Fifty Books This Year

10: Slaughterhouse Five

2010-06-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

I think I tried to read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five many years ago, but just didn't get into it. Two friends of mine at work were raving about it and said I should read it. Yesterday I did.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I won't go as far as my friend Maggie and say it's my favorite book, but it really was interesting. I think I'd like to read some more Vonnegut now.

I found this book to be at once deeply serious and very funny. One of my favorite quotes is as follows:

Billy wasn't Catholic, even though he grew up with a ghastly crucifix on the wall. His father had no religion. His mother was a substitute organist for several churches around town. She took Billy with her whenever she played, taught him to play a little, too. She said she was going to join a church as soon as she decided which one was right.
She never did decide. She did develop a terrific hankering for a crucifix, though. And she bought one from a Santa Fe gift shop during a trip the little family made out West during the Great Depression. Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

9: The Sparrow

2010-06-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

I have read a couple books in my own spare time. This is the first.

I learned about this book on a forum I read that's not connected to teaching in any way. Some people said they read this book and it was something memorable that really stuck with them. I can't resist listening to what people outside of education say about what they're reading, so when I got a chance I read this book.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is a memorable book. In fact, I agree with those people on the forum who said this is a book that you remember for quite a while afterward. The only problem is that, while very interesting, Russell just didn't pull off this book. She had some very interesting ideas, but about midway through the book, it just fell apart. Characters started behaving in ways contrary to their character, the plot just zipped along, not really focusing on characters as it should, and the end is just a little too pat.

I was hugely disappointed with this book.

8: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2010-06-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

I dug this one out of the bookroom, too. Lots of dust on these copies. I'm moving away from what others in my department are teaching, but really, if we're going to say that the junior curriculum focuses on the American Experience, how can we not teach some real standards of the cannon, such as Huck Finn, The Sun Also Rises and My Antonia?

We're in the middle of this book now, and I'm glad I'm ending the year with this. There's plenty for us to dig our teeth into for analysis, but Twain tells such a good story that many students are really enjoying their ride down the Mississippi.

7: My Antonia

2010-06-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

I scrounged both schools in my district for enough copies of this to teach to my juniors, and actually ended up buying a few copies myself so I could do it. I'm glad I did. It was nice to have a book written by a woman with a woman character people could like. Plus, after so much of the fiction we read this year that portrayed such dismal views of the U.S., it was nice to have something positive and uplifting.

Again, the plot isn't so much of a focus here, so I think it was also good to push the students to read more analytically. Some enjoyed it, some were bored out of their minds. And so it goes.

6: The Sun Also Rises

2010-06-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I just listed this last year, but I read it again as I taught it. I expected this to be the hardest book of the year, and I think I was right. But I also think that some students ended up liking it. As one student said, it's not something you really enjoy as you're reading it, but in the end, you really end up liking it.

I'm glad it worked out for some of them. With a text like this, we really have to start analyzing the work with more skill. You can't just coast along talking about plot, because there really isn't much of any. I'll certainly teaching this again next year. I enjoyed this book and the unit I created for it.

5: Death of a Salesman

2010-06-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

So, now I'll only cheat a little bit by listing the books that I taught for the first time, or at least for the first time in a long time.

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a required text for juniors at my school, which is why I read it and taught it. I'm not a huge fan of this play. In some ways it reminds me of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; it's an interesting play, I'd love to see a live performance of it, but I just don't enjoy teaching it to high school students. I focus on Biff and his issues with the ways his dad raised him, but I really am not all that great about connecting this to my students. Perhaps the biggest problems is that I don't like it, which means they end up not liking it. Oh well, I'll try again next year.

Books 1-4

2010-06-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'll start off by cheating and listing the books I have already read but read again because I taught them again.

1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
3. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
4. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Delayed Start

2010-06-06T18:06:00.001-07:00

Hmmm.... Here it is June 6th and I haven't posted any books yet. Excuses? None. Read any books? Not many outside of school. Will I make it to 50 this year? Doubtful. But I'll do my best.

#23 Inside Out: Kirby, Liner and Vinz

2009-12-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

I read this book several years ago and had to read it again for my last graduate class. This is such a great book about the teaching of writing. Useful ideas and activities, an appropriate blend of theory and practice. It was fun to read it this time and recognized how many of the things I do today I learned from this book three years ago. It was a pleasure to read this again and I picked up a few more great ideas.

#22 Peninsula: Essays and Memoirs from Michigan: Michael Steinberg, ed.

2009-12-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

This is the second time I've read this collection of essays and I didn't enjoy it any more this time. But it (book #23) are the two books for my last graduate class. I've completed 30 graduate credits in the last two years and I'm grateful to have a break coming up.

#21 The Crucible: Miller

2009-12-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

I enjoy reading and teaching this play quite a lot. The figure of John Proctor is so powerful and the hysteria that Miller warns about it is still so relevant today. The ending is so powerful. Certainly my favorite Miller play. I'm not so much looking forward to Death of a Salesman later this year.

#20 The Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald

2009-12-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

One of the benefits of being a teacher is I get to read some good stuff. Gatsby was no exception. In class I was even able to help my students see that it's not just the story that matters; Fitzgerald's writing is so controlled, so powerful.

#19 The Sun Also Rises: Hemingway

2009-12-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

I read this book a month or so ago. I'm seriously tempted to teach it to my juniors this year, but haven't quite decided yet. It will be very hard for them to read and I can already hear the chants of "this is boring" in my head.

But I enjoyed the read. I haven't read it in a long time. Perhaps not since my junior year of high school.

#18 Joan Didion: Year of Magical Thinking

2009-08-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

I finally took some time to wrap up a few books I'm reading this summer. Good thing, too, because I start school next week. I'll be reading a bunch of new books this year, however, because I have a new prep: English 11.

Anyway, back to Year of Magical Thinking... it was good, I guess. A bit slow. But a very interesting and methodical look at the year following Didion's husband's death and the near loss of her grown daughter. I think I've read something by Didion a long time ago, maybe Democracy. It might be worth looking at her fiction again, but I'm not too sure I'd recommend this book to anyone.

#17: Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe

2009-07-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

After I finished Gilead yesterday, I tried to read something more lighthearted: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I read The DaVinci Code several years ago and enjoyed it's tale (if not Brown's writing style) and thought I might enjoy this one. I know that it's a dramatically different genre than what I just finished, and tried not to hold Brown's writing up to the same measure I would judge other, more serious authors, but I couldn't stand it. I tried to just let go and enjoy the tale he tells, but after 65 pages I finally gave up and went to find something better.

