A Gentleman in Moscow was the 25th book read by our group! Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced in 1922 to remain confined in the Hotel Metropol as punishment for writing a poem unfavorable to the revolution. The novel delightfully follows this gentleman with his charm, grace, and compassion, as he lives out the next three chaotic decades isolated inside, but luxuriating in the world of companionship, civility, and humor within the Metropol. Count Rostov responds to difficulties with grace and humanity. Amor Towles created in Rostov a gentleman who delights in defeating the system with charm, one who accepts his confined circumstances and eventually overcomes them through his wit and spirit. We thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and discussing it.
Our next book will be Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling. Here is a link to a review from History Net. We will meet Wednesday, August 1 in Room 115 of the Richardson Library. Remember that we now start our group at 11 am. We gather at 11, with discussion from 11:30 to 12:30, so please bring your brown bag lunch! For further information contact Kathryn DeGraff or Helen Marlborough.
We will continue to review the titles on our list for consideration for upcoming discussions. Please let Kathryn, Helen, or anyone else in the group, if you have a favorite book you would like to share with your DES colleagues. As you can tell from the posts, we are interested in a wide range of fiction and non fiction. We enjoy our sessions thoroughly and always have room for more people and more insights.
