A Book and a Bite

The theme of this book group a simple - incontrovertibly fine books accompanied by slightly more controversial, interpretive food pairings for each selection.

For our first book of 2026 we will read John Williams' Stoner, a sad, beautiful, classic novel that celebrates the majesty of an 'ordinary' life. It is a perfect book for students and teachers returning to campus after a long break, or the melancholy mood that comes with these long winter nights.

You're very welcome to join us in the first Book Book and a Bite of the New Year. We will meet monthly, and there is no commitment beyond whichever meeting you decide to attend.

'William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death, his colleagues remember him rarely.

Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value - of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history - and in doing so reclaims the significance of an individual life.'