I've been meaning to read Things Fall Apart for several years now. A teacher I once taught with in Virginia taught it to her sophomores and really thought highly of it. This book was clearly better than anything Dan Brown could think to write. Powerful, direct prose that is subtle, yet powerful. I really like Achebe's plain and clear writing, and the story of one stubborn and flawed man facing the end of his civilization as he knows it is powerful, both as a testament to what happened to African tribes and also as a metaphor for societal change in general. I can see why my colleague enjoyed teaching this book--there is so much to teach here on many different levels.

#16 Gilead--Mariylnne Robinson

2009-07-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where I got the recommendation to read this book, but I ordered it from PaperBackSwap a few months ago and finally had a chance to read it. What a beautiful book! Robinson is clearly a talented writer and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. Gilead is told in the first person by an aging (and dying) minister, writing to his seve-year-old son. His goal is for his son to read this journal when he is an adult so that he will understand more about his father. The narrator is dying of heart disease, and knows that he will not be there to watch his son grow up.

The story is a meandering account of the narrator's life, friendships, and family. The narrator often interrupts himself with observations about current interactions and ramblings about his father and grandfather, both preachers as well. While it gets a little slow at times, it ends powerfully, demonstrating the power of friendship, family and faith. And did I mention that Robinson's control of language is outstanding?

#15: The Taming of the Shrew--Shakespeare

2009-05-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

This is the last major work my ninth graders will read this year, and it's a nice one to end on. After this, we'll do short stories, and then the year's up.

I enjoy this play quite a lot, and the kids seem to as well. They get the humor, there are fun gender stereotypes to play around with, and generally they have a good time with it. It's also fun to read a comedy, rather than always focusing on his tragedies.

#14: Catch Me if You Can--Frank Abagnale

2009-05-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

Now that I know I'm teaching juniors next year (I need a break from those seniors), one of the other teachers and I are working to find a good summer reading book for them. We want it to be somewhat related to the major themes of the year (the American Dream, etc.), something that isn't horribly boring, or too difficult. Ideally, it should be something the kids can read on their own, will find somewhat interesting, and allow us to keep coming back to throughout the year. I began my search last week, and happened upon this book. It just might be the right one.

I liked this book. I was different than the movie, of course, and better in some ways, worse in others. There's much more detail, and things make more sense than in the movie, but Hollywood is good at making real stories a bit more exciting than the original, so some of the suspense and action is less exciting in the book. The character played by Tom Hanks in the movie has a very minor part in the book. My one other complaint is that the writing is nothing really special. It gets the ideas across, but there's not much to the language or style. Still, this might be the one.

#13: Algernon, Charlie and I--Daniel Keyes

2009-04-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

I usually do not like to hear authors speak or read their reflections about their writing. Often, authors take on an egotistical attitude, especially successful authors. This book is somewhat autobiographical, but also a history of Keyes's Flowers for Algernon. He talks about how he started off as a writer, how he got the ideas for Algernon, and some other general observations about writing and publishing. I really enjoyed this book, and I will most likely use pieces of it when I teach this book again, especially the Afterward, where he talks about learning how scientists are now doing experiments on mice similar to what he predicted more than forty years ago.

Grad School Update

2009-04-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

After procrastinating for several weeks, I managed to finish the two graduate classes I was taking. This wraps up the classes required to earn my supervisor's license and opens up a substantial amount of free time for me to begin reading more interesting texts. I'm hoping to take a couple more classes this year, but not until the summer. In the meantime, I'll work harder on achieving my goal of fifty books in a year.

Actually, thinking about it, I'm not really behind. I've read 12 books so far this year and we're only one quarter of the way through the year. Nice. I'll make it this year for sure.

#12 Effective Teaching Strategies that Accommodate Diverse Learners--Coyne et. al

2009-04-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

This book was a real waste. The authors discuss effective teaching for "diverse students," which is all well and good, but how can you lump all diverse students into one category? Basically, what ends up when you do is a book about using good teaching strategies that help all learners. Each chapter is focused on specific areas of curriculum, such as teaching early readers, math skills, etc, but none of the chapters are very detailed or useful.

#11 Curriculum Development: Theory into Practice--Tanner and Tanner

2009-04-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ugh! I thought that Ornstein and Hunkins's textbook on curriculum was boring, but this is even worse! Tanner and Tanner spend hundreds of pages worshiping at the alter of John Dewey and bog the reader down with charts, graphs, and very dense writing. I can't imagine wanting to study curriculum on the level that these people do. Hopefully, I'm done taking curriculum classes for a while now, as I've now met the requirements for the Supervisor's license in New Jersey, which is why I was taking this class.

#10 Flowers for Algernon--Daniel Keyes

2009-04-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

I just finished teaching this book to my freshmen again this year. It's a great story and Keyes's prose is very tight. He does a fantastic job getting the reader to identify with and really get involved in the main character, Charlie. My students love this book, especially the ones that just can't get into Ender's Game.

#9: The Adult Learner--Knowles, Holton and Swanson

2009-03-29T09:58:00.001-07:00

So, Malcolm Knowles wrote extensively about adult learning, specifically labeling it as androgogy. He published extensively about it and this book is now in its sixth edition. Here's the catch: this sixth edition was published eight years after Knowles died. Come on Holton and Swanson! Write your own damn book and stop worshiping at Knowles's feet. Ugh!

Very theory-heavy and dense prose. Not much fun to read.

#8 Teachers Caught in the Action--Ann Lieberman and Lynne Miller

2009-03-29T09:55:00.001-07:00

This book, also for my grad class on teacher leadership, is pretty good. It's a series of articles written by various teachers about good professional development in their schools. I like that each chapter is focused on one aspect of professional development; too many writers try to tell about every aspect of professional development, rather than just focusing in on just one aspect. Of the three books for this class so far, this was the more interesting one.

#7 Learning Along the Way--Diane Sweeney

2009-03-29T09:52:00.001-07:00

I just finished this for one of my online grad classes. Overall, I think this book is just average. Sweeney tells about some very successful work being done at an elementary school in Colorado. It's informative in telling about good educational leadership and reform, and told in a very personal manner, not loaded with eduspeak. But overall, there wasn't a whole lot that I learned about teacher leadership from this book--maybe it's just too much of a beginner's book.

Still, I like that it's not loaded down with theory and Dewey quotes every other paragraph.

#6: A View from the Bridge--Arthur Miller

2009-03-06T10:53:00.001-08:00

I taught this book several years ago at another school. This play is quick, direct, and pretty well-received by my seniors. I think I like it better than Death of a Salesman, less than the Crucible. I find Miller's writing in Death of a Salesman to be just a bit too heavy handed, sometimes the Crucible is that way, too. Just tell a story for crying out loud, stop hitting me over the head with symbolism and crazy stage antics.

