The Classics Book Club meets the second Wednesday of every month on Zoom [at King's Books]. We have been meeting in Tacoma since 1994 and at King's Books since May 2011! We read a variety of classic works, from the ancient to modern. Each month, the selected book is available for purchase at King's Books. To see what we're reading this month, go to the main Events page. If you have questions, please email sweet pea for more information.
Previous Reads:
July 2023: The Great American Novel by Philip Roth
June 2023: Nada by Carmen Laforet
May 2023: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
April 2023: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
March 2023: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
February 2023: A Curtain of Green and Other Stories by Eudora Welty
January 2023: The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
December 2022: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
November 2022: The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer
October 2022: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
September 2022: Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
August 2022: Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
July 2022: Home of the Gentry by Ivan Turgenev
June 2022: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
May 2022: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
April 2022: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
March 2022: The Awakening by Kate Chopin
February 2022: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
January 2022: Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk and John G Neihardt
December 2021: The Railway Children by E Nesbit
November 2021: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
October 2021: Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
September 2021: Brown Girl, Brownstones - Paule Marshall
August 2021: America Is in the Heart - Carlos Bulosan
July 2021: A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
June 2021: Sorrows of Young Werther - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
May 2021: Oroonoko - Aphra Behn
April 2021: Angle of Reposse - Wallace Stegner
March 2021: When Rain Clouds Gather - Bessie Head
February 2021: Tess of the d'Ubervilles - Thomas Hardy
January 2021: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
December 2020: Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas,
November 2020: Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
October 2020: The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
September 2020: West with the Night - Beryl Markham
August 2020: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
July 2020: Passing by Nella Larsen
June 2020: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
May 2020: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
April 2020: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
March 2020: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
February 2020: Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata
January 2020: Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham
December 2019: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
November 2019: Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
October 2019: Eltonsbrody by Edgar Mittelholzer
September 2019: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
August 2019: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
July 2019: The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
June 2019: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
May 2019: Green Mansions by WH Hudson
April 2019: McTeague by Frank Norris
March 2019: The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tillburg Clark
February 2019: Giants in the Earth by Ole Edvart Rolvaag
January 2019: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by John Fox
December 2018: Carmen by Prosper Mérimée
November 2018: The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
October 2018: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
September 2018: Herzog by Saul Bellow
August 2018: Les Miserables [Vol. 1: Fantine] by Victor Hugo
July 2018: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
June 2018: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
May 2018: Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
April 2018: A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
March 2018: My Antonia by Willa Cather
February 2018: Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
January 2018: Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
December 2017: The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley
November 2017: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LeRoux
October 2017: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
September 2017: The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
August 2017: The Red and the Black by Stendhal
July 2017: Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
June 2017: The Stranger by Albert Camus
May 2017: A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
April 2017: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
March 2017: Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
February 2017: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
January 2017: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
December 2016: Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
November 2016: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
October 2016: Dracula by Bram Stoker
September 2016: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
August 2016: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
July 2016: Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr
June 2016: Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
May 2016: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
April 2016: The Group by Mary McCarthy
March 2016: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
February 2016: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
January 2016: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
