Once a month we have a discussion dinner at Houlihans or Kokopelli's restaurant depending on our size. We have room for eight to twelve people, but are always looking for people who would like to be on the sub list. Any time a regular member can not attend, Kathy will use the sub list to invite guests to the discussion group. Contact Kathy Briggs for more information or to get on the list.

Winter 2008 Book List

January 10, 2008
7:00 p.m.

"Father Brown: The Essential Tales"
by G. K. Chesterton

Father Brown may seem a pleasantly doddering Roman Catholic priest, but appearances deceive. With keen observation and an unerring sense of man’s frailties–gained during his years listening to confessions–Father Brown succeeds in bringing even the most elusive criminals to justice.

February 7, 2008
7:00 p.m.

"Autobiography"
by G. K. Chesterton

A special two-in-one book that is both by G.K. Chesterton and about Chesterton. This volume offers an irresistible opportunity to see who this remarkable man really was. Chesterton was one of the most stimulating and well-loved writers of the 20th century. His 100 books, and hundreds of essays and columns on a great variety of themes have made G.K. Chesterton the most widely quoted writers of modern times.

Here is Chesterton in his own words, in a book he preferred not to write, but did so near the end of his life after much insistence by friends and admirers. Critic Sydney Dark wrote after Chesterton died that perhaps the happiest thing that happened in Gilbert Chesterton's extraordinarily happy life was that his autobiography was finished a few weeks before his death. It is a stimulating, exciting, tremendously interesting book. It is a draught - indeed, several draughts one after the other - of human and literary champagne."

Full of Chesterton's wonderful and unique writing, humor, inspiration and humility, with some 40 rare photos, this book will be greatly desired by Chesterton fans, as well as by anyone interested in learning who this colorful and brilliant person was.

March 13, 2008
7:00 p.m.

"Orthodoxy"
by G. K. Chesterton

This quirky, slender book describes how Chesterton came to view orthodox Catholic Christianity as the way to satisfy his personal emotional needs, in a way that would also allow him to live happily in society. Chesterton argues that people in western society need a life of "practical romance, the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome." Drawing on such figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul to make his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiastical authority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life. The whole book is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth as C.S. Lewis at his best.