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Have you heard what students are saying about Coffeehouse for Writers Online Workshops? For testimonials, check out our raves page, or read some cheers for our facilitators.

What is The Reader's Corner?

The Readers Corner is a reading group for the literary community. We read and discuss books for their own sake (as in "regular" reading groups or book clubs), and we also discuss each selection from a writing/creative standpoint - i.e., plot, structure, POV, dialogue, characters, style, etc. The group is very dynamic, as our selections vary across genres in order to maintain significance to all members and their personal writing interests. Our membership includes writers with all levels of experience, from beginning or "aspiring" writers to those with several books in publication (and everyone in-between); we've even celebrated several members' success traveling from the former to the latter during the years they've been in the group! While some might feel that an online reading group would lack the quality of interaction that exists "in person," the Readers Corner has developed a strong community atmosphere over the years, with an impressive number of members located across the globe (a unique quality that can only be accomplished online); the diversity this brings to our discussions is invaluable. In addition to the reading/discussion of each selection, we also have a monthly "What are you working on?" discussion. This ongoing dialogue about our creative lives has also strengthened the Readers Corner's unique sense of community, which (admittedly) is often lacking in online discussion groups. In our group, everyone is equally valued and supported, and we are always looking for new members to enhance our discussions with their unique perspectives. SO, pull up a chair to the Readers Corner table in the Coffeehouse, and you will receive a warm welcome from the community where everyone can call themselves "a writer" . . . new chairs are always available!

Reading through the 20th Century

Through the next year or so, the Readers Corner community will be reading thirteen of the best books written/published through the past 100 (or so) years. The selections are listed below, with the book we are currently reading highlighted in bold. A more in-depth description of our current selection is included in the right column.

So, whether you've been with us from the time we began this journey, or if you've become a member sometime through the process, we hope you will join us in what are bound to be some great discussions about literature and the writing life!

Selections:

1899   The Awakening by Kate Chopin 

1911   Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton   

1927   To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

1930   As I Lay Dying  by William Faulkner

1948   The Plague by Albert Camus

1953   Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

1967   One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez

1969   I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

1970   The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 

1984   White Noise by Don DeLillo

1993   Come to Me (stories) by Amy Bloom 

1998   The Hours by Michael Cunningham 

2003   Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (stories) by ZZ Packer

To Join the Discussion:

Send blank email HERE.

If you are joining the group while a selection is currently in progress, please request a reading/discussion schedule from the group moderator.

About Our Moderator:  

Laura C. Alonso has studied psychology at Loyola University of Chicago and is a former employee in the field of child welfare, having worked with several nonprofit organizations such as The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and The American Academy of Pediatrics.  She now brings much to her writing from these experiences.  Ms. Alonso was Senior Editor at Fictionline Press, and she is now the Fiction Editor at The God Particle, an online literary journal.  Laura and her husband are also developing a nonprofit, grassroots publication in Chicago, News for a Change, with a focus on community and humanitarian issues.  Her work has been published in The Surface-Online Arts Magazine and Gallery, SFWP.com, 3am Magazine, Outsider Ink, Linnaean Street, and In Posse Review, and she was a finalist in the Santa Fe Writers Project's 2001 and 2002 Literary Award Programs.  Laura resides with her husband in a suburb of Chicago, and they are both voracious readers.  She especially enjoys the opportunity to discuss literature with members of Coffeehouse's Readers Corner, which she describes as follows:  "The Readers Corner is a true community in the best sense of the word; we are so fortunate to have gathered together a simply amazing and wonderfully diverse group of individuals in our little corner of the Internet."

One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Description
One Hundred Years of Solitude is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.  The book is considered Márquez's masterpiece, metaphorically encompassing the history of Colombia or Latin America.

The novel chronicles a family's struggle, and the history of their fictional town, Macondo, for one hundred years. García Márquez acknowledges in his autobiography Living to Tell the Tale that Macondo was based on the towns where he spent his childhood. Like many other novels by Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude crosses genres, combining elements of history, magical realism, and pure fiction.

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