December 2015: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
November 2015: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
October 2015: Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
September 2015: The Mountains of California by John Muir
August 2015: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
July 2015: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
June 2015: Cover Her Face by PD James
May 2015: The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Apr 2015: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Mar 2015: Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Feb 2015: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Jan 2015: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Dec 2014: Mary Poppins by PL Travers
Nov 2014: The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
Oct 2014: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Sep 2014: The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Aug 2014: The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Jul 2014: Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Jun 2014: Rabbit, Run by John Updike
May 2014: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Apr 2014: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
Mar 2014: Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
Feb 2014: Parnassus On Wheels by Christopher Morley
Jan 2014: Dubliners by James Joyce
Dec 2013: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Nov 2013: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Oct 2013: I am Legend by Richard Matheson
Sep 2013: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Aug 2013: The Ambassadors by Henry James
Jul 2013: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Jun 2013: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
May 2013: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Apr 2013: Silence by Shusaku Endo
Mar 2013: Dune by Frank Herbert
Feb 2013: Snow White by Donald Barthelme & Time and Again by Jack Finney
Jan 2013: Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
Dec 2012: The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle
Nov 2012: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Oct 2012: The Collector by John Fowles
Sept 2012: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Aug 2012: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Jul 2012: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Jun 2012: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
May 2012: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré
Apr 2012: She by H. Rider Haggard
Mar 2012: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Feb 2012: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Jan 2012: The Plague by Albert Camus
Dec 2011 Tom Brown's Schooldays Thomas Hughes
Nov 2011 Germinal Émile Zola
Oct 2011 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson
Sept 2011 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
Aug 2011 Emma Jane Austen
July 2011 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon
June 2011 Bound for Glory Woody Guthrie
May 2011 Song of the Lark Willa Cather
Apr 2011 Their Eyes were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
Mar 2011 Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
Feb 2011 Little Women Louisa May Alcott
Jan 2011 Glass Menagerie, The Tennessee Williams
Dec 2010 Child's Christmas in Wales, A Thomas Dylan
Nov 2010 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
Oct 2010 Hound of the Baskervilles, The Arthur Conan Doyle
Sep 2010 Grapes of Wrath, The John Steinbeck
Aug 2010 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton
Jul 2010 Canticle for Liebowitz, A Walter Miller
Jun 2010 American Tragedy, An Theodore Dreiser
May 2010 Book of Five Rings, A Miyamoto Musashi
Apr 2010 Maltese Falcon, The Dashiell Hammett
Mar 2010 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque
Jan 2010 Tin Drum, The Gunter Grass
Dec 2009 Christmas Memory, A Truman Capote
Nov 2009 The Turn of the Screw Henry James
Oct 2009 Catch 22 Joseph Heller
Sep 2009 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Aug 2009 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis
Jul 2009 O, Pioneers Willa Cather
Jun 2009 Member of the Wedding, A Carson McCullers
May 2009 Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell
Apr 2009 Walden Henry David Thoreau
Mar 2009 SteppenWolfe Hermann Hesse
Feb 2009 Common Sense Thomas Paine
Jan 2009 Vanity Fair William Thackeray
Dec 2008 Christmas Carol, A Charles Dickens
Nov 2008 Winter of our Discontent, The John Steinbeck
Oct 2008 House of Seven Gables, The Nathaniel Hawthorne
Sep 2008 Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Carson McCullers
Aug 2008 Oil Upton Sinclair
Jul 2008 Foundation Isaac Asimov
Jun 2008 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
Apr 2008 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Mar 2008 Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky
Feb 2008 Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe
Jan 2008 Othello William Shakespeare
Dec 2007 Little Prince, The Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Nov 2007 Silas Marner George Elliot
Oct 2007 Picture of Dorian Gray, The Oscar Wilde
Aug 2007 Connecticut Yankee Mark Twain
Jul 2007 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austin
Jun 2007 Golden Bowl, The Henry James
Apr 2007 Man in the Iron Mask, The Alexandre Dumas
Mar 2007 Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Betty Smith
Feb 2007 On the Road Jack Kerouac
Jan 2007 Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
Dec 2006 Wind in the Willows, The Kenneth Grahame
Nov 2006 Sea Wolf, The Jack London
Oct 2006 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louise Stevenson
Aug 2006 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
Jul 2006 Travels With Charlie John Steinbeck
Jun 2006 Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
May 2006 No Man is an Island Ernest Hemingway
Apr 2006 Scarlet Pimpernel, The Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Mar 2006 Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