#5 Ender's Game--Orson Scott Card

2009-03-06T10:44:00.001-08:00

I still enjoy this book and the students sure do, too. It bogs down a little in middle, but it's still such a change from everything else we read that it's a real treat. Good stuff to talk about here with leadership, independence/dependence, human nature and all that.

I'm clearly in the middle of a series of books that are perhaps not quite at the top of the literary pile (Card's prose is not the highest quality), but conceptually interesting books to read. Next up is Flowers for Algernon, another book that really gets my students thinking.

#4 A Separate Peace--John Knowles

2009-03-06T10:41:00.001-08:00

This is my second time reading this book. It's the only required book at my school for ninth grade; the rest are choices from a list of options.

I enjoy this book and the students seem to tolerate it well. I know other teachers claim the kids hate the book, so maybe I'm doing something right. I tend to focus on the human aspects of the book: friendship, rivalry, jealousy, trust, peace, etc. It's a pretty rich book and a pleasure to read a second time.

#3: Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools by Thomas Sergiovanni

2009-01-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

The last of the three texts from my two classes—again for my supervision class. I can’t decide if I disliked this one or the curriculum one more. The curriculum text was dense, poorly-written, dry text. This one, while still informative and based on research, is much more touchy-feely, as indicated by its stupid title.

There were a couple really good chapters, but much of this was a little to sappy. Lots of talk about what education should be like, and some examples from successful schools, but not much practical advice about how to be a good leader. I guess it complemented the other text pretty well, but I didn’t like it much.

Now I just have to write two more papers and do two research projects before I start the next two classes.

#2: SuperVision and instructional Leadership by Glickman, Gordon, and Ross-Gordon

2009-01-11T08:27:00.000-08:00

Here’s the next of the three textbooks I had to read for my graduate courses, the class was about Supervising Educational staff. Again, I feel as if I shold count this one twice or maybe three times, since it’s more than 450 pages of educational text.

Actually, despite its length and the dopey title, this is really a very good text about the role of an instructional supervisor. The chapters are well-written, organized effectively and the authors actually have a bit of a sense of humor. If all texts were this read-able, life would be good.

#1 Curriculum Foundations, Principles, and Issues--Ornstein and Hunkins

2009-01-04T14:51:00.001-08:00

I really should count this books twice or maybe three times. It's 400 pages of heavy, dry, educational speak about curriculum. Yes, this was a required text for one of my classes, and I just now finished it today. All 400 pages of it.

I did not like this book. It does provide a terrific base for thinking about curriculum, but it is much too wordy. They include two or three-page introductions for each chapter. For goodness sakes, just get to it. Anyway, it's done.

Look for the next two books from my other class in the next day or so.

A New Year

2009-01-04T14:49:00.001-08:00

This marks the third year I will be attempting to read 50 books in a year. My first year I accomplished reading only 26 book. But to be fair, I did start rather late in the year.

In 2008, I made a more concerted effort to read 50 books, and almost made it, too. In October I thought that I'd be able to pull it off, but then I enrolled in a couple online graduate classes. Boo. That sucked up all my reading time and I ended the year reading only 37 Books. An improvement, but I'm still not there yet.

2009 is the year I'll actually pull this off. I'm still taking graduate courses, and will be doing so for the next few months, but after that I'm going to get it done. You'll see.

#37: And Then There Were None

2008-12-10T06:09:00.001-08:00

I read this the first time maybe five years ago when I taught it to a group of seniors in Virginia. I asked my department chair to order a class set of these books to teach to my seniors now. Last night I read this and enjoyed it again. Agatha Christie's writing is clear, powerful, and suspenseful, even when I already knew the ending. I hope that my seniors like this book--I think that they should.

#36: The Arrival--Shaun Tan

2008-12-03T15:08:00.001-08:00

This is a very interesting graphic novel—a whole story told only in images, no words. I got it from the library, thinking that maybe I could use it with my students with the stuff I’m hoping to do with graphic novels, but I don’t know if it’ll work or not. The story is about a family immigrating, much of what looks like Eastern European culture migrating to America. But with this, there’s a very magical/fantasy aspect to the new world and new land. I need to think more about whether I can use this to teach what I want to teach.

#36 Romeo and Juliet

2008-12-01T09:47:00.001-08:00

I’m teaching this to my freshmen again this year. I sure do love teaching this play—it work so well for freshmen. Not much more to say about this text, other than I do love teaching it.

#35 Houdini the Handcuff King

2008-12-01T09:46:00.001-08:00

I’ve enrolled in two online graduate courses that I hope to have finished by the first of the year. This has really put a dent in my reading for other purposes, so it appears I will not be able to get to 50 by the end of the year. Bummer. But I’ll still list what I do read.

This text is a graphic text that my school library just purchased. I like it. It’s a graphic biography, not a novel, telling about Houdini’s life. Quick read, and a nice combination of print and text together.

#34: Living and Teaching the Writing Workshop

2008-10-26T09:30:00.001-07:00

I'm always on the lookout for books to help me teach writing. This one sounded interesting, and there were some interesting tidbits here and there, but this is a very general book about writing, writing groups, and writing workshops. Chapters are very short and do not feature much that is new or especially interesting. I was a bit disappointed with this book.

#33: Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't

2008-10-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

I had high hopes for this book. I had heard good things about it and the liner notes make it sound like the author, Stephen Prothero, would not only tell about why we, as a country, don't know much about literacy and how that affects us as a nation, but then would address "both the core tenets of the world's major religions and the real differences among them. Complete with a dictionary of the key beliefs, characters and stories of Christianity, Islam, and other religions."

My high hopes were not met. Half of this book is Prothero explaining how we got to where we are (a nation of believers with no real knowledge of what it is we purport to believe). And the other half is his dictionary of religious information.

The first half was somewhat interesting (albeit long and repetitive), but I guess what I wanted was a Religion 101 kind of text, something that would actually tell me about the various religions of the world. His dictionary is a good reference, I suppose, but reading a dictionary alphabetized by character names and various religious tidbits, is not all that interesting to read, nor is it the best way to understand the various religions of the world.

#32: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

2008-10-18T20:52:00.001-07:00

Wow! This is a neat book. Jessica Abel and Matt Madden created this book as a text for a college class. Their intent is to teach a comprehensive course on creating comics or graphic novels. It’s very complete and very informative. I think I’ll be using ideas from this for sure with my students this year, and also using ideas from it for my National Writing Project presentation about using graphic novels in the English classroom. Fantastic book! They also have a companion website, which I haven’t looked at very much, but it looks neat: http://www.dw-wp.com

#31: Write Your Own Graphic Novel

2008-10-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

So I’m doing some research this year with my friend and mentor, Louann Reid. We’re looking at the ways in which graphic novels can be used in the English classroom. I’ll be reading books related to this project and this is the first one, written by Natalie M. Rosinsky.

