great engines of culture. Religion is a story many choose, collectively, to believe: it is the story that creates culture and cohesion. He uses the example of a brand — Peugeot — to enquire how we imbue fictions with significance. What connection can anyone now make between a company founded in the early 19th century with the car manufacturer of today? What does the “Peugeot” symbol on the front of an automobile signify? There’s one answer: a story. Perhaps you buy the car because, at some level, you believe the story.
By Erica Wagner2 years ago in BookClub
They're Challenging Reading Challenges?
In 1961 the town of Tarzana, California pulled a book off of the city library shelves as it was deemed unsuitable for children. The offense was clear: the story, one of a group of adventures, featured a couple clearly living in sin: Tarzan and Jane.
By Judey Kalchik 2 years ago in BookClub
Vocal Book Club: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Tom Lake is not your ordinary pandemic novel, though it begins in that strange — and awful — spring of 2020. It is set in northern Michigan, on the cherry orchard belonging to the Nelson family. It interrogates the family’s life and the memories of Lara Nelson, once an actress, as she talks with her three grown daughters. They are Emily, who in time will settle on the farm; Maisie who’s at veterinary school; and Nell who hopes to follow in her mother’s thespian footsteps.
By Erica Wagner2 years ago in BookClub
