Books Read 2012
- Twenty-five books this year, not too shabby. My friend Amin once recommended that I read the complete works of some author. He recommended Graham Greene, I considered Philip Roth, but as a first endeavor, I've gone with Madeline L'Engle. I'd read her "Time Series" when I was younger (and many times since), but I had no idea how much she'd written. I think I'm about halfway finished. The first book in the Crosswicks Journals, A Circle of Quiet, has been the highlight I think.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- Khaled Hosseini
- Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
- P.G. Wodehouse
- Jack and Jill
- Louisa May Alcott
- Son of a Witch
- Gregory Maguire
- The Futures of School Reform
- Jal Mehta
- How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- Paul Tough
- Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There are No Bad Schools in Raleigh
- Gerald Grant
- A Severed Wasp
- Madeline L'Engle
- The Small Rain
- Madeline L'Engle
- The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
- Madeline L'Engle
- Camilla
- Madeline L'Engle
- A Circle of Quiet
- Madeline L'Engle
- A House like a Lotus
- Madeline L'Engle
- Dragons in the Waters
- Madeline L'Engle
- The Arm of the Starfish
- Madeline L'Engle
- An Acceptable Time
- Madeline L'Engle
- How Right You Are, Jeeves
- P.G. Wodehouse
- A Swiftly Tilting Planet
- Madeline L'Engle
- Many Waters
- Madeline L'Engle
- A Wind in the Door
- Madeline L'Engle
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Madeline L'Engle
- The Kidnapping of Courtney Van Allen and What's Her Name
- Joyce Cool
- Making the Corps
- Thomas Ricks
- Death Comes to Pemberley
- P.D. James
- The Glass Castle
- Jeanette Walls
Labels: books
national poetry month
April is National Poetry Month. As such, I resolve to read some this month.
Poetry Speaks is a fantastic site with numerous recordings of poets reading their own work. I have the book and I love it.
Poetry 180 is another of my favorite poetry sites. Billy Collins started it when he was poet laureate and it provides 180 poems of high interest to high school students that tend to be recently written and pretty accessible. I used both of these a lot when teaching. My kids particularly loved poems from Poetry 180 and the 2 books that go along with it.
Here's one I particularly enjoy:
Selecting a Reader
Ted Kooser
First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
"For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned." And she will.
Labels: books, poetry
books read 2010
This is a rather poor showing. A book a month, and 3 of them were young adult... Better next year?
Come JuneteenthAnn Rinaldi The Killer AngelsMichael Shaara The Brothers KDavid James Duncan The Magician's NephewC.S. Lewis The Horse and His BoyC.S. Lewis The Bourne IdentityRobert Ludlum SuperFreakonomicsSteven Levitt & Stephen Dubner same kind of different as meRon Hall & Denver Moore When Helping HurtsSteve Corbett & Brian Fikkert Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams The HelpKathryn Stockett Life of PiYann MartelLabels: books
summer reading list
I sit here, on a 3-day break from school. Turned in my last spring semester assignment last night and Maymester starts on Monday. I feel like I need to do a lot of processing- both from this first year of grad school and from all that I've seen flood-related in the last 2 days. But what I want to think about is my summer reading list since I haven't read anything except education stuff since January. And even though I still have to work this summer, I'm pretty sure I will still qualify as marginally-employed, so hopefully I will still have time to do some reading. Methinks this is going to be mostly repeats from previous unfinished lists and things I've started that remain unfinished...
When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett & David Fikkert
Urban Injustice, David Hilfiker
Superfreakonomics, Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
The Brothers K, David James Duncan
(so far, it seems important that you be named David or Steven if you want me to read your book)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
same kind of different as me, Ron Hall & Denver Moore
Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw
Neither Here nor There, Bill Bryson
Labels: books
summer reading
Yesterday was the last day of school, and I have yet to really ponder my summer reading list. Which is particularly unfortunate as my summer will be 3 weeks longer than usual this year and the 3 weeks of it I will be in a new city where I know few people. Gonna need a lot to read. Here's what I've got so far. I'd love suggestions!
Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, Nathan L.K. Bierma
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
City of God, St. Augustine (really, I think a more reasonable goal is to finish this thousand + page tome before I graduate)
What is the What, Dave Eggers
Labels: books
books read, 2008
IshmaelDaniel Quinn Breaking DawnStephenie Meyer EclipseStephenie Meyer New MoonStephenie Meyer TwilightStephenie Meyer The Silver ChairC.S. Lewis A Curtain of GreenEudora Welty The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader"C.S. Lewis Poverty of SpiritJohannes Baptist Metz Prince CaspianC.S. Lewis The Handmaid's TaleMargaret Atwood The AlchemistPaul Coelho The Prince of FrogtownRick Bragg The Lion, the Witch, and the WardrobeC.S. Lewis The Mother TongueBill Bryson The CrucibleArthur Miller Love in the Time of CholeraGabriel Garcia Marquez The ChosenChaim Potok Old Friends and New FanciesSybil Brinton Eight CousinsLouisa May Alcott Life TogetherDietrich Bonhoeffer The Tipping PointMalcolm Gladwell PersuasionJane Austen The DaVinci CodeDan Adams Labels: books
on vampires
Kate wants a new post. Since she lives in Prague now and I only get to talk to her every other week or so, I shall indulge her with something random.
So, I caved and I'm reading the
Twilight series. My students have mixed reactions to this. Some are utterly shocked and abhorred that their
literature teacher would ever read (and enjoy) such riff-raff as
Twilight. For others, they've found something they can bond with me over. One offered to lend me
Breaking Dawn yesterday, but I told her, given the obsessive need I have to read them when they are in my possession, it would be best if it was never at school with me. I like to remind them that is, in fact, OK to enjoy escape fiction, even if you are a literature teacher, but maintain that they are no where as good as Harry Potter.
Vampire literature now seems to come up every week at Community Group. Two of the guys in the group have even volunteered to read the first book, under the guise that they want to see for themselves what all the hype is about and whether there's more to it than just a cheesy love story. They like to say that we had to convince them to undertake this, but in reality, it was their idea.
Even the
Wall Street Journal is in on it.
Labels: books
John Adams
My reading tastes tend towards fiction, but this summer I have picked up David McCullough's
John Adams, widely recommended to me.
I'd never thought much about John Adams before our trip to Boston last summer and haven't thought that much about him since. But I am thoroughly enjoying the biography so far and had no idea how influential Adams was in the formation of the USA. Adams was the originator of the three separate branches of government idea, with all of its checks and balances, in his "Thoughts on Government."
But, what has endeared him to my heart are his thoughts on education:
Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially for the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.
Labels: books, education
summer reading
Here's the start of my summer reading list:
- The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
- The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
- The Alchemist, Paul Coelho
- Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson
- The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way, Bill Bryson
- The Prince of Frogtown, Rick Bragg
I also want to brush up on my Greek and maybe learn Spanish...
Labels: books
Have Read, 2007
unChristianDavid Kinnaman Daisy MillerHenry James The Kite RunnerKhaled Hosseini Daughter of FortuneIsabel Allende Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The History of LoveNicole Krauss Walk Two MoonsSharon Creech American BloomsburySusan Cheever Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsJ.K. Rowling Peace Like a RiverLeif Enger How To Read Literature Like a ProfessorThomas Foster AtonementIan McEwan An American ChildhoodAnnie Dillard TwistedLaurie Halse Anderson The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town AmericaBill Bryson Lights, Camera, AmaleeDar Williams Pedro ParamoJuan Rulfo 84 Charing Cross RoadHelene Hanff Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of SinCornelius Plantinga Jr. As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkner Rilla of InglesideL.M. Mongomery OthelloWilliam Shakespeare lots of Keats poetry Labels: books
further reading
Additions to the summer reading list (much lighter than last summer's):
- Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy Tyson
- Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson
- An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
- The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
- Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
- Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
- Atonement, Ian McEwan
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Labels: books
summer reading
There are 11 days of school left. At this point, I am fairly certain that I will, in fact, survive, though I will put the year into the books as the hardest year teaching I have had.
As summer is fast approaching, I have begun to mentally formulate my summer reading list. However, my brain is still addled with so many other things that it is not coming together very well. Here's what I've got so far...
- Crime and Punishment (for North Atlanta book club)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Yep, that's all I've got so far. I'm quite open to suggestions!!
Labels: books
2006
This post is more for me than for you, but read on if you will...
