Mission Impossible Book Club
Mission Impossible is our book group dedicated to tackling some of literature's most challenging works. The program encourages readers to venture beyond their comfort zones while fostering thoughtful discussion, critical thinking, and a shared appreciation of great writing.
From October 2026 through June 2027 we will discuss Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob (translated by Jennifer Croft), as well as the short story "Preserves for Life" (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) and "The Tender Narrator", her Nobel Prize lecture (translated by Jennifer Croft and Antonia Lloyd-Jones).
Mission Impossible Book Group Resources
The Books of Jacob
Choose your preferred format for The Books of Jacob—print, eBook, or eAudiobook.
Discussion Groups
Check out the complete schedule for both virtual and in-person discussion groups.
Lectures & Learning Resources
Discover lectures and learning materials to deepen your understanding.
Discussion Prompts
Prompts coming in September.
Monthly Group Reading Schedule
October
- "Preserves for Life" (short story)
- The Books of Jacob: Prologue and Book One, "The Book of Fog"
November
- The Books of Jacob: Book Two, "The Book of Sand"
December
- The Books of Jacob: First half of Book Three, "The Book of the Road" (Parts 13–16)
January
- The Books of Jacob: Second half of Book Three, "The Book of the Road" (Parts 17–18)
February
- The Books of Jacob: Book Four, "The Book of the Comet"
March
- Olga Tokarczuk, "The Tender Narrator" (Nobel Prize Lecture)
- The Books of Jacob: Book Five, "The Book of Metal and Sulfur"
April
- The Books of Jacob: First half of Book Six, "The Book of the Distant Country" (Parts 26–28)
May
- The Books of Jacob: Second half of Book Six, "The Book of the Distant Country" (Parts 29–30)
- The Books of Jacob: Book Seven, "The Book of Names"
Every Other Month Group Reading Schedule
October
- "Preserves for Life" (short story)
- The Books of Jacob: Prologue and Book One, "The Book of Fog"
December
- The Books of Jacob: Book Two, "The Book of Sand"
February
- The Books of Jacob: Book Three, "The Book of the Road"
April
- Olga Tokarczuk, "The Tender Narrator" (Nobel Prize Lecture)
- The Books of Jacob: Book Four, "The Book of the Comet"
- The Books of Jacob: Book Five, "The Book of Metal and Sulfur"
June
- The Books of Jacob: Book Six, "The Book of the Distant Country"
- The Books of Jacob: Book Seven, "The Book of Names"
Meets Three Time Group Reading Schedule
December
- "Preserves for Life" (short story)
- The Books of Jacob: Prologue and Book One, "The Book of Fog"
- The Books of Jacob: Book Two, "The Book of Sand"
March
- Olga Tokarczuk, "The Tender Narrator" (Nobel Prize Lecture)
- The Books of Jacob: Book Three, "The Book of the Road"
- The Books of Jacob: Book Four, "The Book of the Comet"
June
- The Books of Jacob: Book Five, "The Book of Metal and Sulfur"
- The Books of Jacob: Book Six, "The Book of the Distant Country"
- The Books of Jacob: Book Seven, "The Book of Names"
These are the books that we have read over the years:
- 2026-2027 - The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
- 2025-2026 - Death in Venice and Other Tales and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
- 2024-2025 - The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
- 2023-2024 - Midnight's Children & The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
- 2022-2023 - The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, & Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
- 2021-2022 - No One Writes to the Colonel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, & Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
- 2020-2021 - Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse, & Orlando by Virginia Woolf
- 2019-2020 - Go Tell It On The Mountain, Giovanni's Room, & Another Country by James Baldwin
- 2018-2019 - As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, & Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
- 2017-2018 - The Brothers Karamazov & Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- 2016-2017 - Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- 2015-2016 - Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- 2014-2015 - Middlemarch by George Eliot
- 2013-2014 - Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust
- 2012-2013 - The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
- 2011-2012 - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- 2010-2011 - Ulysses by James Joyce