![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/1-1.png?resize=632%2C241&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Welcome Readers!<\/p>\n
In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.<\/em><\/p>\n David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni\u2019s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella\u2019s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.<\/em><\/p>\n David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night\u2014\u201cthe night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.\u201d With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.<\/em> – Vintage<\/p>\n Looking for some other classics? Try any of the following.<\/p>\n As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome Readers! This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on classics. Our main title for August is Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Here\u2019s a quick summary from the publisher: In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,3371,5,1,8],"tags":[9460,2061,9461,9627,9553,3395],"class_list":["post-56866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-online-book-challenge","category-read-a-likes","category-reference","category-staff-picks","tag-9460","tag-classic","tag-genres","tag-giovannis-room","tag-james-baldwin","tag-online-reading-challenge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-eNc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57200,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56866\/revisions\/57200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/giovannis-room.jpg?resize=200%2C313&ssl=1\")
<\/a>This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on classics. Our main title for August is Giovanni’s Room<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by James Baldwin. Here\u2019s a quick summary from the publisher:<\/p>\n\n