This book wasn’t as helpful as I wanted it to be. It’s targeted towards teenagers and, while it does offer some interesting ideas, most of it is pretty general and not all that interesting.

It did give me a few ideas, and also pointed me towards some graphic novels I’d like to find, including:

Hoena’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Yang’s American Born Chinese
Satrapi’s Persepolis

Expect to see some of these titles in this blog soon.

#30: Nothing but the Truth

2008-10-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

I taught this book for the first time last year. It went over pretty well with a very difficult group of students I had. This year I’m asking my low-level seniors to read it independently, and it’s going over ok. It’s such a quick and easy read that they aren’t having trouble reading it, but I think that others aren’t getting into it because it is so easy to read; I think some of them feel a bit demeaned by reading something so easy. I’ll probably not use it again next year. We’ll see.

But I’m using it in conjunction with a unit I do on conspiracy theories. We’re reading and watching videos about the Moon Landings and JFK’s assassination, evaluating sources and making arguments for what we believe. It’s interesting stuff and fits nicely into discussions about Nothing but the Truth because we’re looking into what really is true and how we can ever discover the truth.

#29: A Raisin in the Sun

2008-10-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

I’m teaching this play again this year, which means I read it again. I think this is a good play. Not outstanding, like The Crucible or plays by Shakespeare, but good nonetheless. It helps kids understand how the struggles of the civil rights era affected individuals. But I think it lacks a certain depth that other literature has. Still, I enjoy teaching it.

#28: Of Mice and Men

2008-10-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, I read this last year and I’m counting it again this year. But since it’s my blog, I make the rules.

I love this book. Steinbeck captures the human condition so well and so completely in such a short book. I love reading this book and teaching it to my freshmen. They even like it, too.

#27: The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

2008-10-18T07:41:00.001-07:00

Along the same veins as the last book, this one was recommended to me via a blog I read. Again, interesting things that really agree with my way of thinking. If you spoil your child with gifts and make their lives as comfortable as possible, they tend to be pretty unhappy and non-motivated people. I wish that this book offered more concrete advise about what professionals working with today’s youth could do to help them, since the parents who treat their children like princes and princesses aren’t going to be reading this book. It’s an interesting book, and validates what I already believed.

#26 A Reasonable Life: Toward a Simpler, Secure, More Humane Existence

2008-10-18T07:38:00.001-07:00

This book, by Ferenc Mate, was recommended by a friend of mine. We had been discussing the excesses with which so many people in our area (Northern New Jersey) live. I found the book to be very much aligned to what I think about life, but not especially well-written or revealing anything especially new and interesting. A somewhat boring read.

#25 Sleepers--Lorenzo Carcaterra

2008-08-25T20:28:00.001-07:00

I have only one more week before classes begin, the year is more than half over, and I’m only half way to my goal of fifty books. I’d better hit the books hard this week.

This book, Sleepers, is the book they made a movie out of some years back, with some big-name celebrities in it. It was a very good movie and I hoped the book would be as well. It picked up towards the middle, but reading it was similar to reading A River Runs Through It—I liked the movie more. Yes, the book is a memoir, and therefore closer to the truth, but the Hollywood version of the truth is just more interesting. And especially the first section of this book was just not very well written.

#24 The Kite Runner-- Khaled Hosseini

2008-08-25T20:24:00.001-07:00

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a few years now, but the two teachers on opposite sides of my classroom have an ongoing debate about it (one loves it, one hates it) and I had to read it to get in the debate with them. I’m with Maggie—it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. Maybe one of the best books I’ve ever read. Really, it was fantastic.

#23 Tortilla Curtain--T.C. Boyle

2008-08-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

I started this book last year and then lost it. It turned up again last week, so I started it again and finished it over the weekend--it's fun to lose myself in a novel and not worry that I have other schoolwork to do.

Overall, I liked the book quite a lot. I think that some of the characters are pretty flat, and that might have been intentional on Boyle's part, but the storyline is pretty gripping and portrays two views of America: the lives of illegal immigrants and the lives of the upper class. I'm torn about the ending. In some ways it's a little lame, but then again, the last sentence or two are powerful.

#22 Other People's Words--Victoria Purcell-Gates

2008-08-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

This is the third text for the NWP that we were assigned to read, and I think I liked it the least of the three, which doesn't say much for it. There were two reasons I didn't like it. First, this is a workshop about writing and teaching writing. Yes, literacy is part of writing, but reading an entire work that talks about teaching a child and his mother to read and developing literacy just doesn't make much sense for this class. Second, it tells the story of such a specific circumstance, one that many of us will never encounter. As I said about Hillocks, a text used in a class about teaching writing should really be focused on the teaching of writing, with clear strategies for teaching and activites that can be used or modified by the teacher.

#21 Teaching Writing as a Reflective Practice--George Hillocks, Jr.

2008-08-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

This was one of the three required texts for the National Writing Project this summer. Hillocks has done quite a lot of research in teaching writing and there clearly is a lot of "meat" to this text. But I really didn't like it, and I think it was a poor choice for the class. Many of my cohorts didn't like it because it was so stuffy and academic--not a teacher-friendly text at all. But I didn't like it because I've read several other texts about teaching writing that are just so much better. Texts such as Deborah Dean's Strategic Writers or Kirby & Liner's Inside Out. Theory and research are great, but if you're going to require a text about teaching writing, it should have clear ideas about teaching, with lessons and activities that can be immediately used by teachers. At least that's my opinion.

#20 The Alchemist--Paulo Coelho's

2008-07-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

At the suggestion of one of my National Writing Project fellows, I read The Alchemist this weekend. It’s pretty short (~160 pages), and a very quick read, so I was finished in a few hours yesterday. She suggested it because it might be something I’d like to teach to my seniors. It’s a parable about finding your life path and sticking to it. There is some magical realism, and a smattering of religion (both Muslim and Christian, although the Christian themes are more prevalent). I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but I’m not sure it’s something I’d want to teach. I’d have to think about it a lot more.

There are some reasons I’d like to teach this book. Magical realism as a genre, for example, would be interesting. Using a South American author is another. It would be great to help make the curriculum more diverse. But I’m not sure this is the one. I have to think about it more.

Either way, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Not as much as I enjoyed Small Gods by Terry Prachett—another interesting text that serves as a parable about religion.

