What are you all reading this week?
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One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
10 comments:
Per Christine’s suggestion, I will post my textbook list for my English class this rapidly-approaching fall semester. This is for ENGL 116 (Masterpieces of American Literature) at NIU. I ended up finding the books from my last 100-level English course to be pretty engaging, so I’m pretty excited for this (even though it’s only a schedule filler). However, my book pile for this class is pretty tall (not to sound like a whiner)….so there goes leisure reading for a couple months.
-Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Part One: Millennium Approaches Part Two: Perestroika by Tony Kushner
-Beloved by Toni Morrison
-The Big Money: Volume Three of the U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos
-Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
-The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
-The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
-The Crucible by Arthur Miller (the only one on this list I’ve read…thanks high school English)
-In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien
-Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt,
-Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West (the person I bought this from online left some pretty ridiculous notes in this book)
-My Antonia by Willa Cather
-Underworld by Don DeLillo
^Oh, now you've got me curious about those notes in the West novel, :).
I'm still reading McCullough's The Greater Journey, and I'm taking my sweet time (still barely halfway through), but I'm enjoying it. One interesting tidbit is that Samuel Morse, the man known for inventing the Morse code and the means of transmitting it via telegraph, was actually an artist and tried for years to make a name for himself in that arena before becoming famous for his invention.
Heather, Angels in America and Maus are both wonderful. Haven't read anything else on the list.
Getting to the end of London. I've less than 100 pages left (and will probably finish it before football practice is done this afternoon). I'm still enjoying what I'm learning from it immensely, though I still think the book could have done with some better storytelling.
Finished London. Wonder what I'll read next?
This week was all disappointing books. Finally finished the thousand page Neal Stephenson book and true to form, it ended with a decided whimper. Also looked through the upcoming Roger Ebert bio and thought it went nowhere fast. I am so ready for something good.
Two by Thos. Lynch (who also wrote The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade).
1) Apparition & Late Fictions, a novella and 4 short stories.
2) Bodies in Motion and at Rest, a collection of about a dozen and a half essays.
The fictions were very thinly veiled stories of Lynch's own life, names changed but recognizable in virtually every other detail. The writing was good, but seemed to me to be a repackaging of his autobiography. The essays were absolutely delightful--pure Irish poet/philosopher! Most topics touch on death as an instrument for discovering the meaning of life, but then Lynch is an undertaker by profession.
The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford. This exposé on the funeral business written in 1963 actually brought about significant changes in the industry that are still with us today (most of which were much-needed consumer protections). Witty, insightful, well-written.
Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death & the Funeral Home in the Twentieth Century. (Laderman) Most of this book was as bland and wordy as the subtitle. The author also relied so heavily on Mitford's classic that the book almost could have been published as a (lengthy) book review.
@Lisa, I will have to share them with you since they are quite amusing.
@DRD, thank you! Knowing that at least two are worthy masterpieces is helpful.
Class today revealed we will have to read one book a week (class is only one day a week so I guess it makes sense). 45-50 pages a day....I will make a grrr noise even though that isn't a lot.
p.s. They took Crucible off the list (thank goodness) since so many of us had read it during high school.
Children’s Book Encourages 6-Year-Old Kids to Diet?
by Audrey Morrison
Aug 24th, 2011 | 11:09 AM
Once upon a time, the plot of yet-to-be-released children’s book Maggie Goes on a Diet sparked great controversy among parents and experts.
Author Paul Kramer defended his tale, written for kids as young as six years old, during a recent Fox News interview. “I’m not advocating that any child should go on a diet,” he said. “This is a change of lifestyle. This is not meant to be to, ‘Go on a diet.’”
But Kramer’s lead character, Maggie, does in fact go on a diet according to the description on Amazon.com: “This book is about a 14-year-old girl who goes on a diet and is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star. Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self image.”
The customer discussion forum for this book on Amazon.com is alive with anger. Topics bashing the book, on sale Oct. 16, range from “Call Amazon Legal, demand this book be pulled “to “This book will not help anyone, it will only promote eating disorders.”
And parents aren’t the alone in their disapproval of the message Maggie Goes on a Diet could be sending to young children.
Relationship expert and author Dr. Logan Levkoff chimed in with her opinion.
“There is no question that books like this, that teach our kids to focus on what’s outside and to suggest to them that popularity comes with being thin, it is the wrong message to send to our kids,” Dr. Levkoff explained on “Good Morning America.”
What makes the topic of the book even more troubling is the fact that the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services recently revealed a study concluding eating disorders in children under 12 have risen 119 percent since 2000.
“The only upside to this book is that it gives us an opportunity to talk about how bad our priorities are and give us the opportunity to change them and to say to our kids, this is now who I want you to be,” Dr. Levkoff concluded.
I think focusing on the inside also includes being more mindful of what we put in our bodies. Eating the way Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma) advises us to eat is probably the way to go ("Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."). I haven't read this book, but "Maggie Goes on a Diet" is a terrible title. The message should be, "eat healthier, be healthier," etc., not "go on a diet so you can lose weight and look better and be more confident." The end result might be the same, but the attitude is what's important. The anger directed at this book though might actually be a little misplaced. If I were a parent, I'd just chuckle at it and say, "he's really not saying that in the right way." I think my anger would be directed more toward the food industry marketing terrible foods to my kids.
*crickets* Yo Christine, when you gonna update again? We miss the blog! (Even though personally, my reading has ground to a screeching halt.)
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