One Blink at a Time

This month the Book Club invites the French Club to join us for the reading of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the poetically written memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of French Elle Magazine. After suffering a stroke, Bauby finds himself "locked in:" he is of sound mind but is unable to communicate because of paralysis caused by the stroke. Without the ability to speak or write, Bauby uses a system of blinks to dictate his story letter by letter. The story he tells is both beautiful and terrifying.

Book discussion: Wednesday, February 10, in the library, after school
Film viewing: Thursday, February 11, in Mrs. Everett's room (250)

Hello, Dave.

Arthur C. Clarke's groundbreaking 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey set the standard for the sci-fi literature that was to come. In begins in prehistory. Moon Watcher, and ape-man discovers a mysterious, dark monolith near his cave home. Millions of years later, a similar monolith is uncovered on the Moon. Next, a ship is sent to Saturn under the guise of collecting information about the planet; however, the HAL 9000, the ship's computer, knows what it's real mission is, and it cannot allow the ship's captain, to get in the way of that mission.

Join us for the discussion of this novel on Wednesday, January 13, and for the film version on Friday, January 15.

If you enjoy this novel, check out (pun intended) its sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two. Very fitting given the new year.