January 9, 2006

55th Books & Coffee series warms February with book selection

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's 55th Books & Coffee series begins with two books about what it is like to be a college student today.

"Books and Coffee is even better than a book club because there are no rules, no homework and no negotiations over meeting times – it's always Thursday afternoons in February," says Shirley Rose, professor of English and coordinator of the series. "Having coffee and listening to a talk about a recently published book is a pleasant way to spend a winter afternoon. Book lovers can learn enough about a new book to decide whether they want to read it."

Books & Coffee, which is free and open to the public, begins at 4 p.m. when tea and coffee are available. The half-hour book talks begin at 4:30 p.m.

The discussions include:

• Feb. 2, Samantha Blackmon, assistant professor of English, will discuss Rebekah Nathan's "My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student," in Stewart Center, Room 302. The book is about an anthropology professor who goes undercover at "Any University" to learn what it is like to be first-year college student.


• Feb. 9, Janet Alsup, associate professor of English, will review Tom Wolfe's "I am Charlotte Simmons," in Stewart Center, Room 302. This is a story about a bright, beautiful, but naïve first-year scholarship student's discovery that, for others, partying, athletics and sex take precedence over all else and her struggle to find her own niche at fictional Dupont University.


• Feb. 16, Bill Mullen, professor of English and American Studies, will discuss Zadie Smith's "On Beauty," in Stewart Center, Room 302. This story, which is loosely based on E.M. Forster's "Howard's End," is set at an elite university on the outskirts of Boston and is a contemporary story of two academic families – the liberal Belseys and the conservative Kippses.


• Feb. 23, Harold Woodman, professor emeritus of history, will review Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America," in the Purdue Memorial Union, South Ballroom. This novel considers what would have happened if an anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh had run against Franklin Roosevelt in the presidential election of 1940 and won.

Attendees also may enter drawings for prizes, including books and sweatshirts. Books & Coffee is sponsored by the Department of English and the Purdue Student Union Board.


Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu


Source: Shirley Rose, (765) 494-3740, srose@cla.purdue.edu


Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

 

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