A quarterly book club in partnership with The Garden District Bookshop at The Rink

Join Third Lantern Lit board and community members as we explore the stories and authors that define New Orleans.

Each quarter, we’ll focus on a novel or story that takes place (at least in part) in the Crescent City. We’ll explore different genres and time periods, reading the visions and histories of the many and varied individuals who call New Orleans home.

Participants are welcome to enjoy their own copy of that quarter’s selection or purchase a copy of the chosen book in advance from The Garden District Bookshop at The Rink.

Then, join us for book-themed cocktails and conversation at The Rink where Bar Epilogue will be open and serving yummy cocktails, mocktails, and light bites.

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Summer 2026 Reading New Orleans Selection

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Published in 1980, eleven years after the author’s death, this novel won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . It is considered a literary masterpiece by many for it’s zany approach to the timeless themes of loneliness, isolation, and the frustration of daily living in a consumer-driven society. For others, the book is a frustrating literary experience, mostly due to its lack of story arc and the obnoxious and often offensive beliefs of its main characters.

“A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“The fact that Ignatius Reilly is a ‘true genius’ and an obnoxious asshole at the same time, and to roughly equal degrees (with the asshole clearly having the upper edge), is an essential part of the overall comic vision.”
-Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Soho News

“[Ignatius J. Reilly is a] huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures.”
–Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times

What do you think? Join us on Thursday, June 18 to talk about it!