Book Talk begins a new season of book discussions on September 11, when Dr. Elbert Hill, emeritus Professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, will lead a conversation about “House Gaudy Night” by Golden-Age mystery novelist Dorothy L. Sayers.
The 6:30 p.m. meeting is at Donald W. Reynolds Community Center & Library, 1515 W. Main in Durant.
In this month’s chosen novel, Harriet Vane, a writer and a former student at Oxford university’s Shrewsbury College, returns for a reunion (called a “Gaudy” at British universities) but finds herself confronted by a series of malicious acts, including poisonpen letters and vandalism that target the all-female college.
As Harriet investigates, she’s assisted by her lover, Lord Peter Wimsey, and the two follow puzzling clues as the novel explores such themes as women’s roles in society.
Dr. Hill was, until his 2006 retirement from Southeastern Oklahoma State University, a specialist in children’s and young adult literature and had taught for nearly 40 years. A native of Tennessee, he holds the B.A. degree from Carson-Newman College, the M.A. from Memphis State University, and the Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska.
He did his doctoral dissertation about traditional Native American literature and periodically taught courses in the subject at SOSU, as well as a range of other literature courses.
Copies of “Gaudy Night” are available for purchase at the Reynolds Library’s service desk.
The book chosen for Book Talk’s October 9 meeting is “The Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler.
Dr. Alexa Smith-Osborne, a local private psychotherapist, will lead the October discussion.