#19 The Courage to Write--Ralph Keyes

2008-07-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

I’m about to begin another graduate class this summer. It’s the National Writing Project Summer Institute at Rugters University. For the next four weeks, I’ll be part of what I’ve heard described time and time again as a fantastic professional development opportunity. I’ve been wanting to do the NWP SI for as long as I’ve been teaching, but when I lived in Virginia, there wasn’t a local site, and since I’ve been in New Jersey, I haven’t been able to afford it. I still can’t really afford it, but I’m doing it anyway. As my friends would tell me, I can’t afford not to do it.

Anyway, the first required reading for the workshop is The Courage to Write. I enjoyed this book, although I do have to say that probably this book only made me more fearful, rather than less fearful, about writing. It’s like taking your kids to the doctor—you want them to know what will happen so they’re not surprised, but you also don’t want to scare them too much. Keyes does a great job talking about the multitude of fears that writers have and some possible ways to combat their fears. I have to say that even though it’s a quick read and a little under 200 pages long, I think the book ran a bit long—I would have liked to read just a few chapters about this topic.

#18 King Lear--Shakespeare

2008-06-11T05:01:00.000-07:00

Now this is what I'm talking about! Plots and subplots. Interesting characters. Lots of stuff to really dig deep into and explore. Clearly one of Shakespeare's masterpieces and makes Faustus look like a very beginning attempt at doing something serious.

I haven't read this in ten years or so, and I had a great time doing so. I chose to read just start to finish, I didn't even have a pen or pencil in my hand to annotate the text. I wanted to just go through for the story only, not looking too deeply at it. Over the next few weeks I'll look at it more closely for my graduate class, but I've actually read ahead of where I need to be, so I have plenty of time to come back to it.

#17 Doctor Faustus--Christopher Marlowe

2008-06-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

It's strange that I haven't read this up until now. It seems that with a BA and an MA in English I would have read this play, but it was new to me last night.

I can't help but compare Marlowe's writing to that of his contemporary, Shakespeare. I've often heard of Marlowe's excellence in writing, but I have to say I much prefer Shakespeare. Marlowe's writing is just too... blunt. Everything is just so obvious. There is little character development of any character through the story, and the storyline just keeps hammering on the same theme: Faustus's big mistake of selling his soul for fleeting, temporary power. It is very reminiscent of Greek tragedy, but even Oedipus does a better job at using techniques such as dramatic irony to really nail the theme down.

I can't help but think that Shakespeare would have been so much more sophisticated in trying to address the same theme. Where is the intrigue? Where is the interesting interplay between characters? Where is the brilliance I was expecting?

#16 Don Quixote

2008-05-30T09:57:00.001-07:00

Ok, I didn’t read the whole thing, but I did read a 200-ish page selection of it. It’s interesting stuff, but, like previous readings for my humanities class, very difficult to get through. Long and boring sections abound. I think it’s interesting how the form of the novel has changed since it first developed. Essays, to, I suppose. Our requirements for readability seem to be much more strict than those that were followed during the renaissance. So many digressions, ramblings and off-topic conversation makes the writing bog down and really makes it tedious (to me, at least).

What’s interesting, though, is that I find Renaissance plays (at least Shakespeare’s) to be very well crafted, without much extra at all. Maybe the format of it required more structure? An audience watching a play needs it to be more focused and on task than someone with a text in hand?

Also, it’s amazing the length of these works (the whole Don Quixote is 1000-ish pages long). Keep in mind these were written out with a quill and paper and then printed on a printing press—both very labor-intensive processes. It’s so easy to quickly rattle off pages of text on a computer. Personally, I type around 80 words per minute. But I write much slower than that, and would slow down even more with a quill and ink pot. Or moveable type in a press. Yikes!

#15 The Taming of the Shrew

2008-05-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

I always love teaching Shakespeare. The kids usually moan and groan about, but then usually get caught up in the story and (maybe) like it a little. Maybe it’s because we do most of the reading in class.

Anyway, I’m teaching The Taming of the Shrew to my ninth graders. We just finished reading and watching a video of it today. I think it went pretty well, and it was nice to teach a Shakespeare comedy. Too often we stick with the tragedies that, while terrific, can be awfully depressing. It’s sometimes difficult for the students to understand the humor involved in something as old as Shakespeare (see my last post about my own reading of Rabelais), but I think it went pretty well.

#14 Gargantua and Pentagruel

2008-05-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

I’ve always enjoyed satire, and Rabelais does a nice job here parodying the church, government and whatever else he can get his hands on. That being said, reading this was very slow-going. Frankly, it was just too long.

The other difficulty with reading this is that so many of his references to people, places, and events went over my head. It’s hard to see the humor in many of his stories when I just don’t get what he’s talking about. It’s kind of like when I first taught Gulliver’s Travels to high school seniors. I remember loving it in college, the witty humor and biting satire. But to my high school students, it was just too difficult for them to “get” much of what was funny. I wonder how long it will be before current satire and parody will be too obscure to understand. Rabelais has lasted for hundreds of years; will The Daily Show and The Colbert Report?

#13 Machiavelli's The Prince

2008-04-29T05:21:00.001-07:00

So I’ve started another online class, this time a humanities class about the Renaissance. Since it’ll take up a lot of my reading time, I’ll post about what I read for it here as well.

Machiavelli is a pretty messed up individual. Interestingly, though, there is some wisdom in what he writes. It’s very dense to get through, but interesting now to know why people call some ideas or people “Machiavellian.”

#12 The Odyssey

2008-04-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've read this text, and I'm not sure I've read the entire thing, just selections from it. I'm also reading a translation I've not used before, by Robert Fagles. I like his translation and I enjoy the book as a whole. I've begun teaching this to my seniors, and will be using excerpts from it and from another very simple version I found online. A fun text that I'm looking forward to teaching.

#11 Peninsula: Essays and Memoirs from Michigan

2008-04-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

The other required text for my online class, this is a collection of short pieces from writers writing about Michigan, mostly memoir. I liked some of the readings quite a lot, some were ok, some were a real drag. Overall, I enjoyed this text and will probably keep it around and not offer it on paperbackswap or sell it on Amazon, significant praise for a book from me.

#10 Those Who Do, Can: Teachers Writing, Writers Teaching: A Sourcebook

2008-04-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

This book was a text for an online course I took, Creative Writing for Educators. It is focused on the workshops given in Traverse Bay MI over a period of many years. I enjoyed several of the chapters quite a lot, some of them had very helpful ideas for teaching creative writing. I also feel that this book is showing its age a little bit, as it was published in 1996, I think, and the lack of interesting and useful ways to use technology is an obvious shortcoming.

