Events & Programs

Now in its 11th year, the Cornell Community Reading Project comes to France! Though originally conceived for Cornell University's incoming freshman class, the project has expanded to other schools, community libraries, and now to the American Library in Paris. Books for the reading project are suggested by the Cornell community. Finalists are chosen and then read and discussed by the university's academic leadership before the final selection is made.

Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow has been selected for the 2011 Cornell Community Reading Project and the American Library in Paris will host a moderated discussion of the book on Thursday 6 October. The 2009 novel is a fictionalized redaction of the lives of the Collyer brothers, whose story became a New York urban legend that, in Doctorow's words, "seemed ... a Satanic mockery of what we all stand for."

Homer & Langley generates a range of engaging topics for exploration, including the major events of twentieth-century U.S. history from prohibition to flower children, the modern media phenomenon of “reality,” the significance of community, the creation of “trash,” and the claims of family, as well as sustainability, news, rebellion, the psychology of hoarding, and autarky.

Visit the 2011 Cornell Community Reading blog for more information about Homer and Langley Collyer, E. L. Doctorow, as well as fun study questions to get you thinking. We look forward to this lively moderated discussion @ The Library.