Polish Heritage Book Club
During or before the year 2005, the Polish Heritage Association of Maryland (PHAM) established a monthly Book Club,
begun and led since then by Professor Dorothy Pula Strohecker (now age 96). We are dedicated to reading
and then discussing works by Polish authors or members of the Polish Diaspora (Polonia). Although we emphasize
selections from the Polish literary canon, we also consider other works that feature Polish characters, settings, or themes.
All readings and discussions are done in English. To participate, email RecordingSecretaryPHAM@gmail.com.
Recent Book Club Selections
June 2026
20 Malvina, or The Heart’s
Intuition
by Maria Wirtemberska
May 2026
23 The play Mazeppa
by Juliusz Slowacki
April 2026
11 The Fair Folk and Little
Orphan Mary
by Maria Konopnicka
March 2026
14 Excerpts of works by
philosopher and author Stanislaw Brzozowski (1878-1911), as translated by Michael Mikos
February 2026
14 Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska,
RN: A Nurse of Mercy
January 2026
11 “Mendel Gdanski", “Rota”,
and “Smoke”
by Maria Konopnicka
December 2025
13 “Christmas Day at Sea” (1924)
Polish author Joseph Conrad
November 2025
11. Echoes of Tattered Tongues
by John Guzlowski
October 2025
10 The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman
by Andrzej Szczypiorski
September 12, 2026
Book Club Selection
Despite the fact that he did not learn the language until he was in his twenties, Polish-born Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is renowned as one of the most accomplished prose stylists who ever wrote in English. According to Google's AI Overview, his 1907 novel The Secret Agent "is widely considered the first true spy and political espionage novel." The New York Times has called it "the most brilliant novelistic study of terrorism." We will discuss this "groundbreaking" story on Saturday, September 12, 2026.
Note: We are not using any particular edition of this work; members may choose which edition to obtain and read.
First US edition cover image: http://manybooks.net/original_covers/c/conradjo/conradjoetext97agent10.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92398857
Author image:
George Charles Beresford, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Conrad.PNG
Upcoming Selections
Here is the tentative schedule
for 2026-2027:
July - August 2026 -- Summer Break
Summer reading for discussion on:
September 12, 2026
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
October 10, 2026
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
November 14, 2026
Short stories by Stefan Zeromski
December 12, 2026
Poetry by Czeslaw Milosz, and possibly by Wislawa Szymborska and/ or others
January 9, 2027
Tango, a play by Slawomir Mrozek
February 13, 2027
Castorp by Pawel Huelle
March 13, 2027
Honey, I Killed the Cats by Dorota Maslowska
April 10, 20
The Willow's Bend by David Trawinski
May 08, 2027
Memories of My Life in a Polish Village
by Toby Knobel Fluek
June 12, 2027:
Memories of Survival
by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz
A downloadable list of our readings over the past 20 years can be found below.