#9 Flowers for Algernon

2008-04-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

I had read the short story of this years ago, but had not read the entire novel before. Keyes does a fantastic job crafting a powerful novel here. Reading this novel encourages thoughts about what it means to be intelligent, what kinds of intelligence people have, and other very large questions about life. I enjoyed it tremendously, and enjoyed the conversations I had with my freshmen about it. A nice read.

#7 and #8 Beowulf

2008-04-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm going to cheat and list this twice because I read two different versions of it. I read the Seamus Heaney translation of it and the Gareth Hinds graphic novel as well. I hadn't read the entire work of Beowulf in a long time, maybe never. I find the main storyline intriguing and enjoy it, but find some of it quite tedious to get through.

But the graphic novel is great! Fun, exciting pictures and a great representation of the story. My seniors enjoyed it as much as they've enjoyed anything this year, which is high praise in my world. I enjoyed pairing the two as well.

#6 Shadow of the Hegemon

2008-02-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

So I couldn't let the Ender saga die out--I had to keep on reading. This installment, Shadow of the Hegemon chronicles the lives of the kids from the other novels--all except Ender himself, apparently there's another line of sequels that follows his life.

I liked this one less than the other two. It gets pretty political, and the kids just show off their smarts with political stuff. Nothing is really all that interesting here. I'm not sure if I'll continue with this branch of these novels or go to the other and see what Card does with Ender's life. Perhaps I'll take on Ender's line of sequels after I finish re-reading Ender's Game as my students finish it.

#5 The Book of Names

2008-02-22T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Book of Names by Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori was recommended through some online list of something. I got the book from paperback swap last year and haven't opened it until yesterday. It was a quick read and pretty compelling--a page-turner for sure. It's a bit like a Jewish Mysticism version of The DaVinci Code, but just not as good. I just got the feeling that these authors (and, by the way, how do two people write a novel together?) know a lot about a subject (Jewish Mysticism) and read the DaVinci Code and tried to emulate it. I never really wanted to set it aside and not finish, but I never really was into the book. I never really believed in what they were talking about, nor was I invested enough in the characters to be able to just set aside my disbelief and just enjoy the ride. And it was just too predictable. How can you get tense and scared for the protagonist (and the woman at his side that obviously will turn into a relationship) when you know that there's no possible way that real harm will come to him? I'm not a huge fan of this book.

#4 Ender's Shadow

2008-02-22T19:19:00.001-08:00

I dove right into this one the week after I read Ender's Game and enjoyed it almost as much as the first. This one tells the same story, but focuses on another character's role in it; rather than telling it through Ender's experiences, we go through it and see Bean's take on all of it. I almost like Bean better than I liked Ender--which is saying a lot, because I really liked Ender.

#3 Ender's Game

2008-02-22T19:14:00.001-08:00

The same colleague recommended I read this book. A couple of my students who had her last last year as juniors have read this book and some of its sequels, so I gave it a try. I really enjoyed this book--the storyline and characters are intriguing. Luckily there are many sequels, because once I read this I wanted to know more about the characters' lives and also the directions Card was going to go with the world (universe?) at large in the novel. In a way, this book is reminiscent of the Harry Potter books--a strange, unusual child placed in a position where he is responsible for more than he ought to be responsible for.

My only complaint--the kids were too young. I can understand genius children, but wisdom and sophistication is too much of a stretch for me to imagine six and seven year olds having. Maybe if the kids were a little older--maybe 11 or 12--I'd be more comfortable with them.

I'm teaching this book to my ninth graders right now--they like it pretty well.

#2 The Contender

2008-02-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

I'm always trying to find books that my students, especially my reluctant seniors, might enjoy reading. A colleague of mine recommended Lipsyte's The Contender, so I read through it. I liked it pretty well, and my seniors are liking it quite a bit. The characters are interesting, the reading level is not too difficult. We're actually listening to an audio version in class, and this really helps some of my students. So far, so good.

#1 A Separate Peace

2008-02-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Knowle's A Separate Peace is a required text for ninth grade at my school. I just read it this year for the first time. What a nice book! A bit like Prayer for Owen Meany in some ways, but more limited in time and scope--it focuses on a friendship between two boys for about a year or so at a private boarding school. I really enjoyed this book, and enjoyed teaching it as well.

Half way there--trying again

2008-01-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I clearly didn't make it to fifty books last year. And I stopped posting about the books I did read in July. I'm going to try again this year, but before I go there, I need to update and see just how many books I did read in 2007. Here's what didn't make the list, but should have:

#22: Bleachers by John Grisham. I liked this okay. I find Grisham's lawyer books much more ejoyable than his non-lawyer books. I felt the same about this one as I did A Painted House. It's interesting and mostly well-written, but just doesn't captivate me as much as his legal dramas.
#23: They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings Michael Burch. I liked it okay. My ninth grade students really liked it a lot.
#24: Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck. Fantastic. I love this book. It had been a few years since I'd read it and I love it more every time. My ninth graders liked this one as well.
#25: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Great play. Lots of good, relevant issues and themes in this play.
#26: Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. I love this play and I love teaching this play. Fun stuff to do with ninth graders.

I think there are more that I read since July, but I'm not sure what they were. If I remember, I'll edit this post. Hopefully, I'll get closer to the fifty book mark for 2008.

#21 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

So I stayed up almost the entire night last night and read this book almost in one sitting. Needless to say I enjoyed it. The first half I got bothered a few times by recognizing the same plot formula that Rowling had used in the last six books, but I guess it's just not a Harry Potter book without it.

I won't give away any details or spoilers, so don't worry about that. Overall I'm really glad that I read all seven of these books and I'm glad that this is the last one. Rowling needs to expand her writing a bit, I think.

#20 The Road

2007-07-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Once I had started reading The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I noticed the little emblem on the cover indicating that it had won the Pulitzer Prize. Having enjoyed it so much, I had the bright idea to look up what other books have recently won the Pulitzer. One of my jobs as an English teacher, I believe, is to have discussions with students about what makes literature good. What makes it enjoyable to read? What makes it Literature (with the capital L)? What makes us choose to teach certain books and ignore others? By being able to articulate why we like certain writing we can do two things: discuss writing with more depth and interest, and learn how to write well. I thought that perhaps it would be worth looking into the latest Pulitzer winners and see what kinds of writing win prizes.

So I checked out Cormac McCarthy's The Road from my local library. This is a post-apocalyptic story about a man and his son on a journey, trying to stay alive. It's a quick read, and I didn't immediately love it, but the story of the man and his boy was a bit captivating, so I pushed on. I wanted to know what happened to them and the book is a pretty quick read. In the end, I really liked the story, although I find McCarthy's writing to be both wonderful and terrible at the same time. Wonderful imagery and powerful prose, but would it kill him to use apostrophes in words like can't and don't? How about quotation marks around spoken text? Complete sentences? I don't want to be Mr. Nit-Picky, but what's the deal here?

