It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our fearless leader, Clara Browda, who died on December 1, 2021. She led this group since its inception with grace, humor and intelligence. Her loss is incalculable and deeply felt by us all. We treasure her memory and the legacy she leaves behind.
About
The West Los Angeles Reading Group is currently at capacity and cannot accept new members. The group meets on Sunday afternoons six times per year, in February, April, June, August, October and December. UCLA Professor Emeritus Charles Lynn Batten serves as professional moderator for the group, which meets in the same location for each session. A fee of $15 per meeting is charged to offset expenses, and members take turns providing refreshments.
West Los Angeles
Reading Group
Next Meeting
Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 1:30pm
West Los Angeles Reading Group
Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
Meeting will be conducted via Zoom
Professor Lynn Batten and Clara Browda
History
One of the region’s oldest and most active reading groups, the West Los Angeles Reading Group first met on February 18, 1996 and was organized by Clara Browda, who continued to coordinate the group until her death in December 2020. On February 16, 1997, a year after the group’s inception, UCLA Professor Charles Lynn Batten, PhD, came on board as professional moderator. In addition to leading the lively discussion every other month, he writes a toast to commemorate Jane Austen’s birthday for the group’s annual December meeting. The group originally rotated among member’s homes but for many years met in the community room at Clara’s condominium building. The West Los Angeles Reading Group currently has approximately 35 members.
Reading List Archive
2023
April 16
Emma by Jane Austen
June 11
The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
August 13
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
October 8
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
December 10
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
2022
February 6
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
April 10
Middlemarch by George Elliot
June 5
Emma by Jane Austen
August 7
Room With a View by E.M. Forster
October 9
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
December 11
Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron
2021
February 21
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
April 22
Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe
June 13
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
August 15
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
October 24
Persuasion by Jane Austen
December 12
Washington Square by Henry James
2020
February 9
Sanditon by Jane Austen
June 14
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
August 16
Jane Austen’s Juvenilia
October 18
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
2019
February 10
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
April 7
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
June 23
Emma by Jane Austen
August 11
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
October 20
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
December 15
Three Men in a boat by Jerome K. Jerome
2018
February 11
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
April 15
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
June 10
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
August 12
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
October 14
Persuasion by Jane Austen
December 16
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
2017
February 19
Nutshell by Ian McEwan
April 9
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
June 11
Daniel Deronda (books 1-5) by George Eliot
August 13
Daniel Deronda (books 6-end) by George Eliot
October 15
Persuasion by Jane Austen
December 17
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
2016
February 21
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
April 10
Lady Susan and Sanditon by Jane Austen
June 12
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
August 14
Emma by Jane Austen
October 8
The Janeites and Jane’s Marriage by Rudyard Kipling
Poor Emma by Reginald Hill
December 18
The History of England by Jane Austen
2015
February 15
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
April 19
Persuasion by Jane Austen
June 14
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
August 16
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
October 18
First Impressions by Charlie Lovett
December 13
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2014
February 16
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft and A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
April 6
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
June 8
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
August 17
Emma by Jane Austen
October 19
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, Vol. 1 (“The Man of Property” and “Indian Summer of a Forsyte”)
December 14
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
2013
February 10
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
April 21
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
June 9
The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
August 18
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
October 20
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
December 15
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
2012
February 12
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
April 15
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
June 10
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
August 12
Persuasion by Jane Austen
October 14
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
December 16
Smut by Alan Bennett
2011
February 6
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
April 10
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
June 12
Emma by Jane Austen
August 21
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
October 9
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
December 18
A History of England by Jane Austen
2010
February 7
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
April 18
The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
June 6
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
August 15
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
October 17
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
December 19
The Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth
2009
February 8
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
April 5
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
June 7
Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
August 9
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
October 4
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
December 13
Persuasion by Jane Austen
2008
February 10
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
April 13
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Finishing School by Muriel Spark
June 8
Emma by Jane Austen
August 10
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
October 12
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
December 14
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
2007
February 11
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
April 15
Hotel du Lac and A Misalliance by Anita Brookner
June 10
Persuasion by Jane Austen
August 5
Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
October 21
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
December 16
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
2006
February 5
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
May 7
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
July 9
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
August 13
The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
October 15
Unnatural Causes by P.D. James
December 17
A History of England by Jane Austen
2005
February 13
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
April 10
Emma by Jane Austen
June 26
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
August 14
Jane Austen’s Letters
November 6
The Loved One and Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
December 11
Jane Austen birthday celebration
2004
February 15
Middlemarch by George Eliot
April 18
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
June 27
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
August 29
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
October 27
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
December 12
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
2003
February 23
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
May 4
Persuasion by Jane Austen
June 22
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
August 17
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
October 12
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
December 14
Jane Austen birthday celebration
2002
February 10
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
May 5
Emma by Jane Austen
June 30
Poor Emma by Reginald Hill
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson
August 11
The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
Surrogate Parents by Sue Bain
October 6
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
December 15
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2001
January 7
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
March 11
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
May 20
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
The Janeites by Rudyard Kipling
July 29
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
October 14
Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett
December 16
Jane Austen birthday celebration
2000
January 23
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
March 26
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
June 4
Persuasion by Jane Austen
August 13
The Post Captain by Patrick O’Brian
October 29
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
1999
February 11
Juvenilia by Jane Austen
April 11
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
July 18
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
August 9
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
September 26
The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan
November 21
Emma by Jane Austen
1998
January 6
Persuasion by Jane Austen
February 1
Jane Austen’s Letters
April 5
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
October 11
Letters to Alice by Fay Weldon
December 13
Emma by Jane Austen
1997
January 26
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
February 16
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
March 2
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
March 16
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
April 6
Emma by Jane Austen
May 4
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
May 18
Persuasion by Jane Austen
June 1
Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
July 20
Evelina by Fanny Burney
September 28
Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
December 7
Sanditon by Jane Austen
Surrogate Parents by Sue Bain
1996
February 18
Persuasion by Jane Austen
April 18
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
July 21
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
November 24
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen