Sunday Coffee: Classics Club Update

It seems like a good time to do a Classics Club update. My progress has been slow but steady. If I'm really going to meet my goal, I will have to step up my pace considerably. But even if I don't meet my goal, my reading has become much more intentional, and the classics I've been reading have enriched my reading life immeasurably.

My post The Classics Club: I'm In! was posted on November 8, 2012--almost two years ago. In retrospect, my list was ambitious and optimistic. I planned to read 85 classics within 5 years. Two years have already gone by, and I've only finished 11 of the books on my list (I'm in the midst of reading a 12th). Still, I don't feel bad at all. Each of the books I've read has been an addition to a body of reading, and if it takes me more than five years to read all the books on my list, I can live with that. I'll still keep trying, though. I've noticed that since I started keeping track of the books I read, I have increased the number of books read each year. The same should hold true for my classics list.

Here are the books I've completed so far:
1. All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy.
2. The Crossing Cormac McCarthy.
3. Cities of the Plain Cormac McCarthy.
4. The Known World Edward P. Jones.
5. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov.
6. Go Tell It On the Mountain James Baldwin.
7. The Ladies' Paradise Emile Zola.
8. Hard Times Charles Dickens.
9. A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens.
10. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison.
11. East of Eden John Steinbeck.

Right now I'm reading Another Country by James Baldwin.  This novel, set in Greenwich Village in the 1950's, was published in 1962. The characters are artists, writers, musicians, gay, straight, black, white. Baldwin's writing is very, very beautiful.

I haven't even talked about Romantic Literature in September, or the September meme question. I think I will just send everyone to The Classics Club (http://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com).

Have you joined The Classics Club? If so, how are you doing on your list? If not, are you interested in reading more classics?

I'd love to hear how other Classics Club bloggers are doing....

Sunday Coffee: Catching Up....Again

Reading with the kids....

I said this before, but my number one priority this year is to turn my students into life-long readers this year. Some of them are already there. Others haven't actually read an entire book since the fifth grade. Students are experts at fake reading, and often their teachers suspect or know this, but aren't sure how to fix the problem. And English teachers are just so devoted to the whole class read, which is where we lose so many of the kids. Here's why:

• The book just isn't everyone's cup of tea. Reading a book with your class for three to six weeks is a perfect way to ingrain the attitude that books are boring... based on the kid's experience of being forced to read a book he or she just didn't like.
• Students read at different rates. If you hand The Great Gatsby to a group of students on a Friday, there is going to be that one student who finishes the book by Sunday. She's going to be bored and disengaged when the class is still discussing the first half of the book two weeks later.
• Every reader is unique. Probably some of you reading this now were reading all through high school, churning through dozens of books... Just not the books you were supposed to be reading for class.
• The only way a reader is going to fall in love with books is to find the right book. This means students have to be free to choose their own books.

So, this year in my classroom students are being given choice, and being asked to read both in and out of class...books that they choose. This doesn't mean we won't be reading anything together... there will be at least one whole class read. And we will read and discuss plenty of shorter pieces: essays, stories, poems, etc. Our first reading this year was Sherman Alexie's "Superman and Me."

For fans of classroom photos, here are a couple. In the first one, my husband is working on my bulletin board the weekend before school opened. We have a tradition that he always comes in to help me at the beginning and the end of the school year.

And this year I really started from scratch. I moved from a first floor classroom that I had been in since the school opened ten years ago, to a second floor classroom with a nice view of our stadium. Also... birds!

I need to take some better pictures, but you can probably see that my podium has a painting after Magritte... This podium was created by some of our students a few years ago, and I traded a more traditional podium to get this one. The kids like it!

Finally finishing East of Eden...

At last! Cue the Etta James song. I just finished reading East of Eden on Friday, and even though it took me forever, it is one of my favorite books of all time. I need to write my final post for Andi's event East of Eden Read-a-long hosted by The Estella Society...The even officially ended August 18th, but I'm going to use my "teacher card" and not worry about finishing so late.

An event I don't want to miss...

Aarti at Book Lust is hosting A More Diverse Universe (#Diversiverse) during the second half of September. I love this event! Reading books by diverse authors expands the universe for all. I've already signed up--I just have to make sure I manage my time so that I can get at least one, or maybe two books in. My first choice for this event is Men We Have Reaped, a memoir by Jesmyn West. I've heard this is a very powerful book, and it has been on my TBR stack since spring. I'll be making a list and arranging my reading priorities to try to get at least one more book in. Maybe Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique. This novel is set on the island of St. Thomas, which is where my husband was born and grew up. This is another book that has been sitting on my TBR stack.

For more about Aarti's Diversiverse event, go to the sign-up page at Book Lust.

Some of that other stuff....

I don't want to forget about The Classics Club. The latest "Spin" gave me my next Classics Club book: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Yesss! And I need to post an update very soon....

