[Editor’s note: Join Ann at our informal online open house February 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern. RSVP here.] On many Classical Pursuits trips, we are reliant on the written word, and messages we can glean from mute buildings, streets, and monuments, to help us understand pivotal happenings in human history. […]
Author: Ann Kirkland
Understanding Quebec’s Quiet Revolution
What comes to mind when you think of Quebec City? If you didn’t say “revolution,” you would not be alone. With its dramatic clifftop location overlooking the mighty St. Lawrence River, its fortification walls, narrow winding streets and wealth of historic buildings, Quebec City charms visitors with its picturesque views […]
GUEST BLOG—Feeling at Home with Ulysses by Michael Groden
At home. Mentioning Ulysses might conjure up a range of associations – important, classic, difficult, even unreadable – but “at home” isn’t likely to be one of them. Sixteen people felt anything but comfortably home on a Monday morning this past July as they awaited the start of a Toronto […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS—Cuba! The times they are a-changin
“And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again” – Bob Dylan Sometimes one has the chance to be an eyewitness to history at a remarkable moment. Ten years ago, visitors were told what we now know to be true: that along with the end of the Castro regime would come […]
GUEST BLOG—Nella Cotrupi on Trieste and Tristezza
I flip pages of my memory like the pages of the many books we’ve read together. What do I come up with? The flotsam and jetsam of a world modern and yet defined by the ever-present layers of its past, its names, its words from many tongues, its wisdom, and […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS—Winning pix from Colombia, winter 2015
We are pleased to announce the winner of our trip, Colombia: A paradise where reality and magic blur. Our judge this time was Alex Fiscalini, painter, photographer, graphic artist, and art director. Alex was drawn right away to this photo by Christine Croucher of Forest, Ontario. Christine has been toting […]
ON THE ROAD WITH ANN – Mystery & Manners in Savannah
I was mulling over my impressions from our fifth trip to Savannah and was struck that this Travel Pursuit differs from others in a strange way. Most of the time I find the literature and the place complement and enrich one another. Even if we are in Florence discussing Dante, who […]
GUEST BLOG—Eureka! The Stratford Excursion
Eureka! The Stratford Festival Excursion (July 17–19, 2015) You are invited to join us for the Stratford Excursion. We have limited seating available and hope you will not procrastinate. There has been an unexpected early rush and we are over 50 percent booked already. We have announced the plays on […]
GUEST BLOG — Why We Discuss?
I’ve spent the better part of my professional life encouraging people to talk about books, and not just any books, great books. It turns out that these great books are often times difficult books too. Occasionally I get the prickly questions: Why would a bunch of equally ignorant people even […]
GUEST BLOG – Travelling with Books
I think we read and we travel for many of the same reasons. We like to visit new places and experience new things. Books are a kind of travel by imagination. Although I’ve travelled a fair bit, and I’ve read quite a lot, I’d never combined the two until I […]