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?
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13 comments:
I generally find myself reading fantasy or classic literature. I recently have read The Picture of Dorian Gray and loved the story. It is about a man who basically sells his soul to remain handsome and have a portrait of himself age instead. As he commits heinous crimes and gets older, his picture changes. The whole story is truly imaginative and kept me interested.
Also since Christmas I have been captivated by The Forgotten Realms series. It started with the Dark Elf Trilogy. These were some of the best books I have ever read. There are many books in this series, about 20. I am currently on the 12th. The first couple were great but I feel like the books are slowly getting worse, but still decent.
The only book that I have ever enjoyed to read was Harry Potter. I blew through the new one in about two days. It was good too read it because it was the last one, but it was not the best of the seven. However, it was still gripping. I recommend it to anyone who has read the previous six books.
I read Harry Potter!!!!!! I am proud to say i am a Harry Potter dork, never in my life have i read a book that long in two days! I also finished the DaVinci code (i don't know if i spelled that right) which i had started before school ended, it was really interesting. It made you think, and questioned a lot of stuff that people consider fact. I know it's a really controversal book, but i think it was good to read to form your own opinions, instead of letting someone form them for you.
Like pretty much every other literate book-purchasing person on the planet, I burned my way through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and left the series feeling quite satisfied. Excellent stuff.
One of my favorite writers, Ray Bradbury, came out with another great book, Farewell Summer, which I really enjoyed. It was also nice and short--not drawn out to fill up x amount of pages.
I tried to read The Name of the Rose and technically succeeded. I understood the plot, but there was a lot of Latin and references to things I didn't really get. It's really challenging, even though the plot sounds simple--a Sherlock Holmes-type monk in a medieval monastery trying to collar a serial killer committing murders based on the Book of Revelations.
That's about all I can remember. Lately, I've been getting all the school reading done (English 4, of course, and European History)
Along with the rest of the world, i too, follow along with little Harry Potter. Eleven hours of the much-awaited seventh book leads to the end. Now, on to the Eragon books. Which is supposed to be a trilogy, but the guy hasn't felt like writing the third part, so it's more like a...bilogy?
I too read the latest Harry Potter. My biggest read though was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. My goal this summer was to read some of the classics. I really didn't have much time to read but I did get to read this. The Count of Monte Cristo is the classic story of betrayal and revenge. Anyone looking for prision excapes, lost treasure and and main characters with secret identities read The Count of Monte Cristo. I would recomend the abridged version, which I read. It was still over 600 pages
With all of the school work and my job i sadly got behind on my pleasure reading. But recently I just finished a book called "New Moon" which is the sequel to "Twilight" (which i absolutely LOVED). Its about vampires and werewolves and love and all that good stuff. I highly recommend it. I have to admit its lenght is a bit discouraging but it is a quick 500-600 pages (i swear you'll love it and you'll be adictted... like me). I can't wait to read the newest one, "Eclipse"!!!
This summer I have slowly been reading Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. It is a cynical account of the pop-culture of our generation, which he calls postmodernAmerica. It is interesting to read Klosterman's analysis of games, movies, and television that we have so openly accepted and incorporated into our real lives. In his opinion, we are either living our lives through pop-culture or turning our lives into pop-culture.
I have also read a lot of philosophy articles this summer. I read many articles by many philosophers that contradicted one another. Some of the philosophers were Descartes,Hume, Kant, Mill, Singer, Aristotle, and Boyle. Philosophy did not answer any questions for me but instead left me with more questions. It did open my eyes to a new way of analyzing internal and social problems.
due to that crazy little part in the back of my brain that controls my crazy schemes I had to read my way through Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows by 10am the Saturday morning it came out and I had to stop re-reading it in order to do my summer reading. Curse you J.K. Rowling for ending one of my favorite series of all time!!
As with every other Harry Potter geek in the world, I finished the seventh book in about three days. Other than that, I also read "The Thief Lord," which was a pretty interesting book by Cornelia Funke about little Italian pickpockets avoiding capture. It was kind of long, but really entertaining too.
One of the first things I did this summer vacation was go to Books, Borders, and Music to get the three required books and two from the recommended summer reading list. I chose “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois as a result of learning about the author in U.S. History and then “Pyongyang A Journey in North Korea” by Guy Delisle due to the fact that it is a graphic novel. I’ve never read one in my life, but the cartoons are quite entertaining and I’m learning more about what it is like to work a job in North Korea. Then, later on this summer, I bought myself a copy of “301 Polish Verbs” with a lot of verbs conjugated into different tenses. This book has been helpful in teaching me to speak a little Polish with my relatives. I just can’t believe that some of the Polish verbs, when conjugated, can be up to 19 letters long! I am also reading “The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays” by Albert Camus since I enjoyed “The Stranger” by Albert Camus so much. Sadly, I’m halfway through and so far I do not completely understand everything he wrote about. His book is about existentialist thought, but all I really know about that is from Mr. Leed’s class. Fortunately, my grandmother gave me a gift book called “Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar...Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes” by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein. It costs $18.95, but is definitely worth the price. This is the only book I’ve ever read that has really caused me to laugh uncontrollably while, at the same time, understanding philosophy. Finally, my tutor very generously gave me a book in Spanish called “Pajáro Sin Hogar” by Gloria Whelan. This is the book I’ll be reading next now that I’ve finished all three Honors English IV books. You can tell that I've had some free time this summer.
In response to Alex's blog, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar...Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes states philosophy is asking questions that can only be answered with more questions.
I read the SAT book (or at least tried to) fun, fun, fun!
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