Coming soon:

Two books I want to mention: 

A novel from Anne Leigh Parrish, author of the short story collection Our Love Could Light the World. Parrish's novel, What is Found, What is Lost, is a beautifully written story of four generations of women, and I was enthralled by it. My review is coming within the next week.

And Judith Starkston, who is Reader in the Wilderness to me, has a new novel coming out. I just got my copy of Hand of Fire in yesterday's mail, and can't wait to read this novel of Brieseis and the Trojan War.

Sunday Coffee: Reading with a Purpose

Here is where my teaching life and my reading life intertwine. This year I have been reading and planning for a class I will be teaching next year. The idea sprang to life over the course of more than a year: I noticed that my students knew next to nothing about the history and literature of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of my students had grandparents who had experience segregation and Jim Crow, yet we rarely talked about these topics in school. So I started thinking about a literature course that would focus on literary works from the Harlem Renaissance on through the Civil Rights Movement.

In the end, the course became something much bigger than I initially imagined. Now I will be co-teaching, with a teacher from our social studies department, who will teach U.S. History, while I teach English--the students will be able to go back and forth between our two classes, and we will be able to put the classes together for some lessons and research projects. The literature class has become broader: I plan to focus on social justice and themes of equality, while still maintaining a strong focus on the Civil Rights Movement.

All year I have been reading widely, trying to find the best books and resources for my students. Here are a few of the texts I've been delving into:

Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe. This nonfiction book is perfect for my high school students.
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson. The compelling story of how the children of Birmingham became leaders of the Civil Rights Movement is absolutely gripping. I'd love for every student to have a copy of this book.
Selected Poems by Langston Hughes. Essential reading.
Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. Pivotal texts by a leader of the Movement.
Reporting Civil Rights: Part One: American Journalism 1941-1963. I'm just getting started with this volume from the Library of America.
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin. Baldwin was one of the most brilliant writers of his time, and his incisive essays challenge and edify the reader.

This has been one of my obsessions of the last year or so.... These are just a few of the titles I've read or am reading to prepare for my class. Do you have a favorite book, new or classic, fiction or nonfiction, from or about the Civil Rights Movement?

Sunday Coffee: Mother's Day

I was raised by a small but powerful woman who moved through life like a minute fireball. It seemed as though Mom was always moving: she swam, skied, water-skied, played tennis and golf, and rarely sat down. My mother's "mending basket" was a family joke. Once, when I was in high school, I teased her by pulling out all the items one by one; at the bottom was a stuffed animal from when I was a toddler. Mom was not the type to sit and sew or knit.

One of the few things Mom would do sitting down was read. Weekly trips to the library were a staple of my childhood, and the one thing my parents didn't mind spending money on was a book. Both of my parents were readers, but it was probably my mother's daily reading habit that was most influential for me. Because my mother read to me every day, and because there was always a pile of library books nearby, I became a reader even before I started school. I can still remember the feeling I had when I realized that the words on the page had meaning, and that I could decipher them.

Now I am a teacher, and I have an evangelistic fervor about putting books in my students' hands. I want every one of my students to walk out of my classroom as a reader; ideally they will be in love with books. When I run into students long after graduation, I remind them to read to their children. What better gift can a mother give to her child, after love?

Sunday Coffee: Full Immersion

Immersed in Books

One of the pleasures of being a reader is the feeling of being immersed in the world of books. Books give me so much comfort, and sometimes life leaves us needing some comfort. This week has been a good reading week and a busy life week. Here are a few bookish things that have been going on:

Last weekend my husband and I explored a fantastic bookstore in Savannah, Georgia: The Book Lady Bookstore. When we walked in I fell in love; I also felt like this is what my house could look like in a few years. I mean there were books everywhere. Books in bookcases and on tables and even stacked in piles along the floor. I came away with three books, and believe me, that is indicative of incredible self-control. I bought another copy of Madame Bovary (one of my favorite novels, and I feel I can't have too many copies of it). This was a pocket-sized Oxford Classics edition with a really pretty cover. I got a first edition of Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights by Susan Straight, and a short story collection by Elizabeth Jolley. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have run across these three books in any other bookstore. I love the way a small, independent bookstore can reflect the taste and sensibility of the people who work there.

This week we were fortunate to have writer Kim Purcell visit our school for a day. Purcell is the author of a YA novel, Trafficked. Naturally, I wanted to read her book before her visit. I zipped through this book in just over a day (I actually got up at 5:00 a.m. and finished the last twenty pages the day of her visit). The novel is about a teenager from Moldova who travels to Los Angeles to be a nanny for a Russian family, only to find herself a slave, with her safety and emotional well-being at risk. I really liked the main character, Hannah, and thought the book was well-written and fast-paced. Trafficked was nominated for a SC Young Adult Book Award, which is one reason why Purcell came to our state. I thought Purcell did a great job of relating to our students, and I enjoyed her presentation very much (more on that in a separate post).

Finally: I finally, finally read John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Yes, it lived up to the hype. There were a lot of things going on around me, but somehow I managed to immerse myself in Green's novel (and the world of Hazel and Augustus). I officially love John Green. I guess that makes me a nerdfighter.

