Christmas is over, I guess. It is for me, because I’m done traveling for a while. P & S have one more trip. We had a great time. I now have many books to read, and I can’t wait to get started on the ones I’ve picked for my classes:
- The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta (John Rollin Ridge)–I’m excited to teach this in my American Literature survey!
- Closing the Food Gap (Mark Whitte)–This looks very interesting for questions about food–hunger, farmer’s markets, CSAs, food kitchens/food banks. It may be too complex for my first-year students.
- Ragged Dick (Horatio Alger)
- Passing (Nella Larsen)
- The Bean Trees (Barbara Kingsolver)
- Pocho (Jose Antonio Villareal)
- Under the Feet of Jesus (Helena Maria Viramontes)
- The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- My Year of Meats (Ruth Ozeki)
- A few short stories by Jennifer Egan, Ben Franklin, and poems by Gloria Anzaldua and Langston Hughes
These last few are for my The American Dream class which is writing intensive and a literature requirement. I’m so excited to meet all my students tomorrow.
I also got some books over the break–some for Christmas, some from thrift stores, and some from my grandmother. I’m reading The Birth of Venus about 15th century Florence right now. It’s pretty compelling so far. I’m adding a new sidebar to chronicle my reading this year. I don’t expect you to care too much, but I’m curious about how much pleasure reading I do in a year.
