Polish Heritage Book Club
The Polish Heritage Association of Maryland monthly Book Club was
established and is still led by Professor Dorothy Pula Strohecker (now age 96) over 20 years ago. It is dedicated to reading
and discussing works by Polish authors and members of the Polish Diaspora (Polonia). While 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
October 2026
10 Short stories
by Stefan Zeromski
September 2026
26 The Secret Agent
by Joseph Conrad
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. Seidelman
by Andrzej Szczypiorski
November 14, 2026
Book Club Selection
Widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of philosophical science-fiction, Solaris is Stanislaw Lem's masterpiece." It has been called both a "cult classic” and a ”landmark.” Rich in language and theme, this book ”explores the limits of human comprehension.” According to Wikipedia's article on Science Fiction, "Lem's work anticipated the creation of microrobots ..., nanotechnology, ... and artificial intelligence,” so it is still highly relevant today.
Author image:
Kazimierz Mordasewicz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Cover image: original cover image of the 1970 first English-language edition from https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?265422
Upcoming Selections
Here is the schedule for 2026-2027
(modified on September 8, 2026):
November 14, 2026
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
December 12, 2026
Poetry by Wislawa Szymborska and other female poets
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, 2027
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.