So, even when the world is whirling around me at its own crazy pace, I can always slow the world down by immersing myself in the world of books.

How do you immerse yourself in books? Do you find a little out-of-the-way bookstore and browse for an hour, or do you sink into your favorite book?

Sunday Coffee: Staff Picks

Bookish Things I Love

1. Independent bookstores like Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia. I love going into a bookstore and knowing that I will be surprised, that I will see a selection of books personally chosen by a real book lover, a selection that reflects the passion and intelligence of another reader.

2. Staff Picks. As a former bookseller, I well remember the pleasure I took in choosing books for the Staff Picks section--and my excitement when a customer bought one of my staff picks. This personal recommendation from Janet at Avid Bookshop ends with the words every passionate reader wants to say when it comes to a book they have loved: Read It! And so I will.

3. I love booksellers. They are saving civilization, and are the unsung heroes of the world of publishing and books. People like the bookseller who convinced me to read Rainbow Rowell sooner rather than later. The bookseller is reader who handsells the book, who literally puts the book in another reader's hand.God bless the booksellers.

                                             Art by Lisa Almeda Sumner, all rights reserved

What three bookish things do you love?

Sunday Coffee

Is It February Already?

Do you ever feel just kind of ....overwhelmed? Two weekends in a row I was at professional conferences, and then I felt like I hit a literal wall. Okay, I really mean a figurative wall. This weekend I finally got some much needed rest, and had some time to look over my recent acquisitions.

I might as well admit that I am incorrigible. I don't even want to change.

Two recent releases activated the *want* and *must have* areas of my brain:

Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser

Lesser is the founder and editor of The Threepenny Review, and has written eight books of nonfiction and one novel. Books about books, and, more specifically, books about the pleasures of reading (some of my favorites are books by Michael Dirda, Francine Prose, and Jane Smiley) offer, well, endless pleasure for me. So I can't wait to get to this one.

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

Are you kidding me? I should have written this book! Except I'm not a writer for The New Yorker. But I did write this post: "Middlemarch My Love."

Middlemarch is my favorite novel. I've read it five times (at least). Love. So of course....I hope that Rebecca Mead's love for my favorite novel will somehow mirror/enrich my own.

How to Read a Novelist by John Freeman

I picked this up at the wonderful indie bookstore Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia. It is a collection of interviews with novelists, many of whom I love insanely and worshipfully, others whom I hope to adore:

Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, David Foster Wallace, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk, Jennifer Egan.....

How did I not know about this book? How wonderful is it that I happened upon it in a bookshop (yay for bookstores!)?

There's more, but in an attempt to look less obsessive and more normal, I'll stop there. It's a kind of theme, anyway, books about books and reading and writing.

Do you have anything on your bookshelf you're especially excited about?

Sunday Coffee: Looking Back

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Yesterday and today were spent in rest and recuperation....The last week of school before break was a marathon! With nine days left in 2013, I am optimistically hoping to finish at least one more book. So this isn't really my year-end round up, just a brief reflection on my reading and writing in the past year, and a few thoughts about the year to come.

Bookish Conversations

Over the past year I've really enjoyed the bookish conversations I've had, whether they are conversations in the comments of this blog or others (I've struck up some wonderful conversations with some very smart readers), or in my classroom. I love talking to students about what they are reading, and I finally read a John Green novel (Looking for Alaska). Now I really need to read Divergent, since that is the most in demand book in our school right now. 

The Classics

The Great Gatsby is always great, every time I read it (and this is the seventh time, at least).

My Classics Club list has kept me aware of how deliberate I need to be in order to reach my goals. I've only read eight of the books on my list, but I am pretty sure I will do better next year. It requires some planning and effort to chip away at the list (I have 85 books on my list, which I plan to read over the course of five years). Here are the eight I finished in 2013:

All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy

The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy

Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy

The Known World, Edward P. Jones

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

Dreamtigers, Jorge Luis Borges

The Ladies' Paradise, Emile Zola

Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin

Now Reading

I'm wrapping up The Fire Next Time (James Baldwin) and reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (my Classics Club Spin book).

Looking Forward

I definitely want to make more progress on my Classics Club list in the next year. In the immediate future I expect to be reading a lot of American literature for a class I will be teaching next year. Some of it is background research, and some is to select books I might want the students to read. My daughter sent my a collection of stories by Ralph Ellison called Flying Home and Other Stories; I've also got James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name, and The Street by Ann Petry (first published in 1946, The Street is also on my Classics Club list). And James Baldwin's Another Country is on my Classics Club list; I'd like to follow up Go Tell It On the Mountain with Another Country, which I've heard is superb. I also have King: A Comics Biography by Ho Che Anderson, which I will probably read over break.

I hunted down a copy of Sally Hemings, a novel by sculptor and writer Barbara Chase-Riboud, and I also recently acquired Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink (non-fiction).

I think I have quite an interesting list of books to start my year off.....

How was your year in books? Do you have anything new on your list to finish the year or to start the new year?

Sunday Coffee The Cruelest Month

Where did April go? It cruelly disappeared! This month I read quite a few short stories--why didn't I think of this earlier? I've read short stories by James Baldwin, Andre Dubus, Mary Lavin, Carol Bly, Donald Ray Pollock, Sherman Alexie, and Gina Berriault. It's relatively easy to read a story in the mornings before work, or as I am eating my dinner in the evening.

This month I read the wonderful, entrancing A Seahorse Year by Stacey D"Erasmo. I'm hopelessly behind on reviews, but I would love to write some sort of post about D'Erasmo's finely imagined novel. Now I'm deep in The Way We Live Now by the inimitable Anthony Trollope. It will be nose-to-the-grindstone between now and mid-June at work--Trollope will be my respite.

Sunday Coffee

Sunday Coffee is a time to stop, take a sip from your favorite coffee mug, and reflect on the week. After weeks (and weeks) of feeling stuck in my reading and blogging (and simply mired down in work), I'm feeling like I just got my groove back. No, I didn't go to Jamaica--I just found some time to read and get caught up on reviewing and posting.

This week I read Steve Himmer's The Bee-Loud Glade and Dennis Lehane's Darkness, Take My Hand. I've already started drafts of both reviews. Darkness, Take My Hand was to just let myself relax into a fast-paced, well-written crime novel--and for the Smooth Criminals Reading Challenge hosted by Ben at Dead End Follies. Ben's reading challenge is cool-only eight books required, but the categories are a little tricky. I'm looking forward to reading Cornell Woolrich's Rendevous in Black for the Noir category, and Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep for the Hard-Boiled Category. The Bad Seed by William March is my pick for a book with a psychopathic protagonist. For a book written by an author who did time, I've got James Ellroy's White Jazz. I still don't have a title for a book set inside a prison, or for a Gothic novel -- any suggestions? Darkness, Take My Hand is for the Why the Hell Am I Doing This To Myself category, just because it doesn't seem to fit anywhere else. For a classic book that revolves around a crime, I have several in mind....still deciding.

And.....Darkness, Take My Hand allows me to cross a book off my TBR list and is my third book in the Mount TBR Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. I still have a long climb ahead before I reach the top of that mountain, but I'm making progress....

Coming next week: my review of Andre Dubus III's riveting memoir Townie, and an interview with Andre Dubus III. Writing the interview questions was a great experience, and the author was extremely generous, gracious, and honest in his responses. I'm extraordinarily excited about this post.

I still need to get moving on my Back to the Classics Challenge--I've only completed one book for this challenge so far. And I really wanted this to be my year of reading Dickens....I've picked up The Old Curiosity Shop, but I'm not sure if I'm really going to read it right now. It's time for me to make a list for this challenge--that should get me going....

Of course I asked Andre Dubus III what his favorite classic novel was...hint: it's by John Steinbeck....

Sunday Coffee

This weekend I brought home the obligatory big bag full of ungraded papers. Those papers stayed in my bag until this evening, and now they are on the big worktable I use, just giving me the stink-eye.

I started reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest yesterday. I read the first two books in the series so long ago I can't remember (could it be two years ago?). Then I just didn't pick up the third book. I suppose I had teaching, and review obligations, and so on. Now I am in the mood for a palate-cleansing break from Literary Greateness. Once in a while I like to pick up a book that offers the kind of plot-twisty escape where you just don't want to put the book down. So that's where I've been today. Along with doing laundry and watching television without the sound. My husband thinks this is weird, but it is my favorite way to watch tv.

I'm some kind of throwback to another era apparently. I'd rather get absorbed in a book than in multi-tasking and social media. I feel tremendously guitly about minor infractions. I still believe in the concept of privacy. I have a Nook, but I also go to the bookstore and look at books. Even better, I love to go to used bookstores, and look at (and buy) books that have been owned and read (and scribbled in) by other people.

When I finish the Stieg Larsson book I have stacks of books I'm wanting to get to. Last weekend I picked up a Europa title by Seve Erickson called These Dreams of You. Europa books always have such beautiful design.

I'm more than a little behind in reviews. At this point I may just do a couple of multi-book review posts. I will be posting my review of Andre Dubus III's memoir Townie this coming week. There will also be an interview with Dubus coming soon (this is where I slip into fangirl mode-I can't help it, I think it is awesome).... I sent my questions to the publicist on Friday. I really loved Townie (my copy is so marked up), and I worked on those interview questions. They probably sound like they are written by an English teacher, but I hope I read as a reader and a writer.

There are several challenges I'm taking on this year. I think Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest will be for my Mount TBR Challenge, and I'm thinking about James Cain for the Smooth Criminals challenge. Oh, if only I could spend my days just reading and writing (throw a little drawing and painting in, and I'll be happy).

Oh, here's a cool thing before I go. Steve Himmer, author of The Bee-Loud Glade, is sending me a book. Just because I live on an island. It happened on twitter, and forget what I said about being from another era. So I'm looking forward to reading Steve's book (about which I've heard some good things). Not looking forward to Monday so much, but I'm always okay with it when it gets here. Can't wait to see the response to my interview questions from Andre Dubus III. And want to spend much more time reading than seems practicable for my life....

Sunday Coffee: Thankfully Reading Wrap-Up

How sad that this weekend has to end! Thankfully Reading (hosted by Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves) was a very relaxing readathon-and I felt really good about getting Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian finished. Blood Meridian was absolutely brilliant, on a scale with Melville's Moby Dick or Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (Blood Meridian even had a mentally disabled character, like Faulkner's Benjy). This book will be living in my mind for some time. I can't imagine lightly picking up another novel after this. So I'll be spending the rest of my reading hours tonight reading Gwenolyn Brooks, who I think is not as well-known or widely-read as she should be. I have her Selected Poems on hand, and that is just the right way to finish off this readathon.

Today is my birthday, and I found out that I share a birthday with Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, James Agee, Marilyn Hacker, and Bill Nye (the science guy). How cool is that?

Tomorrow I'll be starting the Wolf Hall Readalong, hosted by Natalie of Coffee and a Book Chick and Nicole of Linus's Blanket.

I hope you all had a restful, restorative Thanksgiving weekend. What will you be reading as November turns to December?

Sunday Coffee: In Which I Accept Many Challenges

The Community of Readers
I'll be at the kitchen table for most of the day, steadily working my way through a stack of ungraded papers. After a grueling October, with many deadlines and long, long days, November is flying by. I had the first week of November off, and read continuously. I'm reading blogs again, and rejoining the community of readers. Which brings me to: challenges and readalongs.

Some people might wonder why take part in challenges and readalongs; because they're fun, and because by doing so you become part of a community of readers. I wrote last week about the Mount TBR Challenge that Bev is sponsoring over at My Reader's Block. This week I'll tell you about some of the readalongs and challenges I'm taking part in as this year winds down and the new year peeks around the corner.

Thankfully Reading Weekend is sponsored by Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves. It's pretty simple: read as much as you can over the weekend. Hey, it's my birthday (Sunday), I'll read if I want to. Yes, I was a Thanksgiving baby--I was actually born on Thanksgiving day. Every few years my birthday falls on Thanksgiving, but this year my birthday falls on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That gives me the perfect excuse for spending the day reading. 

Thankfully Reading Weekend is flexible: read as much as you can, maybe knock off some of the books for your 2011 challenges, and cheer each other on. There will be a linky for the November 25th post, and a linky for a November 27th for your wrap-up post--but you don't even have to post if you don't want to.

For this challenge I hope to read at least two or three books-I'm so far undecided on what those titles will be.

The Wolf Hall Readalong is sponsored by Nicole at Linus's Blanket and Natalie at Coffee and a Book Chick. I've had Wolf Hall sitting on my shelf since shortly after the hardcover was published, and just haven't gotten to it yet. So I thought it would be fun to participate in this readalong.
If you think you might want to read along, go here for the full details and schedule.

Ben at Dead End Follies is sponsoring Smooth Criminals a Reading Challenge for 2012: more specifics on what I'll be reading for this challenge in a post soon. Go here for the requirements for this challenge.

I'm so excited for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2012. Hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much, this challenge has me thinking and making lists. Longer post later.
Are you participating in any readalongs or challenges? Do you have your list of challenges for 2012?

Sunday Coffee: The Mount TBR Challenge

The Mount TBR Challenge

Bev at My Reader's Block has come up with the perfect reading challenge for book hoarders: the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2012.

Here's how it works: decide on what level you are going to commit to (I'm committing to Mt. Vancouver-25 books), post about the challenge, and then sign up at Bev's site here. My list (see below) comes from books that I already own. I'm listing thirty-three books, but who knows-maybe I'll go all the way to Mt. Ararat (40 books).

A Tentative List for the Challenge:

1. Daniel Deronda George Eliot.

2. An Object of Beauty Steve Martin.

3. Mystery and Manners Flannery O'Connor.

4. The Known World Edward P. Jones.

5. The White Lioness Henning Mankell.

6. Shame the Devil George P. Pelecanos.

7. White Jazz James Ellroy.

8. The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard.

9. Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler.

10. Amy and Isabelle Elizabeth Strout.

11. Cambridge Caryl Phillips.

12. A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement Anthony Powell.

13. Serena Ron Rash.

14. The English Teacher Lily King.

15. Shelter Jayne Anne Phillips.

16. The Forgotten Garden Kate Morton.

17. Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann.

18. Paradise Alley Kevin Baker.

19. Veronica Mary Gaitskill.

20. Snow Orhan Pamuk.

21. Fruit of the Lemon Andrea Levy.

22. Human Capital Stephen Amidon.

23. White Tiger Avarind Adiga.

24. Property Valerie Martin.

25. The Taste of Sorrow Jude Morgan.

26. 2666 Roberto Bolano.

27. Free Food for Millionaires Min Jin Lee.

28. Little Boy Lost Laski.

29. The Language of Bees Laurie R. King.

30. To a Distant Land James McConkey.

31. The Girl with Glass Feet Ali Shaw.

32. Yesterday's Weather Anne Enright.

33. Blaming Elizabeth Taylor.

Just looking at this list (compiled by scanning my bookshelves) I wonder if I will be able to wait until January to read some of the titles on the list. No worries: I have vast numbers of books from which to choose (shame!).

My home library has been accumulated over years (some of which were spent as a bookseller, with constant temptation). Lately I've curbed my book spending dramatically. When I do buy new books, I try to buy them for my Nook, because we've downsized, and are overflowing with books already. The Mount TBR Challenge: I can hardly wait!

Sunday Coffee: My Readcation

My Readcation Draws to a Close.
Have you ever wanted to glut yourself on books? Like the character in the Chekhov story "The Bet" who ordered (and presumably read) six hundred books in four years (and learned six languages) I have frequently wished that I could just take a break from my life and do nothing but read books. In fact, I've used this blog to fantasize and wish for a readcation--a time to just stay at home and read books, nothing else.

Well, I finally did it. I took a staycation during our fall break, and turned it into a readcation. October was a particularly rough month. I won't give you the gory details--mostly since I've flushed them out of my brain, replacing those messy little stressors from the month of October with pages and pages of books, magazines, stories--whatever I could put my hands on to read. I read Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant, Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky, In the Woods by Tana French, and selected stories by Joyce Carol Oates ("Where is Here," "Pumpkin-Head," "The Story of the Stabbing,"). I finally finished Howard Dully's memoir My Lobotomy. And I took pleasure in opening up Poets & Writers the day it arrived in my mailbox, reading everything, including the letters from readers (those inevitably send me back to last month's issue, to read the articles I haven't read in that issue).

I don't know about you, but I don't read many magazines. My mother always gives me a subscription to Poets & Writers, which is one magazine I love. Besides helping nurture my writing, Poets & Writers is a great source for finding new writers and new books. I stopped buying magazines in stores because they are mostly ads for things I can't afford, and they cost as much or more than paperback books. But I recently subscribed to two new magazines, Yes! and The Sun.

In between books, stories and articles I puttered around the house, cooked lentil soup, and tidied up. I even dusted my snow globe collection. Am I the only one who finds housework strangely calming? Especially when I actually have time for it.

Friday was pay day, so I felt justified in buying a five-dollar latte (okay, that does make me cringe) and browsing at the local Barnes & Noble. Oops, buy two get the third free? I had to do it: Just Kids by Patti Smith, Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky, and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. And I picked up The Cider House Rules by John Irving because the movie is mentioned in Broken Glass Park and I am highly suggestible. Did I say I felt justified? I meant I was able to rationalize the expenditure. I did violate my basic financial rule of "Thou Shalt Enter No Store". This is a useful rule for impecuious teachers. My other basic financial rule is "Thou Shalt Spend No Money." I'm working on that one.

Monday is back to school, back to reality. Today I will be getting out the big bag of school papers that I stuck in a corner last Friday, and I'll try to wrap my brain around school again. It does make me wonder, though: how many more books could I be reading on a weekly basis if I just decided not to do other things? Obviously going to work is non-negotiable, and so is bringing home papers to grade. But there are still hours of the day that I fritter away on things that are not as important or as enjoyable to me as reading a book. The past few weeks have been full of deadlines, extra duties, and long hours at school--so the blog has suffered. But my reading time has suffered too, and that doesn't sit well with me. Books are a consolation and reading is one of the enduring pleasures of my life--and my readcation was a reminder of that. Maybe my life needs mini-readcations every now and then (a weekend here and there, maybe?).

How much of your time is given over to reading? Where in your day or your week do you find the time to read for pleasure?

Sunday Coffee

Sunday Coffee:  Finally Fall
My windows are open, finally. Even the dogs seem excited by the slightly cooler weather. The little Maltese-Chihuahua mix was quite frisky this morning. She suddenly and inexplicably became enamored of our neighbor's cat.

Last week was homecoming at my high school. Can I just say that I'm glad that's over? It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. My husband and I went to the football game on Friday night, and our undefeated team had to work just hard enough for their win so that it was satisfying.

Now for the grading to begin. I've been diligently working away at the accumulated papers that never seem to go away entirely. First quarter grades will be due week after next, and I don't want to be scrambling at the last minute.

I've been following the Occupy Wall Street movement with great interest. It really reflects what I've observed about young people: they don't need mainstream media, they don't care about our hierarchies, and they are passionate, flexible, and determined. Have you seen any of the videos of the speeches? Laws prevent the use of megaphones, so the crowds are becoming their own human megaphones. The speaker shouts out a few words or a sentence at a time, and the whole crowd chants back so that everyone can hear the speech. I find this brilliant. There is a video of Bill McKibben at Washington Square using this to great effect. It virtually forces the speaker to be pithy and to to the point (like twitter). It goes without saying that the movement is being built and spread on social media, and I can't wait to see where this goes.

Books! As I look back on September, I read more than I realized. I finished Dave Maine's Gamble of the Godless, Me Again by Keith Cronin, To Be Queen by Christy English, The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell, and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. I started (and intend to finish) Burned by Ellen Hopkins and My Lobotomy by Howard Dully (nearly finished with this one). For professional reading, I've been working on James Pennebaker's Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions and Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity by Susan K. Perry. I'm about halfway through Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How and Kristen Painter's Living and Teaching the Writing Workshop. And during September I dipped into Rebecca McClanahan's Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively for exercises for my creative writing students. I'll keep reading this one, as it is beautifully written, and enjoyable not just for the exercises and ideas, but for the writing itself.

I notice that I tend to jump around in my reading much more than I used to. I have books that I read just during mealtimes, books that I read while at school, books that I carry with me everywhere. And still, somehow, there isn't time to read all the books that I want to read. I wish I could take a readcation and just hide away with my books and just read for a week or two.

What are you reading? If you could take a readcation, what would you read?

Sunday Coffee

It's October! And temperatures here in coastal South Carolina have finally fallen below eighty degrees. I can open my windows-how refreshing. Today the temperature is supposed to be in the sixties, and remain there throughout the week. I might have to see where my jackets and coats are, finally.

Yesterday was the "Leap into Literacy" conference sponsored by Coastal Savannah Writing Project. Since I'm a Fellow, I presented at the conference. This was actually my first time presenting at a professional conference, and I really enjoyed it. My presentation was about the use of writer's notebook in the classroom (as a strategy for improving voice in student writing). I have a really pretty PowerPoint of which I am inordinately proud. We had a small turnout at the conference, but the people who came to my presentation were great, asking questions and interacting. I got positive feedback from teachers of all age levels. One of the attendees was a writing test evaluator from the Georgia State Department of Education (you know, those folks who write the prompts and assess the essays on the state test). He asked me a ton of questions, then requested an electronic copy of my PowerPoint. He even went to his car to get a flash drive. Afterwards I was like: "Uh-oh, what did I do?" I was so flattered that I didn't stop to think that the presentation on which I had worked so hard might become part of someone else's workshop or presentation. Since I've never even presented at a conference before, I didn't realize someone might make this request, and still have no idea whether this is commonplace. I definitely wish I hadn't just put my presentation on the guy's flash drive, but know I will be prepared for this request.

Here are the two books I highly recommended in my presentation:

Living and Teaching the Writing Workshop by Kristen Painter.
This book is a wonderful resource for the teacher as writer, and for the teacher of writing. The first half of the book is for the teacher-writer, and focuses on how the begin to keep your own writer's notebook, and how to develop topics and complete a writing project. The second half of the book is about launching and using writer's notebooks in your classroom. This book can be used by teachers of all grade levels.

Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook by Aimee Buckner. Aimee Buckner is a fourth grade teacher who is a cofounder of the Gwinnett County Summer Writing Institute for Teachers and Children. Her book is an incredible, detailed resource for teachers of any grade level who want to use writer's notebooks in the classroom.

I will admit it: my love for the writer's notebook borders on idolatry. I never go anywhere without a notebook and a pen (and a book, of course). I would not know how to go through life without reflecting on my experiences in writing. This is something I try to share with my students, and I find that nearly every student has the desire to reflection on his or her experiences in writing.

So, gentle readers, do any of you share my mania for keeping a notebook? Do you have a particular size, color, shape notebook you use religiously? Are all devoted readers also writers?

Sunday Coffee

Ramblings on school, books, and other stuff

My brain, heart and body are 100% engaged in school now. That means a temporary lull in all things bloggish, although I do have at least one post scheduled for the coming week, and I hope to do more.

So, the first week of school is over and it went great. I couldn't have asked for a better start to the school year. I love my students. I love my teaching schedule. Okay, so I don't love lunch duty and all the mundane and minescule tasks I have to complete, but I'm a realist.

We had our first football game of the school year on Friday, and everyone was there. I mean everyone: our superintendent, several thousand parents students and fans--everyone. Our school, Bluffton, played against our arch-rival Hilton Head Island High School. We blew them out of the water (final score 76-0). Yeah, our team is good.

So this weekend I'm trying to get on top of next week (and rest up a bit). My honors students read Cry the Beloved Country for their summer reading, and I'm rereading this beautiful novel. It is such a pleasure to read a carefully constructed novel. I find it interesting that Paton wrote Cry the Beloved Country in part while traveling in America. He was heavily influenced by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I wish more writers were publishing social justice novels today; the time is ripe for novels of conscience. Some truths need the breadth of a novel, and the political rhetoric today is reduced to talking points and sound bites. Tales told by idiots, signifying nothing.

