Works of Ambrose, Orwell, Eliot featured in chatcasts

Historian Stephen Ambrose's reflections, George Orwell's 1984, T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets--those are among the October topics of the Meting of the Minds Online Book Discussion Group and other chatcasts for booklovers. Below are events and details, from Meting moderator Tom Peters. The discussions use audio chatcast software, which downloads automatically and does not contain spyware. You'll need Internet Explorer, an audio card and loudspeakers or headphones, nothing more--except for a mike, if you want to ask questions by voice rather than typing them. While the discussions are organized for the blind and other print-challenged people, anyone can participate.

--Wednesday, October 13, 2004 beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific: The Meting group will be discussing the book To America: Personal Reflections of An Historian by Stephen Ambrose. In this 2002 bestseller Ambrose intersperses his personal story with reflections on American history. His topics include the transcontinental railroad, World War II, Native Americans, Vietnam, civil rights, and women's rights. Also describes well-known persons such as Washington, Lincoln, Lewis and Clark, Nixon, and Eisenhower.RC 55747, 2 cassettes, read by John Polk.

--Tuesday, October 19, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 1:00 Central, noon Mountain, and 11:00 a.m. Pacific: T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets". Join the a poetry group for a casual poetry discussion and readings from Four Quartets. This program is part of the LBPH Cyber-Dialogue Series sponsored and conducted by the Cleveland Public Library's Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Note: This program will last approximately two hours.

--Wednesday, October 20, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 1:00 Central, noon Mountain, and 11:00 a.m. Pacific: Sounds of LC. Leaves are rustling, ghosties and goblins are about, speeches are being made, and music is always in the air! Join Library of Congress tour guides for a sampling of the rich audio collections on the web site. Note: This program requires RealMedia and Windows Media Player.

--Thursday, October 21, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 10:00 Central, 9:00 Mountain, and 8:00 Pacific: George Orwell's "1984". Join LBPH for an online book discussion of George Orwell's "1984." Retired John Carroll University Professor and "futurist" Dr. Mary K. Howard will provide an introduction to kick-off the discussion. For those Ohio residents needing a copy of the book, contact LBPH at 216-623-2911 or 1-800-362-1262. This program is part of the LBPH Cyber-Dialogue Series sponsored and conducted by the Cleveland Public Library's Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Note: This program will last approximately two hours.

A more detailed schedule of online events for October and beyond can be found at http://www.opal-online.org/programs.htm.