BookTalk at BSC is the Bismarck State College Library annual book discussion series and made its debut in 2000. BookTalk discussions are held in the library's 2nd floor conference room in LEA Hall, Room 204, and are free and open to all.
The books can be borrowed from libraries or purchased from local booksellers. For more information, call 224-5450. BookTalk is funded by the BSC Library and a grant from the BSCFoundation.
BookTalk 2019 -- Off the Grid
“How many things there are that I do not want.” – Socrates, ca. 425 B.C.
Off the Grid 2019 BookTalk Guide
Sunday, January 6, 1-3 p.m.
Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom by Ken Ilgunas
Discussion leader: Dr. Kimberly Crowley
Sunday, February 3, 1-3 p.m.
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
Discussion leader: Dr. Brian Palecek
Sunday, March 3, 1-3 p.m.
The Mosquito Coast: A Novel by Paul Theroux
Discussion leader: Michael Tomanek
BookTalk 2018 -- ...And Justice For All
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sunday, Jan. 7, 1-3 p.m.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Discussion leader: Dr. Brian Palecek
Sunday, Feb. 4, 1-3 p.m.
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Discussion leader: Michael Tomanek
Sunday, March 4, 1-3 p.m.
Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward
Discussion leader: Dr. AnnMarie Kajencki
- Click here for BookTalk at BSC 2018 online guide
BookTalk 2017 -- The Prize That Wasn't: 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize isn't an idea. It's a vote of confidence. Like literature, it exists purely in the mind. -- Jeffrey Eugenides, Winner, 2003 Pulitzer Prize for
Middlesex
Sunday, Jan. 8, 1-3 p.m.
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Discussion leader: Dr. Brian Palecek
Sunday, Feb. 5, 1-3 p.m.
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Discussion leader: Tempe O'Kun
Sunday, March 5 at 1-3 p.m.
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Discussion leader: Dr. AnnMarie Kajencki
BookTalk 2016 -- War Stories: Vietnam
But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget. -- Tim O’Brien,
The Things They Carried
Sunday, Jan. 3, 1-3 p.m.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Discussion leader: Dr. Brian Palecek
Sunday, Feb. 7, 1-3 p.m.
Matterhorn: a Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
Discussion leader: Dr. Perry Hornbacher
Sunday, March 6, 1-3 p.m.
Going after Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
Discussion leader: Dr. AnnMarie Kajencki
BookTalk 2015 -- Road Trip
The journey not the arrival matters. -- T. S. Eliot
Sunday, Jan. 4, 1-3 p.m.
Blue Highways: a Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon
Discussion leader: Clay Jenkinson
Sunday, Feb. 1, 1-3 p.m.
Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Discussion leader: Dr. Janelle Masters
Sunday, March 1, 1-3 p.m.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Discussion leader: Dr. Brian Palecek