Feb 2006 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
Jan 2006 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Dec 2005 Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The C.S. Lewis
Nov 2005 Quiet American, The Graham Green
Oct 2005 Beowolfe (Seamus Heaney Trans) -
Sep 2005 Inferno (Richard Pinski Translation) Dante Alighieri
Aug 2005 Paradise Lost John Milton
Jul 2005 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
Jun 2005 Brave New World Aldus Huxley
May 2005 Lord of the Flies John Goulding
Apr 2005 Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, A Alexandre Solxhenitsyn
Mar 2005 Howard's End E. M. Forster
Feb 2005 Secret Agent, The Joseph Conrad
Jan 2005 Cry, The Beloved Country Alan Paton
Dec 2004 Peter Pan J.M. Barrie
Nov 2004 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren
Oct 2004 Last Man, The Mary Shelley
Sep 2004 Emma Jane Austin
Aug 2004 Martin Eden Jack London
Jul 2004 My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin
Jun 2004 Idiot, The Fyodor Dostoevsky
May 2004 Good Earth, The Pearl S. Buck
Apr 2004 How Green was my Valley Richard Llewellyn
Mar 2004 Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Ernest Hemingway
Feb 2004 Mr. Midshipman Hornblower C.E. Forrester
Jan 2004 Narcissus and Goldmund Hermann Hesse
Dec 2003 Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt
Nov 2003 My Antonia Willa Cather
Oct 2003 Haunted House Charles Dickens
Sep 2003 Typee Herman Melville
Aug 2003 Elmer Gantry Sinclair Lewis
Jul 2003 People of the Abyss Jack London
Jun 2003 Jungle, The Upton Sinclair
May 2003 Mayor of Castorbridge Thomas Hardy
Apr 2003 Death in the Afternoon Ernest Hemingway
Mar 2003 To the Lighthouse Virginia Wolfe
Feb 2003 Fahrenheit 451 Ray bradbury
Jan 2003 Reivers, The William Faulkner
Dec 2002 The Lost World Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Nov 2002 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne
Oct 2002 King Solomon's Mines Ryder Haggard
Sep 2002 Tender is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
Aug 2002 Time Machine, The H.G. Wells
Jul 2002 Tom Jones Henry Fielding
Jun 2002 Moon and Six Pence Somerset Maugham
May 2002 Till we have Faces C.S. Lewis
Apr 2002 Kim Rudyard Kipling
Mar 2002 Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo
Feb 2002 Mill on the Floss George Elliot
Jan 2002 Phinneas Finn Anthony Trollope
Oct 2001 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
Sep 2001 Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper
Aug 2001 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
Jul 2001 Nostromo Joseph Conrad
Jun 2001 Totem and Taboo Sigmund Freud
May 2001 Beowulf (Seamus Heaney Trans) -
Apr 2001 Cousin Bette Honore de Balzac
Mar 2001 Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
Feb 2001 Murder Trials Cicero
Jan 2001 Roman Lives Plutarch
Nov 2000 Journey to the End of the Night Louis Celeni
Oct 2000 Jewel of the Seven Stars Bram Stoker
Sep 2000 Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini
Aug 2000 Once and Future King T.H. White
Jul 2000 Paradisio Dante Alighieri
Jun 2000 French Lt. Woman John Fowles
May 2000 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beacher Stowe
Apr 2000 Red and the Black, The Stendahl
Mar 2000 Vanity Fair William Thackeray
Feb 2000 Ethics Aristotle
Jan 2000 Rob Roy Walter Scott
Nov 1999 Tess of the D'Ubervilles Thomas Hardy
Oct 1999 Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allen Poe
Sep 1999 Castle, The Franz Kafka
Aug 1999 Nausea Jean Paul Sartre
Jul 1999 Beautiful and the Damned F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jun 1999 SteppenWolfe Hermann Hesse
May 1999 Screwtapes Letters C.S. Lewis
May 1999 Letters from the Earth Mark Twain
Apr 1999 Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Mar 1999 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
Feb 1999 Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
Jan 1999 Sound and the Fury, The William Faulkner
Dec 1998 Christmas Carol, A Charles Dickens
Nov 1998 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austin
Oct 1998 Brothers Karamazov, The Fyodor Dostoyevski
Sep 1998 Civilization and it's Discontents Sigmund Freud
Aug 1998 Souls of Black Folk, The W.E.B. Du Bois
Jul 1998 Traffic in Women Emma Goldman
Jun 1998 Dolls House Henrik Ibsen
May 1998 On the Geneology of Morals Friedrich Nietzsche
Apr 1998 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin
Mar 1998 Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Feb 1998 Origins of Inequality Jean Jacques Rousseau
Nov 1997 Prince, The Nicholai Machiavelli
Oct 1997 Second Treatise on Civil Government John Lock
Oct 1997 Communist Manifesto Karl Marx
Sep 1997 Candide Voltaire
Aug 1997 On Methods Renee Descartes
Jul 1997 Confessions St. Augustine
Jun 1997 Aeneid Virgil
May 1997 Bachae Euripides
Apr 1997 Theban Plays Sophocles
Mar 1997 Orestia Aeschylus
Feb 1997 Odyssey Homer
Jan 1997 Paradise Lost John Milton
Nov 1996 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
Oct 1996 Selected Essays Michele de Montaigne
Sep 1996 Inferno (Richard Pinski Translation) Dante Alighieri
Aug 1996 Connecticut Yankee Mark Twain
Aug 1996 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Jul 1996 Moll Flanders Daniel de Foe
Jun 1996 Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen
May 1996 Miser and other Plays Moliere
Apr 1996 Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoi
Mar 1996 Selected Dialogs Plato
Feb 1996 Faust Johann Goethe
Jan 1996 Twelfth Night William Shakespeare
Oct 1995 Bhaghavad Gita -
Sep 1995 Le Morte D'Arthur Sir Thomas Malory
Aug 1995 Plague, The Albert Camus
Jul 1995 Buccaneers Edith Wharton
Jun 1995 Metamorphosis Ovid
May 1995 Emma Jane Austin
Apr 1995 Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
Mar 1995 Death in Venice, A Thomas Mann
Feb 1995 MiddleMarch George Elliot
Jan 1995 Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Anne Bronte
Nov 1994 Awkward Age, The Henry James
Oct 1994 Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev
