You've won the coveted "Early Bird" Award (and there will be a prise to be collected)!
But what's up with the rest of you? It's time to start reading and making your entries. I'll be peeking in from time to time, but I plan to keep pretty much out of it. When this classblog works, it works because people are exchanging ideas and comments.
For an idea of what I mean, check this out. It's the blog last year for The Handmaid's Tale, one of last year's books. (The first entry was July 10th, so you're not far off. But some of the other book discussions were well under way at this point.)
As I say, I'll be peeking in from time to time, but otherwise keeping my distance. If you have any particular concerns, e-mail me at jmacarthur@tolland.k12.ct.us.
Friday, July 13, 2007
What Are You Doing WIth Your Summer?
Anybody doing anything exciting? Interesting? Just working? How's that going? ANybody travelled?
Me, I'm having a quiet summer, but I like that. I'm catching up on my reading (mostly free choice). Doing a lot of work around the house, particularly in the yard -- which I enjoy. In the evenings I like to sit on my screen porch watching the Red Sox. We hope to get away to the Cape for a week in August, but that may not be possible.
The most interesting thing I'm doing this year is learning to row crew. It's a varsity sport at Farmington High School, where my son will be a freshman next year. His brother rowed, and he's thinking of it, too, so we enrolled him in a program that meets three evenings a week -- and somehow I ended up enrolling in the adult program.
So what are you guys doing this summer?
Me, I'm having a quiet summer, but I like that. I'm catching up on my reading (mostly free choice). Doing a lot of work around the house, particularly in the yard -- which I enjoy. In the evenings I like to sit on my screen porch watching the Red Sox. We hope to get away to the Cape for a week in August, but that may not be possible.
The most interesting thing I'm doing this year is learning to row crew. It's a varsity sport at Farmington High School, where my son will be a freshman next year. His brother rowed, and he's thinking of it, too, so we enrolled him in a program that meets three evenings a week -- and somehow I ended up enrolling in the adult program.So what are you guys doing this summer?
What Else are You Reading?
Two of your summer reading entries are quite short. This is to allow you to have some time for other things -- including reading.
For myself, ironically enough (considering that one of the reasons I became an English teacher is that I love to immerse myself in the world of books), I don't get to do that much reading during the school year. I keep up with news and various blogs on the internet, I have a subscription to the New Yorker, but I don't get a chance to read many books. That's one of the things that I look forward to about summer.
So far I've read:
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. Recommended to me by Ms. O'Brien, but I can't really recommend it myself. (Sorry, Caragh.) A dinner party in a South or Central American country -- featuring a world renowned soprano -- is taken hostage by terrorists. The plan goes askew and a prolonged siege occurs, where the hostages and terrorists inexorably draw closer (see "Stockholm Syndrome"). An important force in the novel is the power of music -- particularly opera. Over the years, I've become a big fan of opera, so I can relate to that. But overall I found the storyline to be a bit farfetched.
Red Legs and Black Sox, by Susan Dellinger. I'm also a big baseball fan, including old-time baseball. This is a biography of Hall-of-Fame outfielder Edd Roush, focusing a lot of attention on the 1919 World Series where Edd's Reds defeated the infamous Chicago Black Sox, eight of whom conspired with gamblers to fix the World Series and were later banished from baseball. (For a quick overview, rent the John Sayles movie Eight Men Out -- based on the book by Eliot Asinof.) The author is Roush's grandaughter, and, as such, is privy to some inside information, but is not a great writer.
Spoonwood, by Ernest Hebert. This is the sixth novel in Hebert's Darby cycle, set in southwestern New Hampshire. The cycle follows the fortunes of the citizens of Darby, Upper Darby, and Darby Depot. Some are well-to-do, some are middle class, and some are poor. (If you've been to Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont -- away from the resort areas -- you'll recognize these people.) I've read all the previous books in the series (writing a 45 page paper on them as part of my masters at Wesleyan), and I'm afraid I was disappointed by this one. Parts of the novel are narrated by a telepathetic baby (and a telepathic cat). Now I'm as avant garde as the next guy, probably more so, but what made the other books good was their social realism. If you want the real thing, try Hebert's A Little More than Kin.
[As a sidenote: Hebert mentions two books that influenced him in writing Spoonwood: Stone on Stone, by UConn professor Robert Thorson, and Reading the Forrested Landscape by Tom Wessel -- both of which I've read. And I wonder how many other people in New England can say that. Not many, I'll wager.]
So, what else have you been reading?
For myself, ironically enough (considering that one of the reasons I became an English teacher is that I love to immerse myself in the world of books), I don't get to do that much reading during the school year. I keep up with news and various blogs on the internet, I have a subscription to the New Yorker, but I don't get a chance to read many books. That's one of the things that I look forward to about summer.
So far I've read:
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. Recommended to me by Ms. O'Brien, but I can't really recommend it myself. (Sorry, Caragh.) A dinner party in a South or Central American country -- featuring a world renowned soprano -- is taken hostage by terrorists. The plan goes askew and a prolonged siege occurs, where the hostages and terrorists inexorably draw closer (see "Stockholm Syndrome"). An important force in the novel is the power of music -- particularly opera. Over the years, I've become a big fan of opera, so I can relate to that. But overall I found the storyline to be a bit farfetched.
Red Legs and Black Sox, by Susan Dellinger. I'm also a big baseball fan, including old-time baseball. This is a biography of Hall-of-Fame outfielder Edd Roush, focusing a lot of attention on the 1919 World Series where Edd's Reds defeated the infamous Chicago Black Sox, eight of whom conspired with gamblers to fix the World Series and were later banished from baseball. (For a quick overview, rent the John Sayles movie Eight Men Out -- based on the book by Eliot Asinof.) The author is Roush's grandaughter, and, as such, is privy to some inside information, but is not a great writer.
Spoonwood, by Ernest Hebert. This is the sixth novel in Hebert's Darby cycle, set in southwestern New Hampshire. The cycle follows the fortunes of the citizens of Darby, Upper Darby, and Darby Depot. Some are well-to-do, some are middle class, and some are poor. (If you've been to Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont -- away from the resort areas -- you'll recognize these people.) I've read all the previous books in the series (writing a 45 page paper on them as part of my masters at Wesleyan), and I'm afraid I was disappointed by this one. Parts of the novel are narrated by a telepathetic baby (and a telepathic cat). Now I'm as avant garde as the next guy, probably more so, but what made the other books good was their social realism. If you want the real thing, try Hebert's A Little More than Kin.
[As a sidenote: Hebert mentions two books that influenced him in writing Spoonwood: Stone on Stone, by UConn professor Robert Thorson, and Reading the Forrested Landscape by Tom Wessel -- both of which I've read. And I wonder how many other people in New England can say that. Not many, I'll wager.]
So, what else have you been reading?
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