A dynamic, liberal arts education, for free at the public library!  Huntington Public Library's Great Books Reading and Discussion Group meets once a month to discuss works from a curriculum designed and published by the Great Books Foundation, an independent, nonprofit educational organization established in 1947 by University of Chicago educators Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. Its mission is “to empower readers of all ages to become more reflective and responsible thinkers.”  To register, please use the program code HMA302.  For more information, contact Tom Cohn at .

Monday, June 25, 2018 · 7:00pm to 9:00pm · Auditorium

Register using code HMA302
“The Man Who Loved Islands,” by D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) . Cathcart loves islands and moves from one to another. On his first island, where he is writing a book on flowers in Greek and Roman literature, he is cheated by his workers and must move. On the second island, he takes a lover, Flora, and feels compelled to flee from such a commitment. Finally, on his third island, he achieves a degree of personal contentment, yet must come to grips with raging natural elements. This story by Lawrence is an example of his later, more mystical style.

Monday, July 23, 2018 · 7:00pm to 9:00pm · Auditorium

Register using code HMA302
“Anthropology and the Abnormal,” by Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) . Benedict was a leading American social anthropologist of the first half of the twentieth century who did groundbreaking fieldwork among Native Americans. In “Anthropology and the Abnormal,” first published as a journal article in 1934, Benedict poses penetrating questions concerning social norms of behavior. If our standardized world civilization eradicates certain behaviors by labelling them “abnormal,” then maybe the study of still-existing “primitive” peoples can help us to tolerate a greater spectrum of human behavior. She cites as one example an Indian tribe in California that gave prestige to individuals who had passed through trance experiences.

Monday, August 27, 2018 · 7:00pm to 9:00pm · Auditorium

Register using code HMA302
“Hell Screen,” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) . Yoshihide, a master painter, receives a commission to paint a scene of Hell on a screen. He holes up in his studio for serveral months and when he emerges, there remains one unfinished scene: that of a young woman burning to death in a flaming carriage. When he asks to view a demonstration of such an event, his patron obliges. Yoshihide is horrifed to see the subject is his own daughter. “Hell Screen” ranks among the finest stories from the early period of a writer who, Haruki Murakami has written, “lives on an immovable fixed point in Japanese literature.”

Tuesday, July 24, 2018 · 2:00 - 4:00 pm · Main Meeting Room

Register using code HMA165
The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian.  When a sleepwalker who has experienced episodes of near violence while unconscious goes missing, her eldest daughter, Lianna, finds herself drawn to a lead detective who seems to know more than he is revealing.”  Registration required. Open to all.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018 · 2:00 - 4:00 pm · Main Meeting Room

Register using code HMA165
Bluebird, bluebird by Attica Locke.  When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. A rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas, Bluebird, Bluebird is an exhilarating, timely novel about the collision of race and justice in America.   Registration required. Open to all.

Monday, June 25, 2018 · 6:00 pm · Station Small Meeting Room

Register using code HSA274
The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The Alienist is the first foray into fiction by military and diplomatic historian Caleb Carr. This novel is set in 1896 at the advent of the psychological investigator. Dr. Kreizler is a psychologist who is often shunned by colleagues and polite society due to his unique views regarding the mentally ill. However, it is Kreizler Theodore Roosevelt, the police commissioner, turns to when a serial killer begins targeting New York's poor, immigrant children. With the help of his good friend, reporter John Schuyler Moore, a police secretary, and a pair of police detectives, Kreizler will use a psychological profile to track and catch the killer. The Alienist is a psychological thriller with a mix of true history that leaves the reader not only entertained, but fascinated by the rich detail drawn from reality.    Registration required.  HPL cardholders only.

Monday, May 21, 2018 · 6:00 pm · Station Small Meeting Room

Register using code HSA274
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. In the 25th century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself - a person's consciousness can be easily downloaded into a new body, making death nearly obsolete. Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly brutal. Resleeved into a new body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco), Kovacs is thrown into a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that buys and sells human existence. As a warrior-for-hire, he is called to help a far-flung planet's government put down a bloody revolution. But when a rogue pilot and a sleazy corporate fat cat offer him a lucrative role in a treacherous treasure hunt, he's only too happy to go AWOL with a band of resurrected soldiers of fortune. All that stands between them and the ancient alien spacecraft they mean to salvage are a massacred city bathed in deadly radiation, unleashed nanotechnology with a million ways to kill, and whatever surprises the highly advanced Martian race may have in store.  Registration required.  HPL cardholders only.