Besides rereading Cry the Beloved Country, I'm also reading James W. Pennebaker's Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions. I've had this book on my shelf for years and just never got to it. It is absolutely fascinating, and confirms what I knew intuitively: writing about traumatic events is good for both your psyche and your body. Trying to suppress or inhibit thoughts about traumatic events (even those from many years ago) has an impact on your immune system.

Have you found writing to be healing? How many readers out there keep a journal and write about their lives? I'm a fanatical journal keeper I have notebooks and journals going back decades. Some are writer's notebooks, and some are personal journals. I don't go back and read them very often, but if I want to know what I was thinking when I was fifteen, I can find out (probably do not want to know this!). I can feel the physiogic effects of writing immediately: a few minutes with a notebook and a pen and I feel focused, calm. Do you keep a writer's notebook or journal? Do have the same experience?

Sunday Coffee

Thursday was the last day of the 2010-2011 academic year for me, and it feels like it went by so fast. Some years just seem to drag on, but this year sped by. As the year wound down, I started to think of all the things I'd like to do differently next year. I need to process all of these thoughts and get them down on paper, because August 8th will be here before I know it. Yes, that's right, we teachers will be back at school on August 8th. I grew up in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, and the first day of school was always after Labor Day, so returning to school in early August just doesn't feel right.

In eight days I begin the Summer Institute at Coastal Savannah Writing Project. This is good, because otherwise I would probably twitter my summer away. Right now all I really want to do is sit on my balcony and read books, a desire I have indulged over the last three days. I finished reading Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (for TLC Book Tours). I highly recommend this thriller-I read it in one sitting (review to post on June 22nd). I'm also nearly finished with Teacher at Point Blank: Confronting Sexuality, Violence, and Secrets in a Suburban School by Jo Scott-Coe. Some of the most honest and compelling writing I've ever read about the teaching profession.

Yesterday I started Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, which I'm about to go read on the balcony. So far: amazing.

What are your reading plans for the day (or the summer)?

Sunday Coffee

Warning: Moral Outrage Ahead

The Latest Moral Panic
Something tells me the Wall Street Journal had no idea of the hornet's nest they were stirring up when they published an article about the supposed "dark side" of YA literature. This kerfluffle (or is it a brouhaha?) will probably have a beneficial effect on YA literature as a whole: if the response on twitter and the internet is any indication, people are fired up. In the end, more people of all ages will see what a wide and devoted following YA literature has. Here is the best thing I've seen on the topic so far today: Laurie Halse Anderson's post, "Stuck Between Rage and Compassion."

I was spending time with my young adult daughter this weekend, so I missed much of the conversation on twitter (#YASaves). I have a few thoughts on the topic, having raised two daughters to adulthood, having been a voracious reader from childhood, and being a high school English teacher. First of all, if you are a parent choosing books to share with your child (ages 8-13) there is still plenty of literature that is not dark. I'm thinking of some wonderful books my children and I loved, including Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Sydney Taylor's All of a Kind Family, and books like Caddie Woodlawn and the Little House on the Prairie books. There is C.S. Lewis--or maybe you prefer Philip Pullman. What about Chris Crutcher, and Jerry Spinelli? I don't have younger children, and I teach older teens, so I'm out of touch with the younger readers, but I know there is a wide choice of books available for readers in their "tweens."

When it comes to older readers, in my experience, readers find the books they need. My parents wisely never tried to censor or control my reading choices when I was growing up, and I treated my own children the same way. The most important advice I could give to concerned parents would be to know your children as people and as readers; if you have concerns or questions, an open, non-judgmental conversation is the best place to start. Maybe parents could go to the bookstore with their teens, and have conversations about what it is the teens like or love about the books they read.

My high school sophomores gave Book Talks last week, and I loved hearing their honest opinions about the books they choose to read. The classroom suddenly came to life with bubbly conversations as the students enthusiastically talked about the books they love.

When I was nine or ten years old I started reading adult literature; I read everything from Gone with the Wind to Victoria Holt. I also read what literature there was in the YA category back then: Go Ask Alice and The Outsiders. I can safely report that I remain uncorrupted. I do understand parental concern about what younger readers encounter, and to those parents I would simply say: talk to your children. Look for books together that reflect your family's values. But this manufactured outrage and concern about YA Literature as some kind of dreadful moral plague is misplaced, in my opinion. I don't think I have anything to say that someone else hasn't said better, but if you watch the video at the beginning of this post, you'll see that in the 1950's comic books sparked a similar "moral panic." (There's a book about this:  The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu CS Monitor review here).

I really didn't mean to go on for so long, but the spirit moved me. In other news, I went to the beach, spent time with my lovely and brilliant daughter, and continued to be enthralled by The Idiot (for specifics on my enthrallment, see my posts on Part One and Part Two). I have lots and lots of books just waiting for the end of the school year (more on that tomorrow).  I can't wait to throw myself into a book (guiltlessly).

What's your take on the #YASaves conversation? Did a book save you?