New books are being added to the shelves of Missouri Southern.

The Literary Lions Book Club has chosen its moderator and book of choice for the semester.

Lee Pound, alumni director, said the books are chosen based on whether or not a moderator can be found and if the book can be used in a classroom setting. If the book doesn’t fit the classroom setting, she said it should be something the students can read later.

“The participants then pay a $25 fee and that covers the purchase of the book as well as the refreshments at the meetings,” she said. “And at the end of the reading sessions, that book is put on the shelves of the library and it has a plate with everyone of the participants of the sessions. So it’s a neat way to pay $25 and have entertainment and educational value and give back to the school.”

The book club has been working along these lines for a few years now.

“We started in Fall 2003,” Pound said.

She said she met with Wendy McGrane, director of Spiva Library, and asked if there was a way to fill the bookshelves for faculty and students.

“So we put our heads together and we decided that the best way to go would be the Literary Lions Book Club,” Pound said. “Wendy was the one who came up with the name, and she designed the logo.”

Pound said the book club brings several books back to the library.

“It’s a great way to put books back on the shelves and get alumni and friends of the school to participate,” she said. “We usually try to keep the groups small,” Pound said. “We try never to go over 20 because we want everyone to get involved in conversation and be able to participate.”

It is the moderator’s first time doing this for the Literary Lions.

“Wendy McGrane contacted me this time it’s the first time we’re doing a drama,” said Dr. James Lile, assistant professor of theater. “We’re doing A Raisin in the Sun, the play by Lorraine Hansberry. It will be four sessions and we’ll discuss the play and discuss the autobiography of Hansberry. Then we’ll watch the movie A Raisin in the Sun on the fourth session.”

He said movie is full of issues.

“It’s about a black family and they encounter lots of resistance when they move into a white neighborhood,” Lile said. “It deals with issues of success and survival – it deals with a larger civil rights issues, but in context to one family.”

He said the ideas presented in the movie are current.

“It still is a very powerful issue; the play was the first by an African American woman to have her play produced on Broadway,” Lile said. “It was very sad because the author died very young. She was only 34.”

Lile said Hansberry’s autobiography, To Be Young, Gifted and Black is part of his overall discussion focus.

“I’m going to talk about the artistic context, what was going on in theatrical work and how the play fits in and where we can locate it’s context,” he said.

Anyone interested in the Literary Lion’s Book Club may contact the alumni office at 625-9355.

For the France Semester, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong was chosen and the moderator will be Dr. Paul Teverow, professor of history. The book ties in with the Gockel Symposium.