#19 A River Runs Through It

2007-07-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

I actually read this a while ago, but just realized now that I forgot to write about it.

Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It and Other Stories is a small collection of stories. The main story was made into a great movie with Brad Pitt (side note, I once went white-water rafting on the Galletin River in Montana and my guide said that's the river they used shoot on instead of the Big Blackfoot. We even floated right past "the rock" on which Brad Pitt did his shadow casting).

Honestly, I liked the movie better. There aren't many times when I can say I liked the book better than the movie, but this is one of them. I guess it's because the book is nonfiction--stories about Maclean's life growing up in Montana. For the movie, they rearrange events and people in a more artistic way, producing a more enjoyable, yet probably less true story. It definitely something worth considering when discussing truth and story and all of what's implied in each.

That's not to say that Maclean's prose isn't wonderful, because it is. If you remember Robert Redford's narrations at the beginning and the end of the movie, lots of it is verbatim from the book. "I am haunted by waters." Beautiful.

#18 The Final Solution

2007-07-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

Well I started reading Joseph Heller's Catch-22 last night as my 18th book, but I only got about 50 pages into it. I'm not totally getting into it yet, but I haven't given up, either.

Then today paperbackswap delivered another Michael Chabon novel, The Final Solution. Since I enjoyed his other novel so well, I thought I'd read this one today. It's short, so it only took a couple hours. I liked it. It was a Sherlock Holmes novel, nicely done and somewhat cryptic in the end. I was hoping it would be something I could use in my classes this fall, but I'm not sure it'll appeal to teenagers. I might booktalk it sometime and see if someone wants to do it for independent reading.

Tomorrow, if the kids play nicely, I'll try to get through more of Catch-22, but if I'm not hooked by it, I'll drop it for something else.

#17 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

2007-07-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

This book was recommended to me by a writer of a personal finance blog. He phrased it with something like, "this is one of my favorite books of all time." Whenever someone says that, I have to at least look at what is being recommended. Turns out, I find this book to be great also.

Michael Chabon won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel and it's really a great read. I've always enjoyed historical fiction, and I guess this is historical fiction, revolving around the rise in popularity in comic books. I enjoyed reading this book. The plot was interesting and unpredictable, but not too outlandish. I'm looking into his other fiction as possibilities for use in my classes next year (this one, at 600+ pages is a bit too much for most of my high school students).

#16 Animal Farm

2007-06-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

After just having finished a book about the Russian Revolution, I figured now would be a good time to re-read Orwell's Animal Farm. I don't know when I read this last, but it was a long time ago.

Orwell was a smart man. His observations about society and politics are very astute, and this novel is a nice representation of his thoughts. I need to figure out a place to teach this novel, because it's sure worth teaching.

#15 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

2007-06-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned, I'd been revisiting some of the genres I liked when I was young. Partly just to do so, also to look to see if I could find interesting reading material for the senior classes I'll be teaching next year. After the disappointment with The Sisters, I read some reviews that compared it to John Le Carre's work, claiming him to be the master. So I requested The Spy Who Came in From the Cold from paperbackswap to check it out.

I'm also disappointed with this. I'm giving up on spy novels.

#14 The Revolutionist

2007-06-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

After being disappointed by The Sisters, I thought I'd go back to what I knew I liked from Robert Littell, The Revolutionist. I think this is my third reading of this book, and I still love it. When I was young I liked spy/detective novels and historical fiction. I guess I just don't like the spy/detective stuff anymore, so I'll have to continue to mine the historical stuff.

This is great historical fiction. The well-drawn characters are involved in the Russian revolution and the politics of Russia until Stalin's death. This time around, I recognize that the history is pretty much "Russian history for dummies," a bit light you might say, but I still enjoy it.I think it's pretty accurate; I know that it's interesting.

#13 The Sisters

2007-06-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Robert Littell's The Sisters was recommended from some reading list I happened upon, claiming that it was a masterful spy novel. Since I have read The Revolutionist a couple times, and really like it, I thought I'd give this one a try.

I'd hoped to read a few "fluff" novels, reverting back to the stuff that I used to enjoy when I was younger. Perhaps what I'm learning is that I'm not all that interested in spy novels anymore, that my reading habits have become more sophisticated. If found this novel predictable and somewhat boring. I should be surprised by the ending of a spy novel, not bored by it. Oh well, it only took me a day to get through.

#12 Life of Pi

2007-06-25T18:42:00.001-07:00

My mother and my wife both recommended Yann Martel's Life of Pi to me. As I take both of their recommendations seriously, I made sure this was on my reading list. I'd been warned that the first part of the book was a bit slow, but that it got much better.

I found this book to be interesting, but not all that wonderful. I kept waiting for something big to happen. The ending was interesting, but I found the book to drag just a bit getting there.

The real problem, I think, might be that I listened to this book, rather than read it from printed test. I'm finding that, as much as I'd like to, I just can't get into audio books. I think it's because I read much faster than a reader can read and not lose people, so I get bored.

#11 Small Gods

2007-05-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

I can't remember where I got the recommendation to read this book, but I recently received it from paperbackswap.com, and read it last weekend. Terry Pratchett's Small Gods is a bit fantasy/sci-fi, which usually isn't my genre of choice, but I really enjoyed this book. Many interesting ideas about the nature of religion, gods, and people, especially about how sometimes a religion can leave its god behind. I'm not sure I'll get through the more than thirty novels in Pratchett's Ringworld series, but I'm going to read more for sure. I highly recommend this book.

#10 Catcher in the Rye

2007-05-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

So I'll go back to cheating a little bit here: Catcher in the Rye is the tenth book I've read this year. I did teach this book to my sophomores this year. Well, mostly they read it as independent reading and we considered different aspects of Salinger's writing as we began a creative writing unit. I don't have much to say about this book that's new or interesting, but it was nice to reread this book. I hadn't read it since graduate school at Colorado State, seven years ago.

#9 Winter

2007-04-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Rick Bass's Winter is the ninth book that I'll post about on this blog. This was a book that was required reading for an undergraduate class on nature writings that I took at UC Davis, probably in 1996. I haven't read it since then, which is a bit odd.

This book is about Bass, a native of Texas, and his girlfriend from Mississippi moving to northern Montana and the first winter they spent there. What's odd about me not re-reading this book is that since finishing college I, too, have wintered in Montana. I worked in Yellowstone National Park and lived in a town with electricity, a much different experience than Bass's in Yaak, so maybe that's why I didn't think to read this book while there or after.

