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Stanford Book Salon

Bookworms unite! Each month, this seriously unstuffy community of Stanford alumni, family and friends gathers online to read and discuss a different book handpicked by one of our renowned faculty hosts.

Ready to devour and digest the latest and greatest reads? Join Book Salon today.

Current Book - January 2013

  • Emma
    by Jane Austen.
    Hosted by: John Bender

    "My candidate for the perfect English novel is Emma. It is a page turner to keep you awake until you finish into the night. And it is a work of such brilliant technical innovation that I teach it in my course on narrative theory."

    John Bender, Jean G. & Morris M. Doyle Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Upcoming Books

  • February 2013

    Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Hosted by: Nancy Ruttenburg, Director, Center for the Study of the Novel and The William Robertson Coe Professor of American Literature

  • March 2013

    Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse

    Hosted by: Steven Carter, professor of Japanese literature

  • April 2013

    Any Human Heart by William Boyd

    Hosted by: Helen Stacy, Director of the Program on Human Rights in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

  • May 2013

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Hosted by: Gavin Jones, professor and chair of English

Past Books

  • September 2012

    Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante

    Hosted by: Alice LaPlante, lecturer in the Mastery in Communication Initiative at the Graduate School of Business

  • November 2012

    Tevye the Dairyman & Railroad Stories, by Sholem Aleichem

    Hosted by: Gabriella Safran, Eva Chernov Lokey Professor in Jewish Studies, Professor and Director, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Chair, Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages

The Stanford Book Salon [Seriously Unstuffy]

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A Tribute to Diane

The Stanford Book Salon remembers our founder, Diane Middlebrook.

Read personal remembrances »