Beginning on February 6, 2011, Accessible World will host a new book discussion group. We will read and discuss books in the self-help or self-improvement genre. If you read and apply the teachings in these books, you will be empowered and inspired to, as Oprah says, live your best life. As with all things in life, you can take what you need from these books and leave the rest.

John Steinbeck wrote of a time and place barely remembered by many in America. He wrote of homes lost and lives altered forever by circumstances beyond the control of families trying to eek out a living under inhospitable conditions. What is it really like to lose a dream and for hope to end? When your home is gone, where do you go? How will you feed your family and make a new start? Life under the conditions in which they lived as portrayed in The Grapes of Wrath is unimaginable for us. Sometimes, you must leave the only life you have ever known.

During the past few months, we have explored the mind and heart of Huck Finn through Ira Fistell's brilliant analysis and comprehension of this novel. An author and his characters are linked for all time, and so it is with Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn. In our previous discussions, Ira has revealed how characters reflect time, culture, and history. At the outset, Huck believed what his friend Tom Sawyer believed.

Some novels move slowly while others move at breakneck speed leaving little time for reflection. Many are filled with symbolism and meaning for creative-writing professors and academicians we may never see. Do you sometimes wonder what an author was really saying in that book you just read? Why does a novel have a certain structure? What is a particular author really saying? Is it what we think, or are there deeper implications about society and culture? Ira Fistelle has studied the works of Mark Twain in depth and believes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be The Great American Novel.