Anyway, I really do like this book. It's beautifully written and I'd like to track down some of his other work. I'm trying to read a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, so this fits well with my goals for my year of reading.

I had hoped to read three or four books this week while on vacation, but only completed these two. I started another mystery novel, but modern crime/mystery novels seem to focus heavily on the forensic/CSI-type of storyline, which I don't like very much. When I put down the last novel, I picked up Bleak House by Dickens. That one won't be read in just a day or two, so we'll see how quickly I get that done and post about it here.

#8 Fatlands

2007-04-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

Finally, one I read outside of school and actually in book form, not on a CD. My wife recommended the author Sarah Dunant to me, so we ordered this book from paperbackswap.com. Apparently this book, Fatlands is part of the Hannah Wolf Crime Novel series.

I didn't like it. I like a good mystery, but this one was predictable and rather hokey. The first-person narrator was interesting and unique, especially with her direct addresses to the reader, but the story was just not all that interesting.

But this was my first day of Spring Break. It was nice, at least, to sit and read a book all day, even if it wasn't very good.

So here I am, 8 out of 50 books read for the year. I have 38 weeks left to read 42 books. I'm not that far behind, I suppose. We'll see if I can catch up.

#7 The Lovely Bones

2007-04-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Finally I'm not cheating. Well not entirely. I listed to this one on a CD while driving to and from work. I didn't really like listening to it on CD and would rather have read it in a book, and I didn't really like the book, to be honest.

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, is a story told by a 14-year-old girl looking down from heaven after she has been brutally murdered. She tells of the effect of her death on her family and friends and describes their lives for the next ten years or so.

Besides being troubling to read (I don't want to read about a family grieving for their raped-and-murdered daughter, thank you very much), I didn't much care for her writing. Too much focus on details, not enough plot. Perhaps if I had read it instead of listened to it this wouldn't stand out as so obvious. But others I have spoken to really love this novel, so you may want to check it out.

#6 The Great Gatsby

2007-04-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Turing back to my juniors and their reading of American Literature, here's another classic: The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald is ever they stylist here, painting a beautiful, yet terrible vision of the American Dream. Jay Gatsby is trying to win back the love of Daisy, and not doing so well at it. Rich with symbolism and told by a terrific disillusioned narrator, Nick, this is a great read.

#5 Lord of the Flies

2007-04-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

In the appendix of this book, Golding states that his attempt in this novel was to trace the failings of society back to human nature. After living through WWII and the Holocaust and the beginning of the Cold War, Golding wanted to explore whether we do such terrible things because of our corrupt governments or because of some flaw in human nature itself.

His way to explore this was to crash-land a group of English schoolboys on a deserted island and see how well they fare. The results are not good, but a very interesting read.

#4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2007-04-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

How lucky I am to teach the books I get to teach! Huck Finn is such a great piece of literature. Now, I agree that once the King and the Duke show up, it gets a bit tiresome, but Twain really does amazing work throughout this novel depicting the times before the Civil War. A wonderful book that I'm glad I get to re-read each year.

#3 Ninteen Eighty Four

2007-04-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

1984 is perhaps my favorite novel to teach, I think because for the most part I don't focus on the typical English-teacher stuff (plot, theme, symbols, etc.) as much and focus more on its relevance to our lives now.

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

The three part slogans, apparent contradictions, but truly paradoxes, are still as relevant now as when Orwell published this book in 1949. If you have never read this book, or haven't read this book in a while, now is the time to revisit it.

#2 The Crucible

2007-04-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

Still cheating and counting books I taught this year, we move to another play, The Crucible. I enjoy this play tremendously, and my students generally respond to it fairly well.

If you aren't familiar with this play, it was written by Arthur Miller as a response to the Red Scare in the 1950's. He was intrigued by how often humans repeat the same types of behavior, so he researched the Salem Witch Trials and dramatized some of the events in Salem in this play. While all the characters were based on real people listed in the records from the time, he made up their own stories.

This is such a powerful play. Act three is especially powerful. I nearly die every time I read this play and see such terrible things happen to the innocent, mostly because of how true it all is in real life.

#1 (Cheating) The Taming of the Shrew

2007-04-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

Well I'd love to say that I was going to read fifty books outside of what I normally read for my teaching duties, but I know that won't happen. So I'm going to include the books that I have read and taught so far this year. I always re-read them before I teach them, so it still counts, right? Perhaps if I weren't starting counting to fifty in April I wouldn't cheat like this.

First book: The Taming of the Shrew
Luckily, I get to teach good stuff, and I began the year with Shakespeare. Most of the other teachers of sophomores at my school choose to teach Julius Caesar, but I don't really enjoy teaching that play, so I chose Shrew instead. Until this year I'd never actually taught this play, but I do think I read it ages ago as an undergrad. Over at Book-A-Minute they have the following summary of this play:

Katharina

Spit. Hiss.

Petruchio

Shut your mouth before I hit you.

Katharina

I can be civilized now that a man has bossed me around. I love you madly, Petruchio.

THE END

Pretty depressing summary, I agree. And the overall look at women's roles are pretty dismal. Katharina only finds out that she can be happy if she starts listening to a man, and he frees her from her bad attitude. But, the whole play-within-a-play setting means that this story is told as entertainment to a drunk fool. How serious can the message be when it's told to this idiot?

It's a fun play to read with high school students, especially comparing the gender roles that are required for men and women in our society. Looking at something so obviously sexist can really help students see the same problems, although sometimes more cleverly hidden, in our own society.

Who Am I?

2007-04-07T06:05:00.000-07:00

So perhaps your first question might be, "Who are you?"
Well, my name is Greg, and I teach high school English. I've been teaching now for six years and really enjoy what I do. I have a Master's in English and have been a lifelong avid reader. I think that's about all I need to share right now.

Starting Late

2007-04-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

So, as you can guess by the title, I'm going to try to read fifty books this year. I happened upon this idea by accident, actually. I recently discovered paperbackswap.com and have been very excited by its prospects. If you haven't heard of it, it's a very cool site. Basically, you list books you're willing to mail to other members. To begin, you must list at least nine books, but you can list as many as you want. As soon as you list your nine, you get three credits. With each credit, you're able to order a book from another member. Every book costs one credit, and you earn a credit every time you ship a book to another member. All you ever pay is the postage for the books you mail out, usually $1.59.

Anyway, now that I have access to lots of books for little money, I've started trying to figure out what books I should order. I came across several websites (including my own library's) that are encouraging people to try to read fifty books this year. Even though it's already April, I think I'll take this challenge.

So, if you stay tuned here, you'll hear about the books I've read so far this year, and the ones that I'll be reading in the future. We'll see where this goes.