Literature, Writing, and Language   

Join us for a 7-week exploration of British novelist and scriptwriter Anthony Horowitz, a master of mystery! We’ll delve into his clever works on film, including:

• Midsomer Murders: “The Killings at Badger’s Drift” (8.1 imdb rating)
• Foyle’s War: “The German Woman” (8.1)
• Alex Rider: *Stormbreaker* (Young Adult 5.1), and
• Magpie Murders: first (8.0) and last (7.4) episodes (stream episodes 2–5 at home).

We’ll also read "The Word Is Murder" from the best-selling Hawthorne series, where Horowitz blends realism with fiction and appears as the detective’s sidekick. The "Wall Street Journal" exudes “an ingenious funhouse mirror of a novel sets a vintage ‘cozy’ mystery inside a modern frame.”

In discussions, we’ll uncover how Horowitz blends traditional elements, like the "charming English village," with postmodern twists, such as “mysteries-within-mysteries,” turning the classic mystery genre upside-down. This course promises intrigue, puzzles, and surprises—perfect for mystery buffs and novices!

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz ISBN: 978-0062676801

No Class May 15

Promises, forbidden love, legal puzzles, and Charles Dickens' compelling details and dialogue -- this is a novel to work through with like-minded OLLI readers. Published just after David Copperfield, Bleak House (1852-53) is the first of Dickens' later and darker novels. At its heart is a court case, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, based on an actual legal case in Victorian England that continued for years, entangling all the possible inheritors in its complicated plot. Humorous and quirky characters abound, but even they are faced with the effects of the uncovering of long-held secrets. The main characters are the young people who hope to benefit from the inheritance. The settings range from a diseased and foggy London slum to the magnificent estate of Lord and Lady Dedlock. An amazing occurrence: one character actually spontaneously combusts!

Required text: Bleak House, Penguin Classics, Nicola Bradbury, editor. ISBN 978-0-141-43972-3 or equivalent.

Join us for a six-week exploration of "Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities," a gripping tale of love, sacrifice, and revolution. Together, we’ll delve into the tumultuous worlds of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, uncovering their profound influence on Dickens’s masterpiece and their ripple effects on global revolutions. Through lively discussions and historical insights, this class will bring the chaos of the past to life, connecting Dickens’s vivid storytelling to the forces of change that shaped the modern world. Revolution has never been so entertaining—or so relevant.

Purchse the book Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

"Place" is sometimes described as an additional character in novels, especially when an author develops a collection of characters in a specific location throughout a continuing series. We will do some armchair travel while exploring various mystery series set in the Four Corners region of the US, beginning with Tony Hillerman's fine series set in Navajo country and his daughter Anne's sequels. Each week will focus on a different author's series set in this part of the country, with attention to the stories, the characters, and especially the place.

The class includes "show and tell" exhibits of Native American rugs, pottery, arts, and jewelry as they tie into the stories.

Ernie Pyle was the one man who sent home the truth from the front lines of World War II to the American people. This course will reintroduce an American newspaper original, probably the best, most in-depth and personal reporter of the entire World War II era. Writing for the Scripps Howard News service, Ernie Pyle's stories appeared in hundreds of papers daily, introducing the American public to their Army--their sons, fathers, husbands and more. He lived with the soldiers, marched beside them and ducked fire in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy and the Pacific. More than any other writer, Ernie Pyle made the war personal and brought it home to American readers, giving them an intimate, honest, frightening depiction of what our troops constantly faced. The course will also take us to Dana, Indiana, the birthplace of Earnest Taylor Pyle. We will learn more about his reporting on small-town America and how he became the "voice for aviation" in our country.

This is Your War, Brave Men, Ernie's War (by Ernie Pyle) The Soldier's Truth by David Chrisinger

Book banning: It’s in the news almost daily. What is going on?

What kinds of books are subjected to calls for bans? Who challenges those books . . . and why? What rights do we all have regarding access to so-called offensive literature? In this course, we will learn about proposed and actual bans on books for all sorts of readers – past and present. But we will place special emphasis on books written for children and youth because they are receiving the most attention of censors currently.

With the intermittent book bans in the United States over 200 years, the focus and subject areas have not changed: Books about race, sexuality, religion and politics. There are just different titles being targeted today.

This course will examine all of the questions cited above. We will watch and discuss lectures from a Great Courses set: “Banned Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works” (2023). There will be related handouts distributed via email.

Short stories are fun and they're easy to write. The approach that Facilitator Edward Ford uses is known as writing from life. A writer does not make up a story and then try to make it seem real. Rather a writer writes about everyday life and tries to make it seem magical. If a student can write a story about strolling down the sidewalk, or riding a bus, then the student can write about anything and there will be no end to their stories. Each class students will write two stories about their own lives and then read them to each other. Facilitator Ford will share some of his stories, as well. We will get to know each other very well.

Required: Pen and paper

Recommended: Notes in response to weekly prompts

Co-facilitators, Don and Gracie Batt create a reading community where, based on readers experiences, multiple views are shared. The class is based upon contemporary critical literary theory that posits readers create meaning when encountering a text. Class size is kept small so that these exchanges can occur. Members take turns reading aloud, allowing class members to analyze the text in real time. This method fosters an in-depth analysis of the text and encourages engagement not only with the text but also with class members.

Required copy of the novel, The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf, 2010