Short, Cheap, Nearly Great Books SE Denver: December 2024

Friday, December 13, 2024

Tues, Dec 17 @ 7:30 PM [MT] via Zoom

Please read the last two essays in The Good Immigrant and join us for a discussion.

244 Million by Mona Chalabi is just one page. It has you make a paper airplane while reviewing statistics on world migration. (Page 298)

How to Center Your Own Story by Jade Chang was written just before Trump's first term. Many of her observations apply today. (Pages 301-313)

Contact me for the Zoom link.

Friday, December 6, 2024

Tues, Dec 10 @ 7:30 PM [MT] via Zoom

Please read The Special World by Tiphanie Yanique and join us for a discussion.

This is the last selection in The Best American Short Stories -2020. Find it on page 329.

Contact me for the Zoom link.

Here is our latest schedule:

Basic Guidelines for Shared Inquiry

Read the selection carefully before participating in the discussion. This ensures that all participants are equally prepared to talk about the ideas in the work.
Most of us need to read short stories more than once.
Support your ideas with evidence from the text. This keeps the discussion focused on understanding the selection and enables the group to weigh textual support for different answers.
Discuss the ideas in the selection and try to understand them fully before exploring issues that go beyond the selection. Reflecting on the ideas in the text and the evidence to support them makes the exploration of related issues more productive.
Listen to other participants and respond to them directly. Directing your comments and questions to other group members, not always to the leader, will make the discussion livelier and more dynamic.
Expect the leader to only ask questions. Effective leaders help participants develop their own ideas, with everyone gaining a new understanding in the process. Participants should look to the leader for questions, not answers.