School may be almost over for awhile, but for me, my best reading days are ahead. I already have six books in my queue, and I hope I can get to them all before I need to read my assigned reading for the school year.
I am currently reading Enrique’s Journey, a gift from a dear friend and a soon to be colleague, whose two years teaching in Honduras make her keenly interested in the topic. It’s a heart wrenching account of illegal immigration, the side we don’t see, but should be aware of.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the third book in the Millennium series by Stieg Larrson, is on its way finally from Amazon (available in the UK months ago, but not in the US, thank you very much). I ordered it in March! Oh well.
The others?
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Still Life by A.S. Byatt.
What are you reading this summer?
Ms. Hogue,
I visit your site frequently. Thank you for sharing your material. I teach AP Lang & Comp and AP Lit & Comp in Shreveport, LA. Like you I look forward to my summer reading. I have read Enrique’s Journey and used it in a non-fiction project with my students last year. I also recommend The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous by Ken Wells. It is a harrowing account of residents in St. Bernard Parish and their survival during Katrina in 2005. I am currently looking for a recommendation for my AP Lang & Comp course. Can you recommend any modern/ contemporary American works by African American, Latino, or female writers? I am considering fiction and nonfiction at this point. My list is full of works by white males and needs some diversity. Thanks again for all you do.
Best,
M. Barclay
Hi Maureen,
Thanks for your comment. If you were teaching AP Lit, there is no end to what you could add to your course, but Lang is harder isn’t it? Maybe some noteworthy journalists, like Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post might have some thought provoking editorials/articles. The woman who wrote Enrique’s Journey would no doubt have article in the LA Times. I think your question is a good one for the group at my AP Ning: http://teachap.ning.com/ If you are not already a member, please join us and see what others say. Have a good reading summer! Dawn
Hey , good morning from Baltimore,
I just recently found your site and am very much enjoying it. I appreciate the info. I am a young teacher recently hired at a language based-Orton Gillingham method school. I deal with children with dyslexia and am teaching a college level Brit Lit class. I would love some feedback as to some selections you think I can’t skip over. I’m an American Lit guy. Any help would be appreciated. Keep up the inspriring work!!!
Hi Kevin,
Your job sounds interesting and rewarding. I am kind of an American Lit person as well, so I am not sure what I would consider critical texts in Brit Lit. I suppose anything that was influential or trendsetting. The British Romantics seem to be something we’d not skip. Chaucer and Shakespeare can be the basis of separate classes, so they’re important. You’ve got novelists, but also important essayists. If I were in your shoes, I would get an excellent Brit Lit anthology and use that as a guide. Another thought–I wonder if the age of a strictly Brit Lit course in an American high school is over. Seems like there is a richness in a World Lit class that we should not ignore. But maybe your school already has that covered as well. Maybe others will read this discussion and add their two cents??
I am nearly through my list already. I am avoiding The Road, as I imagine it will be, as described, dark and depressing. I recently finished Unaccustomed Earth and found it to be beautifully written. The characters are complex and engaging, and the linked stories at the end of the book are haunting in so many ways. So far, my favorite read of the summer.