Winter 2010

Our next adventure in our Across the Pond series  is..

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 

In 1988 Paulo offered The Alchemist to a small Brazilian publishing house. It only sold 900 copies and the publishers drop it. The Alchemist is nowadays one of the most read books in the world.


Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992--not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable--in other words, a bag of wind. The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: ``to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation.'' So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, ``Listen to your heart.'' A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver (``concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man''). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits--a far cry from Saint- Exup‚ry's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility. Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.  -- Kirkus Reviews Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP.

ACROSS THE POND

This year's theme is .....Across the Pond

Our readings will take us across the Altanlic to adventures from our friends to the East.

We will start with our Text in Community and then venture through Liberia , Morrocco, Spain , Afganistan and Pakistan .

Titles for this upcoming year 2009-2010

Dreams From My Father - A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen

Dates and book availability information coming soon.