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Summertime and the livin' is easy

For most of the school year, I look forward to summer and all the reading delights that are in store for me. I keep a running list of what I want to read and have even been known spend an entire day inside a book store reading books I'm too cheap to buy. Luckily, my local area has an incredible library system that allows me to obtain almost any book my heart desires for free!

Currently, I'm in the process of reading:

A Prayer for Owen Meany - for AP, a lot of my students choose it for their summer reading
Reading Lolita in Tehran - this may be a little to complex for summer reading
The Half Brother - it was on someone's best list... but I know nothing about it
Alexander Hamilton - it's supposed to be good
The Awakening - for AP
The Devil In White City - some AP teachers put this on their summer reading lists
1776 - always the history buff
Five People You Meet in Heaven - this also appeared on some summer reading lists. It seems too short...
Living and Teaching the Writers' Workshop - Something I still haven't been able to do!
Writing Reminders - by Jim Burke, my hero.

So far, I've read:
The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Posession
China Girl: One Man's Adoption Story
Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of Swedish Style
Crash Course - I skimed through it, lots of graphs and very business like and about a 12 books on gardening and landscaping. Not bad for 5 days of summer break.

I also saw Garfield 2 with my young cousin. Do not go to this movie unless you are accompanied by someone under the age of 11. You bemoan the waste of money otherwise.

I've also heard bad things about The Break-Up. Nacho Libre, the stupidest idea for a movie I've seen since Cable Guy is leading the current box office standings. This does not bode well for the summer movie extravaganza. However, I do now realize why it's so hard to teach students elements of literature and get them to read a book. They have no experience with plot. What do all of the above movies have in common? Very little plot. It seems like they're all written either by 5th graders (with a lot of "and then..." or "next") or people sitting around at Joe's on $1 pitcher nite. Ideas with no follow through. After a solid diet of The Fast and the Furious, who could inspire a student to wade through Moby Dick? The whale doesn't do anything for several hundred pages.

Tomorrow I'm off to take a course in podcasting and then the AP institute in Bellevue. If I can swing, maybe I'll do a podcast from the institute.

Comments

Nacho Lover said…
hurrah for easy summertime reading! and libraries!

owen meany is one of the most incredibly moving books i've ever read. i'm so glad that your students have chosen it and now so have you!

my summer reading is going to be much lighter: chick lit and fun mysteries with some quality YA stuff too.
12:44 PM
Lady Strathconn said…
Own, but haven't read Owen Meany, maybe I will try it this summer.

Reading Lolita is currently on my nightstand, I have been working on it.

The Awakening was one of the only books I read all the way through in my college English classes.

Five People is pretty good, although not really "life changing".

Have you read The Life of Pi? I really liked it.
1:07 PM
Mr. McNamar said…
I'll echo "jules the crazy," Owen Meany is one of the true modern greats--humorous, moving, human.
10:05 AM
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