2006 read:
Rainbow ValleyL.M. Mongomery Anne of InglesideL.M. Mongomery The Autobiography of Miss Jane PittmanErnest J. Gaines Anne's House of DreamsL.M. Mongomery The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald Anne of Windy PoplarsL.M. Mongomery Anne of the IslandL.M. Mongomery Anne of AvonleaL.M. Mongomery Anne of Green GablesL.M. Mongomery Of Mice and MenJohn Steinbeck Things Fall ApartChinua Achebe The Scarlet LetterNathaniel Hawthorne WaldenHenry David Thoreau The Sun Also RisesErnest Hemingway Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury Blue ShoeAnne Lamott Native SonRichard Wright The Water is WidePat Conroy One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAlexander Solzhenitsyn The Heart is a Lonely HunterCarson McCullers Educating EsmeEsme Raji Codell Ava's ManRick Bragg GileadMarilynne Robinson NakedDavid Sedaris Summer SistersJudy Blume The End of the AffairGraham Greene The Crying of Lot 49Thomas Pynchon Fever, 1793Laurie Halse Anderson MonsterWalter Dean Myers Extremely Loud and Incredibly CloseJonathan Safran Foer SpeakLaurie Halse Anderson A Lost LadyWilla Cather The Unbearable Lightness of BeingMilan Kundera The Scarlet PimpernelBaroness Orczy Everything is IlluminatedJonathan Safran Foer Pudd'nhead WilsonMark Twain The Plot Against AmericaPhilip Roth The Enduring CommunityLes Newsom and Brian Habig Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in AmericaBarbara Ehrenreich The Little PrinceAntoine de St. Exupery 2006 saw in the theater:
End of the Spear
Pirates of the Carribean 2
2006 new states visited:
Idaho
Montana
Wyoming
South Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Indiana
bringing the total to 28 states visited
2006 resolutions kept:
no chocolate for the whole year
2006 other things of note:
started coaching cross country
5th year teaching
This is a lovely list of lists, but I don't feel like it really encapsulates 2006 for me. I'm not really sure what it would take to encapsulate 2006. Maybe that's why I have a blog anyway.
Labels: books
holiday reading 2006
There's always so much that I want to read over my 2 week break. I realize that my goals are unachievable, yet I shall still set them high and thereby at least get
something done. I don't think I shall put anything that I am currently reading on this list. So, here's this years list...
- Othello (for 11th)
- As I Lay Dying (for 11th)
- The Four Quartets (at J. Alfred's urging)
- Midnight's Children (for book club)
- The History of Love
5 books, 2 weeks? We shall see.
Labels: books
recommended reading
I got started on my summer reading list yesterday, even though it is not technically summer, nor has school ended for me. But it seemed silly to start reading something not on my list when my list is so long, just because I still have to go to work tomorrow. So, I have embarked on
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)
. While I am less than one hundred pages into it, I already want to tout this book. I love language and a well-turned phrase resonates with me. Already, this book has caused many such resonations.
From the lips of his nine year old narrator: "Anyway, the fascinating thing was I read in
National Geographic that there are more people alive now than have died in all of human history. In other words, if everyone wanted to play Hamlet at once, they couldn't, because there aren't enough skulls!"
Talking about loving spending time with his father, "Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn't have to invent a thing."
Foer is also so creative! He uses his nine year old narrator to voice all of those crazy things you've thought about but would never suggest because now you're an adult and adults don't say those things.
"Sometimes I think it would be weird if there were a skyscraper that moved up and down while its elevator stayed in place."
"There are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?"
And he uses his narrator to deal with existential questions, "Just because you're an atheist, that doesn't mean you wouldn't love for things to have a reason for why they are."
Start with his first book,
Everything is Illuminated. You can borrow my copy. I still haven't fully wrapped my brain around it. But I will buy his next book in hardback.
Labels: books
summer reading
It seems that everyone is posting their summer reading lists. We had an English Dept meeting today to revise the students' summer reading list. So now I'm going to jump on the bandwagon... Its really long and there is no rhyme nor reason to it. Between a week in the mountains with the fam, sometime at the lake and 16 days in a car driving from Seattle to Atlanta, I may accomplish it. Hopefully, Kate will be in accord with some of my choices...
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
- I Am One of You Forever, Fred Chappell
- Monster, Walter Dean Myers
- Naked, David Sedaris
- The Education of Little Tree, Forrest Carter
- The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
- Love in the Ruins, Walker Percy
- The End of the Affair, Graham Greene
- Eragon, Christopher Paolini
- American Pastoral, Philip Roth
- Blue Shoes, Anne Lamott
- Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson
- Slowness, Milan Kundera
- Ava's Man, Rick Bragg
Labels: books
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